Tell me about buying trip insurance

[Grumpy's Gal]

might have a trip to Europe this summer. I've never bought trip insurance. I'd like to hear your experiences.( and recommendations) thanks!!!

 

[adisneyaunt]

Insure my trip dot com. They have a myriad of choices. You can call and speak with someone or just follow prompts online and they ll price out the choices. The important part of the insurance is what is EXcluded, because if it is Not EXcluded it means it's INcluded. For example... pre-existing conditions ( yourself or a relative .. not necessarily going on ur trip ... i.e. A grandparent etc suddenly I'll n you have to back out)
Many policies can be purchased up until the day you leave BUT they will be more costly AND have more Exclusions...
be sure to include your Actual costs rather than some fake number for your Trip as you ll get a more accurate free insurance quote and you would not want to short change yourself on out of pocket because u thought you wouldn't use it/policy.
I have used them several times.. collected $$$$ for a cancelled overseas trip due to illness. It was a simple procedure and very thankful to have had the coverage in place.
Good luck..

 

[tvguy]

I think the biggest thing you get with trip insurance is peace of mind.
Things further down the list I would ask in considering whether to get trip insurance:
Where am I going? Half around the world, or just a few hundred miles from the U.S?
When am I going? In the winter during a holiday when weather and travel volume could be an issue?
How expensive is the trip, and could I absorb the financial hit if something went wrong?
Will I have enough cash or credit on hand if I had to pay full fare air fare home for my entire group, pay for emergency hotels, etc.
What does my medical insurance cover?
What does my credit card cover (if paying by credit card)?

Things to know about if you need to use your travel insurance:
You are going to have to pay out of pocket for almost all these expenses (medical, travel, weather related) and file a claim when you get home.
It is the single most profitable type of policy for insurance companies because claims are very rare.

I have purchased it once, on a Disney cruise. I felt it was worth it then because it was the most expensive cruise (by three fold) we have ever taken. And it was a cruise between December 27 and January 3 when weather was bad and travel volume could have been issues.

My travel agent no longer sells travel insurance, and they give all clients a flying saying they have no recommendation on whether clients should purchase it. It seems with every insurance company they had unhappy clients when claims came up, including one where they got dragged into court along with the insurance company, and it cost them a lot of money.

 

[havaneselover]

Another vote for insure my trip.

 

[danceintherain]

Just make sure you understand the terms, and it covers the things you want/need it to cover.
We tend to buy it, if we're planning a trip more than 30 days in advance. One of the reasons, for us, is that DH is in the military, so I want to make sure we can get even a partial refund, if his leave gets revoked. Then of course medical doesn't always work the same overseas etc.
I still try to make sure bookings have decent cancellation policies, because I'd rather just be able to cancel than have to go through an insurance policy. But, getting home in an emergency can be expensive, so I'd rather spend an extra $100 bucks for peace of mind.
Our last policy even would have covered us, to some degree, if one of our kids got hospitalized back home, during our trip. We could have come home to them.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

I agree with checking out insure my trip. Be sure you call and speak with a rep personally so you understand your policy. You need to buy the policy as soon as you book your trip. Update it if you add costs. Stay away from TravelGuard; they used to be okay, but I have had to file two small claims with them for covered issues and they were nightmarish to deal with. I now use TravelSafe.

 

[SUSIEQ]

I agree with checking out insure my trip. Be sure you call and speak with a rep personally so you understand your policy. You need to buy the policy as soon as you book your trip. Update it if you add costs. Stay away from TravelGuard; they used to be okay, but I have had to file two small claims with them for covered issues and they were nightmarish to deal with. I now use TravelSafe.

TravelSafe coverage/cost looks pretty good. Have you needed to file a claim with them yet? Thanks.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Another vote for insure my trip.

Another vote here!

 

[kgwoozle]

I get trip insurance when I travel overseas and to areas with less access to medical care. I want the medical and evac coverage. I also get it when I have to fork out lots of $$ ahead of time. My job can cancel my leave and even recall me in the middle of leave. I bought it for my up coming cruise because of the cost of the cruise and to cover is something serious happens in and I have to be flown to an Anchorage or Seattle for medical. I be use Square Mouth and have been happy, but luckily never have had to use it.

 

[tvguy]

I get trip insurance when I travel overseas and to areas with less access to medical care. I want the medical and evac coverage. I also get it when I have to fork out lots of $$ ahead of time. My job can cancel my leave and even recall me in the middle of leave. I bought it for my up coming cruise because of the cost of the cruise and to cover is something serious happens in and I have to be flown to an Anchorage or Seattle for medical. I be use Square Mouth and have been happy, but luckily never have had to use it.

FYI Coast Guard would medi-vac you from free is you are on an Alaskan Cruise.

 

[kgwoozle]

Yes and no, you are making the dangerous assumption that the medical incident takes place aboard ship or the like. If I get run over by a bus in Ketchikan and sustain complex injures, 911 will take me to the hospital where I would stabilized and probably lifeflighted to a higher level of care. There would be no Coast Guard involvement. I would be on hook

 

[lanejudy]

FYI Coast Guard would medi-vac you from free is you are on an Alaskan Cruise.

While that is correct, it's not complete information. There is no guarantee the USCG will be the first responder. If for some reason they are busy, further away, delayed, or another (private) medi-vac can reach your location sooner, it will be the private company who gets the transfer. By that point in an emergency, you as a patient don't get the option to say "No thanks. I'll wait until a free ride comes..."

