World Nomads announces new travel protection plans

LOS ANGELES, CA – Global insurance provider World Nomads has expanded its offerings to introduce two new travel protection plans for U.S. residents – the Epic Plan and the Annual Plan. It has also enhanced existing insurance benefits for its popular Standard and Explorer plans, giving travelers added flexibility and robust benefits across all four plans. In addition, several new non-insurance services focused on retrieving lost airline bags and helping travelers access pre-trip vaccinations and prescriptions are included in every plan. Honing its expertise in travel over the past 20 years, World Nomads has expanded to offer these new plans and benefits to match the challenges of travel and continue to build upon what travelers are looking for – ease, flexibility and protection.

These enhancements are made possible through a new strategic underwriting partnership with United States Fire Insurance Company, part of Crum & Forster, with more than 200 years of underwriting experience, offering a broad range of insurance solutions including specialty accident and health, travel, and commercial property and casualty.

Perfect for luxury adventure travelers, bucket list trips and once-in-a-lifetime experiences, the new Epic Plan offers World Nomads’ highest level of protection yet. It offers coverage for epic adventures and includes higher benefits maximums such as up to $15,000 for trip cancellation if you cancel your trip for a covered reason, up to $250,000 for emergency medical expenses, and up to $3,000 for baggage coverage.  The new insurance benefits also cover niche travel headaches, such as additional pet boarding costs if you have a covered trip delay as you head home. In some cases, travelers can even receive up to a $250 payment for being stuck on the tarmac for more than two consecutive hours as part of a new ‘travel inconvenience’ benefit. This plan offers the widest range of coverage for adventure activities, including spelunking, camping, cliff diving, free soloing and more, in addition to the over 250 activities included in all World Nomads plans.

For the globetrotter, the new Annual Plan allows travelers to have coverage for unlimited trips during the year, with a maximum individual trip length of 45 days. This gives travelers the flexibility to be covered for multiple domestic or international weekend getaways or extended month-long trips, if travelling 100 miles away from home, all without the hassle of signing up for a new plan each time.

World Nomads has also introduced optional Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR) as an add-on to the Explorer Plan and Epic Plans. This coverage offers cancellation protection, providing travelers with greater flexibility and allowing them to recover 50 – 75% of their trip costs if plans change, depending on the plan chosen. Travelers are encouraged to understand the terms of this benefit by reading the plan documents. Maximum benefit amount is up to the lessor of the trip cost paid or the amount listed on the confirmation of coverage; it is not available in New York.

“After 20 years of supporting adventure travelers, a thorough market analysis revealed that customers across all types of trips desire the same ease and flexibility as our core adventure-seeking audience,” said Christina Tunnah, General Manager of Global Marketing & Brands at World Nomads. “Now with four plans that cater to a variety of different types of travelers and budgets, combined with other non-insurance services to help alleviate the stressors of travel, we offer our US customers more protections and benefits than ever before, allowing them to focus on what they love – exploring the world.”

As part of the product revamp, the Explorer plan has been enhanced with new benefits, which are also available to customers opting for the new Epic plan. These perks include trip exchange coverage, offering flexibility to change travel dates instead of canceling, and coverage for missed connections. Some of the World Nomads plans also include several new unforeseen reasons that allow travelers additional coverage for trip cancellation, interruption and delay. Some of these new covered unforeseen reasons can include the mechanical breakdown for a specified number of hours of a common carrier (including airlines), interrupting your trip due to sickness or loss of a pet, and unforeseen ski/slope closure due to a lack of snow (or too much snow), to name a few. Moreover, the Standard and Explorer plans will also see higher maximum benefit amounts for many benefits, including emergency medical expenses, medical evacuation in certain circumstances, trip delay, and more.

World Nomads has also enhanced its non-insurance services, which already include Generali Global Assistance and FootprintID®, to introduce Blue Ribbon Bags and Runway Health in all of their plans. Blue Ribbon Bags tackles the common issue of lost or delayed luggage by offering a system that tracks and expedites the return of delayed airline baggage. The second new service, Runway Heath, is a telehealth company that is focused exclusively on travel health. Travelers can connect virtually with a physician to access prescription medications and vaccines for their upcoming trip – in some cases delivered straight to their door.