Trip Insurance - What am I missing?

[ElsasFan]

We are almost ready to make our final payment, which means we need to decide whether to purchase trip insurance. Our family of five is going, me, my husband, and our three kids. Trip insurance would cost about $75 per adult. It seemed like a good idea to purchase it--Disney trips are not cheap!--until I read the fine print on our package confirmation. If I understand correctly, we could make changes to our reservation up to one day before arrival, with a $50 change fee. Would that include postponing it, if an emergency arose? If so, I don't see how trip insurance would make sense for us, because I'm not really concerned with coverage for lost luggage, accidental AD&D, etc.

Am I missing something?

 

[DebbieB]

We are almost ready to make our final payment, which means we need to decide whether to purchase trip insurance. Our family of five is going, me, my husband, and our three kids. Trip insurance would cost about $75 per adult. It seemed like a good idea to purchase it--Disney trips are not cheap!--until I read the fine print on our package confirmation. If I understand correctly, we could make changes to our reservation up to one day before arrival, with a $50 change fee. Would that include postponing it, if an emergency arose? If so, I don't see how trip insurance would make sense for us, because I'm not really concerned with coverage for lost luggage, accidental AD&D, etc.

Am I missing something?

People think of travel insurance in terms of cancelling before you go. Where it is more valuable is what if something happens while you are there? For example, an emergency at home and you have to leave. Or someone in your family is hospitalized and you have to stay a week longer. If your family is healthy and no one at home is in bad shape you probably don't need it but it's something to think about.

 

[cigar95]

Plus, there's the issue of your plane ticket in the case of an advance cancellation.

Trip insurance can also simplify some issues with medical emergencies that might arise while you're on travel. (This is most frequently an issue in overseas situations, but it could apply to a WDW trip as well.)

 

[pmaurer74]

We usually get it when we fly. We are flying during winter which means our trip could be delayed or even cancelled. We have had deaths in the family right before leaving. We have had children sick and in the hospital a few days before leaving and we have had family members go to the hospital while we were at Disney, The trip insurance will cover what your medical insurance does not. While in Florida last year a pipe broke in my parents kitchen and did $90k damage to their home. It obviously does not cover the damage to the home but they cut their trip 5 days short.

 

[gtpoohbear]

We usually get it, as others have said, for things that could happen while we are there. Someone getting sick/injured, or an emergency at home.

At least this way, if something terrible happens to cut our trip short, we could get a refund and be able to go again once things settled down.

I kind of feel like not getting it would just be tempting fate, lol!

 

[lroger01]

For your next trip, purchases it when you put down the deposit. The further out you buy it, the cheaper it is.

 

[canyoncam]

For your next trip, purchases it when you put down the deposit. The further out you buy it, the cheaper it is.

This is not necessarily true. It CAN be but is usually the same. The biggest factor is pre-existing conditions. For that to be covered without extra cost it does need to be purchased within a week to two of putting down the deposit.

Also keep on mind the freaky things that could happen that can make it worth having. My Aunt's house just got hit by lightening tonight. Weather was my biggest reason for getting insurance, followed by health concerns.

 

[MillauFr]

I wouldn't buy it. I think it is a waste of money.

 

[Aurora0427]

I wouldn't buy it. I think it is a waste of money.

I totally disagree with this statement if you're traveling with children, especially during cold and flu season. We never purchased travel insurance before having kids, but now we wouldn't dream of not buying it. We paid $100 for it, but I purchased it back when I booked our trip.

 

[LSUfan4444]

I wouldn't buy it. I think it is a waste of money.

In most cases, I agree. But then again, any insurance that you don't file a claim on is technically a waste of money. That's how they stay in business.

I've never bought it and likely never will. I am sure at some point, I will incur additional costs due to an unexpected emergency, but I look at it like a radar detector. At some point, I'm sure I'll get speeding ticket and when I do, I'll just pay it.

 

[Disney_Princess83]

We are coming from another country for us it's vital. Aside from paying for any cancellations, we are covered for delays, any lost or stolen items, full medical insurance. In the past few years it paid for a pair of stolen sunglasses, a trip to the doctors for a cold (the money we got back here was actually more than what we paid for the insurance!) and a broken iPod.

We are almost ready to make our final payment, which means we need to decide whether to purchase trip insurance. Our family of five is going, me, my husband, and our three kids. Trip insurance would cost about $75 per adult. It seemed like a good idea to purchase it--Disney trips are not cheap!--until I read the fine print on our package confirmation. If I understand correctly, we could make changes to our reservation up to one day before arrival, with a $50 change fee. Would that include postponing it, if an emergency arose? If so, I don't see how trip insurance would make sense for us, because I'm not really concerned with coverage for lost luggage, accidental AD&D, etc.

