These coverage gaps may surprise you

Travelers who were brief stayed abroad after US operation Extraction of the Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro learned a hard lesson about the limitations of travel insurance.

Travel insurance policies offer buyers financial support for a variety of unexpected challenges, such as paying for medical care or hotel rooms abroad after a flight is delayed or canceled.

But insurers set rules about when they do and don’t have to pay these payments.

Many restrictions, or “exclusions” in insurance language, can confuse consumers, travel and insurance experts say.

“Consumers think travel insurance is blanket and covers everything that could happen,” said Chrissy Valdez, senior director of operations at insurance comparison site Squaremouth.

This is not accurate.

On January 3, the US Federal Aviation Administration closed airspace in parts of the Caribbean to support the US military operation in Venezuela.

Airlines canceled hundreds of flightsbreak plans thousands of travelers on busy weekends and, according to experts, in the most popular area for travelers at this time of year. The disruptions forced many to incur additional day’s travel expenses.

Airlines are generally not required to compensate passengers for disruptions beyond their control, but they may do so voluntarily.

Travel insurance policyholders, including those with private policies or credit card discounts, may be out of luck.

Most standard policies make exceptions for interruptions caused by war, undeclared war, civil unrest, insurgency, military action or government intervention, experts say.

Due to the military action in Venezuela, policyholders “could be out of money,” says NerdWallet travel expert Sally French.

Penalties vary from insurer to insurer.

Insurers are usually the ones who make the final decision when something happens, such as an undeclared act of war or civil unrest, French said.

“The situation in Venezuela is very special,” the Frenchman said. “Otherwise, you could see the government say they’re going to war on some country. But we don’t know what’s going on in Venezuela.”

“There’s a lot of gray area,” he said.

Drunkenness is another surprising or “interesting” exclusion, said Suzanne Morrow, CEO of insurance comparison site InsureMyTrip.

“If you’re drunk and you injure yourself, your travel insurance may deny you medical benefits and you won’t be able to pay because you were drunk,” he said.

Insurers may consider certain activities unsafe.

Moped riding is usually such an exception because of the risk of injury, Morrow said.

Standard policies also exclude safaris, hiking, horseback riding, skiing, snowboarding, scuba diving, hot air ballooning, zip lining, quad biking, land vehicle driving, skydiving and kayaking, Squaremouth says.

However, there are certain policies and insurers that consumers can purchase to cover such activities, Morrow said.

“Knowing in advance what you’re doing should inform your insurance decisions,” he said.

Another potential surprise for consumers: Travel to certain countries may not be covered by insurance policies, Morrow said.

That could be due to government travel advisories that warn against travel to the country, federal sanctions against certain countries or the insurer listing certain excluded countries in its consumer policy, he said.

Some, such as Afghanistan and North Korea, may seem simple, while others not so much, according to the French.

For example, some medical and evacuation benefits available with the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card do not apply to travel to Vietnam. a website that highlights the benefits of the card.

“It’s a growing country with a lot of people traveling,” French said. “North Korea, I see. But Vietnam?”

US Department of State website travel information For Vietnam, it is currently at Level 1, the lowest level for safety and security risks.

In addition to purchasing more tailored policies that cover them during specific activities and situations, consumers can also purchase more coverage.

For example, cancellation for any reason allows customers to cancel a trip – yes, for any reason – and get a refund.

However, these policies are effective for consumers before they leave, not for those who leave, experts say.

After all, policyholders usually need to notify the insurer at least 24-48 hours before the start of their trip in order to receive discounts. Even then, customers can pay 50% to 75% of the total trip cost, Valdez said.

Such policies usually carry a high price tag as well.

According to Valdez, another additional option is to stop coverage for any reason.

Consider one hypothetical example From Seven Corners, a travel insurer. Let’s say you’re in the middle of a multi-city European vacation and you’re headed to Paris next. You know that many Paris hotels have bed bugs and you want to cut the trip short rather than risk it. Bed bugs aren’t covered by most plans, but interruptions for any reason can help customers recover some of the unused trip costs, Seven Corners says.