Booking Air Through ABD

[tgeorge]

If you book your air through ABD does it have to be done at the time of booking or can you add it later? I plan on booking our trip as soon as booking opens. Not sure if it is better to add air right away or wait a bit.

Thanks everyone for your help.

 

[sayhello]

If you book your air through ABD does it have to be done at the time of booking or can you add it later? I plan on booking our trip as soon as booking opens. Not sure if it is better to add air right away or wait a bit.

Thanks everyone for your help.

You can add it later. I've never booked my air with ABD at the time of booking. I usually book in May when the trips are announced, and don't usually book the air until somewhere around December to February, depending on which end of the summer my trip is.

Sayhello

 

[TXTransplant]

Yes, you can book later. I'm curious, though, does booking later affect your ability to buy trip insurance through ABD? I know you have to buy your insurance with them within a certain number of days of booking/paying the deposit. But I get trip insurance on my own (after buy plane tickets), so I'm not sure how buying/not buying plane tickets might affect the trip insurance ABD offers.

 

[sayhello]

Yes, you can book later. I'm curious, though, does booking later affect your ability to buy trip insurance through ABD? I know you have to buy your insurance with them within a certain number of days of booking/paying the deposit. But I get trip insurance on my own (after buy plane tickets), so I'm not sure how buying/not buying plane tickets might affect the trip insurance ABD offers.

The ABD insurance is a fixed price, so you don't pay extra to cover your airfare, unlike insurance you buy on your own. It's one of the reasons the ABD insurance can be a good deal, especially if you're, ahem, on the older spectrum as I am.

Mostly the reason to buy the insurance within a certain number of days of booking is to get the pre-existing condition waiver. If you don't care about that, I believe you can buy it later on, not at the time of booking (but I'm not positive about that because I always buy within the PEC period).

The ABD insurance *can* cover your airfare, even if you don't book your airfare through ABD, if it meets certain conditions. But if you book the airfare through ABD, then it's definitely included. However pre/post day hotel charges are only included if booked through ABD.

By the way, you generally can buy insurance on your own before you purchase your airfare, and then increase the covered amount once you purchase your tickets by calling the insurance company. If the airfare amount pushes you over a coverage threshold, then you just pay the additional premium at that time. I always check if that's allowed before purchasing outside insurance.

Sayhello

 

[TXTransplant]

That's good to know. I didn't even get a quote on the ABD trip insurance because I felt like tha plan Disney Cruise Line tried to sell me was way overpriced. I just remember my ABD travel agent asking me to decline the coverage within a few days of booking our trip. I purchased a policy that covers our airfare and the cost of the trip (over $11k total) last week for $241.

You are correct about noting that no pre-existing conditions are covered since I waited so long to buy the coverage. That was pretty standard on every policy I looked at, but we don't need it. I also looked at adding on the cancel for any reason coverage, and I think the policy I looked at also excluded that option because I had already made a deposit on the trip back when I originally booked.