Travel insurance

[az201013]

Yea or nay for purchasing travel insurance...

[Essiesmom]

You don’t need it until you need it.  Depends on your ability to self insure travel and possible medical problems/treatment.  EM

[GeezerCouple]

We *always* get travel insurance!

We learned about that here on CC, and purchased it for our first trip after that.  That was a very special (and $$$$) trip...

 

And less than 2 weeks before our planned departure, DH had a medical emergency!

We got every cent back.

IF we had not had that insurance, we both think we may never have purchased another "special" trip, we'd be so annoyed.

As it turned out, we've continued to have "more special" trips, even more expensive, and the travel insurance has allowed us to not worry so much.

 

But keep in mind, for some people, it's not the cost of the trip, but the potentially very high costs of medical care elsewhere, so make sure you are comfortable with that.  Your travel costs are mostly capped; you know what you'd lose.  But for medical care, for something very serious, who knows what it might cost; there's not really any "cap".

Thus, many here at least get insurance for potential medical costs, even if most travel costs aren't covered.

 

GC

[klfrodo]

17 hours ago, az201013 said:

Yea or nay for purchasing travel insurance...

A very personal question that each person needs to ask themselves.

In my opinion, travel insurance is a risk sharing business. If you are blessed to be in a financial situation where you can self-insure all facets of the game, then by all means absorb the risk.

 

Myself? I can absorb the cost of the cruise and travel. I cannot absorb the cost of possible medical and evacuation costs back to the States. Therefore, I share the risk of medical and evac coverage by purchasing travel insurance that works for me.

[hrslvr142]

Definitely agree about buying travel insurance...we did before when we still had major medical coverage while working but now with only Medicare we really need to have medical coverage while traveling outside of the United States.  

 

[iamtrustworthy]

3 hours ago, hrslvr142 said:

Definitely agree about buying travel insurance...we did before when we still had major medical coverage while working but now with only Medicare we really need to have medical coverage while traveling outside of the United States.  

 

Hi hrslvr142,

 

Are you covered by Medicare with a supplement you bought on your own, have Tricare or are on a former employers' retiree health plan? Or do you have Advantage plans?

 

Steve Dasseos

[jclinard]

Medical, yes.

 

For anything else, better read the policy first.  You'll find you can only collect under a very limited set of circumstances.

 

You should also look up cases with the BBB to get a feel about how claims go.  

 

Don't make the mistakes I made when buying travel insurance, and having my claim denied.  

[SimplyAlbert]

I always buy travel insurance.   While most trips go according to plan, we have had some claims over the years, mostly for trip delays.   However, we had to cancel our Hawaii cruise a couple of weeks before we were due to depart as DH had to have a pacemaker put in.  While I won't say the process to get our money back was easy, we are getting back every penny.

 

I highly recommended Steve/The Trip Insurance Store for all of your trip insurance needs.  He was instrumental in getting our claim processed and our money back.

[iamtrustworthy]

5 hours ago, SimplyAlbert said:

I always buy travel insurance.   While most trips go according to plan, we have had some claims over the years, mostly for trip delays.   However, we had to cancel our Hawaii cruise a couple of weeks before we were due to depart as DH had to have a pacemaker put in.  While I won't say the process to get our money back was easy, we are getting back every penny.

 

I highly recommended Steve/The Trip Insurance Store for all of your trip insurance needs.  He was instrumental in getting our claim processed and our money back.

 

Hi SimplyAlbert,

 

Thanks for contacting me about your claim. I was happy to help you.

 

Steve Dasseos

[crystalspin]

On 1/9/2024 at 3:05 PM, az201013 said:

Yea or nay for purchasing travel insurance...

Yea.

 

We will have THREE insurances for our upcoming cruise: Medical through GeoBlue (bought from a referal page from the Trip Insurance Store no extra cost to us for the good advice!), cancellation/interruption through our Chase Sapphire Reserve card (this is an expensive card, but does have benefits especially for travel), and CFAR at 80% from Holland America which we bought in addition to the Chase card because it wasn't clear if cancellation for family members health changes would be covered by the card.

 

When we were younger and less concerned with our own as well as the family's health, we did "self-insure". Eventually we got bit -- when Sinorama went out of business in 2018! and we discovered that the credit card from the big pizza store did not cover insolvency of the provider. My husband was almost nonchalant, saying only "My money went to China without me!" That was about $8000.

 

Like @GeezerCouple, our cruises have gotten more "special" since DH retired, and the potential loss harder to brush off! at about $20,000@ per THREE 35-day cruises booked for this year.

[CDNPolar]

We have debated this over and over BUT have always purchased.  We feel that it is a cost we don't want to pay but don't want to get caught without it.

 

Over our travelling years (the last 7 or so) as a couple, we have paid thousands of dollars out for trip cancellation and interruption insurance.  We don't by medical as that is covered by our work benefits.

 

If we travel as a group with others - family or not - we typically recommend and buy the package together so that if one person has a valid reason for cancel, everyone else on the trip can decide to cancel or go based on the one person's reason.

 

In December of 2023 we had to out of the blue and unexpectedly cancel a long planned trip that friends were joining us for.

 

We experienced a medical challenge and were advised not to travel.

 

We now have full refund for our travel cost which is about 14-15K CAD but our friends are on the trip without us because they did not feel it necessary to buy the insurance.  (And never have before) 

 

They did not want to travel without us because this was a trip planned from the start as a foursome, but they had to or lose the full cost of the trip and airfare.

 

We have probably paid out of pocket the same or more for insurance as we got back for this trip, so one could argue, if we never paid for it before, we would be even now.  True statement, but you never know if you are going to need it until you need it.

 

I have met many people on cruises that have never bought insurance because "they are healthy" but you can fall, break a leg, a hip, or anything can happen that has nothing to do with your health before you leave.

[CJANDH]

On 1/10/2024 at 9:39 AM, GeezerCouple said:

But keep in mind, for some people, it's not the cost of the trip, but the potentially very high costs of medical care elsewhere, so make sure you are comfortable with that.  Your travel costs are mostly capped; you know what you'd lose.  But for medical care, for something very serious, who knows what it might cost; there's not really any "cap".

Thus, many here at least get insurance for potential medical costs, even if most travel costs aren't covered.

This is good advice. You may have the financial strength to absorb the loss of a trip cancellation or trip delay, in which case paying a premium to cover that potential probably will not be a good investment over a long period of cruising. However, the cost of a medical emergency while travelling overseas, especially if it involves evacuation, could be catastrophic. We are in that position. We purchase an annual plan from Allianz that provides high coverage for medical and evacuation and only token amounts for non-medical losses. It is very inexpensive (around $500 p.a.) compared to the thousands we used to pay each year to cover individual trips with coverage for all risks.