Travel Insurance

[jericap Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close jericap]

I was wondering if anyone buys travel insurance when they travel? I used to buy it just for traveling abroad and cruising. Now, I am reconsidering...

About 1.5 years ago, we were supposed to fly into JFK in January and they closed the airport due to the weather. The airlines rerouted us to Dulles, we were stuck between customs and immigration because they airline didn't normally service that airport and there was no one to offload the bags. Anyway, with all the confusion and delays, we spent 2 nights and 3 glorious days in the DC area.

Anyway, we are traveling again in January and was curious which travel insurance company everyone uses? Are some better than others?

I did get travel insurance for a friend of mine recently, but her mother was admitted into the hospital, so she was reimbursed for everything she had spent on deposits. I was wondering about mostly the delay portion of the policy. Has anyone had any experience good or bad

[chs225 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close chs225]

Try this website and compare www.insuremytrip.com/
I do not usually take insurance, but will be going to South africa, high end tour and have alot of money invested upfront. Ended up with travelux but all were pretty similar

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

All travel insurance policies are not created equal but most do come with a 10 day free look so you can read the policy. READ THAT POLICY. Most, if not all, travel policies are what's known as named peril. If it's not a named peril, it's not covered.

For instance, a couple of years ago we were stuck in Barcelona Spain when a fisherman's strike prevented our cruise ship from docking. We missed our flight, was told by the cruise line that they were calling all our airlines (they took everyone's info and were suppose to pass it on to their travel dept) to let them know we'd be missing out flight (but they didn't) and to make a very long story short, we were stuck in Spain with no way home.

The travel insurance company (Travelsafe) did find us a room but we had to pay for everything up front. When we filed a claim, we found out that the ONLY things that were covered were delay's caused by weather, airline issue (mechanical, strike et....) or strike affecting pubic transportation (cruise ships are not considered public transportation). Since it wasn't a named peril, the $1,400 additional it cost to get a flight home was out of my pocket and not reimbursable.

Many policies offer only secondary coverage. Often the credit card you use will cover some of your extra expenses. Sometimes the airlines will cover expenses. After you've filed the proper claims with all entities and they've either paid or turned you down then your own presonal trip insurance will pay.

Also watch those limits and the amount of time (delay) that must occur before the policy will pay. Sometimes it's 24 hours. If you miss a connection, have to pay for meals, taxi and a hotel room but can catch a flight out the next morning, then the delay wasn't long enough for the policy to kick in and you're out that money.

Also keep in mind the cost of the policy, the actual risk involved and how much you can reasonably expect to recover if you meet all of the conditions for a legitimate claim. For the most part, I've found the decent policies cost prohibitive for the risk/benefit afforded. If a trip is cancelled and there is residual value of your airline ticket then the residual value isn't considered a loss. Many times airlines charge only a $100 change fee and then you'll have 1 year to use that unused value of the ticket. In those cases you travel insurance company may only reimburse you $100/ticket covered and that's only if it's a covered peril.

In short, read the policy to make certain it's going to provide you the coverage you want at a price you're willing to pay. For most domestic travel, after coverages afforded by our CC the potential loss is minimal compared to the cost of the coverage for a good policy. We've had only one issue while traveling and all told the loss from that trip was only the airfare coming home. The rest was covered by the cruise line in the end. Even then the cruise line did arrange for a discounted flight home but, there were issues with that and that's another very long story. If I'd have been paying for the insurance for every domestic and foreign travel trip we've taken, I'd still be behind even if the insurance had covered that one loss but in my case the travel insurance didn't even help me out there.

Now I mostly purchase medical only coverage for foreign travel although CSA has a pretty nice comrehensive policy if you're taking a cruise vacation. CSA did pay out the claims for fellow cruisers who carried their coverage and has more liberal terms than Travelsafe.

[jericap Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close jericap]

Great information...you mentioned something about your CC. Do you know if all CC's offer some type of coverage for instances such as this?
We use Amex for car rentals and they have a policy that charges us ~$7 for each time we rent a car, but it does cover quite a bit..off hand I can't think of exactly what it covers though, but I did know at one time.

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

Great information...you mentioned something about your CC. Do you know if all CC's offer some type of coverage for instances such as this?
We use Amex for car rentals and they have a policy that charges us ~$7 for each time we rent a car, but it does cover quite a bit..off hand I can't think of exactly what it covers though, but I did know at one time.

Most offer "some" protectiion but you'll have to contact you CC company to be certain what they offer and under what circumstances they'll pay out a claim. For instance, a friend of ours had her luggage delayed when flying to FL last year to meet us for vacation. She had a change of planes and a change of carriers. She was booked through on United but had to change to USAir in Charolette. Needless to say, United didn't take her luggage over to USAir in time to make the flight. She recieved her luggage 14 hours later or that next morning. Her CC provided luggage delay coverage but, the luggage had to be delayed 48 hours under the provisions of her Chase United card.

In most cases the restrictions are such with both CC's and travel insurance policies that for minor inconveniences such as the above example, there will be no payment. Our friend didn't pay appropriately in her carry on plus, the TSA would allow her to carry on her makeup, toothpaste and other necessities so, she was out a little bit of money that she really didn't need to spend. On the other hand, most items were consumable types so she did get usage out of them.

Both Mastercard and Visa provide some basic coverage and they should be in either your paperwork or the information should be available online at the website of your CC.

I guess the best advice I can give you is just to read through all the coverage you have or purchase to see what will or won't work for you. Nothing like suffering a loss and thinking your covered, only to find out that your not really covered.

[grest Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close grest]

Great information...you mentioned something about your CC. Do you know if all CC's offer some type of coverage for instances such as this?
We use Amex for car rentals and they have a policy that charges us ~$7 for each time we rent a car, but it does cover quite a bit..off hand I can't think of exactly what it covers though, but I did know at one time.

Our luggage got "lost" or went on another flight without us a couple of years ago when we went to Las Vegas. We called our credit card company, and they told us we needed to be without luggage for 24 hours before any reimbursement kicked in. Our luggage arrived in 22 hours...oh, well, we were glad it arrived anyway.
Connie

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

Our luggage got "lost" or went on another flight without us a couple of years ago when we went to Las Vegas. We called our credit card company, and they told us we needed to be without luggage for 24 hours before any reimbursement kicked in. Our luggage arrived in 22 hours...oh, well, we were glad it arrived anyway.
Connie

24 hours is generally pretty decent. Many will specify 48 hours.

What irks me is when a hotel is involved due to a missed flight. Again they'll put that 24 hour rule in. The problem is, most of the time it's an afternoon or evening connection that is missed and the next flight out is less than 24 hours, resulting in no claim for travel delay/trip interuption.