IMG Travel SE Insurance - 2024 Review

IMG Travel Insurance supplies comprehensive, single-trip plans for up to 10 travelers per policy.

IMG offers three travel insurance programs:

• IMG Travel Lite
• IMG Travel SE
• IMG Travel LX

This article considers the IMG Travel SE insurance plan in more detail.

It is a best-in-class, comprehensive mid-level trip insurance plan ideal for domestic, international, and remote location travel.

IMG Travel SE offers robust Trip Cancellation and Trip Interruption protection. It includes a tremendous number of covered reasons, catering to travelers concerned about losing their financial investment.

It also supports travelers' health with exceptional Medical Insurance, Medical Evacuation, and Pre-existing Condition benefits.

Also, IMG Travel SE includes travel delay, missed connection, baggage insurance, baggage delay, and travel assistance.

About IMG Insurance

IMG (International Medical Group) is an Indiana-based company that opened in 1990.

IMG Travel Insurance holds an "A-Excellent" rating for financial strength by AM Best. United States Fire Insurance Company underwrites the plans.

IMG is a full-service and experienced insurance carrier. It is also one of the fastest growing travel insurance companies in the US because of the substantial value its policies offer.

They provide in-house operation of insurance, administrative, claims, and travel assistance services.

Snapshot of IMG Travel SE

Benefit per person	IMG Travel SE
Trip Cancellation	100% Trip Cost
Trip Interruption	150% Trip Cost
Cancel/Interrupt For Work Reasons	Yes
Medical Insurance	$250,000
Dental Sublimit	$1,000
Medical Coverage	Primary
Medical Evacuation and Repatriation of Remains	$500,000
Pre-existing Condition Waiver	Yes
Time Sensitive Period	20 days from Initial Payment Date
Look Back Period	60 days
Baggage Delay	$250 12 hours or more delay
Trip Delay	$125/day $500 max 12 hours or more delay
Pet Kennel	$100/day per pet $300 max
Missed Connection	$125/day $500 max 6 hours or more
Change Fee	$150
Frequent Traveler Reward	$75
Accidental Death & Dismemberment	$25,000 common carrier only
Rental Car Damage and Theft Waiver	$40,000
Best For	International and remote destination travel

Policy Limits

Free Look Period	10 days
Minimum Trip Distance	100 miles
Minimum Insurable Trip Cost	$500
Maximum Trip Duration	180 days
Maximum Age Insured	99 years

IMG Travel SE Trip Cancellation and Trip Interruption

IMG Travel SE includes an abundance of covered Trip Cancellation and Trip Interruption reasons.

Suppose you cancel your trip for a reason named on the policy. In that case, it reimburses you for 100% of your covered prepaid, non-refundable travel expenses.

Below in bold, take note of some covered reasons that few travel insurance policies permit.

Illness, injury, birth, or death:

• Unforeseen illness, injury, hospitalization, or death of a traveler, family member, traveling companion's family member, child's caregiver, host at the destination, or business partner
• Pet or service animal, injured, sick, diagnosed with a terminal illness, or dies
• Normal pregnancy or childbirth, or attend childbirth of family member or surrogate if conceived after the policy went into effect
• Complications of pregnancy
• Hospitalization for a mental, nervous, or psychological condition
• Documented traffic accident en route to departure or the destination
• Adoption proceedings

Common carrier:

• Financial default or bankruptcy of a common carrier, cruise line, or tour operator (does not include travel agency)*
• Strike of common carrier
• Common carrier mechanical breakdown or equipment failure

Weather:

• Inclement weather
• Mandatory Evacuation due to adverse weather or natural disasters*
• Residence or destination uninhabitable due to natural disaster, vandalism, or burglary*
• NOAA hurricane warning

Unforeseen circumstances:

• Hijacking, quarantine, jury duty, subpoena
• Pet or service animal hijacked or quarantined
• Documented theft of passports or visas
• Terrorism
• Shutdown of airport or air traffic control due to fire, power outage, security breach, civil disorder, riot, or government orders
• Trip Delay causes you to lose 50% or more of the scheduled trip
• Level 4 travel alert or warning, travel ban, or evacuation order for your destination

