Travel Insurance? Is it needed?

 

I assume that you have taken the same view of home insurance, life insurance and auto insurance. After all they make money as well.

I do take the same view of these insurances. I get insurance to cover costs that would be a major difficulty for me to cover myself. That's why I have very high deductibles on the insurances you mention. I didn't want to start a fight; I just wanted to point out that one might consider self-insurance.

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I do take the same view of these insurances. I get insurance to cover costs that would be a major difficulty for me to cover myself. That's why I have very high deductibles on the insurances you mention. I didn't want to start a fight; I just wanted to point out that one might consider self-insurance.

 

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Right there with you. $1000 deduct on car. Since liability could cost you $100k, you really need that side. If you had a $4k car, buying collision is probably not a need.

Same with house - have $1000 deduct -maybe more?

Buying insurance to cover lost luggage, missed flight, etc is another story.

Side observation. Some people actually buy insurance with a sub-conscious decision based on not wanting to miss the cruise, meaning insurance will get them there, vs getting some money back. If you miss the boat, you will still miss the boat.

Disclaimer: Buying insurance for big hits like medical evacuation is different and we do buy that.

Could you please share details with me? Final payment on a future cruise is coming up. It is not insured. My DH's doctor feels since it is just a Caribbean cruise that he will be able to go by the sail date. If Allianz provides coverage for pre-exisitng at final payment for your travel agent, I would think that may be offered to others as well who have booked elsewhere. Any information would be most appreciated. Thanks!

I will spare my Allianz story (very negative), just to say that, READ THE FINE PRINT on your Allianz policy and if you need pre-existing coverage, DOUBLE-READ the fine print.

My understanding is that IF it covers "Pre Existing Conditions" then the Insured would need to be cleared and able to travel as of the date the policy is purchased. And NOT by the time he travels. You need to discuss this with the insurance company prior to buying the insurance. As a poster above advised "read the fine print".

I will spare my Allianz story (very negative), just to say that, READ THE FINE PRINT on your Allianz policy and if you need pre-existing coverage, DOUBLE-READ the fine print.

Please don't spare us! We have purchased Allianz insurance for an upcoming cruise and would like to know what went wrong.

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Please don't spare us! We have purchased Allianz insurance for an upcoming cruise and would like to know what went wrong.

All I wanted to emphasize was that if you need pre-existing condition coverage, make sure you got that in your policy with Allianz. Do not assume. Had I done my own due diligence, I would have avoided some grief. It also didn't help that my definition of pre-existing condition didn't match theirs. They considered a recurrence of a previously in-remission cancer as a pre-existing condition and would not honor a policy.

Please don't spare us! We have purchased Allianz insurance for an upcoming cruise and would like to know what went wrong.

 

 

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I have filed multiple claims with Allianz and have not had any problems.

Right there with you. $1000 deduct on car. Since liability could cost you $100k, you really need that side. If you had a $4k car, buying collision is probably not a need.

 

Same with house - have $1000 deduct -maybe more?

 

Buying insurance to cover lost luggage, missed flight, etc is another story.

 

Side observation. Some people actually buy insurance with a sub-conscious decision based on not wanting to miss the cruise, meaning insurance will get them there, vs getting some money back. If you miss the boat, you will still miss the boat.

 

Disclaimer: Buying insurance for big hits like medical evacuation is different and we do buy that.

We had a really bad hail storm hit our city in May during the day. When speaking with the adjuster, he told me that there was a family that had 6 cars (4 kids). Each car had $1000 deductible. House deductible $2000 (difficult to get under $1000 where I live). $8000 deductible for this storm for this family (hail hit each car and house). The kicker is that the wife works for the insurance company and specified the policies/deductibles she wanted.

I have no problems with self insuring as long as someone is not writing in after an incident expecting an exception to be made for them as they never expected this emergency.

All I wanted to emphasize was that if you need pre-existing condition coverage, make sure you got that in your policy with Allianz. Do not assume. Had I done my own due diligence, I would have avoided some grief. It also didn't help that my definition of pre-existing condition didn't match theirs. They considered a recurrence of a previously in-remission cancer as a pre-existing condition and would not honor a policy.

You raise some very valid point - if someone has specific questions or a specific situation, call the insurance company.

I had a situation with Princess's insurance (BerkeleyCare) at the time. I called them and asked about our situation and received multiple answers. I didn't feel comfortable getting insurance through them as I couldn't get a straight answer.

If it's not an included benefits that is in Writing then it's not covered.

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I have filed multiple claims with Allianz and have not had any problems.