 

[tvguy]

While that is correct, it's not complete information. There is no guarantee the USCG will be the first responder. If for some reason they are busy, further away, delayed, or another (private) medi-vac can reach your location sooner, it will be the private company who gets the transfer. By that point in an emergency, you as a patient don't get the option to say "No thanks. I'll wait until a free ride comes..."

True. Very few other medi-vac options in Alaska, but possible.

 

[Jimsig]

Due to my wife's health we buy trip insurance now. We have used one of the companies on insure my trip dot com, Roam Right a few times, though there are others to choose from. We have had to use it once as we needed to cancel an Alaskan trip/cruise a couple years back about a month before our trip. It was easy to file the claim and had a check very quickly after filing. Luckily we were able to do the Alaskan Cruise last summer. Because she has a pre-existing condition we have to make sure to buy the insurance with in a small time frame, up to 3 weeks depending on the company, after making the original deposit.

Make sure to get enough insurance and to insure the non-refundable portions of your trip. There is no need to pay to insure things you can cancel without penalty or get your money back from.

 

[BadPinkTink]

one thing I havent seen mentioned is cover for flight delays and cover for lost or damaged luggage. I have been getting yearly travel insurance every year for the last 15 years and this is something which is the most claimed for in Europe.

Also something to note, make sure you USE the in room safes if they are provided. If items go missing travel insurance may not reimburse items which should have been in the safe but were not.

 

[tvguy]

Due to my wife's health we buy trip insurance now. We have used one of the companies on insure my trip dot com, Roam Right a few times, though there are others to choose from. We have had to use it once as we needed to cancel an Alaskan trip/cruise a couple years back about a month before our trip. It was easy to file the claim and had a check very quickly after filing. Luckily we were able to do the Alaskan Cruise last summer. Because she has a pre-existing condition we have to make sure to buy the insurance with in a small time frame, up to 3 weeks depending on the company, after making the original deposit.

Make sure to get enough insurance and to insure the non-refundable portions of your trip. There is no need to pay to insure things you can cancel without penalty or get your money back from.

This is something I have first hand experience with. My mom was diagnosed with cancer and had a stroke 5 weeks before a family cruise in 2012. No trip insurance. I called the travel agent just to see if I had any recourse. HAL and Alaska airlines had no issue at all with a full refund. My travel agent's only comment was that no reputable cruise line is going to refuse to refund money in case of a catastrophic illness. I don't know if that is the norm, or if it was because our Travel Agent books a lot of cruises and flights with HAL and Alaska Airlines, or because we were all Mariner members, but in my experience, refunds under those circumstances are not a problem.

 

[MillauFr]

Why not just rely on the free travel insurance that you get from using credit cards?

 

[Jimsig]

This is something I have first hand experience with. My mom was diagnosed with cancer and had a stroke 5 weeks before a family cruise in 2012. No trip insurance. I called the travel agent just to see if I had any recourse. HAL and Alaska airlines had no issue at all with a full refund. My travel agent's only comment was that no reputable cruise line is going to refuse to refund money in case of a catastrophic illness. I don't know if that is the norm, or if it was because our Travel Agent books a lot of cruises and flights with HAL and Alaska Airlines, or because we were all Mariner members, but in my experience, refunds under those circumstances are not a problem.

I'm sorry to hear about you mom.

We lucked out with JetBlue in that they did not charge us the $150 fee pp when we had to cancel, they said it was because she was hospitalized they would waive that. We didn't get a refund but the entire amount of the flights were put into a Flight Bank with them to use later. The cruise line refunded only what was owed back to us under their guidelines. As we were canceling within 29 days but more than 15 it was 25% back IIRC. If we had cancelled the day before I want to say it would have been 50% back. Knowing my wife had been hospitalized and needed emergency surgery and would not be recovered in time to go the personal cruise consultant tried to get the 50% as we were so close but she was unable to.


I know your TA said no reputable cruise line is going to refuse to refund money in case of a catastrophic illness but from reading thing on here, cruise critic, elliot.org (a consumer advocate site), and other web sites you will read of enough stories of people needing to cancel and asking what they can do as they didn't have trip insurance. They know want to know if they can get their money back when they had to cancel. On occasion they get a full refund but most of the time they do not.

I wish all companies had better policies when it comes to canceling like what you experienced but I think you were the exception to the norm, just like I was with JetBlue not charging the fee. But I also understand that if you cancel close to trip time the cruise line etc might not be able to fill that cabin and they are not in the business to loose money. As you mentioned about being a Mariner member things like that can help. For the sake of about $150 in travel insurance for a $5000 or much more trip I'd rather pay it then risk the cruise line etc. telling me I was out of luck due to their policies that I agreed to when I booked. Also trip insurance can help you if you are in the middle of your trip and need to get home sooner than planned, have lost/stolen bags, and a number of other things.

 

[Jimsig]

Why not just rely on the free travel insurance that you get from using credit cards?

Not all credit cards give you trip insurance or give you coverage good enough for what you may need. Some are much better then others when it comes to coverage.

 

[fifthdimensiondweller]

Definitely get trip insurance. You never know what will happen. We opted out of trip insurance for a cruise when I was a teenager, and three days before we left my best friend's parents were killed in a car accident. We were left in the position of either go on the cruise pretty much all being miserable or cancel and lose several thousands. We chose to go because my own father was very sick and passed away a few months later, but had circumstances been different we would likely have chosen to stay home, and would have lost out on a lot of money.