School:

• Full-time student, teacher, or employee at primary school must attend extended school year
• Traveler required to take an academic exam after during your scheduled trip
• Traveler required to participate in interscholastic or team sport event during the scheduled trip (cancellation only)

Work Reasons:

• Involuntary layoff or transfer
• Required to work because vacation rescinded, a natural disaster, burglary or vandalism at the place of employment, or involved in a merger, acquisition, product recall, or bankruptcy proceedings.
• Military leave revoked
• Called to military or first responder service due to natural disaster, epidemic, civil disorder, terrorism, or war

*indicates a Time Sensitive Benefit

Also, IMG Travel SE includes a covered Trip Interruption if a physician orders you to bed rest during the trip.

Essentially, it's a more robust Trip Delay benefit but specifically designed for people who cannot leave their hotel room for up to 10 days. The feature includes a $250 per day per person for accommodations, meals, and local transportation until you are fit to travel.

IMG Travel SE Change Fees and Frequent Traveler Rewards

IMG Travel SE would reimburse you if you paid Change Fees or re-banked Frequent Traveler Rewards to your loyalty account.

You might pay the common carrier a Change Fee if you made trip amendments due to:

• A common carrier delay
• Travel supplier cancels or interrupts your trip
• A covered Trip Cancellation
• Involved in a car accident en route to departure
• A covered Trip Interruption

If you used Frequent Traveler Rewards, IMG Travel SE covers up to $75 to return your account's points. Note, this only applies to covered cancellations named in the policy.

IMG Travel SE Medical Insurance Pays For Treatment

TravelDefenders consistently advises everyone, particularly seniors, to take at least $100,000 Medical Insurance when traveling outside the US.

Happily, IMG Travel SE includes $250,000 Primary Medical Insurance.

Travel Medical Insurance is critical because an unexpected medical emergency could leave you paying for everything with your savings and retirement nest egg.

Many people do not realize their private health insurance does not follow them abroad.

Some even assume the US State Department will take care of them. This is not true. The State Department always advises travelers to buy international medical insurance.

Also, Medicare denies coverage outside the US, even if it is a life-and-death situation. Some Medicare supplements include a lifetime $50,000 benefit, but it is costly. You will pay copays and deductibles, and a 20% coinsurance. That is at least $10,000 of your money just to use the supplement's coverage. It is not cost-effective at all.

On the other hand, IMG Travel SE is exceptionally affordable, especially if you only need Medical Insurance.

Plus, some overseas hospitals require you to pay money before it admits you for treatment. IMG Travel SE guarantees payment to the hospital, so they will see you right away.

IMG Travel SE Primary vs. Secondary Medical Insurance Coverage

IMG Travel SE is a Primary Medical Insurance program. It means the policy will pay first before any other health insurance you own.

Secondary Medical Insurance waits for your personal insurance to pay, then it reimburses you for the rest.

Whenever possible, TravelDefenders recommends travelers buy a Primary Medical Insurance plan. It makes life a lot simpler.

IMG Travel SE Emergency Medical Evacuation Brings You Home

Another critical travel insurance aspect is Emergency Medical Evacuation.

TravelDefenders recommends travelers have at least $250,000 Medical Evacuation insurance when leaving the US.

Expect to pay $15,000 to $25,000 per flight hour for an air ambulance.

Overall, you could face a $125,000 to $250,000 bill for air evacuation from Europe or Central America.

If you travel to more remote places like Asia, Africa, Australia, or a polar region, expect bills of $300,000 to $500,000.

What does Medical Evacuation do?

• Moves you from the place of illness or injury to the nearest hospital
• Evacuates you to another hospital if the first one cannot adequately treat your condition
• Returns you home from abroad (medical repatriation)

Also, Medical Evacuation returns home a person's remains.

If you travel alone, Medical Evacuation covers the costs for a family member to join you at your hospital bedside.

