After the happenings of the past week, first with Aloha Airlines declaring bankruptcy, now today, ATA Airlines declaring bankruptcy, thousands of people have found themselves with a plane ticket, but with no plane to fly on.

In both of these cases, it is very unlikely that travelers will see any sort of refund from either of these companies, but the few travelers who had purchased travel insurance are the happy ones right now. Travel insurance, which is a fairly uncommon purchase by my standards, except when traveling internationally, can cover a wide array of things that can happen during your trip, from loss of transportation to injury. Here’s a brief list of what travelers insurance covers:

• Medical expenses
• Emergency evacuation/repatriation
• Overseas funeral expenses
• Accidental death, injury or disablement benefit
• Cancellation
• Curtailment
• Delayed departure
• Loss, theft or damage to personal possessions and money (including travel documents)
• Delayed baggage (and emergency replacement of essential items)
• Legal assistance
• Personal liability and rental car damage excess

In the future, consider purchasing travel insurance when booking large scale vacations to help protect yourself against large travel companies declaring bankruptcy or encountering other unforeseen problems.