The Best New Company Out there

We may receive compensation from Faye as an advertising partner. However, this does not influence our evaluations. Our opinions are our own.

I’ve been writing about travel for nearly two decades and, in that time, I’ve watched the travel insurance industry change at roughly the speed of a glacier. For years, the pitch was always the same: buy a policy, hope you never need it, and if something goes wrong, prepare for a paperwork marathon and a check that arrives somewhere between “eventually” and “you’ve forgotten you ever filed.”

I’ve personally been on the receiving end of that runaround. So have most travelers I know. It’s just something you kind of deal with. After all, you should never, ever, ever, EVER travel without travel insurance. You don’t want to end up needing a GoFundMe to pay your bills and get home if something goes wrong. (You can’t predict the future!)

Now, there’s a lot of players in this space but one I want to highlight today is Faye Travel Insurance, which I think is doing something unique.

Faye is a digital-first travel insurance company that launched coverage in the U.S. in 2022 so it’s pretty new to the US market when you consider that brands like World Nomads or Allianz have been offering coverage for over twenty years.

Faye is based on a pretty simple idea: travel insurance shouldn’t just sit there waiting for things to go wrong. It should actively help things go right.

That means whole-trip protection (your trip, your health, your stuff, even your pet), an app that’s actually useful while you’re traveling, 24/7 access to real human customer support, claims that get processed in days instead of months, and a digital wallet that pays you back almost instantly instead of waiting around for a check in the mail, which some companies still do in this day and age.

It’s available in all 50 states.

One Plan, Done Right

Faye has one plan for domestic and international trips, which makes things super easy. A lot of travel insurance companies have lots of plans and you end up squinting at coverage tables trying to figure out which one isn’t going to leave you stranded and has the coverage minimums you need. Faye built a single comprehensive plan that covers most of what travelers actually need:

• Trip cancellation and trip interruption
• Emergency medical for non-U.S. travel (up to $250,000)
• Emergency m edical evacuation (up to $500,000)
• Trip cancellation (up to 100% of non-refundable trip costs)
• Trip interruption (up to 150% of non-refundable trip costs)
• Trip delay (up to $2,100/trip ($300/day) after a 6+ hour delay)
• Missed connection (up to $200, after a 3+ hour covered delay)
• Non-medical emergency evacuation (up to $100,000)
• Lost, stolen, or damaged belongings (up to $2,000/trip (capped at $150/item))

These limits are pretty standard, especially on the medical coverage. If you want to add stuff on, they have a few optional addons that I think are really good and unique:

• Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR) – up to 75% of nonrefundable trip costs reimbursed, if you buy it within 14 days of your initial trip deposit and cancel up to 48 hours prior to your departure date
• Rental car damage – covers collision, theft, vandalism, natural disasters
• Adventure and extreme sports – for the bungee jumpers, free divers, and skydivers
• Vacation rental damage – for the inevitable spilled wine on someone’s Airbnb couch
• Pet care – vet expenses up to $2K if your pet is traveling with you, kennel costs if you get delayed coming home

The CFAR insurance is really useful and I’ve rarely seen a company allow you to add it on to a policy. Usually, it’s already incorporated at a higher fee but this creates an affordable add on. I also love the pet care add on as more and more people travel with their pets.

All About the App

Here’s where Faye really separates itself. Faye built something completely different! Here’s what you can actually do inside the Faye app:

Buy a policy in as little as 60 seconds – Plug in your trip details, get a quote, get covered.

Get real-time flight tracking and alerts – You’ll get delay info, gate changes, or baggage carousel numbers when you land! A lot of apps do this but this is a nice add on.

Telemedicine – Faye gives you access to a network of 20,000 telemedicine doctors in 21 languages when you travel abroad. If you wake up with food poisoning in a town where you don’t speak the language and don’t trust the local hospital reviews, you can talk to a doctor from your hotel bed. (As someone who has had to find doctors in other countries, this feature is amazing!)

Find a doctor, pharmacy, ER, or ATM nearby – The app does the work of figuring out where to go when you’re disoriented and just need to find the closest open pharmacy at 11 p.m. in a city you arrived in five hours ago. (As someone who has had to do this in other countries, this feature is amazing!)

Get free airport lounge access – If your flight is delayed by three hours or more, Faye gets you into a lounge – and who wouldn’t want lounge access with free food and drinks for a long delay?

Store your documents in Safekeeping – Securely u     pload your passport, visa, insurance card, vaccination records. If anything gets lost or stolen, you’ve got digital copies.

Check destination essentials before you go – Visa requirements, plug adapter types, local emergency numbers, weather, currency conversion, even local apps worth downloading.

Chat with real humans, 24/7 – Actual customer experience specialists, available every day of the year, including weekends and holidays.

Buy an eSIM – The app also enables you to purchase an eSIM meaning you can avoid pesky physical SIM swaps and get connected to the internet right when you land.

Filing a Claim

Here’s how Faye works: something bad happens. You open the app. You file a claim in a few minutes by uploading photos of your receipts. If it’s a qualifying issue like a baggage delay or flight delay, you may get reimbursed almost instantly. Funds go straight into Faye Wallet, a digital payment card built into the app that connects to Apple Pay or Google Pay. You tap and pay, right then and there, for whatever you actually need: a new outfit, toiletries, dinner, a hotel.

For larger or more complex claims, Faye aims to resolve them within 48 hours. of receiving the necessary documentation.

If you don’t want to use the digital wallet, you can transfer the funds to your bank account or get a paper check.

What It Costs

Pricing depends on your trip cost, destination, length, state of residence and age (same as every insurance product) but prices start at around $5.16 a day for international trips, which is a lot more competitive than other companies out there.

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I’ve used a lot of travel insurance companies over the years. Most of them are fine. A few are awful. Faye is the first one that feels like it was designed by people who actually understand modern travel and get that we’re booking trips on our phones, communicating in apps, and expecting the same digital convenience from insurance that we get from everything else.

The combination of whole-trip protection, the app, Faye Wallet, real human support, and fast claims has genuinely changed how I think about this category. Travel insurance used to be the thing I bought and forgot.

If you’re heading out on a trip soon, check it out at withfaye.com, get a quote, and see for yourself.

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