Travel Insurance (Too Late and 3rd Party Vendor?)

[bsmcneil]

Forgive me if this is the wrong forum - it wasn't clear to me where I should put it !

(A) when is it too late to purchase travel insurance? I've already purchased my lodging and flights (though I guess theoretically I could cancel/get them again. Haven't bought tickets yet. Trip is about 75 days away. Did I miss the chance?
(B) a ticketing website (boardwalkticketing) seemingly offers trip interruption insurance (info below) but I'm wondering if anyone's used them and whether it's worth while?
(C) I have a couple of CC that seemingly helps with these things - but this is new to me. What do I need to do? I have, for instance, the Chase Freedom Flex (go down to Travel) and SW Priority (go down). I also have some capital one cards that I doubt are more useful than the Chase ones.

Trip Interruption Insurance
$5 per ticket

Trip Cancellation/Trip Interruption Terms:
Coverage and benefits include the following, subject to certain exclusions and limitations:

• Trip Cancellation/Trip Interruption (100% of insured Trip Cost), including coverage for nonrefundable prepaid tickets due to covered reasons such as:
• Involuntary termination or layoff after the effective date of coverage and you have been an active employee with the same employer for at least one year.
• Being called into active military service, or having military leave revoked, or being reassigned.
• A disabling sickness, injury or death causing trip to be canceled.
• Hurricane or inclement weather causing delay or cancellation of travel.

Terms of Coverage:

• Your purchase is protected when one or more of the covered reasons become applicable to the individual who made the purchase. Proof of reason is required and must be submitted to Park Savers within 7 days of discovery/issue. All claims may be sent to: info@parksavers.com. This includes any termination notices from employer, doctor's note signed and authorized by your physician, death certificate, or military orders for service.
• Reimbursement of purchase price will not take place until the purchased items have reached their expiration. During this time guests who may have cancelled their trip due to the above listed reasons are still eligible to use their purchase until expiration. Upon expiration the guest will be paid out in full for the cancelled trip purchase (if not used already) and have submitted the required proof.
• Trip Cancellation/Trip Interruption will not be paid out if any portion of the purchase has been used.

 

[EACarlson]

A: You can get it right up until you leave, but the cost will vary as will what is included. Since you already purchased your flights and lodgings, you'd have to look at the protections of whatever card you made those purchases with to see what might be covered already.
B: That $5 per ticket only covers those specific tickets, usually not worthwhile and you can get the same coverage from a decent card for free.
C: You have to pay for the things with that card. For instance if you book your flights with the Freedom Flex and get sick and have to come home early, they will theoretically pay for any difference in airfare you have to pay. Since you've already bought your flights it too late to worry about that.

 

[sam_gordon]

It's too late to get the insurance once you need it.

Seriously, I *THINK* if you get the insurance within 30 days(?) of booking your trip, it changes whether "pre-existing conditions" are covered. Check with the policies.

 

[decheez]

I used to sell travel insurance (both medical as well as cancellation/interruption/baggage etc.). It's super complicated and every vendor's terms/conditions as well as coverage can be vastly different. Some companies you have to purchase within x amount of time of when you purchase your trip. Others you can purchase whenever. For coverage on your credit cards, normally you have to have paid for the full balance of the trip on your card to get the benefits, unless they offer supplemental coverage to purchase (the exception being travel medical, that might be covered even if you didn't purchase the trip on your card). Unfortunately there is no straight forward answer to all your questions. Your best bet it to start researching exactly what you want/need and see if you can find something that suits.

But as somebody else said, if you are thinking you might need to make a claim it's too late to buy.

 

[Lewisc]

Travel insurance policies list what's covered. If its not listed as covered it's not covered. PP has it reversed.

A lot of people think travel insurance covers a lot more then it does.

 

[bsmcneil]

Thanks, very helpful. For me, it's not that I might need to make a claim (or that I foresee making one). For a number of reasons, this trip has been waaaay more piecemeal than usual for me. So I usually book a room and insurance and flights all in the same 24 hours, give or take - but this time, not so much. I got the quotes then (when I first booked the room) but then forgot to complete. Super helpful to know re: the CC benefits.