Travel Insurance? Is it needed?

[Valley Girl of VA]

What is an annual medical evacuation policy?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

 

 

Go to medjet express dot com - they have an annual medical evacuation policy that is the one most people refer to when speaking about annual insurance for medical evacuation

 

Jane

[JVilleGal]

I also buy MedJet to supplement my Travel Insurance

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Joyously Sailing Away]

I one word "YES!"

If your work has benefits check with them. Some do have travel insurance build in. Also AAA also has great coverage plans as will for very good prices.

 

 

Have a great day[emoji924][emoji4][emoji106]

[gentlemancruiser]

No Travel Insurance = Go Fund Me Campaign.

 

There have been several cases in the media about individual travelling without insurance just google, Anna Leibenko Here is a link to her story.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/08/22/anna-leibenko-croatia-coma-catamaran-toronto_n_1820736.html

[swes]

Not always are people sick and have to cancel. One of our cruises the ship had problems and got to the end of cruise and had to spend two extra days in Spain. The insurance paid those cost

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[luvn2cruzzz]

One thing that I don't think has been mentioned here is pre-exisiting coverage. In my experience, policies will only reimburse for a pre-exisiting condition if the policy is purchased within so many days of booking the trip. One company we use requires 15 days; another I know of is 20 days. This is something we are very cognizant of and always buy it within the timeframe.

[luvn2cruzzz]

So glad you sound so positive, Laurel. Hope yor DH is doing well!

Marie

Thanks, Marie. He is doing well considering all he has been through. Is in rehab and will probably be there for a month or so at least. I will be thinking of you!

Laurel

[kfkolonel]

Remember: the insurance companies make money on these policies. Therefore, the average person pays more for the policy than he/she collects. Consider "self insuring", especially if you consider yourself a better-than-average risk.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[RDC1]

Remember: the insurance companies make money on these policies. Therefore, the average person pays more for the policy than he/she collects. Consider "self insuring", especially if you consider yourself a better-than-average risk.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Of course the insurance company makes money and if you are one of the 10,000 or so that don't have an issue you can save by self insuring. But if you are the 1 in 10,000 that has a problem, can you afford the 50-100,000 or so that you might have to pay. I was on a river cruise last year and a gentleman was just waiting for our bus to go back to the ship when he turned and tripped on the cobblestones, fell, his hip landed right on a curb and fractured. End of cruise, surgery in France, and choice of waiting until it could heal for a commercial flight or pay for a med flight.

 

I assume that you have taken the same view of home insurance, life insurance and auto insurance. After all they make money as well.

Edited August 20, 2016 by RDC1

[JVilleGal]

Remember: the insurance companies make money on these policies. Therefore, the average person pays more for the policy than he/she collects. Consider "self insuring", especially if you consider yourself a better-than-average risk.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

 

Unbelievable!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[TravelerThom]

Not always are people sick and have to cancel. One of our cruises the ship had problems and got to the end of cruise and had to spend two extra days in Spain. The insurance paid those cost

While it is nice to have someone else pay for an additional two extra days of vacation, I personally would not be taking a cruise if that meant I was cutting it so close that I couldn't afford to pay for some extra days. In April 2010 we did an Elbe River cruise and were in Warsaw for 3 days before doing a Danube River cruise. At this point a volcano in Iceland shut down all trans-Atlantic air traffic. Lyn gets all excited "What are we going to do!:eek:!" I calmly reply that we still have 10 days until we are scheduled to return home, so I'm not worrying about it for a week, and then if necessary we will find someplace in Europe to extend to and pay for it out of those thousands of dollars that we hadn't spent on insurance over the years. We flew home as scheduled.:)

[Coral]

One thing that I don't think has been mentioned here is pre-exisiting coverage. In my experience, policies will only reimburse for a pre-exisiting condition if the policy is purchased within so many days of booking the trip. One company we use requires 15 days; another I know of is 20 days. This is something we are very cognizant of and always buy it within the timeframe.

 

My travel agency has an Allianz policy written just for their company that allows one to buy at final payment and covers pre-existing conditions. It makes life so much easier!

[luvn2cruzzz]

My travel agency has an Allianz policy written just for their company that allows one to buy at final payment and covers pre-existing conditions. It makes life so much easier!

 

Could you please share details with me? Final payment on a future cruise is coming up. It is not insured. My DH's doctor feels since it is just a Caribbean cruise that he will be able to go by the sail date. If Allianz provides coverage for pre-exisitng at final payment for your travel agent, I would think that may be offered to others as well who have booked elsewhere. Any information would be most appreciated. Thanks!

[6rugrats]

Could you please share details with me? Final payment on a future cruise is coming up. It is not insured. My DH's doctor feels since it is just a Caribbean cruise that he will be able to go by the sail date. If Allianz provides coverage for pre-exisitng at final payment for your travel agent, I would think that may be offered to others as well who have booked elsewhere. Any information would be most appreciated. Thanks!

The problem with this request is that posts are not allowed to name specific TAs.

 

You have a somewhat complicated situation. Most travel insurance companies will not insure you if you are unable to travel (such as your husband), on the date you purchase your policy.

 

Agree, call insuremytrip and discuss this with them.

[Coral]

Could you please share details with me? Final payment on a future cruise is coming up. It is not insured. My DH's doctor feels since it is just a Caribbean cruise that he will be able to go by the sail date. If Allianz provides coverage for pre-exisitng at final payment for your travel agent, I would think that may be offered to others as well who have booked elsewhere. Any information would be most appreciated. Thanks!

 

This policy was written specifically for this large agency. You must book with this agency and their agents to get the policy. I have not seen an Allianz policy elsewhere that is like this.

[Coral]

 

Agree, call insuremytrip and discuss this with them.

 

Good advice.

