Sarah Webber, Director of Marketing InsureMyTrip shares tips on ensuring your travel insurance. “Traveling is an adventure filled with excitement, but sometimes unforeseen circumstances can lead to an abrupt end to the trip. 

“A recent incident saw a WestJet passenger in Mexico removed from a flight for excessive bathroom use. This resulted in numerous delays, as the passenger attempted to rebook the flight.

“Travel insurance is designed to provide financial protection against various travel-related risks, especially if there are unforeseen circumstances such as medical emergencies, travel delays or extreme weather.

“Unfortunately, one common scenario that is not covered by travel insurance is being forcibly removed from a flight due to one’s actions, controllable or not. There may be coverage if a doctor has deemed the traveler too ill to travel (or to continue traveling) and they canceled their trip prior to departure or interrupted their trip after departure.

“However, being forcibly removed from a flight due to your actions (whether controllable or not) is not covered.

“Travel insurance typically has embedded emergency services and a number that travelers can call for assistance.  This can be especially helpful if they need help in situations where they may need to rebook a flight or find a doctor during the trip.

“Insurance may be able to assist in booking a new flight, but any related expenses would need to be paid by the traveler.

“In other circumstances, where a passenger is removed from a flight due to bad behaviour, they may not be covered for any losses at all. In one recent example, a man was removed from a flight for aggressive and intoxicated behaviour.

“It’s important to look at policy exclusions as well, as policies often highlight that any losses that occur while intoxicated are specifically excluded.”