Travel insurance - when to take out?

[DLPDreams]

If you are organising a DIY trip, when should you take out travel insurance? It is likely accom and flights could be out end April for us (depending on airline we choose). Is it imperative you have it in place when booking?

 

[Kath2003]

No, it's not imperative to have it until 10 seconds before you depart since the medical cover is really the important part, but prices only go up

We buy it once we book flights, then it's done - no worries. Annual travel insurance is much easier as you're always covered, but you need to see if it's cheaper to buy single trip or annual policies.

 

[DLPDreams]

No, it's not imperative to have it until 10 seconds before you depart, but prices only go up

We buy it once we book flights, then it's done. Annual travel insurance is much easier as you're always covered, but you need to see if it's cheaper to buy single trip or annual policies.

Yeah - we have done annual policies in the past - had a very good one last year as was lucky enough to go abroad 3 times and it also covered our UK holidays last year too. BUT, as we aren't going for another 18 months (poss around 16 mths by the time we book), we couldn't buy an annual policy at booking as it will expire before we go!

I was worried about the gap between booking and getting insurance. As we've always had annual policies before it has never occurred iyswim!

We have a few UK holidays booked this summer so it would be nice to get a policy which covers them as well as WDW next year....

I guess we'll just have to take out a single trip insurance policy, although I know it won't be as economical to do that!

 

[2Tiggies]

I do what Kath does. I buy it as soon as I book flights. In theory, I should probably buy it as soon as I book any non refundable component of our trip. usually that is the flights. Sometimes it is something else. However I am happy to put my £100 deposit on our accommodation package as I know that I can transfer it to the next year and worst case, take the £100 hit. Flights? Well losing over £1000 if anything goes wrong is another story.

Remember with insurance, many policies will cover you for something that was not known at the time you took it out. So if you buy your insurance today and something happens next week that makes it so you are unable to take the trip, or a strike is announced and you wont' be able to fly, you are covered. However taking it out after the fact won't help.

Are you booking flight inclusive/fly drive? Flights are usually only bookable otherwise 11 months out so you could take out appropriate cover then. Package holidays are covered differently to DIY ones.

 

[Elise79]

We have annual travel insurance however if I was looking at single trip I would get it as soon as I paid for anything I couldn't afford to lose.

This is usually flights as the Disney deposit is only £50 pp and the last couple of years this has been covered by our quidco cash back

 

[DLPDreams]

Are you booking flight inclusive/fly drive? Flights are usually only bookable otherwise 11 months out so you could take out appropriate cover then. Package holidays are covered differently to DIY ones.

No, Thomson release flights before that. I have been told their flights will be out late April 2014 for summer 2015. We may, or may not book with them. Accom will be April/May depending on Disney offers. I don't want to book and then leave us uninsured especially where flights are concerned as you say.

I have just looked at our usual insurer (whom I have used for years and they are great) and they will not cover a holiday that far out - currently it goes up to end Feb 2015. So, not sure how I'll get DIY cover? I don't want to pay insurance with Disney or Thomsons - I know I'll get a better cover going direct to an insurer. I might give them a call tomorrow for advice.

Any ideas how you can get insurance 16-17 months out? I have never booked a holiday this far in advance .

 

[2Tiggies]

Sorry, I really don't know but I don't think there is a way around it. The only time I have ever booked flights so far out, they have been part of a package and I took out insurance through the Travel Agent (which wasn't cheap) at the same time, and that covered the whole package. I don't know what else to suggest. Is there a reason you have your mind set on Thomson? You're very far out and there is no telling what your options will be closer to the time.

 

[zippy99]

In answer to OP - it is not imperative.

However, I have been made redundant twice during holiday planning and whilst we have never needed to cancel and claim knowing we were covered is invaluable. We have an annual policy with our bank.

 

[Elise79]

If you are buying flights in full you need a way to cover them - as if anything happened you would lose the whole lot. Could you change your bank to one that includes insurance? Otherwise I guess you will have to take out annual insurance and renew it.

I have never booked flights more than a year out so never needed to look at it.

 

[chmurf]

I don't know how it is in the UK, but here in France we get travel insurance coverage through Visa or Mastercard.
As it's Credit Card related, it might be the same in the UK

Basically, when I book a trip with my Visa (Premier or Platinum) or my Gold Mastercard, I get insurance coverage up to 5000 euros for flights and accom. (using 2 separate cards, mine + DW's, gets a 10.000 euros coverage) we also get medical coverage and assistance.
We get this coverage as long as the trip is booked using the participating debit card.

