Call the Concierge Before You Call Us

When something goes wrong mid-trip, the instinct is to call your travel agent. We appreciate the confidence, but it isn't the right first move. The travel protection plans we sell include a 24/7 emergency travel concierge service, and that number should be the first call you make in any travel emergency — delay, interruption, medical situation, anything.

The concierge has resources we don't. They can rebook travel, locate medical facilities, arrange payment for treatment, and work problems in real time around the clock. We can talk through your options if you reach us — but "if you reach us" and "if we're at a computer" are both real variables at two in the morning in Amsterdam. The concierge is neither.

Know Your Policy Number and Booking Numbers

Have both in hand before you start a claim. Your policy number is what the insurance provider uses to verify your coverage — without it, the conversation stalls immediately. Your booking confirmation numbers document the cost of your trip and when it was booked, both of which matter to the claim. If you're not sure where to find either, call us before you file and we'll walk you through it.

Documentation and Receipts Are Everything

From the moment you know a claim is coming, keep every receipt — hotel stays, meals, replacement clothing, medical treatment, rebooking fees, transportation. All of it. We maintain records of any travel booked through us, but if you booked flights, excursions, or tours independently, that documentation is on you. There's no recovering from a missing receipt after the fact.

One limit worth knowing in advance: if a travel delay strands you overnight, your policy likely covers a reasonable hotel stay. It probably doesn't cover a suite at a five-star property. Stay somewhere sensible and keep the receipt.

On Medical Claims: Don't Play Doctor

If you're canceling for a medical reason, see a physician before you cancel — not after. You need documentation in your medical record showing that a legally qualified physician advised you not to travel. Getting a note from your practice's nurse or physician's assistant does not satisfy the policy requirement for medical documentation. If you cancel first and see a doctor later, you've created a sequencing problem that can complicate or kill your claim.

There's also a definition question worth understanding. Most policies require the medical professional to be a physician licensed in the relevant specialty for your specific condition. When in doubt, confirm with TravelSafe directly before you cancel.

Account for All Prepaid, Non-Refundable Costs

Your claim should include every prepaid and non-refundable cost you're seeking to recover, along with the dates of payment. This means your cruise or tour, flights, pre-paid hotels, excursions, transfers — anything you paid for that you won't get back through other channels. Being thorough here, with dates and amounts clearly documented, moves the process along. Gaps and missing dates create follow-up requests that slow everything down.

If you booked your travel through us, we can help provide documentation and receipts for any bookings we made on your behalf. We won't have documentation for arrangements you made independently, so we won't be able to help with those.

Know Your Initial Deposit Date

The date of your first trip deposit is more important than most people realize. Insurers use it to confirm you purchased your policy within the window required to qualify for the pre-existing condition waiver — and potentially other coverage provisions. If you're not certain of the date, check your booking confirmation or give us a call. Don't guess.

Understand the Exclusions

We're licensed to sell travel insurance in Maryland; we're not licensed to provide a detailed analysis of coverage exclusions for a specific claim. We can point out where in the policy you can find specific coverage, limitation, and exclusion sections, but we can't interpret them for you. For anything specific, go directly to TravelSafe. They're the ones who can give you a definitive answer, and they're the right call before you make any decisions you can't reverse.

This isn't a dodge — it's genuinely the better path. An answer from the insurer is binding in a way that our interpretation of your policy isn't.

Print Your Schedule of Benefits. Twice.

When you purchase travel insurance through us, we send you a link to your full policy along with the Schedule of Benefits — a summary document that includes your policy number, coverage limits, and the key phone numbers you'll need if something goes wrong, including the 24/7 emergency concierge line.

Print two copies. One travels with you. The other goes to whoever you've designated as your emergency contact at home. A phone you can't unlock or an email you can't access is not a backup plan.

Read the Policy

We send a recommendation to read it when we send the link. We know that reading a travel insurance policy ranks somewhere between watching paint dry and doing your taxes in terms of entertainment value. Read it anyway. Or at minimum, read the coverage summary and the exclusions section. The time to discover that something isn't covered the way you thought is before you need to make a claim, not while you're trying to.

Any questions after you read it should go directly to TravelSafe. They'll give you a complete and accurate answer. That's what they're there for.