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Travel Insurance


Guest toodle68

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Guest toodle68

I can't remember the last time I purchased travel insurance.. but as we get older and our vacations are getting more expensive, we have decided to start purchasing insurance.  I have seen comments on a few threads, but can't remember seeing one specific to the subject.  Looking over reviews is difficult since many never filed a claim, which is the only review type I am interested in.  Those that do review, are generally unhappy. 

Has anyone filed a claim under a travel insurance policy and have experience with any of the following?

Allianz Global Assistance

TravelEx Insurance

TravelSafe

Travel Insured International

 

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Not to distract from your direct question Toodle68 (I don't have any experience with a claim), but allow me to throw this out there; as a blanket statement all here who vacation a couple or more times a year:

 

An annual travel policy is CHEAP! and all RCBlog readers should probably have one.

 

 

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I've used Allianz, Travel Guard and Roam Right whether cruising or doing something else. They are all reputable and competitive with each other price wise. I tend to use the company that has the easiest to navigate website at the time I am ready to book. I have never filed a claim. I am just paranoid about facing a horror story medical evac situation from a foreign country, so I think the $200-$300 cost is worth if for a family trip.

Beware though...if you Google travel insurance, and you watch a lot of YouTube videos...you might get nothing but a travel insurance carrier's ads running on what you watch...over and over and over and over....I tried googling "I BOUGHT THE STUPID TRAVEL INSURANCE, QUIT RUNNING THE AD" to no avail. :2_grimacing:

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32 minutes ago, Boston Babe said:

but as we get older and our vacations are getting more expensive,

I just spoke with Allianz.  Very impressed. The basic coverage is only $125PP for the year, for example has $100,000 of medical evacuation coverage $20K of medical coverage.  the only difference with Basic versus Deluxe is Trip Cancellation insurance which is $2000. *** Please note that the $2000 cancellation insurance is only good once then it's gone during the calendar year. I'm going with Basic as I have the Cancellation with the cruiseline.   

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With any insurance policy, make sure you read the policy wording thoroughly.  If you do not understand their definitions, call and ask them.  Most companies require you to call their Emergency Assistance line before accepting treatment.  There are many shady medical clinics that will order every test possible if they find out you are a tourist.  Also, many claims are denied because the policyholder did not disclose pre-existing conditions properly or was not "stable" under the insurance company's definitions.  

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Guest toodle68
56 minutes ago, bobroo said:

An annual travel policy is CHEAP! and all RCBlog readers should probably have one.

Doesn't the annual policies have a limit on cancellation amounts?   I know it is unlikely to cancel two trips in 1 year..  but I generally book/schedule two big trips, if something happens that takes me out for several months and my out of pocket for both is say 10k, will the annual policies cover that?  I need to look into them more..

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Guest toodle68

I should add, trip cancellation is a big part of my requirement.  I have a 5k vacation coming up in March.. and a trip to England in September. The cost of the flight is 2.4k  (premium economy).  

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I've gone with Allianz in the past (no claim) and just purchased another Allianz policy for my October trip.  (I was unaware of the annual insurance so I will investigate that next time).   Given last year's hurricane season and some things going on in life, I went with the "cancel for any reason" insurance and I've got the dates of coverage starting prior to the cruise to cover travel to and from the cruise port.  

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14 minutes ago, toodle68 said:

Doesn't the annual policies have a limit on cancellation amounts?   I know it is unlikely to cancel two trips in 1 year..  but I generally book/schedule two big trips, if something happens that takes me out for several months and my out of pocket for both is say 10k, will the annual policies cover that?  I need to look into them more..

FYI, my wife and I feel the exact same way you do; these vacations have gotten more and more expensive, the more we travel and the more we read about the travels of others--it becomes more and more apparent that #%^@ happens--and &^@# is likely to happen to us the more often we continue to do this. So just two weeks ago I did a little audit and a compilation of our insurance as it may relate to travel. I found a number of surprises. Three things; by comparison our annual travel policy was a much cheaper and offered more extensive coverage than what Royal would offer on a trip by trip basis through their carrier (Arc Insurance)--the annual policy was a no brainer. I was surprised to find that not only do we have the annual policy but we were also covered by two credit cards (Our United Club Card has annual travel insurance included and is the BEST deal for our situation by far--even better than the annual policy!!!), and what is meant by travel? Our annual policy carrier responded "Travel is 50 miles away from your primary residence" Whoa! That describes me 5-6 days a week.

Trip cancellation for any reason is a big benefit and you have described a pretty hefty cost for both trips. In my case (I looked in our Travel Insurance file folder, the one stop shop for all things relating to a travel problem <hint, hint>) I am in fact covered to that extent with the above mentioned credit card, and the annual policy is only at $3k.