We purchased insurance thru' Allianz for a Canada New England cruise that was disrupted by hurricane Sandy. We had to cancel the last part of our trip (land portion) but couldn't fly home either because airports were closed. Allianz denied our claim for hotel costs while we waited for a flight. I spent a lot of time trying to work with them all to no avail. They said our hotel costs weren't covered because the ship docked where it was scheduled to dock and we chose to cancel the rest of our trip. They would not accept that we cancelled because the roads were not open and our relatives had no power. Thus our land portion wasn't possible. Purchased this thru' our local AAA. I now used the Trip Insurance Store and ask a lot of questions depending on our destination and plans.

We purchased insurance thru' Allianz for a Canada New England cruise that was disrupted by hurricane Sandy. We had to cancel the last part of our trip (land portion) but couldn't fly home either because airports were closed. Allianz denied our claim for hotel costs while we waited for a flight. I spent a lot of time trying to work with them all to no avail. They said our hotel costs weren't covered because the ship docked where it was scheduled to dock and we chose to cancel the rest of our trip. They would not accept that we cancelled because the roads were not open and our relatives had no power. Thus our land portion wasn't possible. Purchased this thru' our local AAA. I now used the Trip Insurance Store and ask a lot of questions depending on our destination and plans.

Did you provide them documentation that the power was out at your destination (as in something from an official source such as FEMA or the power company? Same with the roads from whatever agency had jurisdiction such as city or county police indicating that access to the area was closed?

One thing to keep in mind with any travel insurance company. Call them and discuss coverage prior to making any change to make sure that the additional expenses would be covered.

Did you provide them documentation that the power was out at your destination (as in something from an official source such as FEMA or the power company? Same with the roads from whatever agency had jurisdiction such as city or county police indicating that access to the area was closed?

 

One thing to keep in mind with any travel insurance company. Call them and discuss coverage prior to making any change to make sure that the additional expenses would be covered.

Did the best I could with info at hand. Allianz was aware of problems in New Jersey. But still denied. Won't use them again. I did call them beforehand but answers were different depending on who I talked to. Using Trip Insurance Store, I find that they vet the companies they work with and can get answers for you. However, you don't always know ahead of time the perils you might encounter so not always possible to check for coverage. In our case additional expenses were covered but they still denied. Our expenses were not huge as I was able to cancel hotels with the exception of one. So eventually I decided my time was worth something and dropped it. However, I do warn others about Allanz when the subject comes up.

Maybe the policy was limited to the actual cruise? Who knows.

As to a few hotel nights, not buying insurance would have saved enough money to just pay for them out of pocket. Just sayin.

And of course, sometimes there is a deductible as well.

Not blaming the poster for buying insurance.

Still stand by our "policy" of only insuring the large potential expenses. We will deal with all the small stuff. Life is too short to fight with administrative crap.

We purchased insurance thru' Allianz for a Canada New England cruise that was disrupted by hurricane Sandy. We had to cancel the last part of our trip (land portion) but couldn't fly home either because airports were closed. Allianz denied our claim for hotel costs while we waited for a flight. I spent a lot of time trying to work with them all to no avail. They said our hotel costs weren't covered because the ship docked where it was scheduled to dock and we chose to cancel the rest of our trip. They would not accept that we cancelled because the roads were not open and our relatives had no power. Thus our land portion wasn't possible. Purchased this thru' our local AAA. I now used the Trip Insurance Store and ask a lot of questions depending on our destination and plans.

That is a difficult one as you were insuring the time you were "staying free" with relatives.

Even if you ask the guy at Trip Insurance Store, ultimately it is the carrier that will either approve or deny the claim.

I think all insurance companies have odd scenarios that doesn't "fit into their coverage" and of course, no one can predict change of plans, such as your situation with Sandy.

My only complaint with Allianz is that they have a service that is supposed to help you. I was with my Mom in Alaska when she got bronchitis. I wanted to fly home and not continue with the rest of the trip. Unfortunately it was Memorial Day weekend and flights were scarce from Anchorage. I called their service to see if they could arrange the flights and they were not of much help. I had difficulty finding flights last minute with a holiday weekend so we just continued with the rest of the trip.

My only complaint with Allianz is that they have a service that is supposed to help you. I was with my Mom in Alaska when she got bronchitis. I wanted to fly home and not continue with the rest of the trip. Unfortunately it was Memorial Day weekend and flights were scarce from Anchorage. I called their service to see if they could arrange the flights and they were not of much help. I had difficulty finding flights last minute with a holiday weekend so we just continued with the rest of the trip.

That's why there are travel agents and insurance agents.

A lot of corporations self insure. Can you afford to self insure? If you can don't buy insurance.

