SOUTH FLORIDA BUSINESS TRAVEL - Insurance can solve many trip mishaps

www.miami.com Posted on Mon, Feb. 24, 2003 MIKE SEEMUTH

Businesses employing a mobile workforce represent a major market for restricted coach-class airline fares that won't be refunded if the passenger cancels the trip.

Still, businesses are very much in the market for refund policies that make changes in travel plans less costly, especially now. Talk of a possible war with Iraq has led road warriors to take defensive action by trying to minimize the cost of delayed or canceled business trips.

Paying a premium price for a refundable, first-class airline seat is one way to minimize the cost of canceling a business trip. But buying insurance with trip-cancellation coverage often can afford the same protection at lower cost, said Scott Shadrick, president of Coral Gables travel agency TraveLeaders.

Do the math. A business-class seat on an international flight can cost thousands of dollars more than an economy-class seat. By contrast, insurance policies with trip-cancellation coverage, medical benefits and other goodies generally cost less than $250 per trip, according to InsureMyTrip.com, a Web site that compares travel-insurance policies and premiums.

For example, a $96 policy from a company called Access America provides emergency medical and dental benefits, baggage delay insurance and coverage up to $1,500 of expenses due to trip cancellation or interruption.

Covered causes include terrorist acts in the destination cities of the insured, along with ``strikes, natural disasters or bad weather resulting in the complete cessation of services by the airline, the tour operator or the cruise line for at least 24 consecutive hours.''

As with other types of coverage, travel insurance policies have exclusions, and among those in the Access America policy is the list of covered air carriers, including American Airlines and many other U.S. carriers but excluding United Airlines and all foreign airlines.

Some policies restrict their coverage geographically to exclude countries for which the U.S. Department of State has issued a travel warning, as it has for Colombia and Venezuela.

Another way to minimize the cost of last-minute changes in business travel plans is to book rooms at hotels with lenient cancellation policies.

For example, HoteLeaders.com, an online booking service partially owned by TraveLeaders of Coral Gables, allows customers to cancel reservations at any of 7,000 hotel rooms, without charge, up until 6 p.m. on the scheduled day of arrival. ''It's the most liberal cancellation policy in the industry,'' Shadrick said.

Compared with individual business travelers, business meeting planners face astronomically greater risk on the geopolitical front. Hotel charges for failure to draw adequate attendance at business meetings, conventions and trade shows can run into tens of thousands of dollars.

InterContinental Hotels & Resorts responded to current market conditions by eliminating cancellation and attrition charges for meetings booked by April 30, and staged by the end of the year, at one of its properties.

''We understand the increased need for face-to-face meetings during these challenging economic times,'' InterContinental said in a company statement. ``However, we also recognize the uncertainty many may have in booking meetings and committing funds.''

ECONOMY-CLASS FLEXIBILITY, UK-STYLE

Usually it takes an extraordinary event, such as the Sept. 11 attacks or the recent heavy snowstorms in the Northeast, to make airlines waive their usual customer penalties for reservation changes and cancellations.

But British Airways seems to have decided that war jitters alone are enough to bend usual rules.

British Airways has temporarily waived charges certain economy-class customers once paid to change reservations or destinations on long-haul flights. The airline's new program applies to economy class reservations booked by March 17 for travel by year-end, which passengers can alter at no charge until May 31.

The bad news is, the temporary program applies only to BA tickets purchased in Britain. And there are no current plans to extend the program to the U.S. market.

MARKET SHARE UNAFFECTED HERE

American Airlines may be losing money but it isn't losing market share in Miami. Fresh traffic data for Miami International Airport show that American and its commuter cousin, American Eagle, accounted for 55.7 percent of the Miami airport's passenger traffic in calendar year 2002, up from 53.7 percent in 2001.

Contact Mike Seemuth at humidity@aol.com.