Poll do you buy trip insurance, if so have you had to use it?

[Bonnie1222]

We buy it. My mom went in for surgery last year just before our cruise and ended up in ICU and passing away 10 days later. Luckily we were able to rebook our trip but if we hadn't the insurance would have taken care of it.

 

[SDJEL]

We have a wonderful trip to Europe planned for august. My mother in law was just diagnosed with metastatic cancer and she isn't doing well. I'd hate to cancel the trip, but if we have to, at least we are covered.

 

[Plaid Princess]

We have Annual Travel Insurance, so far we've not needed it.

 

[twodogs]

I have purchased it for the past 2 cruises because we book about a year in advance. We buy it through a USAA affiliate. We don't need it for airline coverage as we are only less than 30 mins from PC. Never had to use it..so far.

Can you tell me which company you used and how you did it through USAA? We have our home and auto insurance through them, so I'd like to look into their trip insurance options.

 

[JoieNsk]

I used to think of travel insurance as a waste of money for us.

But when we started cruising I changed my mind. Cruises are expensive and non-refundable after certain date. Also my parents-in-law age is a big factor why I buy travel insurance for all trips including non-refundable expenses nowadays: you just never know what might happen.

And we actually did use travel insurance once - this year. We booked big vacation for mine and my daughter's graduation this summer, it was Northern Europe Cruise in Haven on NCL, so the price-tag was BIG. We ended up switching the dates as my husband screwed up his vacation bidding and ended up not getting the dates we needed for the trip.

The insurance was expensive, as first the trip was expensive and second I got the plan covering cancelling for work reason. But appeared to be that was money spent smart as we got all the expenses paid back by the insurance.

I was impressed! We always use TravelGuard.

 

[JoieNsk]

Total side-track from this thread, but who keeps a stranger's bag in their stateroom for 8 days without notifying someone??? There's not enough room for my stuff let alone someone elses!! And didn't they think "hey, this person might need their stuff for this cruise, we should notify someone"? Sigh...

We are just back from our European cruise. It was 12 days cruise.

On the day 8 or so our room attendant gave us a paper where they were asking if anybody had somebody's else bag in the room. As the piece of luggage was reported missing.

So the people didn't notice for 8 or 9 days they didn't have their bag?! Or the cruise company all this time kept searching for the bag? Or maybe it was because we only let our room get cleaned once per a cruise and kept the "do not disturb" sign on the door?

It was total mystery... But it was real situation!

 

[FigmentSpark]

What type of insurance do you ask for to cover medical emergencies in the family that would cause you to miss your trip, even though none of the insured are the ones with the medical emergency. Or is that even a thing?

 

[Cackyschmackers]

@FigmentSpark I could be wrong but that sounds like cancel for any reason. You have to buy that as soon as you book.

 

[kiford]

What type of insurance do you ask for to cover medical emergencies in the family that would cause you to miss your trip, even though none of the insured are the ones with the medical emergency. Or is that even a thing?

Yes, it's definitely a thing. That's basically just what you ask for. My mother was terminally ill before we went on our Med cruise in 2010 so we made sure to get insurance that would allow us to either cancel the trip or to leave the trip partway through and fly back. The insurance allowed us to cancel before we went (we actually got cancel for any reason partly because of my mother but also partly because the volcano in Iceland had been causing travel problems a few months beforehand so we wanted to make sure that we were either able to cancel or able to reschedule flights) and would pay for us to fly home on short notice and reimburse part of the cruise we wouldn't be able to use. It's a fairly typical insurance policy.

 

[JoieNsk]

It's a fairly typical insurance policy.

I would agree here.

@FigmentSpark, I think cancellation due to illness or death in a family is included into standard policies. The only medical emergencies I am concerned when we travel are about my mother-in-law who is 94 and never travels with us.

I read the policy every time before I hit the "buy" key, and from my understanding whatever policies I ever bought all included that particular emergency.

With cancel due to work reason - that's where it gets tricky: with Travel Guard for example only the policies Gold and higher include work reason. We don't necessarily need work reasons every time we travel.

 

[MunFam]

We absolutely buy it. Emergency evacuation is EXPENSIVE and very few insurance companies cover it. You can buy medical/evac insurance separately from travel insurance if your CC covers travel delays, baggage, etc.

My coworkers' father is stuck in Argentina right now. He was bit by a bug...sort of a Zika type situation, but not Zika. He is on a ventilator and cannot fly home to get the care he needs without using an ambulance flight. The hospital he is in, and has been in for 47 days, is not equipped to heal him...just keep him alive. Their insurance is reimbursing them for their costs, but they have to pay upfront for his care. The insurance does not cover international medical flights. They do not have the $257,000 to pay for the flight home, so they have a gofundme and listed their home for sale to try to get him home. The other option is to leave him there til he dies from a lack of treatment. As a travel agent, can I just say that the TOTAL cost for medical/evac insurance for his particular trip was less than $40 but he opted to not buy it because his credit card and health insurance covered him. Yeahhhhh.....

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We didn't purchase travel insurance for our first cruise. We were such newbies, we didn't know any better.

We purchase travel insurance regularly now. Except for our short Baja cruises. We don't have to fly for those, and we can afford to lose the cruise fare if we had to cancel at the last minute.

Mostly our trips are in excess on 10 days, so we get insurance. Never had to use it yet.