That is a difficult one as you were insuring the time you were "staying free" with relatives.

 

Even if you ask the guy at Trip Insurance Store, ultimately it is the carrier that will either approve or deny the claim.

 

I think all insurance companies have odd scenarios that doesn't "fit into their coverage" and of course, no one can predict change of plans, such as your situation with Sandy.

 

My only complaint with Allianz is that they have a service that is supposed to help you. I was with my Mom in Alaska when she got bronchitis. I wanted to fly home and not continue with the rest of the trip. Unfortunately it was Memorial Day weekend and flights were scarce from Anchorage. I called their service to see if they could arrange the flights and they were not of much help. I had difficulty finding flights last minute with a holiday weekend so we just continued with the rest of the trip.

I have wondered how much help those services actually provide. Sounds like in your case, very little. Glad that your mom was able to continue with the trip.

I didnt insure the days we had planned to stay with a relative, just the hotel stay that I wasn't able to cancel and that we couldn't get to because of all the damage. As I said in an earlier post, it wasn't a big loss and when it was evident that Allianz did not intend to pay, I decided not to pursue it anymore. One can spend just so much time on the phone arguing with an insurance company.

As for using the Trip Insurance Store, their expertise is helpful in choosing the best pissible policy. However, as you said, the insurance company makes the decision and there is no way to make sure ahead of time that you are covered for every situation.

Sometimes it makes more sense to self insure the trip and just purchase medical and evac. insurance. We have done this on occasion depending on the non cancelable costs associated with the trip itself.

That's why there are travel agents and insurance agents.

They supposedly offered this service through their Concierge service:

http://www.allianzassistance.com/corporate/what-we-do/assistance-services/concierge-services/

http://www.allianzassistance.com/corporate/what-we-do/assistance-services/assistance-services/

In the end I even called my travel agent - all flights were full. It was really a whim as it was an expensive cruise and if I could have gotten my money back and flown home, I would have done it (B2B cruise). I think any other week would have worked except for 4th of July or Labor Day.

....their expertise is helpful in choosing the best pissible policy. ....

Not making fun of the poster, but this sure gave me a chuckle tonight.

My thoughts overall - folks think they know what kind of insurance they bought and it makes them feel good. If they have to file a claim, they sometimes find out it was not what they "thought" they bought.

Any insurance policy that never has a claim is assumed to a great policy until proven otherwise.

Did the best I could with info at hand. Allianz was aware of problems in New Jersey. But still denied. Won't use them again. I did call them beforehand but answers were different depending on who I talked to. Using Trip Insurance Store, I find that they vet the companies they work with and can get answers for you. However, you don't always know ahead of time the perils you might encounter so not always possible to check for coverage. In our case additional expenses were covered but they still denied. Our expenses were not huge as I was able to cancel hotels with the exception of one. So eventually I decided my time was worth something and dropped it. However, I do warn others about Allanz when the subject comes up.

Any time that an insurance does not pay, what should be a covered expense you should write a letter detailing the circumstances, along with policy information and your documentation and send it to the state office responsible for insurance, with a copy to the insurance company.

Doesn't take much time and is usually far more effective then just calling.

A lot of corporations self insure. Can you afford to self insure? If you can don't buy insurance.

Corporations usually self insure to a point. Once you get outside of the fortune 500 Many if not most carry very large policies covering above the level they self insure for. For example they might self insure the first 10 million then have a policy covering all or a percentage about that to some amount. For that matter insurance companies often buy insurance to make sure that they don't suffer too great of losses in case of a major event.

Not making fun of the poster, but this sure gave me a chuckle tonight.

 

 

My thoughts overall - folks think they know what kind of insurance they bought and it makes them feel good. If they have to file a claim, they sometimes find out it was not what they "thought" they bought.

 

Any insurance policy that never has a claim is assumed to a great policy until proven otherwise.

Glad I could give you something to "chuckle" over- guess that is a good thing.

Bit of background: We booked a pretrip and a cruise from Stockholm to Copenhagen and insured the whole trip with Nationwide which I purchased though Insuremytrip.com.

I really thought that I had purchased the correct insurance.

Our initial flight was 1.5 hours late leaving our home airport, therefor causing us to miss the connecting flight in Atlanta. Delta could not get us to Stockholm for two days. We had to book a hotel room and purchase meals for two days.

But, we missed the first two days of our land trip.

I filed a claim and the hotel and meals are going to be reimbursed. The two days of the pretrip are not. Nationwide said that because we were NOT six hours delayed for the initial flight that they are denying our claim.

I will really think seriously about what I will insure and how I will insure my trips in the future.

Have you appealed that denial??

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