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Combining RS Travel Insurance with Other Travel Insurance?

As I understand a RS tour's cost is covered by travel insurance to the extent of its price. That leaves airline tickets, other hotel prepaids, etc. and medical expenses outside of this coverage. Travel Guard requires that ALL prepaids be covered in order to activate the Pre-existing Medical Waiver. This doubles up the coverage on the RS tour. Has anyone had experince with other travel insurance companies to get around this issue? Recommendations and strategies welcome.

Posted by
2393 posts

Insurance is very complex -

You could contact the company that issues the RS policy and see if it can be expanded to cover your entire trip.

You could contact the company you are considering for the other insurance policy and ask them their procedure.

I would include the RS Tour cost in the second policy. Most likely the second policy will cover the RS Tour as secondary and pay any deductible you may have with the RS policy.

This is from an AIG Travel Guard Policy:

EXCESS INSURANCE LIMITATION
The insurance provided by the Policy for all coverages except
Trip Cancellation, Trip Interruption and Car Rental Collision
Coverage shall be in excess of all other valid and collectible
insurance or indemnity. If at the time of the occurrence of any
Loss payable under the Policy there is other valid and collectible
insurance or indemnity in place, the Company shall be liable
only for the excess of the amount of Loss, over the amount of
such other insurance or indemnity and applicable deductible.
Accident Sickness Medical Expense and Baggage & Personal
Effects will become Primary if the plan is purchased within 15
days of Initial Trip Payment.

Posted by
9 posts

This is a question I wish I had seen previous to my taking a tour. I was out of the country when I signed up for my tour & called the company re trip insurance. I wish I had been told that trip cancellation was part of the package. I was told that they do not offer trip insurance. So I went ahead & incurred the overall coverage expense & when I got my information & looked further I wondered if we weren't double insuring ourselves. I had also bought, through the airline, insurance against flight cancellation But I don't believe Travel Guard would cover medical insurance only but wish I could have found out. Again we were double insured & lack of communication there in this regard.

Posted by
2393 posts

You can buy an annual travel medical policy with decent coverage and med evac coverage - they are pretty reasonably priced.

Posted by
112 posts

To all who have replied ... thank you very much. You have given me some insights and a route or two through which to explore. I am 70 years old and in very good health and love to travel, but as you will all find out that past 70 or so limitations of insurance and auto rental in Europe become more complex. I know from an experience of a neighbor that medical issues of transportation, etc. can become extremely costly. I don't wish to be denied that, assuming I have it, on technicalities. Thanks again.

Posted by
2393 posts

jr - my husband is 76. I have had no problems securing travel insurance for him including medical coverage and emergency evac. His premium is higher of course but the coverage is good.

If medical and med evac is mainly what you are after you can buy an annual medical travel policy for reasonable rates - then you are covered for any trip more than 100 miles from home (AIG Travel Guard)

Try:

https://www.insuremytrip.com/

Posted by
112 posts

Thanks again to all who replied. My primary question was whether I was doubling up on trip cancellation coverage of the RS tour? I have come to a personal conclusion ... stressing this is a personal conclusion of what I see as a very grey area. So you may have, or will come to, a different conclusion. In discussing this over the phone with service people of travel insurance companies they are adamant that ALL prepaid expenses be included in the computation of coverage and they do not wish to give an opinion on my RS question, understandably. In reading the exclusions and terms of the RS trip cancellation agreement there are grey areas which indicate to me that areas of non-cancellablity are in place. (I don't wish to go into my total rationale here. That is how I am reading the language). Therefore this is subject to interpretation and the insurance company's interpretation will always trump my interpretation which comes after the fact of my needing the coverage and risking being denied payment. Therefore I am going with a "belts and suspenders" approach and having the RS tour expense included in the coverage calculation, which is obviously more expensive ... but conservatively saver. I am very cautious of assuming just the $400/ person RS tour deposit is the only non-refundable in this case. To each his own ... good luck and good travels.

Posted by
2393 posts

If you read Rick's terms there are many instances where they do not refund your tour cost - hopefully you decided to include the entire cost of the tour in your trip insurance. If your trip is interrupted after it starts RSE will refund $75/day per person - far less than the actual cost.

Posted by
112 posts

We agree, thank you. I am trying to caution people who have assumed that RS tours could be excluded from the coverage amount. I have been told, and one can read in this forum, that some believe only the deposit would be considered non-refundable. That is what got me started with asking the initial question; assuming a possible double coverage. But, as we both note, a close read of the RS agreement indicates several areas in which the tour cost can be considered earned and non-fundable albeit one may get more back than just the deposit but not everything. So I, too, personally have the opinion to include within the insured total the RS tour cost.