Last-Minute Travel Insurance: What Does It Cover?

How Does Last-Minute Travel Insurance Work?

Last-minute travel insurance may help cover the cost of emergency medical expenses, travel delays, lost or damaged baggage, trip interruptions and more. Although purchasing travel insurance at the last minute can limit your options and coverage, buying trip insurance can still be worthwhile if you need medical treatment, encounter delays or baggage issues, or have to cut your trip short for a covered reason.

What Does Last-Minute Travel Insurance Cover?

Last-minute travel insurance can include (or exclude) different coverages, so it's important to review any policy you're considering. Here are several common coverages included in last-minute travel insurance policies:

• Travel medical insurance: Travel medical insurance covers the cost of medical treatment and emergency medical evacuation when you're away from home. It's especially useful when traveling outside the U.S., since Medicare and many private health insurers may not cover medical costs in other countries.
• Travel delay coverage: Get reimbursed for meals, lodging, medicines and personal items if your trip is delayed by a minimum number of hours.
• Trip interruption insurance: Recoup a portion of your return travel costs and nonrefundable trip expenses if you must cut your trip short.
• Baggage loss or delay: If your bags are lost, damaged, stolen or delayed, lost baggage coverage will help pay for replacing your bags and lost items.

Learn more: Average Cost of Travel Insurance

What Is Excluded From Last-Minute Travel Insurance?

When you get travel insurance right before you leave on a trip, you may not be eligible for every type of coverage. Some coverages must be purchased within a few weeks of booking your travel. In other cases, coverage may no longer apply. Here's a short list of coverages you might have to skip if you're buying insurance at the last possible moment:

• Pre-trip cancellation coverage: Whether or not trip cancellation coverage is formally excluded from your last-minute policy, your ability to make a claim is limited. That's because your window to cancel your travel pre-trip is narrow—or already closed—when you buy a policy right before your trip begins.
• Preexisting medical condition waivers: While you may be able to get emergency medical insurance coverage even after your trip is underway, you may not be able to get a waiver that extends coverage to include preexisting medical conditions. Typically, you must purchase this coverage within 14 days of booking your travel.
• Cancel for any reason (CFAR): CFAR upgrades, which allow you to be reimbursed for 50% to 75% of nonrefundable prepaid costs when you cancel your trip before departure for nearly any reason, generally must be purchased within 10 to 21 days of making your initial trip payment.
• Interruption for any reason (IFAR): Upgrading trip interruption insurance with IFAR coverage is similarly limited when you buy a policy last-minute. Most IFAR policies must be purchased within 21 days of making your first trip payment.

How to Choose the Best Last-Minute Travel Insurance

You can find and purchase last-minute travel insurance online. Here are a few steps to follow to get the best last-minute results:

• Look for options. Searching online is often the simplest approach. You can check with your airline, cruise line, travel agent or tour provider. You can also search independent insurers that offer travel insurance, such as Allianz or Nationwide, or visit a travel insurance marketplace like InsureMyTrip or TravelInsurance.com.
• Enter your travel dates. You'll be prompted to enter your travel dates and destination. From there, you'll be shown options that will work with your (rapidly approaching) departure date.
• Compare coverages and costs. Compare the costs of different policies side by side, and focus on the coverages that are most important to you.
• Note start dates and times. At the last minute, it's especially important to understand when coverage kicks in. Some coverages may have waiting periods that extend into your trip; for example, trip interruption insurance may take 72 hours to go into effect. Understanding these timeframes can help you evaluate coverage and compare policies.

Tip: If you use a travel credit card to purchase travel, you may have automatic travel insurance coverage. While credit card travel insurance isn't always as robust as insurance you purchase independently, it can come in handy at the last minute. Check with your card company for details.

Learn more: Should You Buy Travel Insurance?

When Is It Too Late to Buy Travel Insurance?

Sooner is better, but you can buy travel insurance after booking, all the way up until the day of travel—and sometimes even post-departure. Purchasing travel insurance at the absolute last minute generally means forfeiting some coverage. Here's how your options might look, depending on your timeline.

• Within two weeks of booking your trip: Even if you don't buy insurance when you pay for your cruise booking or plane tickets, you can typically get full coverage if you buy insurance within 14 days of booking—assuming you aren't booking next-day travel.
• The day before departure: Though you may have fewer choices, you can generally buy insurance up to 11:59 p.m. on the day before your trip is scheduled to begin.
• The day of departure: Your flight leaves at noon. You can still buy insurance at 8 a.m. Your choices may be narrower than they were yesterday, and some coverages may not kick in until your trip is well underway. Still, some insurance may be better than none.
• Your ship has sailed: You have a few options if your trip is already underway. World Nomads offers post-departure travel insurance that covers emergency medical, trip interruptions and travel and baggage delays. Note that some coverages have waiting periods before they go into effect.

The Bottom Line

Even when you've left it to the last minute, getting travel insurance can be useful if you're worried about unexpected travel complications or medical issues while on a trip. Consider all your options—including any credit card travel insurance you may have—and focus on getting the coverages you absolutely need.

Want to avoid the last-minute crunch in the future? If you're a frequent traveler, consider getting annual travel insurance, which will automatically cover all of your trips for a year. Or check out your options for travel credit cards to find a card that provides basic travel insurance benefits every time you use it to pay for travel.