Annual trip insurance questions

[fancygirl49]

We have several trips planned this year including a cruise and a trip to Europe.  I have always gotten trip insurance in the past for each individual cruise/trip but am now wondering if an annual policy might be better.

Do these cover trip cancellation/delays or just medical?

Any recommendations for this insurance?

In the past I have used Allianz or Travel Guard.  

Thank you for any help with this.

[CDNPolar]

Look into annual for sure.  

 

We have annual medical through our employer, so we don't go looking for that, but often we find (in Canada anyway) that many of the annual plans include a medical portion as well.

 

We are most in the market for cancellation and interruption insurance.  Here is how I calculate the risk.

 

In Canada, the average annual plan ONLY covers $5,000.00 per person cancellation insurance.  Interruption is a totally different thing.  I am focused below on cancellation only.  This is also NOT cancel for any reason (CFAR).

 

On our favourite cruise line we have 6 month (180 days) payment terms.  This means that we have to pay in full six months before sailing.

 

However, if cancelling before 120 days, the only penalty the cruise line applies to us is $100.00 per person.  We have paid in full, but would get all back but $200.00 if we are cancelling for any reason at this point.  There is nothing to prevent us from cancelling nor any reason required before the 120 day point.  (Hope this makes sense)

 

At the 120 day mark penalties kick in.  This is also the point that we buy cancellation insurance. We buy it usually a week before the 120 day mark.

 

 

Above is the cruise line's penalty schedule for cancelling.  Forgive the second column from the left as that is % not $.

 

Hope this makes sense as this is my brain working...

 

This is based on having a reason for cancelling that meets the annual policy requirements and the annual policy pays 5K max per person.

 

* Cruise fare of $14K per person - cruise, air, everything non refundable.

* Cancel for a covered reason at 89-70 days and we are basically break even.  Cruise line keeps $5,003.95 and we claim that from the insurance.

 

* Cancel at 50 days + and we start to lose per person above the 5K paid by the insurance.

 

Basically we hedge our risk with an annual plan that only pays $5K per person.

 

The hedge is based on the following:

 

* At 121 days or more, we can cancel if anything looks like it is going to interfere with our travel.

* If we get into the penalty period, and we actually have a covered reason to cancel, then we are good until 50 days out.  Beyond 50 days we are losing even with a covered reason.

 

This however can be the difference for us with three trips in a year of paying per trip at $1,200.00 ($3,600.00) for 100% coverage vs, one annual plan that is $1,200.00 once.

[GeezerCouple]

23 hours ago, fancygirl49 said:

We have several trips planned this year including a cruise and a trip to Europe.  I have always gotten trip insurance in the past for each individual cruise/trip but am now wondering if an annual policy might be better.

Do these cover trip cancellation/delays or just medical?

Any recommendations for this insurance?

In the past I have used Allianz or Travel Guard.  

Thank you for any help with this.

 

When we looked into the possibility of getting an annual travel insurance plan, one thing was explained to us that we hadn't thought about (having never before thought about an annual plan at all, so no surprise!):

 

IF one hits the maximum amount that can be covered/paid and still has other trips planned within that year, it may be too late to get any useful coverage for the remaining trip(s).

That is, if "single trip" policies required starting the coverage within a certain timing of the first payment, or any other "deadline" of any sort, that may be impossible if one is "caught" suddenly needing to insure a trip that one thought would have been insured with that annual plan.
That alone made it a non-starter for us.

 

Also, the maximum total amount of coverage, at least when we investigated annual plans, was woefully low, given the totals that our trips had rather quickly started to cost.  [That "total cost" issue was sort of a good news problem, as it meant we were having *such* good times, that we had pretty quickly upped the budget once we started this stage of our lives! 🙂 ]

 

But for some situations, annual plans could be very useful indeed.  Just make sure that "all the fine print" would work for you, or that you are willing to be fully/partly unisured for a trip or two at the end of the "coverage year".  That could work for "trip costs", which are capped, and mostly predictable... but medical costs could be something else entirely!

 

And *double* check about pre-existing medical conditions (including how the specific policy defines those) and maximum payments if you are looking for that type of coverage.

Your questions about whether "trip cancellation/delays or just medical" costs are covered can only be answered by carefully looking at the Terms & Conditions of any policies that YOU are considering.  What others have experienced could be very different.  Some of that could depend upon where the travelers reside, given how insurance tends to be regulated.

 

GC