Travel Insurance Recommendations

[LEMJMcC]

Taking our first ever Alaskan cruise this summer, which requires air travel from Atlanta to Seattle and back.  Past cruises were from Florida, so we always drove to and from the ports.  With the added expense and vulnerability of air travel, we are considering travel insurance for the first time.  Allianz seems to get high ratings.  Anyone have real world experience with this type of insurance?  Any recommendations or suggestions or watch-outs?  How's Allianz stack up against others?

 

Thanks much!

[GTO-Girl]

11 minutes ago, LEMJMcC said:

Taking our first ever Alaskan cruise this summer, which requires air travel from Atlanta to Seattle and back.  Past cruises were from Florida, so we always drove to and from the ports.  With the added expense and vulnerability of air travel, we are considering travel insurance for the first time.  Allianz seems to get high ratings.  Anyone have real world experience with this type of insurance?  Any recommendations or suggestions or watch-outs?  How's Allianz stack up against others?

 

Thanks much!

this is where for years we have gotten our quotes and purchased our policies…

 

www.insuremytrip.com

[Doug910]

Like you, the vast majority of the time we'd drive to the ports as we lived in South Florida. As age starts to creep up, and the fact that we are starting to fly to more ports, we've now felt that trip insurance is valuable purchase. We've gone with the annual plan from Nationwide for the last few cruises. 

[ILCTCRUISER]

There was a time when we traveled (and quite a bit, I might add) without travel insurance. Frankly, we were fortunate; we never encountered a situation for which we regretted not having insurance.

 

We now consider travel insurance a must-have.  We were reminded of its importance in Fall, 2022 while on a TA from Rome.  We left Madeira and sailed all night.  The following morning we were awakened by the roar of a helicopter trying to evacuate a passenger.  Not only was there a helicopter but a support aircraft accompanied it for what must have been a rather long flight from its base to the Odyssey.  Passenger was evacuated.  I believe we heard he did have insurance. Can you imagine the cost he would have incurred if he hadn’t been insured?

 

With travel insurance, one size doesn’t necessarily fit all.  It really comes down to how much risk you want to assume and you will find policies that offer various levels of coverage, etc.

 

Here’s a link to a CC document that discusses travel insurance in case you already haven’t done so:  https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles/travel-insurance-primer-for-cruise-travelers#what-does-travel-insurance-on-your-cruise-cover?

 

If you booked through a travel agent, your agent should have reviewed travel insurance with you.  Ultimately, it’s yourdecision.  That being said, a good travel agent knows the importance of starting a conversation about insurance.

Edited February 19 by ILCTCRUISER

[BND]

We have bought annual Allianz policies the last two years.  Prior to that we bought Royal's insurance.  But, that is because we either drive or take Amtrak so we don't need it for the travel to/from port perse.  But, we cruise more often now and it's cheaper to buy an annual travel policy than a per cruise one.  As we're in our 60's (started cruising in our 40's) we wanted to be sure we had good evacuation coverage.  

[RedSails1968]

Like others, we use Allianz. It’s not cheap for older people but medical evacuation cost would be much worse. 

[ILCTCRUISER]

@LEMJMcC, Forgot to add: we’ve used Allianz and TravelGuard (An AIG company).  Over the years we’ve had annual and individual trip plans.  Travel Guard has a very basic Pack-N-Go product which we’ve used when we feel we have limited financial risk due to cancellation or interruption;  Pack-N-Go does include medivac and medical coverage.

 

Have never used Insuremytrip but it may be a good option.  It is a broker and, as a broker, one hopes the agents there work to find you the best policy for your needs at the best price.

Edited February 19 by ILCTCRUISER

[LEMJMcC]

Thanks to all for you input.  We'll consider it carefully and prayerfully.

[shootingstar07]

I just recently purchased travel insurance through The Trip Insurance Store. I worked with Steve. They were recommended on another thread. 
I saved by purchasing fully refundable air through American. That was only $200 more. So I only insured the cruise. 
good luck. Have a great cruise to Alaska. My favorite place to go. 

[Galveston Cruiser]

31 minutes ago, RedSails1968 said:

Like others, we use Allianz. It’s not cheap for older people but medical evacuation cost would be much worse. 

I don't know where you see that.  We are 78 and 80; annual policy is $400.  I increased this year to to cover trip cancellation from $2,000 ($400 annually) to $10,000 as we have a large number of cruises planned.  Total cost was $1,050. We have carried Allianz since 2011.

