Vacation Insurance Coverage...

[DisneyDiana!]

Vacation insurance, is it worth it? I'm still debating whether or not to get the additional vacation insurance. Hubby's parents have been off and on ill for the last couple of years. God forbid if something happened and we needed to cancel the trip it would be covered by the insurance. The only other reason we would need to cancel is if my husband has to work. He may be getting a promotion this year which may or may not require him to travel for training. If it falls during that time we would have to cancel/delay the trip. I don't see anything in the insurance that covers this. Am I just overlooking it or is this something that additional insurance doesn't cover (or Disney)? We're looking at travelex.

 

[Gracie09]

We always get trip insurance. It's a relatively small amount of money and allows us peace of mind if something happens like a child gets sick and we need to cancel or postpone our trip. I would look at insuremytrip.com, they have a large variety of insurance plans some of which do cover cancellation due to job changes or needs. Also trip insurance covers things that happen while on your trip. If someone gets ill and you have to stay in Orlando for extra days , trip insurance covers expenses up to the limits of the plan. We would never plan a vacation without insurance. It's a cost we factor in like hotel rates and food cost.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Go to insuremytrip.com and look at your options. Several policies cover trip cancellation due to a job issue.

 

[Pesky]

I was uncertain if work would try to interfere so got it. Very glad I did. For the amount of money I put into my trip, it was relatively little to have peace of mind. I didn't use it so can't tell you how good or bad it was from that perspective! I chose one of the most expensive but it let us cancel for a bunch of reasons and get any money paid out back.

 

[Aliceacc]

With all the money I spend on a vacation, I absolutely get trip insurance.

When we left NY in 2008, there was no word of any weather worries. A week later, on the day we were to return, Tropical Storm Faye was due to land right on Orlando. (As luck would have it, she veered a little, and we got out on time.)

I'm a huge weather geek. I watched the warnings in the days before our departure. We had trip insurance (my father in law was ailing, and in fact died a few weeks after our return.) I faxed a note to our travel agent asking what to do in the event that we were unable to get out because of the storm.

(His response, I'm sure it must depend on the actual policy: don't do anything until they cancel your flight. At that point, our room and expenses would be covered.)

Once I had the response, the weather was no longer a concern.

Right there with my important papers on a trip I always have the policy details and a contact phone number.

There are some policies that cover a trip cancelled because you're not able to get days off work or something similar; look into them.

 

[puffkin]

It really is very specific to how you travel and what your costs/cancellation are. I NEVER get it. My reasoning is:

1. Park tickets. Biggest cost of our trip usually. We can hang onto the vouchers indefinitely if we don't activate them.
2. Airfare. We almost always book on Southwest with points. There is no penalty to change or cancel your flight with points up to 24 hours in advance. So very little risk there.
3. Hotel. We are DVC, so our points would go into holding. There is a risk of losing those.
4. Rental Car. We never prepay so you can cancel at any time with no penalty.
5. Food/Dining. We do not do the dining plan so if we don't go, obviously we aren't out any money for food. I just cancel the ADR's.
6. Experiences. Most things that you prebook and pay in advance for Disney have a 24-48 hour cancellation window. So again, very little risk.
7. Incidental costs. Pretty much all our other trip costs are incidentals and we wouldn't have to pay unless we actually used them (groceries, gas, souvenirs, airport parking, tips, etc).

My DH and I are going on a cruise, leaving tomorrow. Again, I chose not to get the insurance because if we had to cancel last minute, I am out $800 for the cruise. Not a huge amount of money. We travel a lot, so paying $100-$200 for the slight chance we needed the insurance just isn't worth it to us because basically that would really add up and we could just take an extra trip with that money.

That being said, we did take a really big European trip a few years ago that ended up being about $5000 for the two of us and most of it we would not have gotten back if we cancelled. That trip it was worth it for us to pay the $200 for the trip insurance.