When to book insurance?

[Ellya]

I already booked my cruise (last week), but airfare isn't so good right now. I would like to wait to book my air for a few weeks and watch prices. Can I buy my trip insurance now? Would I have to book the cruise and air separately then?

[gonna go cruising]

Third party insurance needs to be purchased asap to make sure pre existing conditions are covered. I think some only allow you ten days of payment of first deposit to purchase the insurance. I guess you can estimate the plane fare cost. Mine did not ask anything but the total amount of trip including airfares. You may want to check with http://www.insuremytrip.com for different scenarios. That is the advice that was given to me when I asked. I had my agent get the insurance for me though as it was same price and I wanted her to get her commission on it.

[Happy ks]

Purchase within 7 or 10 days, if not, it really doesn't matter. We usually wait until after we have made our final payment, no reason to give $$ to the insurance co. before you need to. Make sure you only buy what you need, don't add extras, many people buy coverage they don't really need. You can compare cost and coverage at insuremytrip.com.

 

There was a very interesting article regarding trip insurance in the January issue of Conde Nast travel magazine. I did not have time to read the whole article, but the gist of it was that insuring your trip is important and many people don't even know about it. Only you can decide what is best for your circumstance.

[CaptData]

I have bought my insurance already even though I have not got plane tickets or hotel yet. I estatmited the price based on what it is now. Yes, the guess may be off a little but it is better to have the pre-existing clause for me. It may cost a little more if I get a cheaper flight but it is worth the piece of mind I get. This trip is in Jan 2006.

 

If I cancel the cruise to-day, yes, I get a full refund, haven't booked air or hotel so no loss there. I would be out the insurance money and it would in some people's eyes be a waste of money. But, if I had to cancel at the last minute in Jan 2006 because of my diabetes and waited to buy the insurance I would be out alot more the the cost of the insurance. I always buy the insurance as soon as I book, you never know then what will happen in one, two three months down the road. My husband passed away eight days before our first cruise without insurance I would have had to pay for the funeral and deal with the loss of the cruise money as well. We travel from the middle of Canada, so it is hotels, airfare, hotels, and cruise. This amounted to enough to pay for the funeral.

[tinkerme1]

When you book your cruise, you definitely should book your insurance ASAP, like Gonna Go Cruising said. It not only covers you for pre-existing conditions, but also acts of terrorism.

 

You can always add, subtract and change your insurance by sending updates to the insurer. Just make sure the dates of departure and the date of return is correct. Also, you can estimate the amount of airfare, and then, depending upon the monetary difference, the insurer will either charge you a little more, or subtract a little, depending upon your total purchase price.

 

BTW, I love TravelGuard because they make the changes so easy to do. Never a hassle. You can book with them on the internet, or by phone. They are listed on "insuremytrip.com" :D

[CaribbeanBound]

Yes, get insurance, but there are right ways (and lots of wrong ways) to buy travel insurance!

 

I finally put all the details up on a web page.

 

Here are 14 things you should consider when buying travel insurance:

*****

Have a great trip!

[kitty9]

With so many airlines in trouble right now, don't look for prices to get much lower---actually, many travel magazines have predicted that airfares will go up dramatically very soon.

 

If you, or anyone in your immediate family, has any pre-existing medical conditions, you have to purchase your insurance within 10 to 14 days of making your initial payment. Pre-existing, for most companies, means anything you've been treated for within the past 180 days, so that covers a lot of things.

[Ellya]

Thanks for all the advice. I see on insuremytrip that there are good policies which allow for pre-existing conditions as long as you book within 21 days, so that gives me a little time to figure out the airfare. I also see there are some airlines which wouldn't be covered (US Air and United!), so that will be useful to know. I won't wait long to book, but I thought I'd watch at least a week or two if I could. Just a few days before I booked my cruise fares were $50 less pp, which does add up for 4 people. If I don't see anything budge, I'll just have to go for it. I was trying to keep my return date flexible in case I saw a better deal by flying back a day later, but I may have to forego that.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We buy our insurance about 6 weeks before the cruise - and we never buy the cruise line's insurance.

And we buy our own air as soon as possible - expecially if our cruise is around a time when there will be a lot of people traveling.