USAA Travel insurance

[1980dory]

I like the fact that USAA covers everything with their Travel insured plan.  I walk out of my house to go to the airport and it's covered.  Lodging is covered prior to the cruise.  The cruise is covered and my trip home via train is covered along with any additional motel stays.  Everything is covered from my beginning vacation date to my ending date.

As I understand it , other policies cover you only for the cruise itself.

I've had a couple small claims with TI, but have always had prompt and courteous, hassle free service.

I can't say enough about the USAA service!

Book early and get the free prior existing condition included.

I've even changed cruises after booking and they will transfer the policy to the new cruise.

[KroozNut]

I agree that the USAA (TI) trip insurance is great and use it regularly. What I'm not clear on though is that, for the medical coverage (i.e., sickness, injury or repatriation) etc.; Is the USAA/TI the 'secondary payer'? In other words, would those of us on TRICARE medical plans for example need to submit any medical claims to TRICARE first, before TI will pay the claim?

 

Also agree that purchasing early to get the pre-existing condition waiver is important to us.

Edited April 6, 2019 by KroozNut

[Globehoppers]

On 4/6/2019 at 4:09 PM, KroozNut said:

I agree that the USAA (TI) trip insurance is great and use it regularly. What I'm not clear on though is that, for the medical coverage (i.e., sickness, injury or repatriation) etc.; Is the USAA/TI the 'secondary payer'? In other words, would those of us on TRICARE medical plans for example need to submit any medical claims to TRICARE first, before TI will pay the claim?

 

Also agree that purchasing early to get the pre-existing condition waiver is important to us.

 

My recollection is that the claim form requests information on other insurance.  How that plays out is not stated.

 

Last month had to cancel a transatlantic cruise two week before sailing for a medical reason and USAA (TI) promptly paid almost $10K covering the cruise and airfare.  The rest, such as hotel and excursions, were refunded or canceled without penalty.  As we get "more mature" the premiums, which are age based, are increasingly expensive but still well worth the cost.  Requiring hospitalization (cruise lines will kick you off in the first port) ashore in an unexpected location, medivac to the US, etc., can be extremely expensive.  So we will continue to purchase travel insurance despite the cost approaching 9 percent of the price of the trip.

[Pierlesscruisers]

 

       repetitive post

Edited April 19, 2019 by Pierlesscruisers
repetitive post

[GUEST71919]

@Pluto_fan is correct, that insurance vendor is very knowledgeable and has a multitude of insurance options. The owner did a very interesting Q&A here last fall that was very informative.

 

All our main policies have been with USAA for decades, but I am not familiar with their travel insurance. I use the Chase sapphire travel credit card that gives me a *lot* of travel benefits including some pretty decent travel insurance that is free when I have booked the travel with the card (although  most travel cards only offer lost baggage coverage).

[coopco]

I’m curious to hear anyone’s experience during/post COVID with the USAA affiliate for travel insurance. I always bought travel insurance through them, but when Princess cancelled a repositioning cruise to Vancouver during COVID, which was the start of our vacation and transportation to the Pacific Northwest where we had a timeshare booked and flight home from Seattle, I called to see if trip interruption coverage would be in effect. I was told yes and booked airfare and changed my car rental, which was last minute at a higher amount. When I got home, I filed my claim and to my surprise, it was rejected because the transportation for the first cancelled leg was a cruise ship and not an airplane. Of course, I pleaded my case that I only purchased the airline tickets because they told me it was covered and they went through their notes and verified I was telling the truth. They eventually paid out 95% of the claim. Now they have lost my trust that when I need the travel insurance I purchased, they will find some lame reason why it’s not cover (e.g. a common transport carrier must be an airplane, not a cruise ship). I now purchase directly through the cruise line and airline (because it would be difficult for them to claim no coverage if they cancel). However, I’m looking for a better solution. Any insight?

[amyj23]

19 hours ago, coopco said:

I’m curious to hear anyone’s experience during/post COVID with the USAA affiliate for travel insurance. I always bought travel insurance through them, but when Princess cancelled a repositioning cruise to Vancouver during COVID, which was the start of our vacation and transportation to the Pacific Northwest where we had a timeshare booked and flight home from Seattle, I called to see if trip interruption coverage would be in effect. I was told yes and booked airfare and changed my car rental, which was last minute at a higher amount. When I got home, I filed my claim and to my surprise, it was rejected because the transportation for the first cancelled leg was a cruise ship and not an airplane. Of course, I pleaded my case that I only purchased the airline tickets because they told me it was covered and they went through their notes and verified I was telling the truth. They eventually paid out 95% of the claim. Now they have lost my trust that when I need the travel insurance I purchased, they will find some lame reason why it’s not cover (e.g. a common transport carrier must be an airplane, not a cruise ship). I now purchase directly through the cruise line and airline (because it would be difficult for them to claim no coverage if they cancel). However, I’m looking for a better solution. Any insight?

