For the First Time I'm Considering Trip Insurance

[Wish I lived in Fl]

Just finished reading two very interesting books:

Holiday SOS
and
Cruiseship SOS

both by Ben MacFarlane, a UK Doctor.

He worked as a Doctor escorting injured patients back from foreign holidays in Holiday SOS.

Cruiseship SOS is about his experiences as a physician on a cruiseship.

 

[MillauFr]

Throwing this out for discussion:
What total amount does your trip need to hit for you to purchase trip insurance? Someone posted that they purchase when they hit the $1,000 mark. What's your "magic number"?

I wouldn't buy the insurance no matter how much the cruise/vacation cost.

 

[Jajone]

I wouldn't buy the insurance no matter how much the cruise/vacation cost.

one illness or injury during your cruise and you will be glad you are not in a Mexican hospital with the insurance. Flight delay coming home, luggage delayed beyond embarkation and you will be glad you have the insurance. I would never cruise without it. I do not purchase through Disney. I use insuremytripdotcom. If it's a trip to Disney I only insure the trip for the costs I can't recoup such as Disney tickets, airline, prepaid hotels, etc. it's a small price to pay if you ever need to use it.

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

I always purchase trip insurance through insuremytrip dot com.

Maybe it has more to do with my age. When I was in my 30s I thought it was a waste of money and never considered it. In my 40s I realize anything can happen and often does when least expected, so I'd rather be safe than sorry.

I filed one claim for the full cost of an ABD (London / Paris). So glad we had the insurance.

 

[bridget]

We've never bought it for Disney. We've always flown Southwest and have never really felt the need.

We've have bought it for cruises and have used Travel Guard. It is worth the piece of mind if you are traveling out of the country. In about 8 cruises we've used it twice. Once when we got to port, my dad had a stroke and a heart attack. He was supposed to go with us. I stayed back with my mom. It paid for our hotel while he was in the hospital, rental card, food, and hotel for us. It also paid for their flight back, because they left earlier than planned. Plus it reimbursed us for the cost of the cruise we missed.

The other time we used it, the day of arrival back at port, the port shut down due to fog and an oil spill. That caused missed flights and additional night hotel until we could get flights out of the port city.

 

[MillauFr]

one illness or injury during your cruise and you will be glad you are not in a Mexican hospital with the insurance. Flight delay coming home, luggage delayed beyond embarkation and you will be glad you have the insurance. I would never cruise without it. I do not purchase through Disney. I use insuremytripdotcom. If it's a trip to Disney I only insure the trip for the costs I can't recoup such as Disney tickets, airline, prepaid hotels, etc. it's a small price to pay if you ever need to use it.

Yes I have had medical emergencies and had to fly home at a moments notice. Yes the airline charged me an outrageous amount but so what. That is just part of life. You just have to suck it up and deal with it. Gambling that something like that is going to happen so I can collect??? If I wanted to gamble I would go to Las Vegas.

 

[disykat]

People don't buy insurance hoping to collect. It's very different than gambling.

I'm buying trip insurance our next trip because it will be overseas and my parents are elderly. I hope I don't have to use it. I'm buying it to protect myself from monetary loss if I have to.

 

[ronandannette]

I wouldn't recommend buying it. I think it is a waste of money.

Maybe to some, if they are comfortable "self-insuring" or in other words, being able to both pay out of pocket for any unforeseen events (up to and including medi-vac or repatriation of remains) and/or not minding eating the cost of any pre-paid, non-refundable vacation arrangements if you end up being unable to go for any reason. In cases where we felt relatively "low-risk" for any of those circumstances we didn't buy it. Currently (due to our season of life) we always do. I also recommend *****************. That was insure my trip dot com. Not sure why it got starred??

 

[MillauFr]

People don't buy insurance hoping to collect. It's very different than gambling..

In my mind I do not care if the check is coming from a casino or an insurance company. Cash is cash no matter who it is coming from.

I do agree with the people bringing up the medical evacuation as a reason to buy the insurance. Those costs can be very expensive if your own health insurance company doesn't cover them.

 

[HM]

I have never bought trip insurance for a domestic trip.

We did buy medical insurance through AAA for my DD who went to Europe for three weeks this summer. It was $44. She did end up getting sick and it was bad enough to call a doctor to come treat her. We were reimbursed the $380ish dollars she had to pay to be seen. We were really afraid she'd end up in a hospital from her description of her symptoms and then it would have been much more.

 

[Forum Jumper]

DH went to our local AAA office and bought trip insurance for a cruise we took years ago. (The cruise was not booked thru AAA) I don't know the details of it. I think it was reasonable. We didn't use it on the trip. I don't know the timeline of when he purchased (how close to trip time), but it is an option.

 

[Princess Disney Mom]

It depends on the trip. For a Disney trip I never buy insurance. If I don't use the tickets I can use them on a later trip. Disney lets you cancel room only 5 days before a trip with no fee and a one day room charge to cancel within 5 days. We had to fly home early in 2011 as hurricane Irene was coming and our flight was canceled. The airline put us on a flight a day early at no charge. For an expensive trip with a lot to lose Id buy it.

 

[LynnTH]

I have not used Trip Insurance for Disney because usually I am travelling on SW Points and renting DVC so doesn't make sense in that case.

I have bought Trip Insurance for cruises though. Like others have said go to insuremytrip and you can see all kinds of plans and different coverage options. I'm sure it is way cheaper than Disney.

Glad we had trip insurance this last cruise. 2nd Day of trip - DS15 fell on the basketball court and broke his wrist in 2 spots. Went to the ships doctor where they did xrays and put a temporary cast on. Then the next day in Cozumel they made an appointment for us with an Orthopedic Surgeon. Where he did more xrays, had to rebreak the arm to set it correctly and put on another cast. When we got home we submitted the claim to our insurance company first -- they paid a portion of it and then the Trip Insurance paid the rest. Very glad we spent the extra $ for this. You never know what can happen and it gives you peace of mind (especially out of the country).

 

[mzspaz]

Glad to have found this thread!

I've been researching travel insurance for most of this evening and have found a good site to compare the policies.

I'm looking into the insurance more for peace of mind than anything. We are flying to CA for a trip to DL and have a layover in Denver with a plane change. My biggest worry right now is a weather delay or other issue in Denver.

Has anyone ever been reimbursed by their travel insurance for delays or baggage loss?