2014 anybody?

[heidispidi]

You guys have pretty much said what was going through my head. I'm going to cancel it. Thanks for your input!

 

[gogo65]

Your welcome heidispidi, just deposit the savings into our bank accounts

 

[Zosha]

This time in a week I will be mid-air on my way to Disney!

 

[heidispidi]

I missed the 20% discount on the premium view at PPH on Orbitz, so now the savings will only be around $460 - so I might not cancel after all.

I did however get a room for our last night at the Sheraton Universal for under $200, and have re-booked the Warner Bros VIP tour that I had cancelled a few weeks back.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

I missed the 20% discount on the premium view at PPH on Orbitz, so now the savings will only be around $460 - so I might not cancel after all. I did however get a room for our last night at the Sheraton Universal for under $200, and have re-booked the Warner Bros VIP tour that I had cancelled a few weeks back.

Keep an eye out. Orbitz always have specials.

 

[gogo65]

This time in a week I will be mid-air on my way to Disney!

Jealous!!! Have a great trip

 

[gogo65]

Keep an eye out. Orbitz always have specials.

Agree with wanderlust, we managed a 22% discount with orbitz for PPH about a month ago, combined with 25% off Disney hotels, we saved a huge amount.
Keep an eye out the next few weeks, you may even do better

 

[cola]

Unfortunately as we are all leaving on different days, I have had to get everyone separate policies, but after the discussion about travel insurance last week, I think I am going to go with my bank west card platinum insurance. They only require $600 of travel booked on the card. Unfortunately for DH even though we put majority on his Amex, we didn't book flights using it so use can't use the Amex travel insurance. Oh well still got a good deal for his insurance.

The American Express free travel insurance through ACE is pretty much rubbish compared to the Zurich free travel insurance through most of the banks. It has a lot of conditions on it, including getting pre-approval of medical over $1000 which is crazy for USA trips - just getting a band-aid applied by a medical professional can easily put you over $1000.

If using the free travel insurance, make sure you have easy access to PDFs/print outs of everything you need to be able to claim with you, not just easily accessible if you have the bank password. You need the credit card statement you made the purchases on and tax invoices/detailed receipts for tickets before they will process payments and have the PDS, how to claim, and phone contact details - they are like having your policy number with you for easy claims.
Zurich had a Telstra direct free call number, make sure you have those Telstra details. ACE wanted international calls made.
Having experienced Zurich and ACE 'free' travel insurance last year, I will never buy another plane ticket using my American Express card and rely on the 'free' insurance. I'd be happy to rely on the Zurich insurance through my bank credit card again.

 

[gogo65]

Thanks Cola for your advice.
The bankwest credit card insurance seems pretty good and I have compared it to my previous travel insurance. I have always had a annual policy with travelinsurancedirect and after claiming three tines have never had an issue.
To be honest although our travel expenses are always put on credit card we have never been game to have just CC insurance.
This time round the kids and DH have policies with insure and go after reading excellent reviews. I'm thinking after the research I've done that the bankwest(Zurich) policy is as good as standard policies so I'm going to trust it. The bankwest policy only requires $500 of travel expenses to qualify, I have put all my overseas transactions on it due to its free currency conversion fee, so have easily qualified. I have already got the last 3 statements ready to take with me, so I'm good to go

 

[crazy Cat Lady]

Have booked our Orlando accommodation for October: Holiday Inn Resort... US$84 per night + $12 pd Resort fee & taxes through Mouse Savers. The reason for this hotel is that they have shuttles to both Universal and WDW + the premium outlets, so we hope this will save us having to get a car.

No deposit required and can cancel up to 7 days out no penalty, so if a better deal comes along, we can take advantage of it.

In addition, we have Priority Club and should also get a free breakfast and room upgrade.

Very happy with that, makes it feel even closer!

 

[heidispidi]

1 MONTH TO GO!!!!! That's all

 

[gogo65]

1 MONTH TO GO!!!!! That's all

Right there with you, 4 weeks to go, that is all

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Yay for only one month.

I can't wait until my countdown is that short.

 

[heidispidi]

It will go quicker than you think! I started my counter 8 months out - now look at it!

 

[Aussie Wendy]

1 MONTH TO GO!!!!! That's all

Right there with you, 4 weeks to go, that is all

Exciting guys. Gogo65 I haven't been game to rely on CC insurance ever either so watching and reading the debates you have all been having with interest. DH is probably the one who is more wary than me though.

 

[gogo65]

It will go quicker than you think! I started my counter 8 months out - now look at it!

I redid my ticker about 3 months ago, which I hated doing, but now it's getting close it doesn't look so bad

 

[gogo65]

Exciting guys. Gogo65 I haven't been game to rely on CC insurance ever either so watching and reading the debates you have all been having with interest. DH is probably the one who is more wary than me though.

I know the problem with Insurance is you don't know how good it is until you claim, no one really wants to risk it especially when going overseas.
I have been an advocate for TID previously as I have had to claim 3 times over the last 5-6 years without any problems.
Obviously we would all prefer to not have to claim anything, in which case you wonder if it is a waste of money(which it obviously isn't but the amount of money you pay makes you wonder sometimes).
When I applied for the bank west credit card, I did so knowing that the Travel insurance policy is known to be one of the best, so I suppose I have two options, not trust it and pay for another policy or trust what others say and hope for the best!

 

[Marlea98]

We had to claim for our last trip for a small medical bill and a theft at JFK. The total amount was around $2,500. We got $575 back for the electronics theft (Canon 500D dslr and a Go Pro that we bought the month before). We paid $300 for the go pro and almost $2000 for the Canon. Covermore deducted 'depreciation' costs and that's all we got. We got given a JB hifi gift card to replace the items. I can't buy an equivalent dslr for that amount The similar camera is $1200 or there's a lesser model for over $750. I'm peeved that someone stole our bag but more annoyed that we got so little in return. But travel insurance is a necessary evil unfortunately because you never know if you have to use it for medical purposes.

 

[gogo65]

My DS lost our relatively new(less than 6 months old) waterproof,shockproof lumix camera, we had around 10% depreciation plus a $100 excess, we were able to replace for close to what we got back, as the prices had come down, I guess we were lucky the cost of the actual camera came down.
You can of course get extra insurance for expensive items, so it is insured for full value, which we will be doing with our brand new Olympus omd we just purchased

 

[LisaAJ]

1 month to go, how exciting!!! I started counting 3 years out so I'm over counting, lol. Of course now we are only 9 months out I need it to go slower as I have so much more to save!!!!