 

[85glht]

Lately we have been purchasing trip insurance. Our parents are getting up there in age and I had some health issues last year that luckily we did have trip insurance. We had to cancel a 7 day cruise on the Fantasy last year.. We did recover all our money except for the premium, of course.
Everyone's situation is different and one would have to assess if it is worth purchasing insurance or not. The cost of the trip and the destination is a big factor if we buy insurance or not. If we were just going to WDW for a week, we don't buy insurance. A big trip like an ABD or like the British Isles cruise we are taking in a week, then yes, we have trip insurance.

 

[Westcoastwild]

I don't think you had a combo option.

I mostly buy it on long trips- I mean,4 weeks or longer. I don't buy it for Canada, US, or Mexico (haven't been south of Mexico).

For a few reasons:

My main reason to buy it is health insurance- I'm not covered internationally and I'm a bit of klutz. I have yet to hurt myself seriously on vacation (knock on wood) but there have been a few times when I was younger that I certainly should have gone to the doctor and didn't.

With longer trips, it's also a much bigger inconvenience if my luggage or phone were to go missing. That's an immediate replacement situation. It isn't as if I'm 6 days into a 7 day trip. And it's way more likely to happen on a longer trip, too, as is trip interruption. (I haven't done a long trip to Canada or Mexico.)

But you have to look at what the policy covers to decide if it's worth it. For instance, say you break an ankle- unless the doctor signs off on you going home immediately, you can't just decide to buy a plane ticket, cut your trip short, and get reimbursed for that. Many policies will fly you home only if the doc says it's a medical necessity- but if your trip is mountain climbing, you can't really continue with a broken leg. So you'll be paying for that flight home out of your own pocket, or you'll be finding something else to do. So, the last place I purchased it through was AAA, and I just bought medical coverage, because the pricier plans didn't cover anything that I was likely to need. If I lose my luggage, I don't really think I'm going to find many options for clothing that fits me in Japan. If my flight is delayed, either the airline will put me up in hotel or I will pay for a $20 hostel bed that is 1/15 of the cost of the actual policy. I give myself plenty of wiggle room between flights and I don't do cruises or tours, so when I get there is when I get there. I'm not renting a car. My rental insurance would cover my camera and iPad, but neither were all that expensive. I rarely book lodging that would be nonrefundable. If someone has an accident while I'm there, I probably won't be flying home to help, as there are people who could pitch in on the spot. Anything other than medical coverage would be overkill. I don't know if it covers repatriation, but I'll let my family worry about that- I won't be around to do so.

So: basically, what coverage you should get depends on what kind of trip you have booked, you or your traveling companions' current health, family member's health at home, your current insurance policy coverage, and what your luggage is actually worth.

 

[MillauFr]

The hospital he is in, and has been in for 47 days, is not equipped to heal him...just keep him alive

Argentina is not some third world country. Why can't the hospital treat him?

 

[Westcoastwild]

Argentina is not some third world country. Why can't the hospital treat him?

My guess would be that he's so far gone the doctor has advised against expensive treatment. I think maybe his family wants to bring him home as a last ditch effort- sentiment or unfounded optimism.

Being on a ventilator is not usually a good sign in my experience. But maybe it's a specialist issue?

 

[4Hawks]

We bought it once, for a trip to Europe, and ended up using it after we missed a connecting flight. Even so, we never buy insurance for domestic trips.

 

[JWG]

Buy it for every cruise. Too many things can go wrong and, god forbid, a medial EVAC is crazy expensive. We only do it for cruises and hope we never need it.

Almost needed it on our 2nd cruise many years ago. I got a very bad infection from a softball injury (slid in shorts) and didn't think i was going to be able to go (was on some serious antibiotics). Luckily, I was find 2 days before we left, but if not we at least had coverage.

 

[Disney_Princess83]

We travel from Australia so we take our insurance for our entire trip. While we have claimed for illness and stolen/damaged items during our trips, we have never had to specifically claim for our cruise part. I personally wouldn't travel without insurance. Aside from the risk of illness/accidents in a foreign country, by the time we add up the cost of replacing our phones, laptops, cameras, iPads, it's worth the cost of the insurance for us.

 

[sarahothomas]

We absolutely buy it. Emergency evacuation is EXPENSIVE and very few insurance companies cover it. You can buy medical/evac insurance separately from travel insurance if your CC covers travel delays, baggage, etc.

My coworkers' father is stuck in Argentina right now. He was bit by a bug...sort of a Zika type situation, but not Zika. He is on a ventilator and cannot fly home to get the care he needs without using an ambulance flight. The hospital he is in, and has been in for 47 days, is not equipped to heal him...just keep him alive. Their insurance is reimbursing them for their costs, but they have to pay upfront for his care. The insurance does not cover international medical flights. They do not have the $257,000 to pay for the flight home, so they have a gofundme and listed their home for sale to try to get him home. The other option is to leave him there til he dies from a lack of treatment. As a travel agent, can I just say that the TOTAL cost for medical/evac insurance for his particular trip was less than $40 but he opted to not buy it because his credit card and health insurance covered him. Yeahhhhh.....

OMG. That sounds like an absolute nightmare. I am so sorry he and his family are going through that right now. Stories like this remind me that I need to purchase travel insurance any time I leave the country. I have several friends/coworkers going on trips out of the country soon - I think I will bug them about getting it, too. It could save their life.