New Delhi. The country’s largest airline IndiGo is going through a major operational crisis these days. Continuous flight cancellations and delays have made the condition of passengers difficult. Long queues of passengers are seen at airports. More than 1,000 flights were affected in the last four days, leaving thousands of people stranded at the airport.
IndiGo’s crisis is taking its toll on passengers. Food, hotel, rebooking and many other expenses suddenly increase due to a delay. But there is one thing that people often ignore, travel insurance, which is sometimes hidden in your credit card or is automatically added on the online travel aggregator (OTA) platform during ticket booking.
How does travel insurance save you money?
The insurance covers loss of non-refundable tickets, hotels and pre-booked activities in case of trip cancellation or curtailment. Flight delay allowance is also available, in which if the delay exceeds the stipulated time, a fixed amount is given without showing the bill. Generally, this claim in domestic flights ranges between Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000.
First check your credit card
Many premium and mid-tier credit cards already include travel insurance. Generally, benefits like flight delay, missed connection, cancellation and baggage delay range from Rs 10,000 to Rs 25,000. Most people remain unaware of this facility. According to the CEO of insurtech company CoverSure, this benefit is available in about 8% of the 650 card variants in India, but very few people use it. The condition is that you have booked the ticket using the same card.
Insurance taken through OTA is also useful
Many people unknowingly buy travel insurance while booking tickets through MakeMyTrip, Cleartrip, Yatra. These policies do help, but there is a lot of fine print in them, which is important to understand.
What is the airline’s responsibility?
Even before insurance, some rights of passengers are fixed. If the flight is cancelled, the airline will have to provide a full refund or offer another flight. It is also the responsibility of the airline to provide food, drinks and basic facilities to the passengers present at the airport.
