Real Life Situations When you plan out your travels, you don't intend on dealing with an emergency, but emergencies can happen and can be very expensive. Your Government Health Insurance Plan (GHIP) and other insurance such as homeowners', employee group benefits and credit cards may not adequately provide the full coverage required to safeguard you on your trip. Even if you are just travelling to another province, GHIP insurance may not cover all your expenses. The following real-life scenarios demonstrate the necessity of purchasing travel insurance before you embark on your trip. Medical Emergency A 50-year old woman collapses aboard a cruise ship in the Caribbean. After examining her, the ship's doctor recommends she be taken to the nearest island hospital at the next port of call where very little English is spoken. Total medical cost was $50,000 which included the ship's doctor's expenses, local hospital expenses, emergency air ambulance back to her country and air transportation home for the other family members travelling with her. AIG Travel Guard's multi-lingual emergency assistance counsellors worked with all of the medical teams to ensure she had a hospital bed waiting for her and to organize the best possible care. Trip interruption reimbursed her $10,000 for the lost portion of the pre-paid cruise. Once all the medical bills had been settled by AIG Travel Guard directly to the various medical suppliers, her GHIP only covered 4% or $2,000 of her $50,000 claim. Had she not purchased AIG Travel Guard Deluxe insurance, she would have been responsible for paying the medical bills on her own. Trip Cancellation Mom and Dad could finally afford to take their children on a dream vacation. They paid for their trip in full in the amount of $12,000, which included return flights, hotel accommodations and day passes to their favorite theme park. Unfortunately 2 days before their scheduled departure, the father was involved in a car accident and was hospitalized. The trip, being cancelled so close to the departure date, was deemed non-refundable by the tour operator and the family received no money back. However, the family had purchased cancellation insurance through AIG Travel Guard when they paid for their trip and therefore the total trip amount was refunded to them. The refund even included the cost of the theme park passes. The family had the misfortune of missing their trip but they did not lose out on the money they had invested in it. Trip Interruption A lot goes into planning a wedding, including the honeymoon. The honeymoon is the time to relax, reflect on the wedding day and enjoy each other's company. A happy couple had booked and paid for an Alaskan cruise and the day after the wedding they drove to the Montreal airport to catch their flight to Vancouver. They ended up missing the cruise departure because their flight was delayed due to bad weather. Without travel insurance, the honeymooners would have had to find and pay their own way home or find a way to catch up to the cruise ship without any assistance. But with trip interruption coverage offered through AIG Travel Guard, emergency travel assistance was one phone call away. Hotel arrangements and/or arrangements to catch up to the cruise ship or return home were handled by AIG Travel Guard and the additional transportation costs and the value of the lost days at sea were reimbursed. The couple was then able to enjoy their honeymoon. Traveller's insurance and assistance is our one and only business and we are dedicated to providing exceptional products and services for all your travel plans.