Annual Travel insurance

[Chiquitamar]

Annual Travel insurance. Do you recommend it. Seems more affordable that insuring each trip. We have 8 trips within the next 12 months

[iamtrustworthy]

Hi Chiquitamar,

 

Since Covid began, I haven't found a good annual Trip Cancellation plan from a company I would trust. I'd like to find one.

 

Steve Dasseos

[ChrisNY2]

I travel quite frequently, but typically with hotels and airfares that are cancellable (at least for vouchers which I'd use in the future.) In that case, would you recommend an annual plan (such as maybe AIG?) to cover trip interruption, delay, baggage, etc.?  I'm less concerned about cancellation as I am about covering unforeseen expenses when I'm already on my trip.

[iamtrustworthy]

22 hours ago, ChrisNY2 said:

I travel quite frequently, but typically with hotels and airfares that are cancellable (at least for vouchers which I'd use in the future.) In that case, would you recommend an annual plan (such as maybe AIG?) to cover trip interruption, delay, baggage, etc.?  I'm less concerned about cancellation as I am about covering unforeseen expenses when I'm already on my trip.

Hi ChrisNY2,

 

Do you travel for business? Travel Guard's annual plan is for business travelers.

 

Steve Dasseos

[shiner6]

On 1/28/2022 at 11:01 PM, iamtrustworthy said:

Since Covid began, I haven't found a good annual Trip Cancellation plan from a company I would trust. I'd like to find one.

What about USAA? They have a base plan which is reasonable and then you may add options if you wish.

[iamtrustworthy]

10 hours ago, shiner6 said:

What about USAA? They have a base plan which is reasonable and then you may add options if you wish.

Hi shiner6,

 

The USAA plan is a private label plan created exclusively for USAA members. Even though I'm a licensed insurance agent, USAA won't send me the details about their plans so I don't know exactly what their wording says.

 

Steve Dasseos

[Jersey42]

20 hours ago, shiner6 said:

What about USAA? They have a base plan which is reasonable and then you may add options if you wish.

Hey @shiner6.  Do you know who the insurance company is for the USAA annual plan? I am not eligible to purchase a USAA plan, but I am curious, because I have unsuccessfully looked for a good comprehensive annual plan.  I found a fairly new plan from Travel Insured (Crum & Forster) that works the same way you described for USAA.  In TI's case you buy base coverage that includes medical, trip delay, baggage delay, missed connections and more.  You can then add per trip options such as cancelation and  trip interruption.  Unfortunately the cost of the per trip cancelation/interruption options was usually a little more than purchasing a separate comprehensive plan for each trip.  And this did not include the annual base plan cost.  Plus, I could often find per trip plans with (slightly) better coverage.

[ChrisNY2]

On 2/16/2022 at 8:17 PM, iamtrustworthy said:

Hi ChrisNY2,

 

Do you travel for business? Travel Guard's annual plan is for business travelers.

 

Steve Dasseos

 

I do, in addition to personal travel. 

[Natitude61]

On 2/19/2022 at 12:59 PM, Jersey42 said:

Hey @shiner6.  Do you know who the insurance company is for the USAA annual plan? I am not eligible to purchase a USAA plan, but I am curious, because I have unsuccessfully looked for a good comprehensive annual plan.  I found a fairly new plan from Travel Insured (Crum & Forster) that works the same way you described for USAA.  In TI's case you buy base coverage that includes medical, trip delay, baggage delay, missed connections and more.  You can then add per trip options such as cancelation and  trip interruption.  Unfortunately the cost of the per trip cancelation/interruption options was usually a little more than purchasing a separate comprehensive plan for each trip.  And this did not include the annual base plan cost.  Plus, I could often find per trip plans with (slightly) better coverage.

Travel Insured also underwrites the plan through USAA. I didn’t bother pricing it out with the add-on trip cancellation, but was a little hesitant given the $100k medical limit. I know it sounds like a lot, but having worked in health care, I also know how much emergency health care can potentially cost!

[Natitude61]

So Steve, I was looking at the Geo Tracker Choice you offer, and was wondering if it’s the right choice for us before I bite the bullet and purchase…

 

About us — we’re both 60, each with a chronic medical condition that doesn’t limit us at all from traveling, but potentially could. Right now, we have a couple cruises booked each year for the next couple of years, each one is at least 12 nights.

 

My biggest concern is medical and medical evac, since those are potentially catastrophic expenses. (We are covered by Tricare,  which I understand doesn’t provide coverage outside of the US).

 

Am I on the right path by purchasing Geo Choice, and then purchasing a per-trip plan to cover for cancellation but with low medical/evac coverage? Or should we just stick with per-trip coverage at this point with higher medical/evac?

 

And thank you so much for sharing your expertise! Your company and customer service are unparalleled!

Edited February 28, 2022 by Natitude61
Subject verb agreement and fear of my high school grammar teacher haunting me from the grave!

[iamtrustworthy]

18 hours ago, Natitude61 said:

So Steve, I was looking at the Geo Tracker Choice you offer, and was wondering if it’s the right choice for us before I bite the bullet and purchase…

 

About us — we’re both 60, each with a chronic medical condition that doesn’t limit us at all from traveling, but potentially could. Right now, we have a couple cruises booked each year for the next couple of years, each one is at least 12 nights.

 

My biggest concern is medical and medical evac, since those are potentially catastrophic expenses. (We are covered by Tricare,  which I understand doesn’t provide coverage outside of the US).

 

Am I on the right path by purchasing Geo Choice, and then purchasing a per-trip plan to cover for cancellation but with low medical/evac coverage? Or should we just stick with per-trip coverage at this point with higher medical/evac?

