Can You Buy Travel Insurance After Booking A Flight?
Can you add flight insurance right after booking? Absolutely! The best time to buy flight insurance is right away, when insuring your flight is still fresh in your mind.
And if you buy ExactCare Extra® from Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection, buying early also qualifies you for important bonus coverages.
Why It's Good To Purchase Flight Insurance Right After Booking
If you choose AirCare® from BHTP, you know your flights will be covered and you’ll be reimbursed for inconveniences and mishaps like:
- Flight cancellation and departure delay
- Missed connections
- Lost luggage
- Tarmac delay
- Flight diversion
If you choose ExactCare Extra® , buying early qualifies you for several important bonus coverages, such as:
- Coverage for pre-existing medical conditions
- Coverage for financial default
Here are some other reasons why you should buy flight insurance within two weeks of making your first trip deposit:
It’s Done.
You know how travel is: There’s so much to remember, and so many lists to keep straight. There’s what you have to pack and what you have to do at home and who you have to notify and what you have to shut off … it’s a lot.
If you buy flight insurance right away there’s nothing to remember to do. It’s done. You don’t even have to add it to a to-do list. Save those for the dog-sitter and that serious historical novel you promised yourself you'd read someday.
It’ll Be Easier To Forget Later On.
This is the flip side of that argument. The closer you get to your departure date the more things seem to speed up. There’s so much to remember – and maybe some unexpected last-minute costs besides.
If you buy travel insurance right away, as a normal part of your booking process, then it’s bought and paid for – and there’s no danger of forgetting it later on.
In fact, many repeat buyers of AirCare do just that: Buy it like clockwork for all the flights they plan on taking throughout the year. It’s easy, inexpensive, and best of all – it’s done.
Coverage May Be Unavailable Closer To Your Departure Date.
If you try to buy flight insurance because a named snowstorm is approaching your departure airport or hurricane is heading toward your destination, coverage for trip cancellation is more than likely no longer available.
Travel insurance is meant to protect you from unforeseen events. Once a storm is named, it’s no longer unforeseen.
Flying to snowy destinations in the dead of winter – for a ski trip, for instance – is a risk. Connecting through a city prone for winter storms (hello, Chicago!) is also a big risk for disrupting your flight plans. Same for flying to the Caribbean during hurricane season. For flights like these, it’s better to buy early and be protected.
What Are Some Other Good Times To Buy Flight Insurance?
Great times to buy flight insurance include:
- 50 days before departure
- Two weeks before departure
- The day before you leave (if eligible)
Let’s look at why these are all good times to buy flight insurance.
Buying 50 Days Before Departure
If you booked a flight far in advance of your departure, buying flight insurance 50 days out makes sense.
50 days before departure is when airfares are often at their lowest, meaning it’s a time when people start actively thinking about their upcoming travel. If you haven’t thought of flight insurance before, now’s the time to think of it.
Buying 50 days before also takes the whole “named storm” thing out of the equation. A named storm is most likely not going to emerge 50 days before you leave. If you buy flight insurance now, you can be protected against a blizzard, typhoon, or hurricane that comes your way, trips up your flights or connections or wreaks havoc on your vacation destination making it uninhabitable.
Buying Two Weeks Before Departure
Buying two weeks before departure might be your last chance to buy flight insurance before weather patterns firm up and storms start to form.
For people who like to jump on bargain airfares, two weeks out is when they generally start looking in earnest.
Two weeks before departure is also generally when people start running through their “last-minute” list of things to do.
Unfortunately, those lists can fill up fast. If you like bargain fares or are just a little bit of a procrastinator, buying two weeks out might be a good time to insure your flights.
Buying the Day Before Departure
One of the great things about AirCare is that it’s fast and easy to buy. That means (assuming no named bad weather is coming your way) you can buy it up to the day before your flight is scheduled to depart.
Buying ExactCare Extra® is only slightly more unique. It provides comprehensive coverage for your entire trip, plus the travel inconvenience benefits of AirCare – and can also be purchased up to the day before your departure.
The fact that it’s easy to get flight insurance up to the day before you leave can give you some necessary peace of mind when you jump on a last-minute bargain fare and then wonder, “Omigosh! what do I do now?”
Yes: You can buy travel insurance right after you book a flight … even if you book at the very last minute.
Whenever You Book - Remember Flight Insurance
Flight insurance provides protection and assistance for all the bad things that can happen when you fly. It's affordable, and it covers all this and more:
- Flight cancellation
- Flight departure delay
- Missed connections
- Lost luggage
- Tarmac delay
- Flight diversion and late-night arrival
That’s important protection whenever you book or whenever you buy. So can you buy travel insurance after booking a flight? You sure can.