The Flagg Agency

Galveston Fog January 8 2012

At the time of this writing, the port of Galveston has been closed due to heavy fog. Carnival Magic and Royal Caribbean’s Mariner of the Seas are being delayed in their return back to Galveston. On those ships, passengers are waiting (in most cases sadly) for their cruise to come to a close. Have you ever what happens if you cannot get off your ship? Those ships should have docked early this morning. The passengers should be well on their way home or to the airport in Houston. Because of the delay, those passengers are basically stuck.

Sometimes we get an email or a phone call from someone who has booked their cruise with someone else and now has more questions. When they are calling us, they are not getting the answers they need from the place they booked. When it comes to the cruise portion of their trip, we honestly have to refer all questions back to agent with whom they originally booked. We cannot make changes to a reservation either booked direct with the cruise line or with another agency. (By the way, Travelocity, Expedia, etc. are all travel agencies.)

Not all travel insurance is the same. Time after time when I present a quote to a client, I always include the cost of travel insurance. There is one particular underwriter that I regularly include in my quotes. It is certainly not the cheapest option but I do believe it offers the best coverage. Client’s can decline the coverage, but I always have them sign a waiver if they do decline.

I have been writing about the importance of travel insurance since I began this blog. Rather than re-post an old post or re-hash previous topics, I decided to boil down my thoughts to six important points to remember about travel insurance.

1. The most important part of travel insurance is medical evacuation and/or repatriation of remains. Consider the fact that an air ambulance from the Caribbean starts at a minimum of $25,000. Only my wealthiest clients have these type of funds available at any given time. The costs from Europe or other countries is much higher. Transporting a body can cost just as much if not more plus there can be a language barrier that the live assistance of travel insurance helps overcome.

February 2011 Winter Storm from Space

It is Groundhog Day in the United States, February 2, 2011 and a perfect time to talk about winter weather and travel insurance.The news has announced that some 100 million people are being affected by this Blizzard of 2011: SnowMageddon.

Canceled Flights

Thousands upon thousands of flights have been canceled across the country even in airports not effected by the snow. Some of the passengers on these planes were to have been or will be heading towards their dream cruise and be unable to get there. I always wonder how many of them had travel insurance. Sadly, one of my own clients may miss her cruise because she is coming from Wisconsin. The cruise leaves on Sunday. She declined to purchase travel insurance.