What if you or your travel partner(s) get Covid? Then what?
Skip the fine print?
That's OK, we have done all the hard work for you. We believe that Heymondo is the best insurance for us and our UNESCO World Heritage travels, probably it is for you as well. We pay around 55€/person/week, for us that is simply a no-brainer.
Please, make sure that you are covered
Even before the global Covid pandemic, travel insurance was an essential part of all our travels. Now it is more important than ever, we would simply never travel without one. No stress, fear and second thoughts regarding if we were covered or not. We know that we'll be taken care of both practically and financially. We know what to do if something unexpected happens. This is the story of our journey to getting travel peace of mind.
Now we always travel knowing we will be taken care of both practically and financially if something happens. We also know what to do and how.
We were not insured
Travel insurance. We wish it wasn't such a complicated thing. Every time you start looking into it it's like a new world opens, and not in a good way. That is a world full of words and terms you have never heard of before, or heard of but still have no clue what they mean. For us, this alien terminology was so offputting in the beginning that we just skipped it. We went with the very popular “it's-not-going-to-happen-to-us” strategy instead.
In the beginning, we went with the "it's-not-going-to-happen-to-us" strategy.
Then we started planning for our first long trip to south-east Asia. Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Maldives and India were all on the list to be visited. This is when we sat down properly and tried to figure out how well we were covered. We had both a home insurance with extra travel coverage, and we paid our tickets with a credit card that also came with travel insurance. That is what we had travelled Europe with so far, well covered for sure, right! We Europeans do have the European Health Card that gives us the same conditions as locals. This is an absolute must when travelling Europe. But, even with this, there are some caveats to keep in mind. For example, many European countries actually have a are “co-payment” system.
We had both home insurance and a credit card with included travel insurance so we were well covered, right?
The main reason we started digging into this actually wasn't in case we got sick, or in an accident. We were simply worried about what was going to happen in case we got robbed, especially of our two then brand-new cameras and our two laptops. It quickly became obvious that we were not covered for theft at all with the insurance we had.
We were travelling to regions where there were no proper hospitals but were rabies, malaria, and typhoid existed.
This led us to start what you probably have done as well since you are reading this article – to do some proper research on how we actually were insured. On top of that, we were going to travel to South-East Asia for the first time. We were going to travel to areas where there were no proper hospitals but where rabies, malaria, and typhoid most definitely existed. This leads us to the next point.
Discovering all that can go wrong
Isn't one of the biggest problems with reading about travel insurance that you discover all the things that might happen to you when you are travelling? Perhaps that's also a reason we never took the time. At home in your own country, you're probably covered by all kinds of social security and insurance. Also, you know more or less how things work, where to go for what and where to get help. You also speak and read the language, hopefully. Travelling outside your own country takes a bit of that away, understandably?
What do you do if you do not speak the language, perhaps can't even read it, and something goes wrong?
When you say travel insurance, what do you think about it? For us, it's about what happens if you get sick, if you have an accident and if stuff is stolen from you. Turns out that all proper travel insurance cover that, to little surprise. But what about your travel partner? What about your travel plans? If one of you gets too sick to travel, even if it is for a short time, there are possibly a lot of significant costs downstream as well due to these unplanned changes. Are you covered for those as well?
What are your costs if you get sick? No, not the medical bills, the travel-related ones. The costs related to changes and non-refundable cancellations!
What if you get Covid
Since 2020 something new needed to be added to any travel insurance, Covid. What happens if you get it when travelling, or just before!? We all know that even if you have had it, and/or have been vaccinated against it, it is not 100% guaranteed that you won't get it. Imagine the costs and disappointment if that happens! For many, just the fear of this possibility will make many hesitate about travelling abroad at all.
Get a Travel Insurance, will you
To cut things short, back in 2015 when we started our UNESCO World Heritage quest there was basically just one international travel insurance available that was any good and that was World Nomads. So that is the one we got. A lot has changed since then and so has our preferred travel insurance. We are now, since 2018, always travelling with Heymondo instead. The thing that got us hooked first was the app.
Our travel insurance has an app! Now we can talk to someone 24/7/365 in our language!
If shit hits the fan you want to know what to do, you want to be able to speak with someone who understands you and can advise you on what to do next. If it's medical assistance, luggage issues, delays or losing your passport doesn't really matter, right? Normally, for us, that would be mum and dad but that clearly only works for at home. They are also the ones that would help out with money or unexpected upfront payments.
What we have when we travel
These are the basics:
- 24/7/365 medical chat, free emergency assistance calls and incident management in our hands
- Someone to talk to 24/7/365 in English or Spanish (we speak both) via an app
- If our luggage is stolen, damaged, lost or delayed someone will deal with it for us and give us money
- Access to the best medical professionals at the most suitable close by medical center or hospital
- A guarantee of receiving quality healthcare 24 hours a day
- Essential medical coverage to be treated abroad 24h/day, without having to cover these charges ourselves
- We also don't have to pay upfront expenses. Our insurance handles that directly with the medical center
- We get our non-refundable trip expenses back if we cannot travel for any of the covered reasons
- In an emergency like serious illness or an accident, our travel costs home or to the hospital will be covered
- Any cancelation costs will also be covered in case we need to go home
- If one of us ends up in hospital, a family member will have the travel expenses covered to come there
With Covid Protection as well
All of the Heymondo travel insurance plans actually include coverage against Covid-related events and issues.
- Medical costs due to Corona-virus infection, including medically prescribed PCR tests
- Medical transportation and repatriation if the return trip is affected.
- Extra lodging costs due to medical quarantine are covered when testing positive and prescribed by a doctor
- All non-refundable travel costs are covered if you or your travel companion test positive
- Also when cancelling before the start date because of illness or death of a family member due to Covid