[cargo13]

1. Trip cancellation coverage

Usually river cruises book out way in advance, so if your VRC is not in the immediate time frame (and VRC is expensive) you will want to protect the investment $$ with trip cancellation coverages. The CFAR (Cancel for any reason) coverages are move expensive.

 

If with a 3rd party insurer, YOu need to buy these close to the purchase of your VRC. VRC may sell you insurance right up to departure (like the mass market cruise lines) and offer a credit for another VRC.

 

If you are close to departure and know you are going no matter, then trip cancellation coverages, cancel for any reason, etc is probably not necessary.

 

 

2. IN TRIP

These coverages ---medical, evacuation, delays, interruption) -- you need.

The in trip coverages are usually bundled with cancellation, unforatunately. But we did find that CSA Travel Protection will sell you just the IN TRIP/post departure coverages if you call CSA and speak with an agent. This CSA plan is much more affordable.

 

For some reason its not on their http://www.csatravelprotection.com website??

 

 

Buy:

YOu can use the comparison sites to compare coverages & costs but buy direct because if you have a claim, you will be dealing w/ the travel provider directly.

[garycarla]

Insurance is a funny animal. The responses above range from ALWAYS to NOPE and in between.

 

CAN NOT AFFORD THE FINANCIAL HIT IF WE CANCEL

Those that buy insurance for this reason are not totally being honest with themselves. You apparently can afford it since you already paid for the cruise. And, the cancelled trip will now cost less than what you would have spent if you actually traveled. What you can not afford is the heartbreak of buying something that you can not use.

 

MIGHT MISS THE SHIP

Yes, you can buy trip interruption, but not one single plan will get you on the ship that already sailed. They might get you to a future stop, but once the ship sails, the best insurance in the world will not help.

 

MEDICAL EVACUATION

This one does make good sense. If you shop one of the third party sites, you can get this for one trip or annual policies. Serious medical issues definitely fall into the "can not afford" situation.

 

We just did a three week around the world to 13 countries. We only bought the medical part which is the norm and we have saved a ton of money.

Edited August 20, 2016 by garycarla

[CPT Trips]

SNIP

Buy:

YOu can use the comparison sites to compare coverages & costs but buy direct because if you have a claim, you will be dealing w/ the travel provider directly.

 

 

I had claims with policies purchased through both insuremytrip and tripinsurancestore. I didn't need to deal with the seller, just dealt with the insurance company's adjuster.

[JVilleGal]

I had claims with policies purchased through both insuremytrip and tripinsurancestore. I didn't need to deal with the seller, just dealt with the insurance company's adjuster.

 

 

Correct and I know if you have any issues Steve at Thetripinsurancestore will help you IF you run into difficulty with the claims process. But that is completely up to you. Yes you absolutely deal directly with the claims adjuster.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Daisi]

Insurance is a funny animal. The responses above range from ALWAYS to NOPE and in between.

 

CAN NOT AFFORD THE FINANCIAL HIT IF WE CANCEL

Those that buy insurance for this reason are not totally being honest with themselves. You apparently can afford it since you already paid for the cruise. And, the cancelled trip will now cost less than what you would have spent if you actually traveled. What you can not afford is the heartbreak of buying something that you can not use.

 

We get the cancellation insurance in case we have to cancel & re-book at a later date. We may not be able to afford two cruises so close together, but if we can re-book the next year, the cancellation insurance will cover that.

 

We always purchase trip insurance if going out of the country for more than 2 days. Our company insurance is ok, but the out of country will include the costs of one of us staying an extended time to be with the other if they are in a hospital, and medical evacuation if required. Although we usually take driving trips, you never know if an accident is going to happen, and we know how much it can cost (thanks to friends that don't buy ins) just how expensive out of country hospitals can cost. It's much cheaper to pay a couple of hundred dollars than a couple of thousand.

[H2Otstr]

I always take out trip insurance and I will be filing my first claim in a few days.

 

We missed our connection in Atlanta and Delta could not get us on a flight to Stockholm for two days. Delta did nothing for us (weather related) so we had to find a hotel, purchase meals, and we missed the first two days of our pre-trip.

[deec]

so sorry to hear that you had your trip impacted that way ! Delta is not always the best for being helpful and unfortunately they are our default airline since we are in Detroit.

 

hope the trip insurance compensates but still does not make up for the missed time in Stockholm. we are doing a Viking Ocean cruise in the Spring that finishes in Stockholm and plan to spend 2 days before flying home ( on Delta).

[Got2Cruise]

I always take out trip insurance and I will be filing my first claim in a few days.

 

 

 

We missed our connection in Atlanta and Delta could not get us on a flight to Stockholm for two days. Delta did nothing for us (weather related) so we had to find a hotel, purchase meals, and we missed the first two days of our pre-trip.

 

 

Was this the same time as the Delta Computer fiasco? Couldn't they get you to London and then get a flight from there?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[H2Otstr]

so sorry to hear that you had your trip impacted that way ! Delta is not always the best for being helpful and unfortunately they are our default airline since we are in Detroit.

 

hope the trip insurance compensates but still does not make up for the missed time in Stockholm. we are doing a Viking Ocean cruise in the Spring that finishes in Stockholm and plan to spend 2 days before flying home ( on Delta).

 

Was this the same time as the Delta Computer fiasco? Couldn't they get you to London and then get a flight from there?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Thanks, Dee. Delta and AA are the only two airlines that service our area, too. We enjoyed the day (not three as booked) in Stockholm.

 

The delay was from storms in the Atlanta area, not the computer glitch. The Delta help desk said that they could get us to Amsterdam and we could get ourselves to Stockholm (at our own cost, too). Didn't want to take a chance of getting stranded in Amsterdam, so we stuck with their plan.