Travel Insurance Programs

An often times overlooked revenue opportunity for travel affiliates, Travel Dividends believes travel insurance should be a part of every travel affiliate’s product portfolio.  This axiom is truer today than ever, as the ever-changing global economic, social, political and health and safety landscape poses a cloud of uncertainty over most travelers and their vacation or business travel plans.  Family related emergencies, illnesses or death, loss of one’s job, sudden and unexpected political strife at the traveler’s intended holiday or business destination, health or terrorism warnings or embargoes from government authorities – all are valid reasons why sometimes the best laid vacation plans end up being canceled.  To safeguard against any of these uncertainties and cover all associated travel-related monetary risks, savvy travelers purchase travel insurance.

Travel insurance comes in different flavors, and the type of coverage purchased can be quite limited and specific, or very broad and all-inclusive.  For example, travel insurance coverage can range from lost/stolen baggage insurance, to other covered benefits like trip interruption, at-destination emergency and accident medical care (including medical evacuation) or even terrorist attacks.

While policy coverage varies, typically travelers can choose from two types of plans:

?    Package Plans – these plans provide risk coverage for pre-trip, en-route and at-destination trip elements like trip cancellation insurance, lost or stolen baggage, at-destination medical emergencies and evacuation, among others.

?    Medical Plans – these types of plans are limited to covering costs associated with emergency medical treatment, emergency assistance or medical evacuation once the traveler gets to his/her destination.

Against this backdrop, here’s Travel Dividends’ list of the major travel insurance companies that offer their products through affiliate marketers.

?   1cover Ltd – A UK based travel insurance firm that specializes in offering low cost travel insurance online.  Focused on the UK travel market, 1cover’s insurance is underwritten by Elvia Travel Insurance N.V., a subsidiary of the Mondial Assistance Group, which in turn is owned by Allianz (which is one of the largest insurance companies in the world), though none of these entities offers their products directly for sale through affiliate marketers.
To learn more about 1cover and their travel insurance programs for travel affiliates, click here.

?   Global Underwriters – this U.S. based insurer specializes in travel medical insurance products for individuals or groups traveling on business or vacations, as well as expatriates working/residing in a foreign country.  They also offer kidnap and ransom insurance.

For more information about Global Underwriters travel affiliate insurance programs, visit their affiliate page.

?   HTH Worldwide – This insurer offers a wide range of travel insurance options that pretty much covers not only all types of potential travel risks, but also is structured according to the needs of specific types of travelers.

For example, here are several of the types of travel insurance coverage HTH Worldwide provides, along with HTH’s description of the plan:

TravelGap Multi-trip: The optimal annual plan for frequent short-term leisure or business travel with affordable worldwide coverage of routine medical conditions and emergency medical evacuation.

TravelGap Single Trip: Flexible, high-value benefits and services for leisure or business trips from one week to six months.

TripProtector: All-inclusive international travel insurance that protects against trip cancellation and interruption and includes emergency medical evacuation.

U.S. Students Abroad: International health insurance and services designed to meet the needs of U.S. students abroad and to deliver great value.

HTH claims that they offer “…highly competitive products, and services that offer attractive commissions and incentive programs” and “…. HTH offers individual and group plans as well as mPassport distribution opportunities.”

(Note: mPassport is HTH’s worldwide mobile healthcare tool, essentially a proprietary global database of selected emergency and urgent care services, contracted English-speaking doctors, health and safety alerts, and medical translations that subscribers can access as needed via mobile phone or the Internet while at their destination).

They welcome affiliates to contact HTH directly to learn more about their products and partnership opportunities.   Here’s HTH’s contact information.

Partner Program (insurance programs)
Call: 888.243.2358 (Toll-free)
610.254.8746 (Direct)
Email: partnerprogram@hthworldwide.com

Andy Orr (mPassport)
Call: 888.243.2358 (Toll-free)
610.254.8781 (Direct)
Email: aorr@hthworldwide.com

?   Travel Guard – Arguably the largest U.S. travel insurance provider, Travel Guard specializes in offering wide range of comprehensive travel insurance programs including: trip cancellation; trip interruption; trip delay; medical expenses; baggage loss; per-trip and annual plans to name just a few.

One strong selling point is that Travel Guard owns and operates their own network of assistance companies, which according to their web site helps  “…ensure the highest quality in Travel Medical Assistance, LiveTravel® Emergency Service, Worldwide Travel Assistance and Concierge and Personal Assistance.”

To determine if Travel Guard’s products should be part of your travel product portfolio, click here.

?   Travelex The world’s largest retail foreign exchange specialist and largest non-bank provider of commercial cross-border payment services, Travelex also offers Insure and Go, the UK’s largest direct travel insurance provider.

This fully automated self-service insurance program provides coverage for various types of travel insurance, including, single trip, annual, long-stay, winter sports, backpackers, ‘over 65’and business travel.

If you are a UK travel affiliate and you’d like to assess if Insure and Go by Travelex makes sense for your business, check the Travelex affiliate page here.

http://www.travelex.co.uk/uk/personal/insurance.aspx

Argos Credit and Insurance – Part of Argos, the UK retailing giant, Argos Travel Insurance provides a range of travel and trip interruption insurance programs, including single trip, multi-trip, family travel and worldwide travel coverage.

They offer consumers the option of booking through a call center or over the Internet (with an added bonus of discounting the overall cost of the policy by 5% using the online channel).

You can check-out all of the features and benefits of joining Argos’ complete line of affiliate programs at their general UK affiliate site, or to sign-up for their travel insurance program specifically, go to CJ, their preferred affiliate network.