AIG Travel Guard Insurance?

[ToodlesRN]

I was wondering if a lot of members really do use the AIG travel insurance? Or is there any others out there that will cover the cost? From what I read the number of points you get back is not close enough to what the actual points used. We have a big trip coming up using our points with 2 resorts and a cruise.

Any suggestions would be helpful!

 

[disneynutz]

I was wondering if a lot of members really do use the AIG travel insurance? Or is there any others out there that will cover the cost? From what I read the number of points you get back is not close enough to what the actual points used. We have a big trip coming up using our points with 2 resorts and a cruise.

Any suggestions would be helpful!

We have used the AIG insurance, (not through DVC) several times.

With all of the bad publicity lately about AIG, I don't know if I would feel good about using them again.

 

[eva]

I may be wrong, but I believe that Travel Guard is the only company that you can insure DVC points with. Of course you can take out medical and such with other companies. But Travel Guard seems to be the only company that insures the points for cash. You receive $5 for each point lost. Now you have to be careful here. If a point goes to reservation status or in a holding account it is not lost. So the insurance is pretty worthless unless you are afraid of canceling after the point where you will actually lose points. We took it out for our ABD trip for the first time in 11 years. We were using nearly 800 points and we would have lost 108 immediately if we canceled. So it was a no brainer there. You have to buy the insurance before there is the possibility of point loss. For example, we just reserved the Northern Europe cruise on points for 2010. We need to buy the insurance before 90 days out. Because at the 90 day mark we will lose 86 points each, if we cancel. Then at 44 days out we lose 50% of points. And at 7 days out we lose them all. So we will probably take out the insurance 5 or 6 months prior to the cruise. But with regular DVC stays you don't really lose the points unless you cancel the day of. So the insurance seems pointless to me then. I guess you could make yourself lose the points if you knew something came up. But you may have to prove that it happened at the last minute. I hope that all makes sense.

 

[JimMIA]

We have never used Travel Guard for DVC trips, but we've used them numerous times for other types of vacations. On two occasions, we've had to cancel and file a claim. From start to finish, including claims, they have been wonderful to work with. They are the leader in the trip insurance industry, and I'd highly recommend them.

 

[ToodlesRN]

Thanks for your replies! If we do the insurance it would be for the cruise as that's were the bulk of points went to.

 

[disneynutz]

We have never used Travel Guard for DVC trips, but we've used them numerous times for other types of vacations. On two occasions, we've had to cancel and file a claim. From start to finish, including claims, they have been wonderful to work with. They are the leader in the trip insurance industry, and I'd highly recommend them.

Do you still feel that way even though they had to be bailed out by us tax payers? Doesn't say much for their management ability.

 

[JimMIA]

Do you still feel that way even though they had to be bailed out by us tax payers? Doesn't say much for their management ability.

Well, bailed out is better than not. And I hardly think the difficulties in the credit markets are the problem of one company.

I think there was a ton of greed on all sides -- bankers and other financial execs, and consumers buying stuff they couldn't possibly pay for. Including DVC memberships.

The travel insurance company has always been a good company, and until some reputable rating service says they are writing insurance they can't manage, I'd still be inclined to purchase $100 worth of trip insurance from them. Purchasing trip insurance is not exactly betting the farm.

 

[DisneyDriver]

No need to worry about AIG trip insurance. Their insurance division had 26 billion in surplus at the time that the other divisions were making headlines. It seems that was the only division of the company that was managed correctly.

 

[disneynutz]

They needed 85 billion from Uncle Sam to keep the doors open. If AIG goes out of business, all divisions are out of business. It won't matter if Travel Guard posted a profit or not.

 

[eva]

They needed 85 billion from Uncle Sam to keep the doors open. If AIG goes out of business, all divisions are out of business. It won't matter if Travel Guard posted a profit or not.

That may be true. But until DVC offers another alternative for insuring points, members are pretty much stuck with them.

 

[disneynutz]

Not so. We used AIG several times without going through DVC. The coverage was more expensive but you got much better coverage customized for your needs. The requirement was that we had to provide the valuation of a DVC point. We used the DIS Rent/Trade listings and agreed on a valuation of $10 per point. I would think that other companies would provide similar coverage.

 

[eva]

Not so. We used AIG several times without going through DVC. The coverage was more expensive but you got much better coverage customized for your needs. The requirement was that we had to provide the valuation of a DVC point. We used the DIS Rent/Trade listings and agreed on a valuation of $10 per point. I would think that other companies would provide similar coverage.

This is strange since Travel Guard is owned by AIG. How did you actually document the point cost through the website? How much a point was it to insure?

 

[disneynutz]

This is strange since Travel Guard is owned by AIG. How did you actually document the point cost through the website? How much a point was it to insure?

I faxed them listings from the Rent/Trade Board and we agreed in $10 per point coverage. They added the coverage to the declarations page of the policy.

I don't remember the cost per point because we included our airline coverage, delay coverage, additional medical, and medical return home coverage due to health reasons.

Also remember they insure based upon the cost of your vacation. If you buy a $10,000 policy, that is what they cover and pay within the limits of the policy.

 

[eva]

I faxed them listings from the Rent/Trade Board and we agreed in $10 per point coverage. They added the coverage to the declarations page of the policy.

I don't remember the cost per point because we included our airline coverage, delay coverage, additional medical, and medical return home coverage due to health reasons.

Also remember they insure based upon the cost of your vacation. If you buy a $10,000 policy, that is what they cover and pay within the limits of the policy.

Good to know. I wonder if anyone else has an experience with insuring outside Travel Guard. I might look into something different than Travel Guard for our Baltic cruise in 2010.

More questions: How did they insure the points? Did you have to actually lose the points to claim on the insurance? Or did you get anything if points remained in reservation status or transferred to a holding account? I also wonder what proof you would have needed in any of these circumstances.