Do you all buy travel insurance??

[beerman2]

Haven't yet but with the in-laws getting older ( 87 and 85) and MIL having health issues we will probably start now.

[rajones007]

If you don't mind, which VISA Card includes the Medical coverage?

thanks, Ken

It might be a Canadian thing, I don't know.

 

-TD Bank First Class Travel Infinite Visa (the card that I have)

 

-Royal Bank Infinite Visa (they have a couple different ones)

 

-CIBC Infinite Visa (they have a couple different cards too)

 

-Desjardins Visa has a couple cards too. They even have a no-fee card that has 3 days of travel medical included. It's handy for the 2 or 3 day cross border shopping trips many Canadians do.

 

In other words, it's the Infinite level of Visa Cards. I think in the USA they're called Signature Visa, but I'm not certain.

 

-National Bank Platinum Mastercard is the other one I have. It has great insurance coverage as well.

 

-Bank of Montreal has a World Elite Mastercard too, which apparently has top-of-the-line insurance coverage.

[Kkate]

It might be a Canadian thing, I don't know.

 

-TD Bank First Class Travel Infinite Visa (the card that I have)

 

-Royal Bank Infinite Visa (they have a couple different ones)

 

-CIBC Infinite Visa (they have a couple different cards too)

 

-Desjardins Visa has a couple cards too. They even have a no-fee card that has 3 days of travel medical included. It's handy for the 2 or 3 day cross border shopping trips many Canadians do.

 

In other words, it's the Infinite level of Visa Cards. I think in the USA they're called Signature Visa, but I'm not certain.

 

-National Bank Platinum Mastercard is the other one I have. It has great insurance coverage as well.

 

-Bank of Montreal has a World Elite Mastercard too, which apparently has top-of-the-line insurance coverage.

 

FYI the TD Bank First Class Travel Infinite Visa only covers you for 8 days of travel. The BMO World Elite MC covers you for 21 days. I switched after having to buy extra insurance for 9 or 14 day vacations.The BMO one also has better medical ie: private room in hospital etc.

[Ehpride]

Ansolutely, I always buy it. I'm in my 20s and healthy but I have an 85 year old Grandmother at home. I also am of the school that anything can happen and I can't afford a medivac. Also, if I have to cancel last minute, I can't afford to be out that much money for a trip I don't take.

 

I buy independent insurance from insuremytrip.com and it's always been much less than through the cruiseline.

[PSkinner]

Personally we always buy insurance. Our first cruise, my father-in-law was very ill when we left. In-laws insisted we go and have fun. He passed the day after we returned. Last year 2 weeks before our cruise my DH had ti have a heart cath and we were unsure if we would be able to make our cruise. One week to go and the DR gave us the all clear. Still, never would think about not have insurance. Even just traveling stateside to Vegas we do. You never know!

[bshow]

Unless you are independently wealthy, insurance covering major medical and evacuation costs would be highly advised.

 

As for insuring the other parts of your trip, it depends on your own personal level of risk tolerance.

 

If you buy a $25 DVD player at Walmart, they will offer you "insurance" for $4.99 or whatever. Somebody is buying that stuff.

[BonnieH]

Definitely! 3 weeks before our cruise in 2010, my BF had emergency surgery and was in the hospital for 8 days. The doc said absolutely NO traveling. The insurance covered our penalties for airfare and the cruise. Without the insurance, we would have been out a lot of money.

[rajones007]

FYI the TD Bank First Class Travel Infinite Visa only covers you for 8 days of travel. The BMO World Elite MC covers you for 21 days. I switched after having to buy extra insurance for 9 or 14 day vacations.The BMO one also has better medical ie: private room in hospital etc.

Yeah, that's right.

 

There's also the National Bank Platinum Mastercard, which I always carry. It has 60 days travel medical for card members and their family (under 55).

[kparc]

Do you all buy travel insurance??

 

 

Yes.

