Do I really need travel insurance?

[tvguy]

No, you do not need to buy travel insurance. If you are prepared to take the risk and pay out of pocket if something comes up, you don't need it. Or more importantly, if you already have coverage other places. Check what your credit card company gives you for free. Check your health insurance, especially if you have group coverage. Medical Evacuation and medical insurance is often part of group health plans.
Let's be honest, the Travel Insurance companies KNOW that the premium they charge is going to be more that they have to pay out for most of those with policies, otherwise they would go bankrupt.
Covid turned the Travel Insurance industry upside down, and premiums soared. I am not a fan of Travel Insurance, but at my age 68, I realize the risk of me having a health issue has increased. My employer sponsored plans ALWAYS covered medical evacuation and out of the country medical expenses. I am on Medicare now, which covers NOTHING outside the U.S. However, my Medical Supplement (Part G) does.
As for Medical Evacuation, it depends where you are cruising. I have cruised the Caribbean, Alaska, Hawaii and New England. Just about the only Medical Evacuation option on those cruises would be the US Coast Guard, which of course is free.

 

[SnowWhite2]

We bought travel insurance for the medical coverage in case we needed it. But, the day we left for the airport earlier this year I found out my dad was in the ER with abdominal pain. 3 days later, the night before embarkation, I cancelled the cruise and went home. My dad was fine until that day. 5 1/2 months later he passed. We eventually got our money back for the cruise. We didn’t lose out any other money since our flights were on Southwest and all other costs at the disembarkation were cancelable. This was a one way cruise. We’ve purchased insurance many times but this time we needed it and I was glad we had it.

My dad was once life flighted out of Cancun to Miami and in the hospital there for over 2 weeks before he could go home. The flight had a dr, nurse and two pilots on board. That had to cost over $100K back in the mid 2000’s. Travel insurance paid it all but $50.

Like everyone is saying…when you need it, you need it!

 

[Doingitagain]

We have annual travel insurance policy. If traveling internationally, we frequently purchase an individual policy to get the extra coverage. We do not purchase it from DCL, because we want it to cover our flights, prestay, etc.

We are also DVC members, and we purchase their policy to cover the dues portion of any points that might be lost, plus a few other coverages that come with it.

 

[mmouse37]

We have been cruising DCL since 1998 and it was only in the last several years that I now purchase travel insurance....well I used my credit card that provides travel insurance. I like to have my whole trip covered, not just the cruise. We only ever had to file a claim once and we were reimbursed all our expenses that interrupted our trip. That trip a hurricane impacted our getting to the port which they closed. We needed to spend 3 nights elsewhere and we opted to stay at WDW since when we got word of the port closing we happened to be driving past it on the way to the port. They delayed the cruise by 3 days and shortened the 7 day cruise to 5 days. We were reimbursed for all our meals, our hotel at WDW, the hotel at the port and our extended days with our car rental.

Another reason for travel insurance is for medical. I am currently in limbo for our Destiny trip at the end of January. My very healthy 92 year old mom was admitted to the hospital 12 days ago with a collapsed lung and pneumonia...half way through her stay they broke the news to us that she has stage 4 lung cancer which was totally unexpected. They told us she has anywhere from 2 to 6 months left which is heartbreaking for our family. While I want my mom to live as long as possible I have to face the fact that if things change and she gets sicker sooner we will have to cancel our January cruise. We are already well into the cancellation period. Luckily I have travel insurance which I may very well have to use this time. We are traveling with 3 other couples and it affects their cruise as well as they most likely won't sail if we don't. (they have insurance as well..... which covers a travel companion having to cancel).

As we age more medical things can happen but in honesty accidents or health related items could happen at any age. I will always get travel insurance going forward.

