WorldTrips travel insurance review 2023
“Verified by an expert” means that this article has been thoroughly reviewed and evaluated for accuracy.
“Verified by an expert” means that this article has been thoroughly reviewed and evaluated for accuracy.
BLUEPRINT
Updated 9:06 a.m. UTC Nov. 13, 2023
Editorial Note: Blueprint may earn a commission from affiliate partner links featured here on our site. This commission does not influence our editors' opinions or evaluations. Please view our full advertiser disclosure policy.
WorldTrips
Pros
- Cheapest of the 5-star plans in our rating.
- Top-notch $1 million per person in medical evacuation coverage.
- Very good travel delay and missed connection coverage.
- Optional “cancel for any reason” coverage of 50% or 75%.
Cons
- Emergency medical coverage is secondary, with optional upgrade to primary.
- No “interruption for any reason” coverage.
About WorldTrips travel insurance
WorldTrips Atlas Journey travel insurance plans provide customizable travel insurance coverage at a competitive price. Depending on the type of trip you are planning, you can customize your travel insurance coverage by adding upgrades such as pet care coverage, hunting and fishing equipment coverage and even destination wedding coverage.
In this WorldTrips insurance review, we break down WorldTrips’ three main insurance plans, share sample pricing for its top-rated travel insurance plan and explain some common policy exclusions.
WorldTrips travel insurance plans
WorldTrip’s Atlas Journey travel insurance plans include medical coverage and trip interruption coverage for both domestic and international trips. The three travel insurance plans — Premier, Preferred and Economy — allow you to select the plan with the appropriate amount of coverage to meet your travel needs.
Atlas Journey Economy
The WorldTrips Atlas Journey Economy plan was designed for travelers who are looking for basic coverage on their next vacation or business trip.
The plan includes all the basic travel insurance coverages such as trip cancellation, trip interruption, trip delay, medical coverage, medical evacuation and baggage coverage.
Of the three plans, the economy plan offers the lowest payout benefits. The travel medical insurance limit is only $10,000 per person. This coverage limit might be fine when traveling through the United States where your primary medical insurance would cover any emergency medical situations. However, if you are traveling internationally through countries that do not accept your domestic health insurance, you might want to upgrade your plan to include more medical coverage.
Atlas Journey Preferred
The WorldTrips Atlas Journey Preferred plan includes everything the economy plan does, but increases the coverage amount for every benefit. This plan gets 5 stars in our rating of the best travel insurance.
Atlas Journey Preferred provides the same trip cancellation, interruption and emergency evacuation benefits as the top-tier Premier plan, but offers slightly lower limits for delay, missed connection and baggage insurance.
The biggest difference between the Preferred and the more expensive Premier plan is that the Preferred plan offers up to $100,000 in secondary emergency medical coverage while the Premier plan offers up to $150,000 in primary emergency medical coverage. You can opt to upgrade the Preferred plan to primary coverage for an additional fee, however.
Atlas Journey Premier
The WorldTrips Atlas Journey Premier plan is the crème de la crème of the WorldTrips trio of plans. It offers travelers the highest payout benefits of all the plans, which is especially important for those traveling overseas.
Compare WorldTrips travel insurance plans
What WorldTrips travel insurance covers
The core types of travel insurance packaged together in WorldTrips Atlas Journey policies include:
- Trip cancellation and interruption: Trip cancellation insurance and trip interruption insurance reimburse you for prepaid, non-refundable trip expenses if you cancel your trip, or need to head home early, due to a covered reason. Covered reasons include:
- Sickness or injury that renders you or your traveling companion unable to travel.
- Death of a family member, traveling companion or business partner.
- Severe weather that causes your common carrier to shut down for more than 12 hours.
- Terrorist incident or civil unrest in your destination.
- Emergency medical expenses: Travel medical insurance helps pay doctor and hospital bills and emergency evacuations if you get sick or injured on your trip.
