Back up your belongings with baggage insurance for travel

Get to know our baggage travel insurance

Smartphone, laptop, tablets for the kids, your wedding ring — the value of what you pack for vacation can quickly add up. And while it’s up to you to do your best to keep your belongings safe while traveling, sometimes protecting them is out of your control — like if your purse is stolen while sightseeing or your suitcase fails to join you in your destination.

If you need to buy must-have replacement items or get help with a theft report from the police, our Travelex team can be there for you. Our baggage travel insurance can help you afford new belongings — and our travel assistance provider knows how to handle thefts — so we can help you get back to enjoying your vacation sooner.

Does travel insurance cover lost luggage?

No matter how careful you are while traveling, there’s always a possibility your luggage could get lost, delayed, damaged, or stolen. That’s where travel insurance with lost baggage coverage can help. It can reimburse you for the cost of your replacement belongings up to the amount shown in your policy.

At Travelex, we offer baggage insurance for travel on our Essential, Advantage, Ultimate, Travel Med Go, and Flight Insure Plus plans. (Our Flight Insure plan only covers accidental death for air travel.) Our base plans provide coverage for items such as clothes, shoes, toiletries, and the bag itself, plus travel documents like passports. Certain items like electronics and jewelry are covered as well up to certain limits.

Here are the coverage limits for lost, stolen, or damaged baggage included in our base plans per person:

Essential: $750 ($500 per item limit)
Advantage: $1,000 ($500 per item limit)
Ultimate: $2,000 ($500 per item limit)
Travel Med Go: $1,000 ($500 per item limit)
Flight Insure Plus: $1,000 ($250 per item limit)

Want more baggage travel insurance for electronic items? Our baggage upgrade provides additional coverage for items like laptops, smartphones, and professional equipment, plus sporting goods. Keep scrolling to find out more about this upgrade or take a look at the policy details when you get a quote.

Important: For coverage to apply, you must:

Immediately report the incident to get a written report of the loss (this could be the hotel manager, tour guide or representative, transportation official, local police, or other local authorities).
Take responsibility to protect your baggage from further damage, and make necessary, reasonable, and temporary repairs if they need it.
Do your best to protect your items from being stolen, damaged, or lost, such as ensuring it’s always on you or within eyesight and reach.

Does travel insurance cover delayed luggage?

It can — but it depends on the type of travel insurance plan you choose. It’s also important for you to understand how long your baggage needs to be delayed or misdirected before your coverage will kick in.

If you travel with a Travelex policy, delayed baggage coverage is included in most of our base plans. This means we can reimburse you for must-have items you need to purchase if your baggage is delayed or misdirected for 12 hours or more.

Here are our plans that include baggage delay coverage and their limits:

Good to know: We can only cover the costs — up to the coverage limit of your chosen plan — for clothing and personal items that you actually need for your trip. For example, if you’re on a beach vacation in Mexico and your baggage is delayed, you can’t have coverage for a $200 ski jacket purchase. Our coverage is here to help you get back on track based on your planned itinerary, so keep this in mind before you go on a shopping spree if your baggage is delayed.

When would I need baggage insurance for travel?

When you pack your suitcase for your trip, you expect it to go on vacation with you — not go missing. You might not even think it’s at risk of being stolen or damaged while you’re on vacation. But, no matter what trip you take, baggage travel insurance can come in handy if your stuff gets lost, stolen, damaged, or delayed while you’re on the go.

Baggage coverage can come in handy if:

You’re worried you’ll be waiting at baggage claim for a suitcase that never arrives. Especially when it’s a busy travel season, your airline could lose your bag or place it on the wrong plane. Even if your bag is only delayed, you may need the items inside immediately upon your arrival. In this scenario, travel insurance with lost luggage coverage can reimburse you to replace the items you need for your vacation.
You’re concerned you’ll be a target for thieves — particularly in airports, train stations, and hotels that are often busy and crowded with tourists. In the unfortunate event that your luggage is stolen, your travel insurance can help cover the cost of replacing your items.

From a seemingly friendly local stealing your passport to a taxi running over your suitcase, baggage travel insurance benefits can soften the financial blow of needing new essentials. Just remember it’s your responsibility to help keep your stuff safe when you travel. Keep your belongings on you or within eyesight and reach to prevent them from being stolen.

Can I buy extra baggage insurance for my travels?

If you’re traveling with expensive or valuable items like smartphones and jewelry, it’s smart to ensure your travel insurance provides enough coverage for those items.

If you’re traveling with us, yes — you can buy extra coverage to increase your coverage limit and insure additional items not covered by your base plan. We have an optional baggage upgrade that gives you more coverage for things like your smartphone, laptop, and other items that are more expensive to replace. You can add it to your policy when you get a quote.

Our baggage upgrade can help you in three ways:

It lets you increase the overall coverage limit for lost, stolen, or damaged baggage.
It increases the coverage for lost or stolen electronics (like your smartphone or laptop) and professional equipment.
It includes coverage for sporting equipment if yours is lost, stolen, damaged, or delayed and you need to rent new equipment.

Our baggage upgrade can help ease money stresses if something happens to your stuff on vacation, so you can quickly get back having fun.