Travel Insurance Questions

[beastiemom]

After reading several posts which make it clear that travel insurance is a necessity, I am looking at several policies. We are outside the 10-15 day booking window for the pre-exisiting condition waivers, but I am looking for recommendations from other members as to companies you have used and liked for insurance and what you consider must have coverage (including limits for med evacuation). We are a family of 5 with two adults and three children.

[Gonzo70]

First check with your regular health insurance to see what they cover; no need for double coverage - you only need travel insurance for what your regular health care won't cover. Also check with the credit card you use to see what - if any - travel insurance perks they provide just for using the card to book the vacation. After you know what you already have coverage for, go to insuremytrip.com and you can view policies for several different companies that they deem trustworthy.

[just4kixx]

Not a specific company, but one thing I prefer to get is "primary coverage" for th medical portion. The reason I do this is so that should I need to submit a medical claim, I don't have to gothrough my primary medical insurance, then re-submit for the balance from my travel insurance. Just food for thought.

 

I use www.squaremouth.com/travel-insurance/ to compare different policies, then look for a rating of at least an "A"

 

Good luck!

A~

[Pat.bz]

A very good policy for medical evacuations only is MedjetAssist.com. You can purchase this for multiple family members for multiple cruises at a very low rate.

[csteinhauser]

We usually use Travelex for our family of 5. We've never actually had to use it, so I don't know how they are servicewise but they seem to have good coverage for a decent price. Just paid $152 for our whole family for our upcoming Liberty Cruise. Price is based on approx $5000 total cost of trip.

[AF-1]

I believe we used travelguard on our cruise in May. The medical emergency evacuation is good to have when u are in a foreign country. I used the insurance a few years ago when we had a death in our family. Got reimbursed for the entire cruise; airfare, and did not have one problem.

[Kellie Poodle]

I believe we used travelguard on our cruise in May. The medical emergency evacuation is good to have when u are in a foreign country. I used the insurance a few years ago when we had a death in our family. Got reimbursed for the entire cruise; airfare, and did not have one problem.

 

Travelguard is the one company I would not recommend. We used them last November and did not have a good experience at all. Medical directions from a physician were countermanded by travelguard's "medical expert" who was a paramedic. The "medical expert" and the company were more concerned with saving themselves money than they were with the health of my DH. Thank goodness for the wonderful staff at Royal Caribbean's Miami HQ who went to bat with them and fought for our contractual rights.

 

They may have been a good company once, but they are part of AIG and it's my feeling that the financial problems of the parent company is more important than taking care of the insured.

[cruiselvr04]

Look carefully right now if your trip is in the next 6 months or so. Most are not covering for swine flu as it has been now called "pandemic". We did find a company who will on insure my trip. Just a heads up. If we can't go because of the flu we will still be covered. It still covers evac and all the rest.

[beastiemom]

I know this might sound a little stupid, but when you include the cost of the trip, do you calculate the cost of excursions, any prepaid tips, port fees, etc? The only reason I ask is that if we were to cancel, we wouldn't have to pay any of these, correct? But if we interrupted our trip we would. And how do you calculate the cost of the airfair if we are using FF miles (at $400, because that is the cost of rebanking unused miles?)? Are you better just over estimating as oppossed to underestimating-has anyone been denied because they have underestimated the cost?

[Marie51]

I know this might sound a little stupid, but when you include the cost of the trip, do you calculate the cost of excursions, any prepaid tips, port fees, etc? The only reason I ask is that if we were to cancel, we wouldn't have to pay any of these, correct? But if we interrupted our trip we would. And how do you calculate the cost of the airfair if we are using FF miles (at $400, because that is the cost of rebanking unused miles?)? Are you better just over estimating as oppossed to underestimating-has anyone been denied because they have underestimated the cost?

 

I add up the cost of the cruise and airfare. I do not add in excursions, tips, etc. I really do not know how you would get the miles back. I have used my travel insurance twice to be reimbursed for damaged luggage.