- Travel delay: If your trip is delayed for five hours or more due to a reason listed in the policy, travel delay insurance can help cover the cost of accommodations, meals and local transportation while you are delayed.
- Baggage: Baggage insurance includes lost or stolen baggage, excessive baggage damage and baggage that is delayed more than 12 hours.
- Travel Assistance Services: Multilingual travel agents can provide worldwide travel, medical, emergency, and security assistance 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
What WorldTrips travel insurance doesn't cover
Like all travel insurance plans, WorldTrips plans will not cover everything. While it is always a good idea to read the fine print before buying a policy, here are some exclusions to WorldTrips travel insurance plans.
- Traveling against the advice of a physician.
- Medical tourism.
- Intoxication.
- Pre-existing conditions, unless you qualify for a waiver of the pre-existing condition exclusion.
- Participation in an organized sports competition or as a sporting professional.
- Participation in bodily contact sports, extreme sports, and certain adventure sports.
WorldTrips travel insurance rates
WorldTrips additional coverage options and benefits
You can customize and enhance WorldTrips travel insurance plans with the following add-ons, provided they are available with the plan you choose and in your state.
“Cancel-for-any-reason” (CFAR) coverage
A “cancel for any reason” upgrade allows you to cancel your trip for any reason not already covered by your trip cancellation benefit, as long as you do so at least 48 hours before your scheduled departure.
Premier and Preferred plan policyholders can choose to be reimbursed for 50% or 75% of their costs with CFAR. This optional coverage is not available with the Atlas Journey Economy plan.
“Interruption-for-any-reason” coverage
The trip “interruption for any reason” (IFAR) upgrade reimburses 50% of your trip cost as long as you are at least 48 hours into your trip when you decide to end your travels early. This optional coverage is only available on the WorldTrips Atlas Journey Premier plan.
Destination weddings
This upgrade allows you to get trip cancellation benefits if the destination wedding you are attending is canceled after you buy your travel insurance policy. The destination wedding coverage is only available on the WorldTrips Atlas Journey Preferred and Premier plans.
Adventure sports
This optional coverage extends your travel insurance to include safari activities, bungee jumping, hang gliding and other extreme activities. This add-on is available for all WorldTrips Atlas Journey plans.
Emergency medical expense primary coverage
WorldTrips Atlas Journey Preferred policyholders have the option to upgrade their emergency accident and sickness coverage from secondary to primary coverage.
Rental car damage and theft
This upgrade adds collision damage and theft coverage for rental vehicles. The rental car coverage is an available add-on for all plans.
Pet care
This upgrade adds trip cancellation or trip interruption coverage in the event of the death or critical illness of your dog or cat. It also adds vet care compensation if your dog or cat becomes ill when traveling with you. The pet care coverage is an add-on option for all plans.
Baggage damage or loss primary coverage
This add-on doubles your baggage coverage limits. It also increases the baggage insurance to primary coverage up from the secondary coverage available on the WorldTrips Atlas Journey plans. This upgrade is available on all plans.
Vacation rental accommodations
The vacation rental coverage offers interruption coverage if your vacation rental is unclean, overbooked or the keys are lost. The optional coverage upgrade is available on all plans.
Additional covered school activities
This optional upgrade adds cancellation coverage if a student is required to take a test, the school year is extended or if a sporting event is scheduled. The coverage upgrade is available on all plans.
Hunting and fishing activities
The hunting and fishing upgrade covers cancellation due to government restrictions. It also covers equipment if it is lost, damaged or stolen and reimburses travelers for rental gear. The optional coverage upgrade is available on all plans.
Methodology
Our insurance experts reviewed 42 aspects of 53 policies to find the best travel insurance plans. We used data provided by Squaremouth, a travel insurance comparison provider. For companies offering more than one travel insurance plan, we shared information about the highest-scoring plan (or two, in case of a tie).
Some companies may offer plans with additional benefits or lower prices than the plans which scored the highest, so make sure to get travel insurance quotes to see your full range of options.
