Insurance. What do you use? Insurance through DVC?

[Ralph&Pam]

Just trying to understand correctly. I am not aware if third party insurance will cover the cost of a DVC stay on point. Was the trip that you made a claim for a DVC stay on points? if, so did Allianz reimburse you in any way for the cost of the room or is the DVC insurance the only way to recoup some of the costs of a DVC room when staying on points.

No, the Allianz policy excludes reimbursement of timeshare-related expenses, so the point cost would not be covered. Our claim was for a cruise cancellation due to a medical emergency about 3 weeks prior to the cruise. We received partial reimbursement from DCL and the rest through the insurance, along with some non-refundable airfare.

 

[Brian Noble]

I self-insure unless the completely-lost anount is getting well into five figures. There aren't many trips for which that's true--cruises, package tours, that sort of thing. I've burned a few flights, hotel nights, and timeshare exchanges here and there, but I suspect I am still coming out ahead.

 

[VGCgroupie]

I wasnt getting notifications on my own thread. grrr... Still havent landed on what to do.

 

[Steelers0854]

Thank you! I've always wondered, say I am planning a trip to WDW with a cruise-- if the total cost is 15k, but only the non-refundable cruise portion is $10k, can you just set the option to the $10k limit? Like is there any penalty for undervaluing the total cost of your trip other than capping what you can get paid back?

The easiest way to think about an annual plan is your limited by the maximum coverages for the plan you choose based on claims made against the plan. So you wouldn’t necessarily need to have $50,000 worth of trip cancellation coverage unless you are trying to protect against canceling every single trip and filing a claim for it. You file claims against your plan for any covered reason until you hit the policy max. So best to do some math and determine your risk exposure and get a plan that covers what you are comfortable with. It’s not like buying individual plans to cover the full cost of each trip, IMO you would want atleast enough coverage o cover the cost of your most expensive trip in full, then maybe a little extra.

I self-insure unless the completely-lost anount is getting well into five figures. There aren't many trips for which that's true--cruises, package tours, that sort of thing. I've burned a few flights, hotel nights, and timeshare exchanges here and there, but I suspect I am still coming out ahead.

Im generally not overly concerned about the trip cancellation/interruption coverages, we mainly have it to cover medical costs on the cruise ship or in a foreign city. We aren’t blessed enough to be able to cover tens if not hundreds of thousands in medical bills. But yea for strictly DVC purposes im not that concerned about having coverage for it like you.

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

The easiest way to think about an annual plan is your limited by the maximum coverages for the plan you choose based on claims made against the plan. So you wouldn’t necessarily need to have $50,000 worth of trip cancellation coverage unless you are trying to protect against canceling every single trip and filing a claim for it. You file claims against your plan for any covered reason until you hit the policy max. So best to do some math and determine your risk exposure and get a plan that covers what you are comfortable with. It’s not like buying individual plans to cover the full cost of each trip, IMO you would want atleast enough coverage o cover the cost of your most expensive trip in full, then maybe a little extra.



Im generally not overly concerned about the trip cancellation/interruption coverages, we mainly have it to cover medical costs on the cruise ship or in a foreign city. We aren’t blessed enough to be able to cover tens if not hundreds of thousands in medical bills. But yea for strictly DVC purposes im not that concerned about having coverage for it like you.

Thank you, this was super helpful. Unfortunately, I just paid to insure a single expensive trip but I think it will work really well for us going forward.

Once I got a horrible sinus infection and it wasn’t safe to fly with plugged ears and had to rebook 2 biz class seats home from Australia last minute— I think insurance covered about $6k in change fees/price difference, plus my doctors bills, so I like to joke I’ve been playing with the house’s money buying insurance since then.

 

[Brian Noble]

we mainly have it to cover medical costs on the cruise ship or in a foreign city.

My employer has very affordable international health coverage. We are automatically covered on business travel and can opt in for leisure.

 

[Moonspinner]

No insurance. But we do have a credit card that has some insurance.

 

[airjay75]

Hmmm. Was unaware this even existed until this thread. Just did a quote - $121. Seems from prior posts that that covers all your contracts for a given UY - is that right? If it were the price per contract, that could be very pricey so I'm assuming that is not the case. I do see it offers primary rental car damage coverage - that is mildly enticing since I don't have a credit card that does that and I pretty much always rent a car on my Disney trips (although I never purchase from the car rental companies either).