It may be a totally different policy in the UK, but it might be worth checking if you're not already covered.
You'd be amazed at how many people here buy separate insurance for their trip when they're already covered twice (once by their credit card, and once by their house/auto insurance as, often, such an option is automatically opted in by the insurer to make higher premiums ..)

is it applicable to UK people ?

 

[Elise79]

I don't know how it is in the UK, but here in France we get travel insurance coverage through Visa or Mastercard. As it's Credit Card related, it might be the same in the UK Basically, when I book a trip with my Visa (Premier or Platinum) or my Gold Mastercard, I get insurance coverage up to 5000 euros for flights and accom. (using 2 separate cards, mine + DW's, gets a 10.000 euros coverage) we also get medical coverage and assistance. We get this coverage as long as the trip is booked using the participating debit card. It may be a totally different policy in the UK, but it might be worth checking if you're not already covered. You'd be amazed at how many people here buy separate insurance for their trip when they're already covered 2 times (once by their credit card, and once by their house/auto insurance as, often, such an option is automatically opted in by the insurer to make higher premiums ..) is it applicable to UK people ?

No, in the UK we don't have that.

The only time you are covered by paying in a credit card is if the operator goes bust.

 

[DLPDreams]

Thanks all.

2Tiggies - we are looking at Thomsons because they fly from our local airport (15 mins away). There doesn't seem to be much of a pattern to their pricing, but almost everyone has said there prices never seem to decrease beyond the first booking price, so we are going to book straight away if the prices and times etc suit.

I have looked at upgrading our account to get free insurance with our bank but it's not worth it for us a) it doesn't include our children (so we have to pay to upgrade) b) it doesn't include worldwide cover, only European (so have to pay to upgrade or upgrade to the highest level bank account), by the time I've paid for all that, I could have bought a much better policy much cheaper covering us all - if I were going within 12 months that is .

Only two ways round it I can see, a) take out an annual policy as soon as I book then renew without lapsing (I will have to telephone them to make sure this is possible as I would think the first policy will only include anything undertaken within that annual period tbh) b) take out Thomson's insurance for flights and Disney's insurance for accom at booking - again not very economical!

Lots of people book for Disney quite far out - I wonder what all those people who have booked now for summer 2015 are doing for insurance? There seems to be a fair few who have booked fly drives, and some even packages already. With DH's job, there is no way we can afford not to have good quality insurance.

 

[2Tiggies]

Lots of people book for Disney quite far out - I wonder what all those people who have booked now for summer 2015 are doing for insurance? There seems to be a fair few who have booked fly drives, and some even packages already. With DH's job, there is no way we can afford not to have good quality insurance.

Few of us can afford not to have insurance, hence the consistency in the content of the replies in this thread.

Yes, lots of us book Disney far out. I booked this year's trip, I think in April last year so more than a year out. BUT all I would lose for booking Disney so far out is my £100. I can get right up to 8 weeks prior to travel before I start to lose more as I get closer to the trip, by which time my insurance has well and truly kicked in. Insuring Disney is not an issue. It won't bankrupt me to lose £100 (my £50 per person deposit).

However I booked my flights 10 months out so I could, and did, get an excellent insurance policy immediately the day I booked them.

I can see you are bent on booking your flights really early, but I think you really need to ask yourself if it is only you who you are trying to convince that you need to do so. If you were my closest friend and asking for an opinion, I'd tell you I think you stand to lose more financially by booking these flights so darn early. If something goes wrong, you risk losing everything; and to stop that, you are going to pay more to keep yourself covered. Very few people on here have had to cancel a trip due to not being able to find flights at prices within their budget. Nobody is criticizing you, but many on here do this year upon year, some more than once a year, and so far nobody has supported the idea of booking these flights so far out that you can't protect them adequately. I can't get more upfront than that. Hope it doesn't read as snippy, as it's not intended to be.

 

[DLPDreams]

Few of us can afford not to have insurance, hence the consistency in the content of the replies in this thread.

Yes, lots of us book Disney far out. I booked this year's trip, I think in April last year so more than a year out. BUT all I would lose for booking Disney so far out is my £100. I can get right up to 8 weeks prior to travel before I start to lose more as I get closer to the trip, by which time my insurance has well and truly kicked in. Insuring Disney is not an issue. It won't bankrupt me to lose £100 (my £50 per person deposit).

However I booked my flights 10 months out so I could, and did, get an excellent insurance policy immediately the day I booked them.

