Travel Insurance in August?

[mommykds]

I booked the new promo & got the travel insurance since it's hurricane season. I ma rethinking this now....

What did you do & why?

 

[bicker]

How convenient! I just posted this reply in another thread...

However, beyond the cost of medical evacuation from a cruise ship, there is often no financial reason to purchase trip insurance. As pepe indicated, he's taken 30 trips without ever a circumstance for receiving any benefit from the insurance. Add up all the insurance premiums he would have paid over that time, and let's say his next trip is an utter disaster: Let's say he ends up never making it to WDW, spends a night in Bodunk, has to pay $300 for a hotel room overnight, and then goes straight home, with no refunds coming from anyone, the airline, Disney, etc. He's still coming out ahead with regard to his 31 trips.

Insurance companies are in business to make money. The most cost effective insurance is the insurance you use least, which runs counter to rational thinking. The end-result is that the only insurance that is "worth" the cost is insurance for things that you cannot afford to pay out of pocket (like medical evacuation from a cruise ships). For any losses you can afford to cover from your own personal savings (if you had to) you're better off "insuring" yourself that way, i.e., if something goes wrong during your vacation, eat the loss, pay the extra costs, and rest assured that you're still making out better than if you had purchased trip insurance for every trip.

Now, I said earlier that these reasons not to buy insurance apply, "if you're the right type of person." What I mean by that is that some folks derive benefits from trip insurance beyond the coverage offered. It's an emotional thing: Some people simply cannot stand the thought of having laid out all this money for a vacation, and then, as I described above, having something terrible happen, and having to eat the loss and pay any extra costs from your own savings. For those folks, they're not buying the insurance because the price makes good financial sense in light of the coverage benefits, but rather because they're actually purchasing peace of mind -- the ability to book and enjoy a vacation without facing the prospect that you'll have to lose what you paid, or even pay more, if you happen to be unlucky this time.

 

[LoriLea]

We have purchased travel insurance for some trips but not others. In March 2005 we purchased insurance for a cruise booked about 4 weeks in advance due to the fact that we had unwell grandparents and thought we might have to cancel. Thankfully that did not happen.
We did, however, run into a problem. Our flight was delayed 13 hours and our ship sailed out of Ft.Lauderdale as we sat in the airport in Toronto. We had purchased a package through the airline and they flew us to our first port and put us up in an all-inclusive resort for 2 days at their expense. There were people on other cruise lines that had to find their own way to their first port, at their own expense. Unless they had insurance this would have been very costly.
Upon our return, we made a claim and were also reimbursed for 2 days of our cruise. My sis and her DH had their new digital camera stolen on the first night of the cruise and were also reimbursed in full for the cost of the camera!

 

[DebbieB]

Be sure to read the fine print to see what the insurance covers before you buy it. On some, travel delays are only covered if it's over 24 hours. WDW is usually pretty accomodating with hurricane situations.

 

[mommykds]

Anyone else get the travel insurance w/ the free dining??

I called back yesterday & dropped it to save $120. Hope I did the right thing.