Travel Insurance

Which Travel Insurance writers provide the best value/coverage?

You will probably get many answers to this because the answer can vary by person and their circumstances. For instance, which country do you live in? Age? Status with cruise line? Existing problems?

That's like asking which weather report is more accurate.

Each policy and each vendor is different enough that each person has to choose for themselves.

In some instances the cruise lines insurance meets all their needs.

In some instances the credit card they used meets their needs.

I need my medical coverage to be primary, that may not meet your needs.

I look for 6 hrs or less for Trip Delay to kick in. You may be satisfied with more time.

www.tripinsurancestore.com is a good place to start to research what meets your needs.

You can also head over to this board for more information. (Which is probably where this thread will be moved)

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=-1&f=635

That's like asking which weather report is more accurate.

 

Each policy and each vendor is different enough that each person has to choose for themselves.

 

In some instances the cruise lines insurance meets all their needs.

In some instances the credit card they used meets their needs.

I need my medical coverage to be primary, that may not meet your needs.

I look for 6 hrs or less for Trip Delay to kick in. You may be satisfied with more time.

 

www.tripinsurancestore.com is a good place to start to research what meets your needs.

 

You can also head over to this board for more information. (Which is probably where this thread will be moved)

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=-1&f=635

Fair Point. Thanks for the reference to tripinsurancestore!

Fair Point. Thanks for the reference to tripinsurancestore!

If this is your first time with travel insurance, let me share a couple of things I've learned over the years.

1. Travel insurance is reimbursement only. Need medical care? For the most part, you pay up front. Then you file a claim for reimbursement. (Not always the case, but usually). Miss a flight or need emergency travel? You pay out of pocket, then file for reimbursement.

2. Is medical coverage Primary or Secondary? Primary means you just submit your documentation to them and they reimburse. Secondary means you MUST file with whomever is you health insurance provider at home first. THEN, after they pay some or even deny the entire thing, you can send all documentation to the travel insurance company.

3. Jewelry and electronics are capped at $500

4. You have a layover to catch the next flight. You miss the connection. Next flight is 7 hours and you miss the ship. If your travel insurance Trip Delay coverage says 5 hours minimum, your covered. If your travel insurance Trip Delay coverage is 12 hours, you're screwed.

5. Snow storm comes in and all flights cancelled. You throw up your hands, stay home and call in to cancel. Not covered.

Snow storm comes in and all flights cancelled. You miss departure of the ship. Next day you can catch the ship at it's next port. You buy new tickets since you have a passport and catch the ship. Travel insurance will reimburse for new tickets and stuff up to maximum amount covered.

These are just some of the gottchas. Travel insurance is not an end all be all. Actually some people "self Insure" by only getting medical coverage. They self risk the cancellation of the entire cruise.

"Best value" is a personal judgment based on your own needs, wants, and risk tolerance. You might want to look at a couple of web sites such as insuremytrip.com and squaremouth.com to do some comparisons. And if you need some help you can always call the Tripinsurancestore.com where their owner (Steve) has often gotten very good recommendations here on CC.

Hank

ask at InsureMyTrip.com

Travel insurance coverages can be bucketed into 2 main concerns:

1. Trip investment coverage:

If you want to cover your $$ in the cruise because there is risk that you could cancel /not go.

Definitely buy if you are booking far out, have an expense cruise that would be a financially impactful if you lost it. You need to buy @ same time as your cruise.

2. IN TRIP coverages

Medical (a must for foreign destinations--Medicare wont work abraod), evacuation, trip interruption, etc. are the main. You can buy any time.

The best we have found for our needs is GENERALI Travel Insurance (used to be CSA) because, their high end plan covers pre existing conditions right up to final payment of your cruise--this was ideal for my Father.

Their website http://www.generalitravelinsurance.com has plans with the highest medical coverages. For interruption/cancellation, they cover family members that are not traveling--meaning our Grandmother passed away (she was not traveling) and Generali covered our cancellation. We found on Insure My Trip.

What is best truly varies by person.

I use a company that has been mentioned which is at http://www.insuremytrip.com

They provide a nice search engine to find lots of policies and an easy way to compare them.

Keith

Some trip insurance web sites:

www.insuremytrip.com

www.squaremouth.com

www.quotewright.com

www.tripinsurancestore.com

We have used squaremouth several times and have been happy with the service.