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Travel Insurance Update from our COVID-affected Italy trip

Wasn't quite sure what category to place this topic in, but in case anyone wants an update on our travel insurance experience from our recent COVID-affected Italy trip...

Original report can be found here. TL;DNR - we had started the RS Sicily tour when husband tested positive for COVID on day 2 of the tour.

RSE refunded $200/pp/day for the remaining tour dates, per policy (and did so promptly). We had insurance through TravelGuard and they were very good to work with. Once we got home, we gathered the documentation they requested - and it was a LOT of documentation, but not unexpected. YMMV, of course, depending on carrier. Among the information we sent - documentation from RSE on being released from the tour and what they refunded; hotel costs for our stays in Palermo and Rome when we would have been on the tour; ; pharmacy receipt for official COVID test; charges from RyanAir to change our flight from Sicily to mainland Italy (originally CTA-NAP, changed to PMO-FCO); receipts for meals during that period; documentation for a cancelled flight (NAP-FCO). (Note that they required screenshots of our boarding passes for the changed and the cancelled flight documentation.)

We just received a check for a bit over $2000. The itemization shows it covered "trip interruption" but does not detail any specifics, i.e. what food & hotel might have been covered, or if any of the un-refunded tour cost was included, or what. Also covered was the flight change cost, the cancelled flight, and the pharmacy COVID test.

We purchased the "preferred" level of insurance, so not top end. Happy with this outcome - between the RSE refund and the insurance, we were made whole on the tour portion of the trip. And the airfare coverage was very appreciated, since I got absolutely nowhere with RyanAir for a 6 hour flight delay ("extraordinary circumstances" so no EU 261 rules apply eyeroll eyeroll) or with ITA for the flight cancellation (also "extraordinary circumstances").

Posted by
3080 posts

Thank you Rebecca. I bookmarked the topic for reference. Hopefully I nor anyone else will need to refer to the documents you submitted.
I’m so sorry that your tour did not go as planned.

Tonight is the last night of my Berlin, Prague & Vienna tour. Fortunately no one had to leave the tour. Several of us masked when on transportation and in museums.

Posted by
887 posts

Thank you for posting this helpful information. Hope your next trip goes smoothly!

Posted by
780 posts

Thank you for taking the time for this detailed update. We always buy insurance, and usually Travel Guard, but we have never had to make a claim. It's nice to read that they were very good to work with.

Happy future travels!

Posted by
6713 posts

I'm sorry you missed most of the tour, and glad you got reimbursed by RS and compensated by Travel Guard. I had a very different claim experience with Travel Guard last year, when asymptomatic Covid postponed my return from Ireland before the flight ban was lifted. They sat on my claim for months, telling me about the many claims they had backlogged, until I filed a complaint with my state insurance commissioner. Then they explained that the adjuster had been on maternity leave, and paid the claim. So I'm not a fan of that company. Glad your adjuster wasn't having a baby.

Posted by
8 posts

Hi Rebecca, did you insure the full amount of the RS tour, or just the portion that is not refunded? Thanks

Posted by
465 posts

We insured for $2500 each. We figured this covered most of the tour/trip costs, but not all - we knew RSE would provide some kind of adjustment if something came up, and some of our hotels were cancellable, etc. The key here was trip interruption was covered up to a certain limit, as were flight cancellations/changes, and that really paid off.