The stolen backpack. The missed train. The double booking. The scraped rental car.

Most travelers can tell a tale of a time when a minor travel mishap ended up costing them way more than they expected. Sometimes, these missteps are unavoidable. You wince, you pay up, and you move on.

You can avoid some of the most expensive travel mistakes, however! Just pay attention, plan carefully, and always protect yourself with travel insurance. Get a quote.

1. Cutting things too close in your travel planning

No one likes a super-long layover, so it makes sense that you’d want to minimize time wasted in the airport. But you should never assume that your flights will all be on time and that you’ll be able to transfer smoothly from one to another! If you look at the stats, more than 21% of U.S. flights are delayed, on average. Another 1-2% are typically canceled.¹

If you miss your connecting flight, you can’t expect the airline to magically make room for you on the next plane… or even the one after that. If you’re traveling during the holidays, or if severe weather has affected multiple flights, you might be stuck for days. And if you’re in a rush, you may have to splurge on a first-class fare just to get where you need to go. So always give yourself an extra time cushion, if possible.

This is especially true if you’re traveling to attend an event. “You really need to leave a 24-hour cushion for anything important, and make it 48 for a once-in-a-lifetime event like a big wedding or cruise departure or Super Bowl kickoff. …  And no airline will reimburse you for football tickets you couldn’t use or the emotional damage from missing your sister’s wedding, no matter how outraged a message you send to them,” warns travel columnist Seth Kugel.²

What about travel insurance? Your trip delay benefit may reimburse you for lost pre-paid expenses as well as eligible expenses you incur because of a covered delay. The delay must have been caused by a covered reason named in your plan, however.

2. Booking everything through online travel agencies

Sites like Expedia, Booking.com, Kayak, Hotels.com and TripAdvisor are fantastic for helping you compare prices and check reviews. However, if you book your air travel, hotel or cruise through an OTA (online travel agency, or online travel aggregator), you’re making it harder to solve any problems that arise.

One traveler tried to use an OTA to book a British Airways flight for four passengers from Tampa, Fla., to Venice, Italy. The OTA kept telling him his purchase was unsuccessful. Then, he found out he had been charged twice—totaling more than $15,000—even though he never received a reservation confirmation. It took 10 months to sort out the mess.³

The same thing can happen with credit cards’ travel booking platforms, vacation package sellers, and other middlemen. Unless one of these companies is offering a deal that’s just too good to pass up, it’s better to book directly with an airline, hotel, or other travel carrier. Hotels, especially, often offer perks and discounts when you book direct.

3. Opting into the timeshare sales pitch

This is a tempting offer for frugal travelers: You can get a free stay at a resort, free theme park tickets, or a free excursion just for sitting through a sales presentation. Easy! Right?

This is one of those decisions that can turn into a very, very expensive travel mistake. Timeshare sales reps are notorious for high-pressure tactics that can be hard for the unwary to resist. These may include shouting at you, shaming you, separating you from your spouse, asking for your ID and then holding onto it, demanding you sign a contract without reading it, etc. They’re skilled at turning a “maybe” into “yes”—and then you can be trapped into paying thousands.

Timeshares can be great options for some travelers—but if you’re truly interested in purchasing one, do your research ahead of time and buy it on your own terms. Otherwise, skip the sales pitch.

4. Failing to double-check your travel documents

Your flight home from New Delhi leaves November 12. It says so on your flight confirmation documents: 11-12. But the gate agent at the airport corrects you: 11-12 means December 11. Then, you realize that you used the MM-DD date format for the U.S. when you booked your flight; not the DD-MM format used in most of the world. D’oh!

This type of travel mistake is all too easy to make. When you’re making your travel plans, take the time to read everything slowly and carefully. Printing out your documents can help. Check:

• Travel dates and times: Keep in mind international time-zone and date format differences.
• Departure airports: Some itineraries may have you flying out of one airport in your city and returning to a different one.
• Documents required for entry: Many countries still require that U.S. travelers obtain a paper visa or stamp before arrival. Our interactive travel requirements map can help.
• Passport validity dates: Most countries require visitors’ passports to have a certain amount of valid time remaining (typically 3-6 months) in order to enter. If yours expires too soon, you may be turned away.
• Travel insurance benefits, limits and exclusions: Insurance isn’t designed to cover every possible travel mishap. Read your plan documents so you understand what’s included.

5. Waiting too long to buy travel insurance

You’ve just dropped $2,500 on your airfare and resort stay for your scuba-diving trip to Belize—the last thing you want to do is spend a dollar more on travel insurance. You figure you’ll wait two weeks, until your next paycheck clears.

Two weeks turn into two months. Then, you slip on ice and end up with a broken tibia. You can’t go diving now, so you cancel the trip. The airline gives you a credit toward a future flight. The resort won’t issue any refund at all. If you had insurance, you could have filed a trip cancellation claim… but now it’s too late. You’ve spent thousands for a trip you won’t even get to enjoy.

Scenarios like this show why it’s essential to protect your trip as soon as possible after making your travel arrangements. The sooner you buy, the longer your coverage window.

Read more: When’s the Best Time to Buy Travel Insurance?

6. Not buying travel insurance

Worried you’ll buy travel insurance and won’t end up needing it? Actually, that’s the best possible scenario.

The worst possible scenario: You don’t buy insurance for your big international trip, and while you’re traveling you get seriously sick or hurt. Now, you’re on the hook for:

• The cost of an emergency medical evacuation, which can reach $20,000 (in touristy areas close to the U.S.) or more than $200,000 (in remote, undeveloped parts of the world). These estimates represent just the cost of transporting you to the nearest appropriate hospital.
• The cost of emergency medical care. Medical providers overseas typically don’t accept U.S. health insurance. In many countries, hospitals require payment up front before you can be treated.
• The cost of repatriation, which means transporting you home once you’re stable enough to travel.
• The cost of your lost trip expenses

A solid travel insurance plan can pay for or reimburse all of these costs following a covered illness or injury, up to the maximum limits in your plan.

Not having insurance may be the most expensive travel mistake you ever make. Luckily, there’s a cost-effective way to get peace of mind: an annual travel protection plan. Buy it once, and all your trips are protected for 365 days! Buy your plan today.

Related Articles

• 7 Tips for Traveling Big on a Budget
• How to Make the Most Out of a Delayed Flight
• The Best Survival Tips for Long Flights