Why would someone want to gamble that their trip might unravel so much that insurance is required? No one wants to even think along the lines of getting sick overseas or having an accident, getting delayed en route and missing a connecting flight or bad weather causing major traffic delays. So they assume buying trip insurance is likely to bring on a disaster instead of helping you through one. Here are a few examples where trip insurance is valuable and why the state of the airline industry today almost requires that you purchase trip insurance.

Airlines are cutting capacity - sometimes drastically. Some smaller airports will have so few flights in and out that if you miss your flight, you will likely have to wait a day or two to get on the next one. Each night lost costs you perhaps $80-100 for a hotel room. And if the flight you missed is a once a day overseas flight, you are almost guaranteed that you won't just be able to catch tomorrow's flight either, as these once a day flights are usually oversold to begin with. If you are flying stand-by or as an airline employee, the risk is even greater as you will be THE LAST people considered for a vacant seat. The bottom line is more and more people are getting 'stranded' at the airport and are looking for rooms at the last minute.

Rebooking on the next days flight (if you can do so) will also likely cost you more than you paid for your ticket unless you just recently purchased it or it wasn't purchased at a sale price. I recently helped a guest traveling from El Salvador through Los Angeles and San Francisco to Mumbai, India and they missed the connection in LA. The next available flight was out of S.F. but not for 2 more days AND it cost them an additional $1400. This is on top of the $300 they spent with us.

Trip insurance with this type of coverage would have covered them for ALL increases in ticket fares AND for the hotel rooms. Thus simply spending $100 would have saved them almost $2000. This is where trip insurance is almost a necessity. Flying in winter risks bad weather at times. Airline service cuts reduces seats and flights and means your chances of catching a similar (priced) plane the next day are lessened greatly. And we haven't even begun to explore any medical emergencies you may incur.

It's not pleasant to think about such things when all you want to do is get to your vacation spot or dream destination place. Or even home for that matter. When the odds are good you won't incur bad weather and you have plenty of option on other flights, insurance may be a luxury you can't afford. But if you can't afford the $100 for insurance, how are you going to feel about hitting your credit card for another $1200-2000 in additional fare charges on a different flight? Or $6,000 for emergency room charges in Spain or London? If that would break your family finances, then think of the additional insurance charge as part of the initial ticket cost and leave on your trip with a greater sense of peace.

David C. Reynolds is an author and longtime veteran of the Hotel business who offers common sense, money saving travel tips and advice. You can find many good travel tips in his articles and links to airline and hotel bookings and even trip insurance companies on his travel blog at http://www.bookhotelscheaper.com