[Kelane]

I have been on three cruises so far and I always bought the travel insurance. It was anywhere between 140(for DH and I, 7 day long cruise)~ 200 range. (They charge certain percentage of the total cruise cost).

 

We are in our early 30's, very healthy and eat healthy, we are like the work out 6 times a week type people. Both DH and I never had any issues with our health, maybe catch cold once a year??

 

But I still bought the travel insurance just in case something goes wrong and if we get hurt, it can cost a lot.

 

The sum of insurance cost added up to more than 500 for just last 3 cruises...and I am starting to wonder if I should skip this time.

 

I wanted to hear from all of you what you do with travel insurances, if you all get it or not..... If you think it is worth it....

 

Please share your thoughts with me! Many thanks in advance for your replies!

 

March 2011 we booked a short cruise for my BD. It was last minute (2 weeks out), nothing on the horizon to stop us; so for the 1st time we didn't buy insurance. The day before we "would have" left, hubby's aunt passed and we had to cancel. No refund. Wasted our future vacation certificate. Nada. Wrote and asked for a credit & said we'd hop on the next week's same cruise. Nope. I wasn't mad. It's their rules and we tried. We were where we were supposed to be. I bought insurance on the next 3 I went on and the 3 on my signature. Figure small price to protect a least part of our investment.

 

Just my opinion...

[momof4boys]

We always purchase it. Our group of 9 have no medical issues at all, so it's not that we are concerned aobut that.

 

It's accidents (you know those darn events that you don't plan for) that make us insure!!

 

Accidents do happen--for us it's worth the money!

Edited May 27, 2012 by momof4boys

[megmno]

Any time I buy insurance for anything I look at whether I can afford to pay for the worst case scenario out of pocket. I don't buy insurance to repair appliances (those extended warrantees) but I do carry homeowners insurance in case my house is destroyed.

 

If you are fortunate enough to be able to be able to pay for the worst case (serious illness or injury) followed by medevac ($50K?) then no, you don't need insurance. For the rest of us, yeah it's not a smart risk to take.

 

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2

[sunny delight]

I think it depends on your pocketbook. If you can afford the loss your call. Just used our trip insurance this year, ship was leaving on 2/18 and DH fell off a ladder on 2/16......broken back, shattered ankle. 2 surgeries and 12 days in the hospital! However we are now re-booked in Sept!

[combatboots2jimmychoos]

Yes, Spending a hundred dollars to protect a couple thousand dollar trip is money will spent. I include it in the cost of the trip just like I include tips and parking. Life happens and it might just happen to me one day.

[HeidiHo]

We always get insurance when we are travelling out of the country. Mainly so that we are covered medically, especially in case one of us needs medical evacuation. I don't usually buy it if we are not leaving the states. I always figure that losing the trip cost would not put us in the poor house (that money was already spent anyway) but having to pay for a huge medical bill in a foreign country or medical evacuation would. That being said, we did have to make a claim once when my mother passed away just 3 days before we were supposed to leave for a land vacation in Mexico. So, so far we are ahead. We have spent less on insurance premiums than we have gotten back.

[bluedreams183]

I've been on 3 cruises, and we used to never purchase the insurance, because we figured why? we would never need it, luckily we didnt! we booked a cruise in January, and i said to my husband, i think we should be safe and purchase the travel insurance! we were supposed to sail on the freedom on 5/19. We drove the whole way to Florida from PA, and I ended up having an abcess tooth! we ended up having to cancel the night before the cruise left. Thank Goodness we purchased the travel insurance! we will at least get 75% back in cruise credits, BUT we submitted paperwork from my endodontist so we should be receiving a check from the insurance in about 2 weeks. i will ALWAYS purchase this in the future!! i never thought something like this would happen! but it did!

[lola61]

I have been on three cruises so far and I always bought the travel insurance. It was anywhere between 140(for DH and I, 7 day long cruise)~ 200 range. (They charge certain percentage of the total cruise cost).

