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Europäische Reiseversicherung

I am curious if anyone else has used this travel insurance option. It is cancellation insurance only ( no medical coverage). But we will be traveling as a family of 8 with our adult children and grandchildren, and our hotel in the Dolomites becomes totally non-refundable at some point close to the date of our reservation. If we had to cancel at the last minute we are on the hook for €3260.

This insurance was suggested with a link from the hotel webpage, and I had seen it on other hotel websites as well. After an experience several years ago, when our prepaid, non-refundable ski trip to Whistler with friends was derailed at the last minute by a medical emergency the very morning of our departure, I am a believer in cancellation insurance for a group when traveling with others. We were to drive up to Canada together, departing around 7 am. Our friend called us at 5 am to say her husband had been taken to the ER the night before with severe chest pain, and was now in the ICU with a life-threatening pulmonary embolism. We did not wish to go without them, and our claim for reimbursement was paid in full by the travel insurance company. And our dear friend recovered and is still enjoying life. . .

The cost of insurance for that trip to insure 4 people for a 4-day ski trip was about 10% of the total trip cost, but proved to be well worth it. The cost of this insurance, to cover 8 travelers for a 3-week trip, is €199 to insure the €3260 hotel cost, or around 6% of the trip cost. I am glad I knew to look into this as soon as I paid the deposit for the hotel reservation, as it had to be secured within 3 days.

Posted by
2792 posts

You might just look at an annual policy. I bought one that covers just about everything for a few hundred a year.

Posted by
17560 posts

Annual policies are good for medical coverage, but they do not include cancellation coverage, which is what we need for this group.

Posted by
17560 posts

Interesting. I checked Insuremytrip.com and they said that no annual plan they offer will include cancellation coverage; it is only medical.

I looked at the Nationwide link and see that they do offer trip cancellation, for an additional fee, but the maximum coverage for cancellations one can get for the year is $10K. That amount would cost an extra $660. But it would not cover a year’s worth of trips for us, especially not next year, where we have 3 international trips planned, totaling around $30K (yes, we are making up for lost time).

Other issues—- they have no waiver for pre-existing conditions, which is reasonable and what I would expect. The “look-back” period is 90 days before purchase of the policy, and since my husband is under care and on medications for a number of ongoing conditions it would be impossible to meet that. In other words, if we had to cancel our planned trip for any reason related to his health, the cancellation insurance would not apply.

Bottom line is an annual policy will just not work for us, but I am sure others will find the suggestion useful.

Posted by
5471 posts

I regularly buy travel insurance from Nationwide. My policies, if purchased within 10 days of initial trip payment, include coverage for pre-existing conditions. If you are beyond the 10 days, then of course it doesn't. And the policies you were researching may have been different than mine.

Posted by
4894 posts

I have the Allianz annual policy which covers pre-existing, epidemic, and has both medical and cancellation/interruption coverage. However the limits for cancellation coverage are fairly low and would definitely not work for a group like this with the higher costs involved.

Posted by
17560 posts

CWSocial, a 10-14=day period for purchase of a travel insurance policy after first payment toward a trip is standard. That is to get a waiver of pre-existing exclusion provisions. But that does not apply to annual policies. How would they apply the 10-day limit if they are covering a whole year of travel?