Travel insurance

We have bought travel insurance a few times but only used it once, we basically broke even when we had to come back from the Azores early due to the airplane changing the flight. We were stuck paying for an extra hotel night and rental in Boston. If not for the insurance, we would have spent and extra ~$500.

We just purchased insurance for our trip to Portugal in case a similar issue happens, something happens to our parents, or we have an accident.

Do any of you ever buy travel insurance?

We always buy international medical coverage because our UnitedHealthCare doesn’t cover out of network international expenses and we know two couples who racked up $60,000 plus in expenses due to a broken leg on a cruise in one case and an auto accident in another. Both required medical evacuation back to the states. The return flight with an EMT alone ran $29,000 in one of the cases.
I don’t worry about lost luggage or delays since I get coverage from my credit card, but I wouldn’t leave home without the medical.

Divers Alert Network provides evacuation insurance for members, not limited to diving accidents but any medically needed evacuation. I think a family membership is $55 or $75.

I am covered by my group health policy for emergency treatment anywhere in the world.

Otherwise only in extremely rare cases, such as safari or really expensive South Pacific hotels that had 60 day cancellation policies. Might do one for a cruise but it general I self insure. I don’t book non refundable hotels, and unless my exposure is more than $5k (or more like 10 k), I just self inure.

Insurance for things you can afford is not economical, there is a high expense component on these small policies.

Are you booking a non refundable tour? Airfare usually just involves change fees, hotels can be cancelled.
, etc.

We bought AIG Travel Guard for our upcoming trip to Paris and Normandy.

Our health insurance will cover us on most international trips, the travel insurance is just for the flights, hotels, and car. This trip is a package where they include all three for a better deal, though it is not a guided tour or group. We will be in four different towns and sometimes find it easier to do trips like this than trying to arrange lodging in different towns on our own, and usually less expensive.

The insurance was $300 on an $8k trip, so not bad if we had to cancel, and probably less than the cancellation/change fees would be on the flight.

I think it’s worth the money.

How much is at risk if you cancel?

How much is coveted by your credit card travel insurance?

The whole cost paid to date would be at risk, so about $7200.

Our CC offers rental car protection and emergenecy medical and travel, but not if we just have to cancel if I break my leg two weeks before. This is based on what I found online. I may call them to confirm. They have the standard protection for fraud or challenging a charge of a product is defective, but nothing else for travel.

I really need to look into another card like Chase, but we have had this one a long time and receive good benefits.

Same with all insurance. for normal circumstances it’s not a good play. only buy if you have a fairly higher than typical chance of using it. Insurance is priced so there’s a profit for the insurance company even if there’s higher than expected incidence.

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Well, in that case I understand, I always book my own stuff, so much if the hotel cost isn’t at risk, airfare is only the change fees, etc.

Usually not but I did it for our trip last year when Arnold’s parents were both having health issues. If they had recurred we would have needed to cancel and been out a fair amount.

Insurance did seem to become a pre-requisite for some low cost airlines a while back - you either had to have it or buy it from them (I suspect the latter was their aim - to fleece customers on one-off purchases).

Yes, we usually get annual multi-trip insurance, but vary the coverage on whether we’re limiting ourselves to Europe or beyond.

Luckily we have never had to use it but when are kids were younger it was nice to have piece of mind that if they got sick and could not travel we had a way to recoup some loses when we had non-refundable travel. VRBO rentals, airfares etc. Cost was minimal. A great site to compare policies is www.squaremouth.com

George

Good reason to have travel insurance in advance.

Reviving this old thread. We are thinking about buying a policy with Cancel for any Reason protection for a condo rental next February. I just spoke with AIG Travel Guard. Any other recommendations?

I just check the comparison sites. www.squaremouth.com and Travel Insurance Quotes - Compare & Buy Trip Insurance seem to represent the most insurers.

I have used www.squaremouth.com many, many times. You can compare the cost of the policies with cancel for any reason vs without. Obviously it adds a lot of cost.

George

Thanks to both of you.

AIG, ixnay. At present, they are reacting very poorly to getting slammed with COVID claims. I broke my shoulder in Madrid in mid-December, and they have completely stalled out on doing anything other than repeatedly requesting the same documentary evidence I’ve sent multiple times since I originally filed the claim in March.

There are tons of complaints since March at consumeraffairs.com.

A claim a few years ago zipped right through.

In looking at reviews, it seems the same for John Hancock. I’d prefer a larger insurance company but am open to a smaller company that anyone has had a good experience with.