Agreed. Always buy travel insurance.
I did too. I am in the process of claiming the same. Again there is a problem. As I got my luggage I cannot claim for missing luggage (which could have been max 1000SDR = 1400 USD). Insurance policy do not cover the missing items in baggage. So now I am stuck again. And unfortunatley the missing items were electronic which is again disownded by airlines and insurance.