But that being said, I am looking at this travel insurance thing not as someone else is responsible in case something bad happens but rather, in case something bad happens I might have some recourse when I get home. And the more we travel, the more we see opportunities for "bad" to happen--"bad" not as complete catastrophes (a heart attack, ship hits an iceberg, pirates board and raid our ship) but "bad" as in a lost bag, missed flight, catching a norovirus, or in my case being drunk and doing something stupid on the dance floor that sends me down to the 2nd floor medical office. Thats where I find the importance of travel insurance. Again, I've never made a claim and if I have to I know it will be a difficult, patience testing process,

 

 

 

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I find the best value (for us) is a good credit card. Don’t’ read the marketing material, read the certificates of insurance. They are not all the same. I have compared the coverage side-by-side with stand alone policies and I can’t find anything superior that fits our needs.

Ours covers travel medical, trip cancellation, trip interruption, loss due to theft, etc., etc. It also covers all the people on the trip with me…don’t have to buy a policy for each person.

The only real limitation is max 15 day coverage (under age 65). In that case a call will get the coverage extended with a reasonable charge.

Not to mention we purchase our airfare with the points we accumulate annually.

It has an annual fee of $120 which is way, way less than an equivalent stand alone policy.
 

 

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2 hours ago, Gears said:

I find the best value (for us) is a good credit card. Don’t’ read the marketing material, read the certificates of insurance. They are not all the same. I have compared the coverage side-by-side with stand alone policies and I can’t find anything superior that fits our needs.

Ours covers travel medical, trip cancellation, trip interruption, loss due to theft, etc., etc. It also covers all the people on the trip with me…don’t have to buy a policy for each person.

The only real limitation is max 15 day coverage (under age 65). In that case a call will get the coverage extended with a reasonable charge.

Not to mention we purchase our airfare with the points we accumulate annually.

It has an annual fee of $120 which is way, way less than an equivalent stand alone policy.
 

 

Make sure you do read their fine print regarding stability period as well.  

Most credit cards that offer Trip Cancellation/Interruption require you to purchase the entire trip on that card as well.

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13 hours ago, Gears said:

I find the best value (for us) is a good credit card. Don’t’ read the marketing material, read the certificates of insurance. They are not all the same. I have compared the coverage side-by-side with stand alone policies and I can’t find anything superior that fits our needs.

Yep....I have one of the Chase premium credit cards (annual fee of $450 a year but worth it) and charge my cruise to it. I have looked over the trip insurance wording and feel it takes care of all my needs. No need to purchase additional coverage when I already get it with this card.

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10 minutes ago, Michael Vitale said:

Very interesting thread. Are y’all saying that the CC you paid for the trip with becomes, in essence, your “travel insurance” ??  They’ll refund you if you can’t go, after final payment ??

Yup! As long as the reason you can't go meets the terms outlined in the certificate of insurance.

My credit card does not require me to purchase the trip on the CC to be covered, BUT...not all are like that.

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18 minutes ago, Gears said:

Yup! As long as the reason you can't go meets the terms outlined in the certificate of insurance.

My credit card does not require me to purchase the trip on the CC to be covered, BUT...not all are like that.

Ok...now I am curious....What credit card are you using?  If you don't want to post can you PM me please :12_slight_smile:

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27 minutes ago, Michael Vitale said:

Very interesting thread. Are y’all saying that the CC you paid for the trip with becomes, in essence, your “travel insurance” ??  They’ll refund you if you can’t go, after final payment ??

Yup...agree with Gears. They must be covered reasons but as long as you charge it to your card you're good to go without the added expense of buying insurance. I bought travel insurance through Allianz the first time I went on a cruise until I did some digging and discovered that my cc  benefits covered me for pretty much everything that the outside insurance did. So from that point never dropped a dime on this expense. Hope this helps....

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Guest toodle68

I will dig in some more, but I did not think that credit card travel insurance covered for trip cancellation, medical evacuation and medical costs. I see a lot on insurance for accidental death though :) 

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  • 3 months later...

the 100,000$ med evac and 20,000$ medical is a good deal.   Our med evac from St. Lucia to Ft. Lauderdale was 67,000$ and the hospital was 14,900$ (and the hospital is pay as you go...so your credit card is billed as you go).  Another additional bit of advice is to carry plenty of cash...as ambulance was $50 cash from ship to hospital and another $50 from hosptial to airport....but actually it was $250 cash from hospital to airport because they could get an ambulance(all tied up with another accident) and borrowed a red cross ambulance for the trip.  If our insurance couldn't provide med evac (which they did with one phone call), angel flight would have provided the service for $15,000 up front and would bill insurance later.  Will never travel without it again.  RC was great (doctor, nurse, front desk) and provided someone(Christina) to attend to us while at the hospital.

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  • 2 months later...

Like many on this thread, we also view medical evac as the largest travel risk to protect against while cruising.  We have used Allianz insurance to cover this base and--knock on the metal walls of our cabin ?--we have thus far not needed to file a claim.  We will also take a look into annual insurance plan options.    

