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When traveling during the Atlantic hurricane season, June 1st to November 30th, it’s important to plan for unexpected weather events – purchasing a travel insurance plan prior to a storm being named may provide coverage for travel concerns that arise due to that storm.

For the 2019 hurricane season, Hurricane Dorian has been both a devastating storm and a significant travel disruptor for Allianz Travel Insurance customers. With more than 5,200 claims, Dorian surpasses last year’s major claims event, Hurricane Florence:

2019 Hurricane Season – Data as of September 18, 2019

  • Monitoring: Tropical Storm Erin, Tropical Storm Gabrielle, Tropical Storm Jerry, Tropical Storm Karen, Tropical Storm Lorenzo
  • Hurricane Humberto – 16
  • Tropical Storm Fernand – 9
  • Hurricane Dorian – 5,276
  • Hurricane Erick/Tropical Storm Flossie – 64
  • Hurricane Barry – 609

2018 Hurricane Season – 6,700 claims (a 74% decrease in Sept-Dec YOY claims from Allianz customers)

  • Hurricane Florence – 5,032
  • Hurricane Michael – 1,435
  • Tropical Storm Gordon – 161
  • Hurricane Isaac – 59
  • Hurricane Beryl – 18
  • Hurricane Chris – 12

During the 2018 season, 77% of the company’s hurricane-related claims were cancellations, 15% were interruptions, and 6% were delays.

2017 Hurricane Season – 26,000 claims (a 58% increase in Sept-Dec YOY claims from Allianz customers)

  • Hurricane Irma – 18,733
  • Hurricane Harvey – 3,678
  • Hurricane Maria – 3,496
  • Hurricane Jose – 156

During the 2017 season, 61% of the company’s hurricane-related claims were cancellations, 16% were interruptions and 13% were delays.

“The high number of claims we’re seeing during this year’s hurricane season demonstrates how essential it is to buy travel insurance as soon as you book a flight or cruise. If you wait to shop around for insurance, and a hurricane impacting your destination is identified and named, you can no longer buy a plan that protects you from the impact of that hurricane. Buying when you book helps protect you from the unpredictable, often provides the best value, and saves time.” – Daniel Durazo, Director, Marketing & Communications, Allianz Global Assistance

Allianz shares these additional tips to protect customers from unpredictable situations and out-of-pocket expenses:

  • Travel insurance can put money back in your pocket when weather-related travel disruptions occur. If you experience a covered trip cancellation or interruption due to severe weather that makes your home or destination uninhabitable, the right travel protection policy from Allianz Global Assistance may reimburse you for non-refundable, pre-paid costs plus the extra cost of flying home early, up to the limits in your policy.
  • If your journey home is delayed, travel insurance may reimburse you for the cost of a hotel room, meals or other essentials.
  • If you’re injured in a storm, travel insurance can provide emergency medical and dental benefits, as well as emergency medical transportation benefits.
  • Recently, the company improved its products to include more reasons to cancel or interrupt a trip, including mandatory evacuation. Additionally, customers with the OneTrip Premier and Premier (retail agent) products may cancel or interrupt their trip if it’s impacted by a hurricane warning. The Travel Delay benefit also has been redesigned to help customers reach their destination sooner by alternative means, such as when severe weather or storms causes an extended delay by the carrier of 24 hours or more.