Trip Cancellation & Interruption Insurance

[TheUglyStepsister]

Anyone have any experience with trip cancellation & interruption insurance? What are the cheapest/best insurance providers? Would they cover cancellation due to COVID travel advisories? I'm planning a Disney trip 6 months in advance and I want to book a DVC resort that is non-refundable. I don't think airfare is usually refundable either. This is the first time I'm looking into trip cancellation insurance.

 

[Starwind]

For most Canadian trip cancelation and interruption insurance, covid is considered a "known circumstance" and is NOT covered.

Therefore, you need to closely look at any policy you are considering and be very clear on what exactly it would cover or not. If you specifically want covid coverage you need to ask specifically about what covid coverage a policy does and does not have.

For example, TuGo is considered a good company, and they state: "Trip Cancellation & Trip Interruption Insurance - COVID-19 will continue to be considered a “known circumstance”. Coverage isn’t provided for COVID-19."

Airfare can usually be refundable if you pay more: most airlines have a fully refundable option, or a refundable-with-a-fee option. The cheapest airfare is usually not refundable. Even for the fully refundable there may be rules attached to it, e.g. fully refundable upto a certain number of hours before the flight.

Some airlines currently have change/refund policies right now that if your ticket is purchased by a certain date you are able to make one or more changes to your ticket, possibly including cancelling the ticket. Check the "fine print" with the airline(s) you are considering.

 

[soccerra]

I just posted this in another thread, but its relevant here too, I apologize for the copy and paste:
I spoke to the following before our trip to California in October
AMA - No Covid Coverage on their travel insurance, Exclusion on Policies
TUGO - Westjet Coverage was good (That was done 10/31) But Exclusion on all other Policies they sold
Allianz Insurance - Have a Specific coverage, needs to be bought directly through them, it was slightly more money then Manulife, but the coverage was very similar
Here is what we did
Manulife - Have a specific coverage "Covid 19 Pandemic Travel Plan", the literature on the website says the "Per Diem" for quarantine only pays out after 31 days, that is incorrect. When I called they stated that was no longer the case and their literature had not been updated. When we purchased in fact there was nothing that stated 31 days or more (I double checked). The cost was $38.00 X 2 People for a total of $76 for the 9 days. Had decent coverage. The biggest downfall is you have to purchase it for each trip, they had available "Cancellation Insurance" but for us it was Pricey (Around $250 Total for $2500 worth of coverage) so we didn't purchase it.

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www.manulife.ca

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www.coverme.com
Blue Cross - Our group benefits are through Blue Cross and we are well covered, we called them before we left and they covered you for Covid under the standard coverages as long as you had not tested "positive" in the last 90 days before departure. This seems to be pretty standard with Blue Cross as they wont cover something "Pre-Existing" if you had it 90 days before travel. We did inquire about "Extra" and "Cancellation" Insurance. For their cancellation insurance anything Covid was an Exclusion.
No policies would cover testing, and you were not able to claim it under Health Spending Accounts either.

 

[TheUglyStepsister]

Thanks for all your responses! I found free trip cancellation insurance (includes COVID advisories) with the BMO World Elite airmiles mastercard. They currently waive the annual fee for the first year. Hope this helps any Canadians who are looking for the same thing!

 

[Sue M]

Thanks for all your responses! I found free trip cancellation insurance (includes COVID advisories) with the BMO World Elite airmiles mastercard. They currently waive the annual fee for the first year. Hope this helps any Canadians who are looking for the same thing!

make sure you book all travel for that trip in the card. Especially DVC.

 

[TheUglyStepsister]

make sure you book all travel for that trip in the card. Especially DVC.

Yes absolutely! I had to do multiple split stays because it didn’t arrive on time and certain dates filled up! But worth having the insurance.