They (USAA Travelinsured) denied my claim (not during Covid) for the cash value of the Southwest points I had to redeem to change my flight when a cruise went over by a few days. But I argued and they paid me. Lol. BUT, I, like you, get nervous about the possibility of paying for something that I think is insured and then it’s not. But I feel like with any travel insurance company it could happen. They’ve paid out all my other claims with no issues, so I’ve stuck with them. I’ll be curious to hear other people’s experiences!

[coopco]

4 hours ago, amyj23 said:

They (USAA Travelinsured) denied my claim (not during Covid) for the cash value of the Southwest points I had to redeem to change my flight when a cruise went over by a few days. But I argued and they paid me. Lol. BUT, I, like you, get nervous about the possibility of paying for something that I think is insured and then it’s not. But I feel like with any travel insurance company it could happen. They’ve paid out all my other claims with no issues, so I’ve stuck with them. I’ll be curious to hear other people’s experiences!

Thanks for your input. I’m not sure other travel insurance companies have as many complaints on BBB as Travel Insured. And it wasn’t fun waiting on hold 45 minutes to 1.5 hours when I wanted to talk to someone. Can I ask when your experience happened? I’m curious to hear others’ experience as well.

 

P.S. I see you are from Clarksville. We almost moved there. Beautiful area! We checked out real estate in the area and looked at a lot of houses but ended up finding the perfect house close to Rapid City. This winter will be our first winter in SD so we’ll see if we made a mistake not moving to TN. 😊

[amyj23]

7 hours ago, coopco said:

Thanks for your input. I’m not sure other travel insurance companies have as many complaints on BBB as Travel Insured. And it wasn’t fun waiting on hold 45 minutes to 1.5 hours when I wanted to talk to someone. Can I ask when your experience happened? I’m curious to hear others’ experience as well.

 

P.S. I see you are from Clarksville. We almost moved there. Beautiful area! We checked out real estate in the area and looked at a lot of houses but ended up finding the perfect house close to Rapid City. This winter will be our first winter in SD so we’ll see if we made a mistake not moving to TN. 😊

Oh wow! I didn’t realize they had bad reviews. I will say, their website leaves a lot to be desired, and their app is useless. But they’ve paid out when necessary so I didn’t think much of it. Also, the rates we get are great. 🤔 In fact, in January we purchased their new annual policy and it was less than $100 for both of us. (We haven’t had to file a claim this year though…) We filed claims in fall 2019 and fall 2021. 
 

That’s interesting! We really like it here and the proximity to Nashville. I can’t imagine what your winter will be like! But on the flip side, it’s going to be close to 100° here the rest of the week 🥵. South Dakota is on my list for states I haven’t been to yet. Allegiant flies to Sioux City for cheap so we’ll get up there someday soon!

[coopco]

17 hours ago, amyj23 said:

Oh wow! I didn’t realize they had bad reviews. I will say, their website leaves a lot to be desired, and their app is useless. But they’ve paid out when necessary so I didn’t think much of it. Also, the rates we get are great. 🤔 In fact, in January we purchased their new annual policy and it was less than $100 for both of us. (We haven’t had to file a claim this year though…) We filed claims in fall 2019 and fall 2021. 
 

That’s interesting! We really like it here and the proximity to Nashville. I can’t imagine what your winter will be like! But on the flip side, it’s going to be close to 100° here the rest of the week 🥵. South Dakota is on my list for states I haven’t been to yet. Allegiant flies to Sioux City for cheap so we’ll get up there someday soon!

Thanks for the reply. Glad to hear your experiences are recent. I looked at the annual insurance and it’s certainly reasonable. Do you purchase any of the optional coverage? If so, how much extra is it? It looks like you need to pay extra for cancellation. I don’t need cancel for any reason but my dad is 98 so I would need to be able to cancel if he were ever hospitalized during a cruise. The annual plan also is extra for trip interruption, which to me is the most likely scenario. Please post if you ever need to use the insurance in the future because I’d like to restore my faith in this company since I’m a huge USAA fan. I’m still on the fence if I want to use them in the future even though I have a couple upcoming trips covered with them (purchased before my bad experience or transferred from a cancelled trip from COVID times-which btw, I thought was great of them to let you “save” coverage from a cancelled trip.)

