"For Allianz Travel policyholders, the TravelSmart app is the easiest way to access a travel insurance plan, file and manage a claim, track flights, receive live updates for flight delays and easily contact 24-hour assistance and concierge services." — Forbes.com, February 2021

Whether you think winter is magical or you’re more of a “the weather outside is frightful” kind of person, there’s no doubt that the coldest months of the year are a unique time to travel. Between winter’s holiday traffic, cold season, and extreme weather, getting travel insurance is an especially smart move. But if you’re not using our free TravelSmart™ app, you’re missing out on another smart way to navigate the chilliest season. Here are five ways that TravelSmart can help make your winter wonderland travels simpler and safer.

1. Get the intel you need to go safer with the Alerts feature.

You’re on the road to the little cabin you rented for the weekend—you know, the one that looks like the front of a holiday card. The snow is really starting to come down during your drive, and you’re daydreaming about the moment where you’re finally in front of the cabin’s roaring fireplace. You’ve just pictured taking that first sip of hot cocoa when you get a TravelSmart alert: there’s a road closure on the way to the cabin. You adjust your GPS to find an alternate route. Knowing you’ve just saved yourself a very frustrating drive, you go back to daydreaming about cocoa and firesides.

That’s the beauty of the Alerts feature: it gives you timely location-based updates about developing events around you—things like weather, security, transportation, culture, and more. And that means means you have more information to help you make smarter travel decisions.

2. Find nearby help with the Around Me feature.

You’ve finally made it to the cabin! You’re on day two of enjoying a little R&R when you start to feel a tingle in your throat. You could really use some cough drops, but you’re on a remote mountain where there aren’t exactly a plethora of stores. Luckily you have TravelSmart, and the Around Me feature that shows you nearby pharmacies. You find the closest one and head out to find sweet relief.

But by the next day, you realize that the cough drops aren’t cutting it—your throat is so sore you can barely swallow, and you need to see a doctor stat. Once again, you pull up Around Me, but this time you search for nearby medical facilities. Normally you’d be a little worried about seeking care in an unfamiliar area, but you feel better knowing that TravelSmart shows you prescreened medical facilities (especially since you really don’t feel well enough to do a lot of research on your own right now). Good news: there’s a prescreened facility not too far from where you are. It’s a good thing, too—you’re about to be diagnosed with strep throat.

Along with pharmacies and medical facilities, Around Me can also point you toward nearby police stations and embassies, making it a handy tool for all sorts of travel or medical emergencies.  

3. Pull up your plan details in a flash.

Okay, back at the cabin: with your official strep throat diagnosis, you’re thinking it might be time to cut the trip short. You made the smart decision to get travel insurance just in case of the unexpected, but you can’t remember what your exact benefits are, and you’re worried about losing your travel investment if you leave early.

Because you have the TravelSmart app, your plan details are just taps away. You go to Policies and pull up a quick overview of your benefits (so much easier than having to keep track of a physical insurance ID card), and see that one of your benefits is Trip Interruption. TravelSmart also lets you view your full plan documents right in the app (or you can opt to have them emailed), so you can check out the full details about your benefits to see if they’re applicable for your specific scenario. In this particular case, you learn that you can file a claim for your unused prepaid trip expenses.

4. Contact 24-hour assistance with the push of a button (or two).

You’re sitting in the airport terminal with your kids, waiting for your flight (well, you’re sitting; your kids are doing a combination of jumping, skipping, and lying in the middle of the floor). The weather isn’t great—in fact, there’s a full-on snowstorm outside. You have a sinking feeling that your family’s flight isn’t taking off anytime soon. Sure enough, you hear the announcement that you’ve been delayed until…wait for it…the next afternoon. Staying overnight in the airport with small children isn’t an option for you, but you’re in an unfamiliar city and have no clue where to go. And because you have to keep an eye on your kids, you really don’t have a lot of time to research.

With TravelSmart, you have super quick access to the 24-hour assistance that comes with your Allianz Travel Insurance plan. With a few taps of a button—nope, you don’t have even to look a number up—you’re connected with one of our friendly experts, who’s here to help with just about whatever you need. You explain the situation and they take it from there. In the time it takes you to collect your kids off the floor and take them to the bathroom, our assistance specialist has reserved you a room at a nearby hotel and arranged your transportation there. That was a lot easier than getting all the kids to wash their hands properly.

5. File a claim on the go.

You’ve got plans to visit your sister upstate. You’re worried about maneuvering your car on icy roads, so you’ve decided to travel by train. On the way to the station, the unexpected hits—well, a sedan hits, rear-ending you at a red light. You’re fine, but your car is another story. You spend the next few hours dealing with tow trucks, calling your car insurance company, and letting your sister know that the trip won’t be happening. Now you’re sitting at the body shop, waiting to hear what the damage is. You’ve long missed your train, which reminds you of yet another logistic you need to take care of: filing a trip cancellation claim with your travel insurance.

It’s been a rough day, but at least this part isn’t a huge hassle. That’s because you have TravelSmart, which makes it easy to file a claim on the go, right from the app. You enter your details and upload supporting documentation from your phone (by the way—if you don’t have all your details or supporting documents just yet, you can still start a claim and come back later). Done! You can monitor your claim’s progress online, so you always know where it is at any given time. Filing a claim isn’t fun, but with TravelSmart, at least it’s simpler.

If you’ve got travel plans this winter, TravelSmart is a perfect companion for any icy roads ahead. Download it free for iPhone or Android, and go safer this season.

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