Tell me about buying trip insurance

[tvguy]

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.

Like I said earlier, the biggest thing you are buying with trip insurance is peace of mind. I'd be willing to gamble without trip insurance with only $5,000 was on the line, just like I drop collision insurance on all my cars when the Blue Book value hits $5,000.

 

[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.

Have you needed to file a claim with Travel Safe? And, were they easier to deal with? Thanks.

 

[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.

Have you needed to file a claim with Travel Safe? And, were they easier to deal with? Thanks.

 

[kathy884]

I can self insure everything except medical and medical/political evac. For those items I typically get a policy from GeoBlue for cruises or travel abroad. Our own group insurance is sufficient for most US destinations. // The money that I have saved from never buying anything other than that and never having canceled before, means I am ahead of the game even if I have an expensive trip that we cancel out of and loose our money on. Sometimes too, hotel, condo, tours are refundable too if canceled enough in advance.

If I cancel, I'd still have a budget to go on vacation the following year. I've been doing about two vacations a year for the last 40 years, have only bought medical evac, and haven't had a cancelation yet. 80 trips worth of cancelation insurance adds up.

If you can't afford to loose the money for your trip, though, and it would affect future vacation plans in a negative way, I can see more insurance totally making sense. I think it's very important though to get insurance for things you wouldn't be in a position to cover (e.g. a medical emergency your insurance wouldn't cover or expensive evacuation for political reasons.)

 

[CyndiLouWho]

A few years ago we had a WDW trip planned with my sister & her family and my parents. Airfare, Disney resort, tickets, whole shebang. A month before the trip my dad was diagnosed terminal. We had the insurance thru Disney, I think it was Travel Guard at the time. Policy was $150. We got a refund for everything.

Now I have a couple credit cards that have coverage equal to what we had thru Disney, so I use those. However when traveling internationally, I would always opt for medical & evacuation coverage. I've known a couple people who had huge issues overseas. One whose wife had a stroke and stuck in another country for a few months; the others spouse died on a trip to China.