Similarly, sometimes you are the only adult with minor children. Medical Evacuation arranges for a professional to chaperone children back to their home if you are hospitalized.

IMG Travel SE Covers Pre-existing Medical Conditions

Pre-existing Medical Conditions are injuries or illnesses that occur before you buy your travel insurance plan.

IMG Travel SE includes a Waiver of Pre-existing Conditions when you buy the plan within 20 days of your Initial Deposit date. This waiver allows the policy to cover all Pre-existing Conditions, even if they were diagnosed last week.

If you buy the plan after the 20-day window closes, not all is lost.

Some people have older, stable Pre-existing Conditions that are controlled with medication (e.g., high blood pressure).

The policy covers conditions older than 60 days that have not had any recent changes or treatment within the past 60 days.

Your Pre-existing Condition may be covered without a Waiver if:

• It is older than 60 days, has not worsened and
• No recent treatment, test, medication change, new medication added, and
• A doctor has not recommended a test or treatment you have not yet done

One of the features we love about IMG Travel SE is that it offers the Pre-existing Condition Waiver regardless of how much of the trip cost you insure.

Specifically, most travel insurance policies require that you insure 100% of all prepaid, non-refundable travel arrangements. If not, the policy does not activate the Pre-existing Condition Waiver.

However, IMG Travel SE will still cover you for Pre-existing Conditions. Even if your trip costs $5,000, the Pre-existing Condition Waiver works if you only insure $500 of expenses. Of course, you want to buy it within 20 days of the Initial Deposit Date.

This flexibility makes IMG Travel SE popular among travelers primarily concerned about Medical Insurance and Medical Evacuation during their trip.

IMG Travel SE Time Sensitive Period

Some benefits in the IMG Travel SE policy require that you buy the plan within 20 days of your Initial Trip Deposit or payment. This is called a 20-day Time Sensitive Period.

If you buy the plan more than 20 days after paying your Initial Payment, then the policy does not cover the following benefits:

• Pre-existing Condition Waiver

• Carrier bankruptcy protection
• Your home or destination is inaccessible or uninhabitable due to natural disaster, fire, burglary, or vandalism
• Mandatory Evacuation at destination

You receive the most coverage for your money when you buy IMG Travel SE within 20 days of your Initial Deposit.

You can always increase coverage later if you do not know how much it will eventually cost.

IMG Travel SE Look Back Period – What Is It?

As mentioned in the Pre-existing Condition section above, some people buy the policy after the 20-day Time Sensitive Period.

In that case, your Pre-existing Condition would be subject to the 60-day Look Back Period.

The insurer will check your medical history in the 60 days immediately before buying the policy to see if it is a Pre-existing Condition. If so, they do not provide benefits for Trip Cancellation, Trip Interruption, and Medical Insurance.

If your Pre-existing Condition is older than 60 days, unchanged, and stable with medication, the policy covers it.

However, suppose you saw your doctor four weeks ago, and she changed your medication. In that case, the insurer views that as a Pre-existing Condition.

There is no Look Back Period when you buy a policy with an active Pre-existing Condition Waiver.

Trip Delay vs. Missed Connection

Trip Delay reimburses you for food, taxi, hotel, and phone calls if a common carrier (airline, cruise line, train, bus, etc.) delays you 12 hours or more.

IMG Travel SE covers these Trip Delays:

• Theft or loss of passport or visa
• Common carrier delay
• Inclement weather
• Hijacking
• Quarantine
• Natural disaster
• Car accident en route to departure city or destination
• Strike

IMG Travel SE reimburses Trip Delays up to $125 per person per day, with a maximum of $500 per person.

Pet Kennel

Also, IMG Travel SE has a separate benefit for your pet's extended stay at a kennel. The feature activates if a covered delay longer than 6 hours prevents you from collecting your pets boarded at a kennel.

It reimburses you up to $100 per day, with a maximum of $300 per pet.

Missed Connection

Missed Connection is different from travel delay. It means your connecting transportation delayed you, and you missed the start of your cruise or tour.