 

We are in our early 30's, very healthy and eat healthy, we are like the work out 6 times a week type people. Both DH and I never had any issues with our health, maybe catch cold once a year??

 

But I still bought the travel insurance just in case something goes wrong and if we get hurt, it can cost a lot.

 

The sum of insurance cost added up to more than 500 for just last 3 cruises...and I am starting to wonder if I should skip this time.

 

I wanted to hear from all of you what you do with travel insurances, if you all get it or not..... If you think it is worth it....

 

Please share your thoughts with me! Many thanks in advance for your replies!

 

We always do insurance. I am a nurse and take care of healthly people everyday who have gallbladder, appendix or kidney stone issues, many who were going or have been on vacation. Insurance well worth it when you need it.

[mek]

Since DH had his by-pass surgery,(about 10 years ago), we always buy insurance.. We've had to use it 2X - once for a cruise and another time for a land vaca, so we have probably broken even with the cost. The big thing for us is the med evac - very expensive if we ever had need of it.

[Toronto1970]

I have travel cancellation/interruption/delay insurance through my Bank of Montreal Mastercard. I pay an extra $60 a year for the travel insurance, and I have found that it has the most complete trip cancellation coverage in that price range.

 

However, I just found a situation that it didn't cover:

 

I was on the Dream a few weeks ago that was 7 hours late arriving in port due to the medical emergency. My flight out of MCO was at 1:30pm, which was impossible to catch by the time we reached Port Canaveral, so Air Canada rescheduled us for the next day.

 

I submitted the expenses for the flight change and the night's hotel to the insurance company underwriting the coverage (Allianz), but they rejected the claim, since the delay of the cruise ship was not a covered under the insurance. (Had I missed the BEGINNING of the trip due to a delay of a "common carrier" then they would have been covered the costs to catch up to the trip, but a common carrier delay is not covered once the trip has commenced).

 

It comes down to a strict reading of the insurance policy language. And while at the end of the day I do agree that their interpretation does follow the strict reading of the policy and I don't have any legal recourse, it is a bit upsetting since I think under the "spirit" of what the insurance is meant to cover, it should have been covered.

 

(All that said, you get what you pay for. It's the consumers responsibility to know what insurance they are buying. If I wanted 100% security, I should have paid extra to get the flights and insurance through Carnival. But I decided it wasn't worth that extra cost. Some times you win, sometimes you lose!)

[LHP]

Here is the best rule of thumb:

 

As with anything in life....

 

If you can not afford to lose it, insure it or don't buy it.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

We always do ...

[avidreader13]

Heck yes!! It's not the health part I am worried about, it's everything else.

 

We actually had to use our travel insurance last September, as we got caught in TS Lee, leaving out of New Orleans. Our ship was supposed to leave on a Sunday, didn't leave until Tuesday. We lost 2 out of 4 ports. Called our insurance, while we were waiting it out in New Orleans and they were very helpful. We actually could have cancelled our whole cruise since it was such a long delay and get a full refund, plus our air fair. We opted to cruise since we had flown in from CA and got hotel expenses plus food and travel paid while waiting for the okay to cruise. We also got compensation for two nights missed of our cruise. All said, we got a check for more than half of what we paid for our cruise.

 

Cruising again in February and we will buy the insurance. It really didn't cost our family of 4 that much and SO worth it.

 

PS~ We bought our insurance through insure my trip and used Travel Guard.

Edited June 13, 2012 by avidreader13

[Moon Cruiser]

I always buy it. Have never needed it on a cruise, but needed it on a land vacation when I had to have emergency surgery to the tune of $60,000. They covered what my health insurance didn't and reimbursed us for any expense we couldn't get refunded otherwise. I didn't have to pay one cent of that $60,000.

[pauleydm]

We always get the insurance. The amount you pay upfront is trivial to what you could pay in medical expenses if something happened to you or your DH:)

[PAPERBKWRITER]

I've said it before but it bears repeating, when you get your homeowners renewal do you think that since your house didn't burn down last year maybe you should skip it?