I can see you are bent on booking your flights really early, but I think you really need to ask yourself if it is only you who you are trying to convince that you need to do so. If you were my closest friend and asking for an opinion, I'd tell you I think you stand to lose more financially by booking these flights so darn early. If something goes wrong, you risk losing everything; and to stop that, you are going to pay more to keep yourself covered. Very few people on here have had to cancel a trip due to not being able to find flights at prices within their budget. Nobody is criticizing you, but many on here do this year upon year, some more than once a year, and so far nobody has supported the idea of booking these flights so far out that you can't protect them adequately. I can't get more upfront than that. Hope it doesn't read as snippy, as it's not intended to be.

I understand what you are saying but we are talking about charter flights, not scheduled, they have different pricing strategies. Not saying they may not decrease for a short period (have been monitoring prices for a year), if we do book early, but invariably prices tend to go up, not down, especially in peak school holidays (some routes are already sold out for this August as there is only one flight per week and a large portion of that will be filled with Thomson 'package' holidays). The majority of people on here seem to fly scheduled, not chartered.

Nothing is set in stone, and I'm certainly not bent on booking early - I'd rather keep the money in my bank thanks . What I am concerned about is flying from our local airport, if possible, and that means flights are released April, not at 11 months out, so we need to make a decision and best guess then on whether booking then will be the right thing for us to do. . And be prepared if we think it is. I am sure if Virgin brought out flights earlier than 11 months, some people would book earlier (proven by the amount of people who have already booked fly drives for summer 2015). It's just the timings we are given to work with! No-one has a crystal ball - booking at any time is a gamble.

Totally appreciate what you are saying about Disney's cancellation policy and therefore the accom risk is minimal in comparison. Whereas, the flights in full, are a lot to lose, so if we do book super early, we need to make sure we are covered . My understanding of this is the reason why I have asked the question about insurance policies .

 

[Elise79]

First of all Disney don't offer insurance plus if you buy insurance with Thompson I would guess it would be a trip policy not just flights.

The reason most of us fly on the scheduled rather than chartered airlines is that they are a lot less restrictive. Many of us do not the traditional 14 nights required to travel chartered.

In April we are away for 11 nights and July is 16 nights. Neither trip would work on chartered.

People booking fly drives for 2015 probably haven't worried about insurance yet either as they have only paid a deposit. Sounds like a fly drive might be best if you can't get insurance and you want to book early - you don't have to take the car.

 

[crabbie1]

Where are you flying from? My nearest airport is birmingham but flights "charter" are always more expensive so we go from manchester. Its an 80 min drive up but if it means saving overall we do it. I'm probably in the minority but I never book flights more than 6 months out. Prices I have found fluctuate daily and when we went in august we booked the march before. Dont Thomson fly into Sanford? I'm just curious as to why u are set on Thomson and the airport 15mins away and booking so far in advance. Are u having a car as you will need to get from Sanford to orlando.

 

[Sam1]

Last year we got insurance just before the balances were due. This year we've booked accommodation through Disney and a package through Virgin Holidays, so I'm assuming we're okay to do the same because we'd only stand to lose the deposit from both if something happened beforehand. For us that'd be about £900. Any more than that and we'd have to get it earlier.

 

[Laurafoster]

There are some travel insurance policy's available that will cover summer 2015. You just really need to trawl through loads to find them. Post Office is definitely one as I've just took out one for my grandparents for Sept 2015. It also gave me the option to buy annual policies starting as late as 2016.

 

[DLPDreams]

To be honest, I don't really want to start justifying (again!) the whys and wherefores of where we want to fly from and whether it fits our budget or itinerary and where it flies to. I am really just asking if anyone knows of insurance policies which can cover from 16 months or so out, either by personal experience or from prior knowledge .

Thanks to those who have come up with some suggestions - I will definitely check out the Post Office and I have now been informed that Thomson can offer flight only insurance at booking, and also some direct insurance brokers seem to offer it too . So, at least I know I can cover the flights should we book early!

 

[tinkerpea]

Hi all

Insurance fully confuses me, we have annual trip insurance with post office at their highest cover.

No where does it say that our flights out covered if we can not take the trip, or that we can get covered for the difference in flights if we have to change the time due to deployment,

I was told you needed to take out a separate cancellation cover?
So I'm lost lol as we have the insurance from last yr and have just ha to pay £800 to change our flights due to military work, Virgin would not waive the change fee.
Can I claim?