“My son, Steven, has been on a mission trip with my Dad for the past two weeks. They left the states during the big snowstorm that covered the East Coast and just barely got out of the country. Because of the weather, changes were made to their flight schedule and somewhere along the way their luggage got lost. Today, Steven leaves Ghana, Africa to come back to America. His suitcase never arrived…I think he has had one change of clothes for the whole trip.”
This is the beginning of a story we read recently from a woman’s whose son went on a short-term mission trip without insurance for lost or delayed baggage. Had her son been on the “TripArmor” plan from our good friends at MissionTripInsurance.com he could have been reimbursed for his lost/delayed baggage. If you are going on a mission trip this year that involves connecting flights (don’t all mission trips??) then you should be sure to check out this plan at
http://www.missiontripinsurance.com/group-short-term.html
or give Mark a call at 1-800-5776-2674 ext. 103.
As a frugal traveler, I’d like to point out that lost luggage is covered by law up to $1500 for international travel. Beyond this, some homeowner’s and renter’s insurance cover lost luggage. If that fails, the credit card used to purchase the tickets may also provide lost luggage protection.
http://www.usa.gov/topics/travel/air/resolve-problems/baggage.shtml
Ben – turns out his bag wasn’t actually lost – it turned up later on so the airline had $0 liability. My guess is that an 18 year old boy didn’t have $1500 worth of stuff in his bag, but I am sure that he would have loved to had a few new shirts while he was doing his work in Africa. Most homeowners’ policies have deductibles that are larger than the value of the contents of the typical short-term missionary’s suitcase, so that is really not a good route for luggage that is truly lost. The cost of the insurance plan mentioned above is minimal compared to what the plan offers. In addition to the lost and delayed baggage coverage it also covers, among other things, $100K for medical expenses, $1Mil for medical evacuation. Spending a $1 or so a day for the amount of coverage that this plan provides is a way to truly be a frugal traveler!