MJ

 

[insureman]

We have been cruising DCL since 1998 and it was only in the last several years that I now purchase travel insurance....well I used my credit card that provides travel insurance. I like to have my whole trip covered, not just the cruise. We only ever had to file a claim once and we were reimbursed all our expenses that interrupted our trip. That trip a hurricane impacted our getting to the port which they closed. We needed to spend 3 nights elsewhere and we opted to stay at WDW since when we got word of the port closing we happened to be driving past it on the way to the port. They delayed the cruise by 3 days and shortened the 7 day cruise to 5 days. We were reimbursed for all our meals, our hotel at WDW, the hotel at the port and our extended days with our car rental.

Another reason for travel insurance is for medical. I am currently in limbo for our Destiny trip at the end of January. My very healthy 92 year old mom was admitted to the hospital 12 days ago with a collapsed lung and pneumonia...half way through her stay they broke the news to us that she has stage 4 lung cancer which was totally unexpected. They told us she has anywhere from 2 to 6 months left which is heartbreaking for our family. While I want my mom to live as long as possible I have to face the fact that if things change and she gets sicker sooner we will have to cancel our January cruise. We are already well into the cancellation period. Luckily I have travel insurance which I may very well have to use this time. We are traveling with 3 other couples and it affects their cruise as well as they most likely won't sail if we don't. (they have insurance as well..... which covers a travel companion having to cancel).

As we age more medical things can happen but in honesty accidents or health related items could happen at any age. I will always get travel insurance going forward.

MJ

Sorry to hear about your mom MJ

 

[insureman]

We always get travel insurance from a third party agency that compares multiple carriers. Mostly we get it for the medical and medical evacuation coverage. It would cost thousands to be evacuated from an international location.

 

[mmouse37]

Sorry to hear about your mom MJ

Thank you so very much.

 

[imbelle]

We bought travel insurance for the medical coverage in case we needed it. But, the day we left for the airport earlier this year I found out my dad was in the ER with abdominal pain. 3 days later, the night before embarkation, I cancelled the cruise and went home. My dad was fine until that day. 5 1/2 months later he passed. We eventually got our money back for the cruise. We didn’t lose out any other money since our flights were on Southwest and all other costs at the disembarkation were cancelable. This was a one way cruise. We’ve purchased insurance many times but this time we needed it and I was glad we had it.

My dad was once life flighted out of Cancun to Miami and in the hospital there for over 2 weeks before he could go home. The flight had a dr, nurse and two pilots on board. That had to cost over $100K back in the mid 2000’s. Travel insurance paid it all but $50.

Like everyone is saying…when you need it, you need it!

A lady I met via gym friends was telling me that it was over $300K for her to be evacuated from Belize when a golf cart overturned on her and broke her legs.

 

[insureman]

A lady I met via gym friends was telling me that it was over $300K for her to be evacuated from Belize when a golf cart overturned on her and broke her legs.

I would not be surprised by that number. We had to get a medflight to get my father in law from Florida back to Rhode Island over 20 years ago and that was more than $30K.

 

[wnissen]

Three things that apply to all types of insurance:

1. As noted, the insurance companies always win in the end, typically to a significant degree. Financially, it's a bad dead on average.
2. The fine print rules all. Insurance companies can and will deny you for situations where you'd say, "But that's exactly the reason I wanted to get the insurance!". Lots of policies exclude war or civil unrest, for instance. Self-harm by a family member. Bankruptcy by a tour operator. Things that are not remotely your fault are excluded. Actually read the policy to see if even covers what you want.
3. Therefore, you should only get the insurance if you think the peace of mind is worth it, or you couldn't afford to cover the expense out of pocket.

We travel several times a year and only on three occasions over 30 years have we had a situation where we might have needed travel insurance. None of those times was a life-or-death situation. We basically never buy travel insurance, because the cost is almost always 10% or more of the cost of the trip. We would end up using it about 3% of the time, and a typical payout is way less than the cost of the trip.

However, we did choose to insure an upcoming cruise that was $$$. The peace of mind for a milestone birthday was worth it. I recommend TravelGuard, they have reasonable exclusions and we have successfully had them pay a claim, which is definitely not a given.