Travelex - Travel Plus or TraveLite - which plan?

[Bella2000]

After spending a lot of time on coverage comparisons I've finally decided Travelex is the company that I want to use for trip insurance. I now am trying to decide between TraveLite or Travel Plus. TraveLite is less than DCL, Travel Plus is $23. more than DCL direct coverage but no pre-existing through DCL makes it not an option for me. The fact that Travelex is a primary insurance is a huge plus to me with pre-existing coverage within 21 days of deposit vs. 7, 14 etc is gravy. It's not the money difference of the plans it is whether the extras on plus are needed.

The TraveLite plan appears to beat most of the other plans. One exception may be how medical evacuation and medical coverage is handled. Medical expense is 50K (more than many others) however the medical evacuation description states that it is included in Medical Expense benefit level. I can't ask an agent today since they aren't open - am I reading this correctly that the two are combined? So for example if there was a claim which included evacuation and hospital treatment: if medical evacuation was 20K then medical expense would need to be < 20K or you are looking at out of pocket?

Travel Plus also includes Medical Evacuation in Medical Expense benefit level however Medical Expense is reflected as $500K.

I've been trying to do search on claims and medical evacuations to see pricing - I don't know if going to next tier is unnecessary? Other experiences? Am I interpreting this correctly?

 

[Bella2000]

anyone?

 

[educator]

Bump

 

[thiscloud]

i personally went with plus. the price difference was around $40 more for the plus than the lite so we're talking one or two percent price difference of the cruise cost, might as well get the larger coverage.

i believe you are right about the evacuation being included, that's what sold me on the higher coverage. i didn't want the evac to eat up the insurance (i guess a helicopter evac could wipe out the measly $50k that lite provides vs. the $500k that plus provides).

 

[Bella2000]

I spoke to three or four Travelex reps over the course of the day with various questions. All of them were helpful so I feel even better with our choice. Yes, the Medical coverage is one dollar figure (50K TraveLite or 500K Travel Plus) for medical expense and medical evacuation.

Today, I happened to receive the DCL vacation protection plan brochure in the mail and the DCL plan for Emergency medical transport is 30K and the emergency medical/dental is 10K. Total is 40K. So basically TraveLite offers 10K more coverage than DCL plan in this area AND you get pre-exist if purchased within 21 days after initial deposit with primary insurance coverage. Direct through Access America (travel with ease plan) Medical is 25K with Emerg Med Evac $300K with pre-exisit within 14 days of inital deposit and secondary insurance. DCL coverage for us would be $167, while TraveLite is less and Travel Plus is more. This made me feel more comfortable with either choice.

I also confirmed that insurance should start from when we leave our house or start of trip regardless of whether it is the first day of the cruise. We are staying at WDW prior to our cruise and to include the cost of plane fare. All things I've learned here and just validated with them - thanks everyone!

So - what to do - I don't think I can go wrong either way.


Oh yeah - I also looked into the cost of travelite with optional upgrade of additional 100K medical expense. Doing that would have added $24/per person so in that case for more medical expense if 50K isn't enough for you just go with travel plus plan.

 

[RIDISNEYLOVERS]

How much does the travelite and travelplus plans cost per person? I believe DCL's insurance is $99 pp.

Also I made my deposit in 2002 for our upcoming cruise - am I not eligible to get this kind of insurnace coverage?

Thanks for your help in making this insurance make sense.

Lisa

 

[thiscloud]

go to http://www.insuremytrip.com/ to get quotes from various insurance companies including the two travelex plans.

buying insurance within a certain number of days from the initial deposit on the cruise is to qualify for the pre-existing condition waiver. how i understand it (unclearly) is that normal insurance doesn't cover a cancellation due to a pre-existing condition that exists before the cruise, so if you have an illness now before you buy the insurance and that same illness causes you not to be able to go, you couldn't qualify for the trip cancellation benefits because it's a pre-existing condition. or something like that.

you can still buy insurance up to the day of your cruise (or maybe the day before) if you want.

one thing about travelex (and some other agencies), they cover kids under 18 for free when traveling with adults. so when you put in for your quote, if you have kids under 18, choose to enter the entire total of the trip rather than amounts for individual travelers. what happens is that kids cost less than adults individually, but if you put the quote in based on the total trip cost, they just divide the cost by the number of travelers regardless of age, so the average cost per person may be less than the adult cost and may put you in a cheaper bracket and the kids are covered free anyway.

 

[RIDISNEYLOVERS]

Thanks for the information and trying to make heads or tails out of it!!

I am doing a comparison!!

Lisa

 

[LisaGoeke]

Thanks for this info. I knew I'd be able to find insurance cheaper than what RCCL quoted me. Insuremytrip.com is a great site!