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I travel out of the US for vacation once or twice a year....I buy the travel insurance every year primarily for the medical option but have never had to use it.  Haven't cruised in awhile but have decided to get back into it...cruising May-2019 on Harmony/East Caribbean-..Woohoo!!  Anyway, I've always used squaremouth.com which is similar to a kayak for travel but it's for travel insurance and I've always been pleased with the pricing and options/selections of travel carriers. They do have a check box for cruise travel as I used them again for my upcoming cruise.

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I have not used the companies you mentioned, but I have used others and have had claims.  I have used Roam Right and my husband developed pneumonia and we had to cancel a couple of weeks before the cruise and our refund arrived a couple of weeks after we sent in a doctor's letter.   Another time I had Nationwide and had a fall on a cruise where I had a broken arm and a couple of hematomas  which resulted in medical care from the ship.  Although the cruise line did not charge me for their medical care, I was sent by ambulance from the ship to Tulane Medical Center in NOLA.  Fortunately, the fall happened on the next to the last night on the ship.

 

I now use insurance that is primary as I want to be sure that I don't have to submit anything to my medical insurance and get a rejection (Medicare supplement which does not cover me outside the USA)  I don't expect anything to happen, but who knows?  My biggest concern is medical evacuation insurance and even though my credit cards cover some things, they don't cover that.  

 

I think it's kind of funny that when I was a lot younger, my husband and I got insurance because we were concerned about something happening to our parents, now it's because something could happen to me.

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On 8/18/2018 at 8:15 PM, tinkerbellinmaine said:

Does this mean that you do not typically purchase travel insurance or just that you don't usually use Allianz? 

It meant I buy travel insurance from Allianz, but have never gone through the process of making a claim on a service covered by my insurance plan.

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We have 3 trips planned starting the first weekend in October. Quick weekend trip (flight and rental car) to Charlotte, NC and then Columbia SC with my daughter to visit my son in school. Then the 4 of us cruising 5 nights in December/January (flights, cruise, rental car after to visit my father for a couple days). Finally, a 4-day cruise in March.

Would this be enough to warrant an annual policy versus individual policies? Anyone know the difference between the Allianz Prime and Premier plans? I get quotes for 4 of us with Prime @ $996, Basic @ $500 and Premier @ $450. "All Trips Premier" actually has the highest coverages and the lowest rate which doesn't make sense to me. I would probably "upgrade" to $5K of cancellation insurance from the base $2,000 which would cover the most expensive of the 3 trips.

Thoughts?

 

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3 hours ago, KJ1231 said:

We have 3 trips planned starting the first weekend in October. Quick weekend trip (flight and rental car) to Charlotte, NC and then Columbia SC with my daughter to visit my son in school. Then the 4 of us cruising 5 nights in December/January (flights, cruise, rental car after to visit my father for a couple days). Finally, a 4-day cruise in March.

Would this be enough to warrant an annual policy versus individual policies? Anyone know the difference between the Allianz Prime and Premier plans? I get quotes for 4 of us with Prime @ $996, Basic @ $500 and Premier @ $450. "All Trips Premier" actually has the highest coverages and the lowest rate which doesn't make sense to me. I would probably "upgrade" to $5K of cancellation insurance from the base $2,000 which would cover the most expensive of the 3 trips.

Thoughts?

 

What we have found to be the most cost effective strategy for us has been to book the trips on a credit card that covers up to $5000 in trip cancellation (although they usually do not have the "cancel for any reason" clause) and then purchase medical insurance separately from GeoBlue, getting their Voyager Choice single trip option. They have really good evacuation and pre-existing condition coverage, along with choices for amount of coverage, deductibles, etc . I showed 3 examples of their costs below.

Do be aware that their policies are secondary, so you'd have to submit any claims to your primary insurer first and then submit the resulting paperwork to them. Also keep in mind that you most likely would not need any medivac helicopters on your land vacations, so check if the medical coverage from your private insurance and/or credit card  is satisfactory and if so, you can buy the medical plan for just your cruises. We have have bought these plans both directly from them and also through a third party company whose website will give you many comparisons.

www.geobluetravelinsurance.com        www.insuremytrip.com

I just made up a week trip in December with $500,000 medical and $100 deductible. Prices shown are not per person-they are for all 4 people.

Hope this helps and enjoys all your upcoming trips!

This is for 2 adults in their 30's with 2 preteens for 7 nights in December (4 & 5 nights will be just a few dollars less.):

image.png.af6628e30eca2ae8ab96f017ca6f3622.png

This is for 4 adults, 2 age 50, one 20 and one 15 for 7 nights in December (4 & 5 nights will be just a few dollars less.):

image.png.feffaac396feac462b6c4b58a9c0e1bb.png

This is for 4 adults, 2 age 65, 2 age 35 for 7 nights in December (4 & 5 nights will be just a few dollars less.):

image.png.217572517caa16dfb4adb0f1ff782c49.png

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