Never travel without insurance

By Colin Ford

I’ve always been one of those people who take out travel insurance as a matter of course. It’s never felt optional to me. But I will admit I’ve muttered about the cost more than once. Up until recently, I’d never had to claim – and part of me wondered if I was just throwing money down a hole.

That all changed on a recent trip to France.

I was travelling from Avignon to Paris, where I had an onward train booked to Châteauroux. From there, I was meeting 15 fellow travellers for a shared transfer to Château de Montflour, about a two-hour drive away. It was one of those carefully timed connections that had to go right.

Except it didn’t.

Due to wildfires in the south of France, my train to Paris was cancelled. Catching a later train would have meant missing the group transfer, which would have meant missing my arrival at the chateau altogether. So I had no choice but to hire a car on the spot.

What followed was a seven-hour drive on the wrong side of the road, navigating toll booths, filling up (by myself!) at unfamiliar petrol stations and figuring out where to drop the car in Châteauroux. By the time I arrived, I’d racked up costs that made my eyes water: car hire, a relocation fee (that was almost as much as the rental itself), tolls, fuel. It was not how I planned my trip.

This is where travel insurance earned its keep.

The claim process was not simple. The insurer wanted piles of paperwork – train cancellation notices, proof of payments, even a copy of the credit card I used to buy my air ticket. At one point I wondered if they were just stalling. And it took more than six weeks from the time I submitted my claim to get the payout.

But persistence paid off. In the end, the settlement covered the lion’s share of cost of the disruption. In fact, it more than covered all the premiums I’ve ever paid for travel insurance.

The experience has left me with two lessons. First: I will never board an overseas flight without travel insurance. Second: this is what insurance is about. It’s not about the premium, which stings a bit when you pay it. It’s about knowing you can move ahead when life throws a spanner in the works. You keep your plans intact, your holiday on track and your sanity in check.

Travel insurance is one version of that story. But really, it applies to all insurance. We may grumble about it at times, but when the unexpected happens, it’s the difference between a nightmare and a manageable detour. And that, to me, makes it indispensable.