Do You Really Need ‘Cancel for Any Reason’ Insurance?

When you schedule a trip, the hope is that you’ll be able to go, right? But in reality, sometimes things come up and you just can’t make it. 

In those unfortunate situations, we can at least be sure to protect ourselves from the additional burden of having to foot the bill for a trip we couldn’t take –AKA travel insurance. When you book your travel and start to look for the right travel insurance package, there are two main types of cancellation travel insurance options available to you.

Here’s what you need to know:

This type of travel insurance generally comes with any comprehensive trip insurance plan. It protects your insured nonrefundable trip costs under the following specific circumstances:

The most critical thing to keep in mind if you need to cancel for one of these covered reasons listed in your travel insurance policy, is that the circumstances described above must be unforeseen for it to be covered by travel insurance. If a potential storm has been named in the area to which you’re traveling, for example, you won’t be reimbursed for canceling that trip if the storm does end up happening. 

The second most important thing to know is that in order to qualify for a claim under regular Trip Cancellation benefits, you’ll need documentation from a relevant professional in order to get a refund. If you can get that, you can file for reimbursement for 100% of any prepaid, non-refundable trip deposits or payments.

If you’re looking for a bit more flexible coverage than you get with Trip Cancellation insurance, there’s another option available to you: Cancel for Any Reason coverage. So what does this mean and is it worth it? Here are our thoughts…

Cancel for Any Reason (aka CFAR) travel insurance costs a bit extra, but it offers much more fluid cancellation terms than your standard insurance package or even Trip Cancellation insurance. With this add-on, you can literally cancel for ANY reason. If you no longer want to travel to your destination (or can’t travel to your location due to advisories, or travel bans), feel uneasy about what you have planned, or get backed up at work, you can cancel your travels and receive a partial repayment. That said, there are some important stipulations to understand:

You have to purchase Cancel for Any Reason insurance within 10-21 days of your initial trip deposit date, depending on the plan–make sure you check and take care of it in that time-frame to be eligible for coverage!

In order to be eligible for compensation, you have to account for and insure ALL pre-paid, non-reimbursable trip costs in advance.

If you decide to cancel your travels, you have to do so at least 48-72 hours prior to your trip departure–make sure you know the exact limit for your travel insurance cancellation coverage.

If you cancel, you’ll be refunded a portion of the pre-paid, non-refundable trip payments, rather than 100% of it. Generally, this portion is around 75% of what you had insured.

If you have any reason to think you might have to cancel your trip for a reason that is not covered by regular Trip Cancellation insurance, go for the Cancel for Any Reason insurance. It’ll cost more in the short-term, but it’ll save you a lot in the long run if you end up needing to cancel, not to mention the peace of mind you’ll have knowing coverage is in place for your trip deposit.

To compare travel insurance policies with Cancel for Any Reason coverage, simply run an instant quote and select the filter displayed below.