Covered Missed Connection situations include:

• Inclement weather
• A common carrier delay
• Quarantine, hijacking, strike, natural disaster, terrorism, civil disorder, or riot

Missed Connection reimburses transportation costs up to $125 per person with a maximum of $500 to join you with your cruise or tour.

You can have both a Trip Delay and a Missed Connection if the delay lasts over 12 consecutive hours.

IMG Travel SE Rental Car Damage and Theft Waiver

IMG Travel SE includes rental car damage protection up to $40,000 per covered vehicle.

It covers vehicle damage due to collision, theft, vandalism, natural disaster, or any cause beyond your control.

IMG Travel SE pays the lesser of:

• Reasonable repairs and loss of use charges, or
• Actual cash value, less the salvage value

See the certificate for conditions and exclusions.

IMG Travel SE Accidental Death and Dismemberment

Travel accidental death and dismemberment insurance pays a benefit if a traveler experiences an accidental dismemberment or death while on a common carrier (aircraft, train, cruise ship, bus, etc.).

IMG Travel SE includes a $25,000 accidental death benefit. A dismemberment could consist of loss of an eye, hand, or foot. If either situation occurs on a common carrier, the policy pays between 50% and 100% of $25,000.

IMG Travel SE also includes loss due to exposure and disappearance.

IMG Travel SE Baggage Insurance and Baggage Delay

Sometimes baggage has a way of growing legs and walking away on its own.

If a common carrier loses or damages your luggage or is stolen, IMG Travel SE Baggage Insurance refunds up to $250 per item, with a $1,500 maximum.

Similarly, the carrier may misdirect your luggage and delays getting it to you. IMG Travel SE covers up to $250 for replacement clothes and toiletries after a 12-hour baggage delay.

Baggage loss also reimburses the cost to replace travel documents, passports, and visas.

Baggage Insurance excludes some items. Check the policy certificate for details.

Free Look Period

IMG Travel Insurance has a 10 day Free Look Period.

You may cancel the IMG Travel SE plan within 10 days of purchase and receive a full premium refund.

After 10 days, the policy is no longer eligible for a refund, even if your travel supplier canceled the trip.

Travel Assistance

IMG Global Peace of Mind has your back with worldwide Travel Assistance services.

Wherever you are, Travel Assistance is there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to help with:

• Emergency travel arrangements
• Emergency translations
• Medical referral
• Lost passport/travel documents assistance
• Emergency message relay
• Legal referrals
• Emergency cash transfer
• Emergency prescription replacement
• Lost luggage assistance
• Embassy or consulate referral
• and more

You can reach Global Assistance in the US or Canada at 866-243-7524. From worldwide locations, call collect +1-317-655-9798.

IMG Travel SE Offers Excellent Value for Your Money

IMG Travel SE is a full-featured, robust travel insurance plan with an affordable price.

It includes dozens of Trip Cancellation and Trip Interruption reasons, outstanding Medical Insurance and Evacuation, and a Pre-existing Condition Waiver.

Plus, it has excellent ancillary benefits like rental car protection, pet kennel benefit, Missed Connection, and AD&D.

Like all comprehensive travel insurance policies, it offers Baggage Insurance, Baggage Delay, Travel Delay, and Travel Assistance.

We suggest considering IMG Travel SE when shopping for travel insurance plans.

Will I Pay More Buying From a Marketplace Than From the Insurer?

No. You will always find the lowest possible prices at AARDY. No one is allowed to compete on price for the same travel insurance policies. Even the insurer is not permitted to sell the same plan for less.

Compare over 30 policy options at TravelDefenders Travel Insurance Marketplace.

Travel insurance is not "one size fits all." Our friendly licensed agents can help you find the best policy that meets your travel needs.

Visit TravelDefenders to shop the Travel Insurance Marketplace before committing to the first travel insurance policy you come across.

Please stop by and chat with us, send an email, or give us a call at +1(786) 321 3723.

Safe travels!