 

And thank you so much for sharing your expertise! Your company and customer service are unparalleled!

Hi Natitude61,

 

> We are covered by Tricare,  which I understand doesn’t provide coverage outside of the US

 

You should have some coverage outside of the USA.

 

> Am I on the right path by purchasing Geo Choice, and then purchasing a per-trip plan to cover for cancellation but with low medical/evac coverage? Or should we just stick with per-trip coverage at this point with higher medical/evac?

 

In order to give you the right answer, I need to know more about your chronic medical conditions. Since this is private information, neither CruiseCritic nor myself want you to put any private information in a public forum. You may email me at steve@tripinsurancestore.com or call me at 1-888-407-3854 and I will help you.

Or, you may give me the answer here. I'll help you either way.

 

Steve Dasseos

[shank63]

I am looking at Allianz, the offer 3 levels of annual travel insurance.  Anyone else looked at Allianz?

[Jersey42]

On 3/19/2022 at 5:05 PM, shank63 said:

I am looking at Allianz, the offer 3 levels of annual travel insurance.  Anyone else looked at Allianz?

I have looked at these plans (Basic, Prime, Premier and a Business plan) and they did not make sense for us. Medical coverage is either $20K or $50K per person, per trip.  This one area where I want good coverage as it has the highest upside risk. These limits are too low.  Furthermore the medical coverage is secondary.  For us, primary coverage is important because we don't want to file with our Medicare supplement plan and use up some of the lifetime foreign travel benefit,

 

Next, the cancelation and interruption benefits max out at $15K per policy per year which may not be enough.  I also don't like the cancelation requirements for a sick family member, compared to other plans.

 

Furthermore, the premiums did not make sense to us for what you get.  There may be other issues, but the ones I mentioned did not make it worth looking any closer.

 

We still carry an annual GeoBlue Trekker medical policy.  We than occasionally purchase an inexpensive trip specific policy, depending on the trip. Otherwise we rely on our Chase credit card or self insure for other benefits. 

 

Steve, aka @iamtrustworthy may have additional thoughts.  

[pghflyer]

I am looking at the Seven Corners Annual Policy now, it is definitely better than Allianz with more/ higher protection. Normally I wouldn't buy and would rely on my Chase Sapphire Reserve coverage, but a few trips to Europe in the next 12-months will require evidence of a policy with our name on it (which the card doesn't have) as well as explicit COVID coverage. 

[pghflyer]

As noted above, Travel Insured (the one used by USAA) is pretty good and is affordable for the base plan and then you can do add-ons (at additional cost) per trip......you can book it direct on their website without having to be USAA.

[Jersey42]

51 minutes ago, pghflyer said:

As noted above, Travel Insured (the one used by USAA) is pretty good and is affordable for the base plan and then you can do add-ons (at additional cost) per trip......you can book it direct on their website without having to be USAA.

This is a new plan, that was introduced in mid 2021. I looked at this one too and rejected it for us, but I can see reasons why it might be a reasonable choice for some people.

 

One good thing is the emergency medical coverage is decent ($100k per person per trip).  It also appears to be primary coverage, so you do not have to file first with your home health insurance. 

 

The biggest problem for us is the cost when you add trip cancelation and interruption insurance for each trip.  A while back, I priced the add-on cost for a few sample trips and in most situations the add-on cost was slightly higher than purchasing a separate comprehensive travel insurance plan for each trip.  The price difference was usually not a lot, and in at least one case the add-on was a few dollars cheaper.  But the individual policies had slightly better coverage and I do not have to pay the annual base policy premium.  Your costs may vary, depending on your age and the types of trips you take, but anyone interested in this plan might want to price some trip add-ons.

 

The situation where it might be a good deal if you take multiple trips each year, but only want trip cancelation/interruption for one or two of the trips.  This way you get the medical/evac and other base benefits for all trips, and only pay an additional premium for one or two trips.

 

We still chose GeoBlue Trekker.  It cost us a little more than the Travel Insured plan, and it does not include some of the base benefits such as baggage or trip delay.  But it offers a lot more medical and evacuation coverage.  As I said in another post, this is the biggest upside risk and where we want good coverage.

 

[pghflyer]

For me, I am mainly looking for the mandatory COVID coverages in order to board MSC ships, plus a little delay coverage for any quarantine situations.  I can get cancel/ interruption from my credit card.  I will check out your GeoBlue too though. Thx!

[Mt Washington]

I never knew about GEOBlue, thanks.

[Ret MP]

On 2/28/2022 at 1:00 PM, iamtrustworthy said:

Hi Natitude61,

 

> We are covered by Tricare,  which I understand doesn’t provide coverage outside of the US

 

You should have some coverage outside of the USA.

 

> Am I on the right path by purchasing Geo Choice, and then purchasing a per-trip plan to cover for cancellation but with low medical/evac coverage? Or should we just stick with per-trip coverage at this point with higher medical/evac?

 

In order to give you the right answer, I need to know more about your chronic medical conditions. Since this is private information, neither CruiseCritic nor myself want you to put any private information in a public forum. You may email me at steve@tripinsurancestore.com or call me at 1-888-407-3854 and I will help you.

Or, you may give me the answer here. I'll help you either way.

 

Steve Dasseos

 

If you have Medicare and Tricare For Life, or Tricare in general, Tricare becomes you principal insurance when traveling or residing outside of the U.S.A.  Medicare doesn't do any good outside of the U.S.   If you live overseas, you still have to have Medicare Part B and pay for it even though Medicare doesn't cover you overseas:

 

https://www.tricare.mil/Plans/HealthPlans/TFL/TFL_O