Travel Insurance - Love, Hate or Otherwise?

[*WDW*Groupie*]

I always purchase travel insurance. I didn't when I was in my 20's and 30's, but now I feel it is essential because you just never know what can happen.

I had to use it one time. It was for an ABD trip we had booked for London & Paris. We were in London a few days before the trip started and had to leave suddenly due to a death in the family .

The insurance company was excellent. They refunded everything except for the cost of the insurance and the airline tickets (in fairness we were already there and I had booked on points -- but the taxes on the tickets was almost $1,000.00).

 

[My3Princez]

Most of our travel is driving trips to visit friends or family, so we don't get insurance for those, but whenever we have a "real" vacation planned, we buy trip insurance from TravelGuard. Between us and my parents, we have had to file a claim 3 times and they have paid promptly as long as we file all the necessary paperwork.
Having said that, when it is a trip to Disney, and if the flight carrier is Southwest, cancelling the trip at the very last minute can cost less than the trip insurance would cost upfront anyway. Southwest gives you credit good for a year for the cancelled tickets, and for just a small ($50 I think?) change fee you can reschedule your Disney trip for some future date. BUT --- should something happen DURING your actual travels, the trip insurance is totally worth it!

 

[tajz90]

We use travelex when traveling out of the country and had to claim once. Great experience considering why we claimed. Just turned in our receipts, no questions and received our check.

 

[MomToOne]

I have on occassion taken out travel insurance. I usually use insuremytrip.com to find a policy that fits what I am looking for.

But my suggestion is to read the fine print on any policy you are considering VERY CAREFULLY, and to carefully think through the situations you want coverage for, and make sure they are actually covered.

I remember reading about a cruise awhile back that got into the return port very, very delayed (I was about to go on a similar cruise in the near future so was hanging out on some cruise boards) and a lot of people missed their flights and had to rebook. The airlines weren't understanding about it because it wasn't their fault, and were charging people for the change fees and the increased cost of having to book a flight the day of. Because the delay was due to a mechnical failure on the cruise ship, most people's travel insurance ended up not covering that cost. Had something to do with the wording on most policies.

 

[ready123go]

Most of our travel is driving trips to visit friends or family, so we don't get insurance for those, but whenever we have a "real" vacation planned, we buy trip insurance from TravelGuard. Between us and my parents, we have had to file a claim 3 times and they have paid promptly as long as we file all the necessary paperwork.
Having said that, when it is a trip to Disney, and if the flight carrier is Southwest, cancelling the trip at the very last minute can cost less than the trip insurance would cost upfront anyway. Southwest gives you credit good for a year for the cancelled tickets, and for just a small ($50 I think?) change fee you can reschedule your Disney trip for some future date. BUT --- should something happen DURING your actual travels, the trip insurance is totally worth it!

I'm not fond of SWA, but that is actually a big benefit. Hmmm - going to have to reconsider my carrier.

 

[SamSam]

We used Manual Global when we traveled to Peru through Gap Adventures a couple of years ago and although we did not need it, another in our group used it extensively. A young woman in our group got a very serious case of altitude sickness ( my dh had a mild case), she spend a couple of nights in a hospital, plus two daytime trips for time in a hyper chamber(something like that) , plus 2 hotel visits by the doctor, resulting in ambulance trips to the hospital.

We talked to her and her mom after the trip and their insurance (same company as ours) paid 100%. Amazing...certainly made me a convert to travel insurance.

 

[Mom21]

I had never purchased it, but for some reason 4 years ago, I booked an all inclusive trip to Dominican Republic for me and my dd and bought it for some unknown reason. Well wouldn't you know it. 3 days before we were to leave dd and I were out of town for a trampoline competition. Well she decided to flip across the bed in the hotel, slammed into the 3rd story window, and sliced both her shins open to the bone on the marble ledge (yes she was 12--what was she thinking). All I know is the window did not break thank God as it would have been so much worse.

So of course no trip for us as one grain of sand in those deep wounds in a 3rd world type place could have been deadly. I had my trip insurance through Cheap Caribbean so whatever company they use. We rescheduled for the fall which was a cheaper time. Since it was cheaper, I even got a refund on the difference in package prices which paid for the insurance. It is so odd I purchased it. Hadn't before in our many travels and haven't since.

 

[maplevale]

We always insure - because you just never know what could happen. We have only had to use it once - we were flying to Miami for a cruise... our first flight was cancelled (malfunctioning emergency lighting battery). We got booked on a second flight (with connections) and the plane couldn't take off from the last city because of storms hitting the Eastern seaboard. The trip was in May - and they got hit by some massive thunderstorms.

We called insurance as soon as we knew we weren't getting off the ground - they told us we could walk away at that point and go home and it would all be covered (as opposed to having to fly to Ft.Lauderdale and then miss the boat).

Only thing that wasn't covered was the $75 for insurance and $5 in airport parking!


When booking just a hotel I never do (usually if you cancel in 24 hours you are fine). However I DO use it if I book through Priceline/Hotwire because they are non-refundable.


ETA: I DID NOT book it on our next vacation to Vegas, my new CC has coverage on flights booked through them and I have health coverage through work. I just opened this CC specifically for booking trips (and the points associated) so it pays to look at that as an option if you travel a lot it may work out your yearly fee is less then the insurance would be on the trips you take in a year.

 

[LMN]

Does anyone know which travel insurance company it is that Disney uses? I've never bought travel insurance before but I just booked with Disney for our June 2014 trip and bought the travel insurance. For some reason I just had a gut feeling that it might be a good idea.

 

[disneyshakeygirl]

Love it and always use it. I go with Blue Cross, as they cover severe food allergies (which I have). If I go into shock, I'm covered. The one time I needed (and ahead it) it, it came In handy and it was offered by Air Canada. My flight was delayed and by the time it finally got in, the cabin crew had gone over their legal limit, so my flight got cancelled. My insurance covered a new flight, a hotel and breakfast.