Am I missing something?

 

[patty57]

I kind of feel like not getting it would just be tempting fate, lol!

I have the exact opposite feeling. I never buy it, and if I do...something bad will happen.

 

[n2mm]

I bought it for the first time for my November trip. We are cruising during hurricane season. Other than that I don't normally buy it.

 

[JayRee]

Read the thread "Bitter Disappointment" (sorry, not sure how to link it). That is one good example as to the benefits of insurance.

All in all its a personal choice. My DH and I are relatively healthy, active people. We both run, eat healthy, etc. However over the past two years, each one of us had a health issue we would never have expected. I decided not to leave anything to chance.

 

[Peachkins]

Read the thread "Bitter Disappointment" (sorry, not sure how to link it). That is one good example as to the benefits of insurance.

All in all its a personal choice. My DH and I are relatively healthy, active people. We both run, eat healthy, etc. However over the past two years, each one of us had a health issue we would never have expected. I decided not to leave anything to chance.

Here's the link to that thread: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3334381

That type of thing and the possibility of bad weather was the main reason we purchased it. It's certainly a nice bonus to know we'd have some coverage for a medical emergency or other issues as well. We figured as long as we're already paying thousands of dollars for a trip that we likely won't be able to take again for quite awhile, what's another couple hundred dollars? We purchased it when we booked the trip so that we wouldn't have to worry about it later.

 

[Princess_Nikki]

Read the thread "Bitter Disappointment" (sorry, not sure how to link it). That is one good example as to the benefits of insurance.

All in all its a personal choice. My DH and I are relatively healthy, active people. We both run, eat healthy, etc. However over the past two years, each one of us had a health issue we would never have expected. I decided not to leave anything to chance.

I read that thread this morning, and until then I have never even considered trip insurance.

I guess this whole time I have had a total misunderstanding about what trip insurance is. I was trying to figure out how it would benefit someone being stuck. There was another thread started that was the opposite: the family was stuck at WDW and could not get their flight out because of O'Hare. I think they are stuck for another 2 days. I was wondering...would the trip insurance pay for the extra stays then??

I clearly had no idea how this works! We are Floridians, so I guess I never thought we would need it. (Not logical, BTW to me now )

 

[thisismyusername]

We bought the Disney policy and we were glad we did. Our flight home was on a small carrier into an airport that has no other airline flying into it. Our flight was canceled the day we were supposed to leave, and there was no other flight going to that airport for 2 more days. So we wound up being (oh so sadly) stuck in Disney for 2 more days until the next flight home. We had to pay for our expenses, but we were reimbursed within a month of sending them the receipts and filing the claim and we received $1000 a day for our expenses ($200 per person), which more than covered our room ($500 a night--we were in a deluxe CL room) and eating (very) nicely at Disney.

 

[disnut8]

For us, two adults in our early 50s, trip insurance is not needed and here's why.

We book room only and we are annual passholders. We live in Georgia so it's about an eight hour drive each way for us. So, no airlines to deal with. We have no kids living with us and taking trips with us. If any emergency came up, we'd just cancel the trip and continue on with our lives. Or just go and deal with the emergency which has happened twice, each time for a physical problem (once for my husband and once for me). We just rented a wheelchair each time and enjoyed what we could.

However, there are families who are flying in with kids in tow and have cancellation fees that might not be waived. There are people with medical issues that might need to be addressed. There are people who might have a family member, not living with them or on the trip, that might be in a medical crisis so the trip could be cancelled at the last minute.

There are many different reasons to get trip insurance and there are many different reasons not to get it. Honestly, it's up to the individual traveler and their circumstances.

*I* don't think it's necessary for myself and my husband. But the two of us are different from others.

 

[mommajo143]

We always pay through our CC - once upon a time we automatically got trip insurance through the card ... I haven't read the fine print in so long I'm not sure anymore but it's def worth checking into - we only use the card for trips and pay it off immediately.
Here's a link to a recent story in this exact issue :

http://www.usatoday.com/story/trave...credit-card-travel-insurance-policy/14241701/

 

[mommajo143]

Just a quick add : we have health insurance with a nationwide network & have always felt the insurance through our CC, though minimal, was sufficient for our needs. If we traveled outside of the country or something similar we would definitely purchase additional coverage.