Trip Insurance?

Here is the link you weren't looking for about RS tour policies
https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-help/tours-faq
I have only ever had one claim. Allianz paid it quickly and without difficulties.

Why would they? I don’t know of any tour company that would give you a credit for a tour after the cancellation deadline. That’s why you get travel insurance.

Here is their cancellation policy. I would strongly suggest you read it. https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/tour-conditions

Travel insurance- we buy coverage from Travel Guard. They have quickly paid us for cancelled trips due to serious illnesses.

Here and here are websites where you can shop for travel insurance, comparing plans and costs. Travel Guard is popular but I had a bad claim experience with them. We've had good experiences with Travelex. I've had policies from other companies but didn't need to file claims, so can't report either way.

Also google for articles about travel insurance and what it covers like scope of people, preexisting conditions etc. Some are more narrow some more broad.

If I paid $200 per trip for insurance on average for the last 20 years I would have paid at least $15,000. So far i have never found myself in a situation that would have needed the insurance. On the other hand, $15000 buys 3 or 4 budget trips to Europe.

Insurance companies profit by playing the odds, so you know that in the long haul you will loose. Short term, might save you some real change. If you haven't got a few thousand in the bank, you can afford to lose, get the insurance. Otherwise ...

You don't indicate your age, whether are on Medicare, etc. A few questions to ask yourself: Does your current health insurance extend to foreign locations, and if so, are there any limitations? If you developed a serious illness or had an accident while out of the country, how would you get home if incapacitated?

Medical evacuation can be extremely expensive - are you prepared to cover the cost out of pocket in a worst-case situation? That alone can be justification for travel insurance - possibly more compelling than to cover the cost of an interrupted or canceled trip.

I've used Trawick International on the last two trips - their rates are reasonable and they offer a range of coverages. I found it by using one of the sites listed above that compare companies. I've never had to file a claim.

Actually, RS has a very generous policy on this. Scroll down on this page to “Creditable Medical or Family Emergency” to see the policy:

https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/tour-conditions#cancel

In summary, within 60 days of departure the cost is non-refundable, but they will give you credit toward a future trip if you meet all the conditions.

It is easy for someone to say that for 20 years they have never needed trip insurance, and therefore it is not worth the money. That may be fine if you are only self- insuring the cost of a tour, which is known. Then you know what is the level of risk, and can make an informed choice.

But most trip insurance also covers medical and trip evacuation coverage, and for that, if you happen to be unfortunate enough to need, it the cost could into the hundred thousand €€€ plus range, depending on what happens.

Lola, thank you. You are absolutrly correct. I carry European medical and evacuation insurance. I should have clairified that. Tickets and hotel costs i can "self insure" but medical is a different financial world.

Lola,

Thank you. That was very helpful. I was also able to determine that my medical insurance offers coverage in Europe. Given this, the only thing I really need to purchase is emergency transportation should such an unfortunate thing be necessary.

All,

I have looked at numerous companies, but they offer everything in packages, not à la cart. Does anyone know if any company offers emergency evacuation and transportation for medical reasons as a stand alone option?

Generally, I would probably forgo most of this, but this time our trip is for over a month so I figure better safe than sorry.

MedJet is often mentioned here:

https://medjetassist.com/

MedJet has a good reputation and its what I buy, but never used. Yes some US policies will eventually pay for costs in Europe if you have all the receipts and certified translations. I made some small claims on my US carrier in the past. Took 6 months but I got reimbursed. The travel insurance policies might be more "time of need" so your bank account doesn't get wiped out.

AFAIK, MedJetAssist only comes into play when someone is hospitalized.

We have used https://tripinsurancestore.com/ for renewing our MedJetAssist. They also carry a variety of travel insurances. Give them a call. All the staff are very knowledgeable and can advise you about what is best for your situation.

Markcw,

After calling numerous companies, to include the Amex travel insurance underwriter, it seems that MedJets is the way to go. None of the companies I called offers a la carte medevac. In fact, most do not offer it at all and simply provide local medical insurance and local transportation coverage which is secondary to your primary coverage and seems superfluous.

Like I said, usually I wouldn’t take such precautions but for a lengthy oversees stay this seems prudent. Last week I spoke to a friend whose father in law suffered badly broken leg in Spain. He wanted to return home for treatment but without medevac insurance during peak travel season he couldn’t get home for over a week. He finally secured an economy seat for which he had to pay way too much and endured a painful flight home.

I hope I never have to use the Medjets service, but for a couple of hundred it offers peace of mind. Thanks again!

As someone who has purchased trip insurance for years, I'm interested in others' experiences using the Chase Sapphire credit card for their travel protection insurance. The travel insurance companies I've been using (TravelGuard and Allianz) have been getting much more expensive as my age and travel costs have gone up. A friend of mine uses only her Chase Sapphire card when purchasing travel and thinks that the travel insurance provided by the card is very satisfactory. Does anyone else recommend it?

I have looked at numerous companies, but they offer everything in
packages, not à la cart. Does anyone know if any company offers
emergency evacuation and transportation for medical reasons as a stand
alone option?

Here is the problem. The hospital in Kuala Lumpur (or even in Vienna) is not going to cooperate with your US insurance. They will want cash payment. Yes, your insurance company "may" reimburse you if you have ALL the documents that they are going to require of you. I suspect you will be calling Kuala Lumpur a few times trying to get more information for your US insurance company. Then you may have to get things translated to English by a certified medical translator. THEN, you get reimbursed.

So it may be a good idea to purchase a policy that either pays $50,000 to $100,000 at time of need or Medjet has a policy where they advane you the cash.

A word of caution re: Travel Guard. A friend of mine purchased the top-tier level of insurance from them for a 2023 trip, and when she had to cancel her trip because she needed emergency surgery, it was an absolute nightmare filing a claim. She could not connect with the adjuster assigned to her claim; customer service told her the adjuster had too many other claims and could not respond to her. This went on for weeks. Then they asked her to write a letter stating that she would not use the travel credit she received from her tour company...when she was not with a tour company and had not received a travel credit from anyone. They ultimately denied her claim. She was out the cost of an expensive trip PLUS the cost of an expensive travel insurance policy. Just one person's experience, but it certainly gave me pause.