Jamie Biesiada
It's hard to deny how useful travel insurance can be for clients.
Depending on the policy, it can provide reimbursement for expenses when travel goes awry, forward clients cash for dinner at the airport when faced with major delays, or provide hundreds of thousands of dollars of value if a medical evacuation is necessary while on a trip.
Advisors know all this. Their clients might take some convincing, but many know the value of protecting their vacation investment.
But are they buying insurance soon enough? New research from insurance comparison marketplace InsureMyTrip says they might not be.
Now, I suspect the average client of a travel advisor is better informed thanks to their travel pro, but I'm sure some slip through the cracks.
According to InsureMyTrip's data, 54% of cancel-for-any-reason (CFAR) policies were purchased within the necessary window this year. Last year, 52% of policies were purchased within that window. More quotes were generated within the window than policies purchased (64% in 2025 and 66% in 2026 year to date).
CFAR provides clients the ability to do just what its name implies: cancel their trip for any reason. It's more expensive than a typical policy and it won't reimburse 100% of expenses, but it is among the most flexible policies out there.
It has some restrictions, mainly for when it has to be purchased. That window is typically 10 to 21 days after an initial trip deposit is made, according to InsureMyTrip.
But based on that data, around half of travelers are buying their insurance too late to qualify for CFAR.
For them, it means a less comprehensive policy; for advisors, it could translate into a lower commission if they choose a policy that's less expensive. It can also mean more education, especially if the client eventually wants to cancel for a reason that isn't covered under the policy they bought but would have been covered with CFAR.
It's a reminder to talk to clients early and often about insurance. InsureMyTrip's data point could also be a useful sales tool to talk to clients about insurance, and why a timely purchase matters.
Take our poll on AI
A few weeks ago, I was on a call that turned, as many these days do, to AI. A thought occurred to me: Could an agentic AI solution be used to eliminate the possibility of an advisor receiving a debit memo? After all, rules and guardrails can be put in place around AI and how it's used. Could an agentic solution help advisors avoid something that so many dread when selling air?
It might not necessarily end debit memos, but agentic AI could put them on a "starvation diet," industry analyst Henry Harteveldt said.
I'd like to dig more into that, and how other agentic AI solutions could help make travel advisors' lives easier, and I plan to do so in an upcoming cover story. But first, I wanted to poll our readers about the areas they think could be helped the most by agentic solutions.
Please weigh in with your thoughts. I've got a brief, one-question survey (two if you count the open-ended comment box that you're not required to use) posted that you can take right now. Thanks in advance for your help.