[amyj23]

7 hours ago, coopco said:

Thanks for the reply. Glad to hear your experiences are recent. I looked at the annual insurance and it’s certainly reasonable. Do you purchase any of the optional coverage? If so, how much extra is it? It looks like you need to pay extra for cancellation. I don’t need cancel for any reason but my dad is 98 so I would need to be able to cancel if he were ever hospitalized during a cruise. The annual plan also is extra for trip interruption, which to me is the most likely scenario. Please post if you ever need to use the insurance in the future because I’d like to restore my faith in this company since I’m a huge USAA fan. I’m still on the fence if I want to use them in the future even though I have a couple upcoming trips covered with them (purchased before my bad experience or transferred from a cancelled trip from COVID times-which btw, I thought was great of them to let you “save” coverage from a cancelled trip.)

I’m glad you brought up the extra coverage. We have a huge trip coming up next week and I keep trying to contact them outside of their open hours. I’m trying to upgrade the policy we have to cover shorter delays (the annual policy only covers 12+ hour delays, I want the 3 hour delay coverage — we often get messed up on our flights coming back from Europe!). When I tried to fool around with the optional coverages, it would show me prices. Again, their website isn’t great. Yes, their Covid policies were super generous and easy to do! Shockingly so considering their website is usually so crappy. I’ll definitely let you know if we have to make any claims. Fingers crossed 🤞🏼 that we don’t!!! Lol

[kctwinmommy]

@amyj23 - did you ever end up with a good USAA policy? I'm considering them for a major Viking cruise next year, and looking at their annual policy with the optional additions. We were going to add on the Trip Interruption/Cancellation, as well as the additional medical evacuation. It comes out to like $230 for the 2 of us with that! Which seems really low. So I know I need to read through their information more to make sure of what it does and doesn't cover. We're both in good health, no pre-existing things to worry about either.

[amyj23]

On 9/20/2023 at 12:34 PM, kctwinmommy said:

@amyj23 - did you ever end up with a good USAA policy? I'm considering them for a major Viking cruise next year, and looking at their annual policy with the optional additions. We were going to add on the Trip Interruption/Cancellation, as well as the additional medical evacuation. It comes out to like $230 for the 2 of us with that! Which seems really low. So I know I need to read through their information more to make sure of what it does and doesn't cover. We're both in good health, no pre-existing things to worry about either.

Sorry! I forgot to report back. So here's the deal. In order to "up" our coverage for that trip, I had to sort of buy a separate policy. It was expensive -- about $400 -- but it was going to cover any delays of 3 hours or more and other higher coverages. For reference, it was a 17 day trip going to four countries. So a lot of moving parts. Turns out, our trip went off absolutely flawlessly so we didn't need to make a claim. 😂 But I had such peace of mind! 

So what I've learned is, the annual policy is awesome for all our smaller trips, trips to family, etc. Ones that don't need a lot of coverage. But for trips like the one we just took to Europe, we'll have to pay separate. This year, we're insured to the hilt and haven't had any issues. (I really hope that doesn't jinx anything LOL). And we're in good health with no major health conditions either... Anyway, your plan is good to read carefully through the coverages. But if you need help, I've had great luck with their customer service!

[kctwinmommy]

1 hour ago, amyj23 said:

Sorry! I forgot to report back. So here's the deal. In order to "up" our coverage for that trip, I had to sort of buy a separate policy. It was expensive -- about $400 -- but it was going to cover any delays of 3 hours or more and other higher coverages. For reference, it was a 17 day trip going to four countries. So a lot of moving parts. Turns out, our trip went off absolutely flawlessly so we didn't need to make a claim. 😂 But I had such peace of mind! 

So what I've learned is, the annual policy is awesome for all our smaller trips, trips to family, etc. Ones that don't need a lot of coverage. But for trips like the one we just took to Europe, we'll have to pay separate. This year, we're insured to the hilt and haven't had any issues. (I really hope that doesn't jinx anything LOL). And we're in good health with no major health conditions either... Anyway, your plan is good to read carefully through the coverages. But if you need help, I've had great luck with their customer service!

Thanks! I think we'll give them a call next week and talk to them personally to get it done right. And $400 isn't a lot honestly. Thanks again for getting back to me on this. 😃

[amyj23]

22 hours ago, kctwinmommy said:

Thanks! I think we'll give them a call next week and talk to them personally to get it done right. And $400 isn't a lot honestly. Thanks again for getting back to me on this. 😃

Glad to help! 🙂