Would really be interested to hear from someone who has made an actual claim on one of these policies. Peace of mind is one thing, I suppose, but I feel like every story I've ever heard about travel insurance is that they make you jump through a lot of hoops when you file a claim. How easy was it? What was covered? Is it as easy as, my flight was cancelled, lost one or two days of my trip, so here's your dues reimbursement for those nights? Or, did they make you jump through a lot of hoops to prove you couldn't reschedule or use those points at a different time? If you have to spend a lot of time to get $8 per point back, might was well spend that time trying to rent out a SSR/OKW booking instead.

Of course, the policy covers a lot of other things, but personally I'm less concerned about a lot of those potential losses.

 

[VGCgroupie]

Hmmm. Was unaware this even existed until this thread. Just did a quote - $121. Seems from prior posts that that covers all your contracts for a given UY - is that right? If it were the price per contract, that could be very pricey so I'm assuming that is not the case. I do see it offers primary rental car damage coverage - that is mildly enticing since I don't have a credit card that does that and I pretty much always rent a car on my Disney trips (although I never purchase from the car rental companies either).

Would really be interested to hear from someone who has made an actual claim on one of these policies. Peace of mind is one thing, I suppose, but I feel like every story I've ever heard about travel insurance is that they make you jump through a lot of hoops when you file a claim. How easy was it? What was covered? Is it as easy as, my flight was cancelled, lost one or two days of my trip, so here's your dues reimbursement for those nights? Or, did they make you jump through a lot of hoops to prove you couldn't reschedule or use those points at a different time? If you have to spend a lot of time to get $8 per point back, might was well spend that time trying to rent out a SSR/OKW booking instead.

Of course, the policy covers a lot of other things, but personally I'm less concerned about a lot of those potential losses.

Id love to know the answers to all of this too.

It is per membership which is nice as opposed to per contract. I would much rather it be for all your memberships though.

 

[VGCgroupie]

Wanted open this thread up again to see if anyone has any further insight. Previously I had decided it wasnt worth it but reassessing now. No other place cover timeshare dues. I think I would need a separate insurance for cruises it seems. I really would like to find insurance that cover booking flights with miles. That probably doesnt exist.

 

[Girlstar30]

I bought trip insurance once and i ended up needing stitches when I cut up my arm on a tiger safari in India and they rushed me to a nearby hospital in a remote village (crazy, I know ) Anyways it was a complete waste because the stitches cost me $22

Then I bought another time and thats when I was in Poland and they were shutting down the border and the trip ended early so the tour company I was on just gave me a full refund and paid for the exorbitant flight I paid to fly out of Poland into London and then back to LA.

The trip insurance flat out denied me when it was a covered reason and then shadily changed their policy not to include border shutdowns when it previously did. I didnt go after them because the tour company ended up refunding me but I really should have for principle of the matter.

So now I dont buy trip insurance, but from the people that ive met that have had success, theyve all had Allianz. Thats the only trip insurance I would ever even consider buying.

 

[Girlstar30]

And i have to say that DVC is very understanding in my experience on this last trip if you need to make changes because youre sick

 

[VGCgroupie]

I’ve seen good things said about Allianz too. Thanks @Girlstar30 you have been on so many adventures!

 

[Girlstar30]

I’ve seen good things said about Allianz too. Thanks @Girlstar30 you have been on so many adventures!

You know it, I have stories

 

[airjay75]

I really would like to find insurance that cover booking flights with miles.

I'm not familiar with all airline miles programs, but at least in my experience, I don't think I'd need this. I'm deep into AA's miles programs, and as long as I cancel a flight booked on miles prior to scheduled departure time, I get all the miles back (and the taxes I paid refunded). If your flight is cancelled, the airline will either rebook you or you'd get your miles back. So, I sort of struggle to see any situation where trip insurance would actually kick in to cover anything specific to my miles.

That said, I'm sure not all airline miles are quite that flexible. But, in that case, you'd probably have the problem of valuation of your miles, and that may be one reason why it's hard to find insurance to cover it.