travel insurance....

[tcufrog]

I'm trying to figure out what makes the most sense WRT travel insurance. I can either pay an annual fee of $495 for an upgraded credit card and get travel insurance for all travel booked with that card or I can buy travel insurance for each individual trip. The upgraded card has some other nice perks but the thing I'm most interested in is the insurance. I plan to get details regarding the travel insurance that comes with the card but I'm interested in learning what y'all prefer to do for travel insurance. In case it matters I'm married and we have two kids ages 6 and 10.

 

[Erzengel]

I know when we went on our last cruise, we got travel insurance through the company we booked through. We didn't book straight through the cruise line.

 

[rwdavis2]

We buy through AIG Travelguard. Mainly because we had to use once it and they paid up with no problems. My wife ended up in the hospital while at WDW and the insurance paid my additional hotel and airfare, plus the hospital co-pay. I would be reluctant to buy it from the company with which you are traveling.

Are the perks with the CC worth the cost? We've never paid more than about $200 to insure any trip. But we don't normally travel more than once a year. With Travelguard you can buy the level of coverage you want and the terms are pretty clear.

 

[LYSE]

You can get good travel insurance with a cheaper credit card .. $95 for instance with the chase sapphire preferred...granted the reserve has higher limits for the insurance and an annual fee that is effectively $150 after $300 in travel credits

 

[gotomu212]

I would look closely at the insurance your cc offers and compare it to one time specific insurance. We have a cc with insurance- it covers lost baggage and a hotel stay for trip interruption, but did not cover trip refund if we had to cancel. Our specific trip insurance always covers refunds for certain criteria (mainly illness, accident, job change). Our cc insurance was also not very generous for medical evacuation costs.

 

[msjprincess]

I usually find insurance through insuremytrip. I purchased insurance C&F Travel Insured International Worldwide Trip Protector. Kids were free so it only cost $100 for my family of 5 for a trip that cost $4500. it had $100K for medicall and up to $1mil for medical evacuation.

 

[NHdisneylover]

We buy a yearly travel insurance for medical--it includes helicopter evacuation from cruise ships, etc----bascially everything.

other than that, becuase we travel so often that insuring the travel part of every trip adds up too fast, we "self insure" (meaning, yes we know we risk possibly having to pay for flights home from somewhere unexpected, or eat the cost of a booked vacation, etc---but for us it makes mroe financial sense to risk that than buy coverage for the trip itself--so long as we know medical is covered)

 

[tcufrog]

NHDisneylover...

Which company do you use?

I refuse to get another Chase card. When we had one they kept freezing our account when we went on vacation even if we told them in advance. The final straw was sitting in the Wilderness Lodge lobby arguing with them while the rest of my family ate dinner at Wilderness Lodge.

 

[LYSE]

NHDisneylover...

Which company do you use?

I refuse to get another Chase card. When we had one they kept freezing our account when we went on vacation even if we told them in advance. The final straw was sitting in the Wilderness Lodge lobby arguing with them while the rest of my family ate dinner at Wilderness Lodge.

So I assume you were looking at getting the Amex Platinum?

If you have beef with chase there are plenty of other cards with insurance available, however the Platinum is nice considering it covers some things even if you didn't pay with the card.

 

[tcufrog]

Actually it's a Visa from my investment bank. I haven't looked at the Amex Platinum. It also includes $100 credit each for my dh and I for Global entry, $250 airline fee credit, no foreign purchase transaction fees, collision and theft insurance for rental cars, free access to Priority Plus airport lounges, $100 discount on the purchase of between 2 and 5 qualifying round-trip, domestic coach airline tickets on the same itinerary when purchased through their website, etc.

It's unclear what it covers in terms of travel insurance because the website says something other than what the concierge I contacted said. I suspect that it's not full travel insurance though. The advantage that it does offer over traditional travel insurance is that it covers all airline tickets and cruises purchased with the card even if the person doesn't have a card. For example, every year I buy a ticket to and from India for my mil to visit. Those tickets usually cost at least $1,000. If we buy the ticket with this credit card and we have to cancel her flight due to a medical problem we can get a refund. We almost had to cancel a ticket for her to California because she was having heart problems.

 

[NHdisneylover]

NHDisneylover...

Which company do you use?

I refuse to get another Chase card. When we had one they kept freezing our account when we went on vacation even if we told them in advance. The final straw was sitting in the Wilderness Lodge lobby arguing with them while the rest of my family ate dinner at Wilderness Lodge.

It's an add on rider through our German insurance---company is called Barmenia.

Sorry about your Chase issues. We've had that card since Disney first came out with it and only had one hold out on it (totally legit--glad they caught it, even though it was a pain as we had jut arrived at WDW). We all four (kids have them in their names now too) travel frequently and use them all sorts of places--often 2 or 3 of us using htem in differnt coutnries at the same time, and I am always a little surprised that we don't run into holds from time to time just due to our "normal" being so abnormal.

 

[MIGrandma]

We buy our trip insurance from Allianz, found them thru Insure my trip (leave out the spaces and add .com)

I think for our last vacation it cost about $160.

We had to file a claim once and the paid it promptly. I wouldn’t use any company but them.

 

[ronandannette]

We buy our trip insurance from Allianz, found them thru Insure my trip (leave out the spaces and add .com)

I think for our last vacation it cost about $160.

We had to file a claim once and the paid it promptly. I wouldn’t use any company but them.

I always research through insure my trip - it provides quotes for several different companies. I'm quite paranoid about the idea of out-of-country medical expenses so we always buy insurance, even though my work benefits policy includes some coverage. I just can't wrap my head around the potential of a 6-figure bill if we were to have an accident.

On our last trip in May, the policy we bought was through Allianz and I've just become aware a (non-medical) incident we incurred was actually included in the coverage. (Yes - stupid of me not to have realized it earlier or even to have though about enquiring.) I'm about to try and make a claim, which will be the first in all our years of travel. Wish me luck.

 

[Shanti]

I only insure international travel, including cruises. I'm a USAA member & get travel insurance through one of their affiliates.

 

[MIGrandma]

I always research through insure my trip - it provides quotes for several different companies. I'm quite paranoid about the idea of out-of-country medical expenses so we always buy insurance, even though my work benefits policy includes some coverage. I just can't wrap my head around the potential of a 6-figure bill if we were to have an accident.

On our last trip in May, the policy we bought was through Allianz and I've just become aware a (non-medical) incident we incurred was actually included in the coverage. (Yes - stupid of me not to have realized it earlier or even to have though about enquiring.) I'm about to try and make a claim, which will be the first in all our years of travel. Wish me luck.

I hope they come through for you.

When we made a claim with them it was when my dad passed away. He had been ill a few days before our trip so I had spoken with them by phone a few times. They were so kind to me. The day we were supposed to leave to fly to Florida before our cruise started was the day of his funeral. We flew down the next day, but had to pay the airline a flight change fee and the cost difference between the two flights. I made the claim when we got back and they sent us a check within 2 weeks for the exact amount.

 

[ronandannette]

I hope they come through for you.

When we made a claim with them it was when my dad passed away. He had been ill a few days before our trip so I had spoken with them by phone a few times. They were so kind to me. The day we were supposed to leave to fly to Florida before our cruise started was the day of his funeral. We flew down the next day, but had to pay the airline a flight change fee and the cost difference between the two flights. I made the claim when we got back and they sent us a check within 2 weeks for the exact amount.

Mine is going to be for the expenses we incurred due to having lost our Passports in Europe. It never occurred to me that type of thing would qualify as "trip interruption" until a friend recently mentioned it. I've just finished gathering all the documentation and I hope they'll still consider covering the claim.