The factors we scored out of a possible 100 points include the following.
Cost: 30 points. We scored the average cost for each travel insurance policy for a variety of trips and traveler profiles:
- Couple, age 30 for an 8-day trip to Mexico costing $3,000.
- Couple, age 30 for an 8-day trip to Mexico costing $3,000, with CFAR coverage upgrade.
- Couple, age 40, for a 17-day trip to Italy costing $6,000.
- Couple, age 40, for a 17-day trip to Italy costing $6,000, with CFAR coverage upgrade.
- Family of four, for a 17-day trip to Italy costing $15,000.
- Family of four, for a 17-day trip to Italy costing $15,000, with CFAR coverage upgrade.
- Couple, age 65, for a 17-day trip to Italy costing $6,000.
- Couple, age 65, for a 17-day trip to Italy costing $6,000, with CFAR coverage upgrade.
- Couple, age 70, for an 8-day trip to Mexico trip costing $3,000.
- Couple, age 70, for an 8-day trip to Mexico trip costing $3,000, with CFAR coverage upgrade.
Medical expenses: 15 points. We scored travel medical insurance by the coverage amount available. Travel insurance policies with travel medical expense benefits of $250,000 or more per person were given the highest score of 15 points.
Medical evacuation: 15 points. We scored each plan’s emergency medical evacuation coverage by coverage amount. Travel insurance policies with medical evacuation expense benefits of $500,000 or more per person were given the highest score of 15 points.
“Cancel for any reason” upgrade: 5 points. We gave travel insurance plans with the option of a “cancel for any reason” upgrade 5 points.
Trip interruption travel insurance: 5 points. We gave 5 points to travel insurance plans that offer trip interruption reimbursement of 150% or more.
Travel delay required waiting time: 5 points. We gave 5 points to travel insurance policies with travel delay benefits that kick in at 6 hours or less.
Baggage delay required waiting time: 5 points. We gave 5 points to travel insurance policies with baggage delay benefits that kick in at 12 hours or less.
Pre-existing medical condition exclusion waiver: 5 points. We gave policies that cover pre-existing medical conditions if purchased within a required timeline 5 points.
Non-medical evacuation: 5 points. If a policy provides coverage for non-medical evacuation, such as for political or security reasons, we gave it 5 points.
Cancel for work reasons: 5 points. If a plan allows you to cancel your trip for work reasons, such as your boss requiring you to stay and work, we gave it 5 points.
Employment layoff: 5 points. Travel insurance policies that allow you to cancel your trip because of layoff at a company where you have worked for one continuous year were scored 5 points. If a plan requires that you had the job for more than a year to qualify, no points were given.
Yes, WorldTrips offers both annual and group medical insurance plans.
- Atlas Group medical insurance plans offer a 10% reduced rate for families and groups of five or more when traveling abroad.
- Atlas MultiTrip insurance is annual travel medical coverage for multiple trips abroad in a period of 364 days.
Yes, WorldTrips offers travel health insurance for international students. WorldTrips’s Atlas America travel health insurance is for non-U.S residents and citizens who travel internationally to the United States. Atlas America insurance reviews online are overwhelmingly positive, with 96% of reviewers recommending the policy.
WorldTrips considers a pre-existing condition to be an illness, disease or other condition during the lookback period (90 days in most states) immediately prior to your effective date of coverage for which you received or were recommended to receive a test, examination or medical treatment or received a medical prescription.
WorldTrips will waive the pre-existing conditions exclusion if you purchase your plan within 21 days of the date you made your first payment toward your trip and you are medically able to travel on the date of purchase.
Blueprint is an independent publisher and comparison service, not an investment advisor. The information provided is for educational purposes only and we encourage you to seek personalized advice from qualified professionals regarding specific financial decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Blueprint has an advertiser disclosure policy. The opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the Blueprint editorial staff alone. Blueprint adheres to strict editorial integrity standards. The information is accurate as of the publish date, but always check the provider’s website for the most current information.
