Travel Insurance?

[dakotix]

I'm a little over whelmed with all the many choices out there for travel insurance. I've paid nearly all of my balance for my trip save the cost of the dining plan. I'm hoping for free dining for my travel dates in January. If FD is not offered I'm going to take it off my reservation. If it is offered but I have to adjust my checkin date to accomidate the offer, I am prepared to do that. Because of that I have held off booking my air travel...also 6 months out is a bit too soon to be booking air anyway.

Should I wait until I book my flight and before I get insurance? Which insurance provider is the best?

 

[ready123go]

I'm a little over whelmed with all the many choices out there for travel insurance. I've paid nearly all of my balance for my trip save the cost of the dining plan. I'm hoping for free dining for my travel dates in January. If FD is not offered I'm going to take it off my reservation. If it is offered but I have to adjust my checkin date to accomidate the offer, I am prepared to do that. Because of that I have held off booking my air travel...also 6 months out is a bit too soon to be booking air anyway.

Should I wait until I book my flight and before I get insurance? Which insurance provider is the best?

It depends upon the policy. Do you know what you are looking for in a policy? Sometimes your credit card will cover some aspects of travel insurance. For instance, my card covers rental cars.

I have used http://www.tripinsurancestore.com/ to buy insurance before. They make it easy, because they use only 5 companies. They have a lot (a lot!!) of info on their website

 

[dakotix]

my main concern is the fact that we're going in January, travelling from the northeast. If theres a blizzard we could end up hung up at the airport for a couple days or more. If that happens on our departure to Orlando I would more than likely want to cancel the trip and rebook for a later date. If that happens at the end, then it doesnt matter unless we're stuck in Orlando for a few days and we need to get a room somewhere until airports up north reopen.

And of course coverage for accidents etc while on vacation is a consideration as well. But my main concern is weather related

 

[pg0314]

We booked our trip through AAA so we used their travel insurance. My main concerns were weather and family emergencies so I made sure that both of those issues were covered.

 

[DixieMitch]

If you're USAA members, their travel insurance is great. Similar coverage to other providers and cheaper. For our trip, other estimates were about $125. We got the same coverage from USAA for $75.

 

[merina888]

I'd wait until after you book your flights and finalize your plans before buying travel insurance. Most travel insurance is based on the total cost of your trip. We always buy travel insurance now. We've used it every time we've bought it so it is worth it.

 

[MHSweb79]

my main concern is the fact that we're going in January, travelling from the northeast. If theres a blizzard we could end up hung up at the airport for a couple days or more. If that happens on our departure to Orlando I would more than likely want to cancel the trip and rebook for a later date. If that happens at the end, then it doesnt matter unless we're stuck in Orlando for a few days and we need to get a room somewhere until airports up north reopen.

And of course coverage for accidents etc while on vacation is a consideration as well. But my main concern is weather related

Last time I purchased AAA travel insurance, the agent made sure I understood that weather issues (including hurricanes!) were NOT covered. There were very specific reasons to cancel that were covered- basically a death in the immediate family, or illness of one of the travellers.

So make sure that whatever you purchase, you are getting the coverage you need.

 

[rwdavis2]

We first bought travel insurance for a 2008 trip. It was through the house rental (AllStar Vacation Homes) and it was an AIG Travel Guard Policy. The contract is very readable and it's clear what's covered.

The reason I recommend it is that we had to use it. My wife got hospitalized for 3 days (Celebration Hospital is top notch as rated by my wife the nurse). The policy paid the hospital co-pay ($2000), my cost for extra hotel nights, and the additional cost of changing air reservations. I submitted the documentation the requested and they paid promptly with no questions.

You can buy varying levels of coverage.