[RedSails1968]

4 minutes ago, Galveston Cruiser said:

I don't know where you see that.  We are 78 and 80; annual policy is $400.  I increased this year to to cover trip cancellation from $2,000 ($400 annually) to $10,000 as we have a large number of cruises planned.  Total cost was $1,050. We have carried Allianz since 2011.

$490 for two of us for our cruise in November. To us it’s expensive. You may have a different perspective and that’s fine. 

[BirdTravels]

1 hour ago, LEMJMcC said:

Taking our first ever Alaskan cruise this summer, which requires air travel from Atlanta to Seattle and back.  Past cruises were from Florida, so we always drove to and from the ports.  With the added expense and vulnerability of air travel, we are considering travel insurance for the first time.  Allianz seems to get high ratings.  Anyone have real world experience with this type of insurance?  Any recommendations or suggestions or watch-outs?  How's Allianz stack up against others?

 

Thanks much!

 

We shop on InsureMyTrip. Since most airlines will give you a travel credit for cancelled flight, insurance doesn’t help much there. Only if you end up rebooking at a higher cost due to some interruption (which has a small cap on most policies). 
 

If you are medivacced by the US Coast Guard there is no cost. But, there are no true trauma centers in Alaska and you would have to be flown to Seattle for a serious condition. 

 

Check out the insurance forum

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/499-cruisetravel-insurance/

 

 

 

[ILCTCRUISER]

30 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

 

We shop on InsureMyTrip. Since most airlines will give you a travel credit for cancelled flight, insurance doesn’t help much there. Only if you end up rebooking at a higher cost due to some interruption (which has a small cap on most policies). 
 

If you are medivacced by the US Coast Guard there is no cost. But, there are no true trauma centers in Alaska and you would have to be flown to Seattle for a serious condition. 

 

Check out the insurance forum

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/499-cruisetravel-insurance/

 

 

 

Exactly.  Lots of factors to consider.  On an Alaskan cruise, you’re stopping at US ports for the most part.  Even when at sea, ship is never really that far from land.  Coast Guard evac.  Your work or personal medical insurance is in force as well as Medicare (except for Canadian port call, but even then plan G offers coverage).  Financial risk profile for an Alaskan cruise is much different than that for a cruise taking you to third worked countries.   For Alaska cruises we usually use TravelGuard Pack-N-Go.  It does have the medivac coverage but we want that since we usually go off on hikes.

Edited February 19 by ILCTCRUISER

[GeezerCouple]

We have used TripInsuranceStore.com also, after learning about it here on CC almost 10 years ago.  And good thing, too.  Our first trip with insurance, a very expensive trip for us at the time (er, times have changed! 😉 ) needed to be cancelled less than 2 weeks prior to our planned departure due to a medical emergency.  Fortunately, our discussions with them (and lots of Q&A while we learned - pretty fast - about travel insurance) helped us to get the right policy, and all of our expenses were refunded in cash, about 2 weeks after we submitted all of the documentation.  (In this case, we were more concerned about the medical issues, so we didn't deal with the documents for a while, until some of the emergency level issues were under better control).

 

Our policy through TIS was with Travel Insured.

Importantly, we've since had several other claims, including another large one.  All of them were paid promptly.  We have zero complaints, and we'll continue to get this policy, from TI, through TIS.

 

There is no extra charge for using a broker.  TripInsuranceStore has policies from several vetted insurers, and they can discuss your situation and help you figure out what types of policies might be best for your specific circumstance.

But CALL them; don't rely upon the mini-summaries online, or even longer online summaries.  Have a professional talk to you.  Not only will you have questions, but they will probably have questions (e.g., any pre-existing medical conditions?  frail family members not traveling with you?   etc.).

 

Time can be critical.  The best choice of policies is usually available within10-20 days of your FIRST payment for the trip (such as the deposit, refundable or not).  Differences depend upon state of residence.  But even later, there are probably good policies available, until the day of final payment anyway.

 

Our only complaint is that we needed to file travel insurance claims several times... 😞 

But at least we got paid every time, and promptly, including for the large claims.

 

GC

[Galveston Cruiser]

3 hours ago, RedSails1968 said:

$490 for two of us for our cruise in November. To us it’s expensive. You may have a different perspective and that’s fine. 

$400 for an annual policy that covers anywhere over 100 miles from home is not expensive.  It covers all travel, not just cruises.