Welcome to The Morning Shave. We read a ton of travel articles each day for our personal research and to share the best travel tips and tricks with you. Here are the articles for Monday, July 15, 2019, that we think you should read.
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Customs Clarifies Policy on Plane ID Searches. – We need to protect ourselves from criminals and terrorists, but we must also protect our civil liberties. I’m glad that this policy has been clarified. Know your rights.
Why I don’t always take a Suite upgrade. – We have the exact opposite situation. Even if we book a room with two beds, the kids always end up in our bed, so we’re forced to sleep with one parent in each bed. I’m sure it will be different as our kids get older, but at 4 and 8 years old, it definitely makes sense for us to have a King.
Japan Joins Chorus of Nations Pushing Back on Unpaid Tourist Healthcare. – This is a tough situation, but I completely understand why they’re considering mandatory tourist medical insurance. I’ve read about plenty of situations where tourists had to come out of pocket for treatment otherwise the hospital would turn them away. Use our referral link to check out the current travel insurance rates from Allianz.
This Is Definitely The Wrong Way To Handle a Money Dispute At A Hotel. – I watched this video and it is insane what the worker did to it. You have to see it to believe it.
How to Get a US Passport in as Little as a Couple of Hours – Without Paying Hundreds of Dollars. – You have to pay attention to when your passport expires. I put a weekly reminder on my Google calendar about six months out so I won’t forget. But it is good to know that there is a way to make it happen in case you get sidetracked and have an important trip planned.
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A few things struck me on the travel insurance front. Maybe it’s just me, but if 5% of tourists are getting sick or injured badly enough to require hospitalization, there’s some bigger problems to look at. Also, telling a majorly sick person to basically go die somewhere because you won’t treat them seems pretty harsh. As an aside, I know that my health insurance through work covers treatment abroad, so that’s a good thing for other people to check.
Allianz has solid prices. Any idea if they’re primary insurance or secondary? I wouldn’t want to be in the middle of two insurance companies trying to get out of paying.
Hey Christian, I agree. Some people may get sick or injured, that’s a fact of life. But when the numbers are higher than normal, something else may be going on (e.g. Dominican Republic). From the story, it seems that Japan has universal medical coverage and some people may be doing medical tourism to take advantage of that. So, the country wants to ensure people have their own insurance so it doesn’t burden the existing system.
From what I can tell with Allianz, they have policies that offer either primary or secondary. The cost is going to be more for primary, as you might expect.