Flight insurance is something that merely protects the cost of your flight. It's not something that pilots get, like a liability option against crashes, nor is it something you get that ensures your loved ones get a pay off in the event of a crash (et al). Basically, when you purchase an airline ticket, you will have an option to cover part of the cost of your flight. So if there's a problem and your flight never takes off, you get your money back on the ticket. The issue here, of course, is that most plane tickets are already refundable, and so if you never get on your flight, you can get your money back or roll over into a new ticket.
The danger here in pushing this sort of insurance is that a lot of airlines might stop offering refundable tickets, and they may end up charging you extra for that "insurance," in order for you to be able to refund your ticket if you don't end up using it. This extra money will not be returned, however. Say you paid $900 for your ticket, and $50 for the insurance. Well, they're going to keep that $50 as a flat insurance fee. This makes the idea of flight insurance seem absolutely absurd, but you might be surprised to learn that a lot of people are purchasing this additional feature with their tickets.
When the mainstream media decides that they're going to push something for the good of large corporations to profit, a whole lot of people never seem to think that it might be a scheme to get more money, and so they just purchase the additional item without asking too many questions. Frequent fliers are racking up miles and rewards, and are often getting their tickets at discounted rates, and so they don't mind spending a little extra on insurance. For the general flier, however, it's just a useless excess charge.
Not All Insurance is Important
Would you purchase flood insurance if you lived in a place like Nevada or Arizona? Most people wouldn't, which is why a lot of places will legally mandate extra insurance just to ensure companies are making huge profits. Though that's another story entirely. The point here is that just become there are necessary types of insurance to have, that in no way means that you need to purchase insurance every single time it's offered. This is especially true for something like flight insurance, where there is no real advantage to having it. Now, if they allowed you to refund your ticket for having a horrible flight experience, or offered you steep discounts for delays and layoffs, that would be one thing worthy of consideration. Though to only offer you a refund if you're unable to use your ticket; that's just a worthless purchase for anyone.
Also, keep in mind that people who are traveling for work on the company's dime, or people who are frequent fliers will already have some type of insurance. Companies are going to offer you some sort of insurance due to the fact you fly for them often. This insurance is also going to cover a whole lot more than just ticket refunds. So, basically, what you have here is a type of insurance you do not need.
So if you see Forbes, the New York Times, CNN, and all of these other outlets writing about how great flight insurance actually is, just keep in mind that it doesn't really offer you any benefits and just makes your flights more expensive.
