Trip Insurance -- what to insure?

Is it with the same company or another company? Asking because I am not sure I'd use the former company since you had losses that were not covered.

No, I would never use that insurance company ever again. And I told them their handling of my claim would inform my future decisions.

I am so glad that you are feeling ready to venture out again, even after your difficult experience last year!

There is a big difference in RS refund policy for Covid this year vs. last year that you need to be aware of when considering the possible losses you could encounter. Last year it was a full refund based on pro-rated days of missing the tour. This year, it is a $200/day refund. I would consider insuring the difference between the $200 refund and the cost of the tour.

What most do not understand is that the insurance will ONLY cover your ACTUAL lost. Since RS reimbursed you for the days you missed, you had no lost. Second, the insurance may or may not have covered additional expenses like a car rental or other medical expenses. That is in the fine print. What does it say? There is an assumption that your medical expenses would be covered by your medical insurance. Again, whatever the fine print says. The insurance company does not like the idea that you might make money with the insurance coverage. It is called, "unjustified enrichment."

The old example -- if you buy, insure an apple and you have eaten half when it is knocked from your hand. The insurance company will pay for a half eaten apple and not a whole new apple. O' and you will need your sales receipt.

You should insure only your potential cash lost. Even airline ticket may not be fully recoverable. The insurance probably only pay for the changing fee and increase in fare not the full refund of the ticket. It all depends on the terms of the policy so read the fine print several times.

Also noticed that I answered this question on 10/28/22. Nothing has changed since Oct. You only get what your insurance company agreed to cover and not what someone else insurance did for them.

We insure only costs that would be lost. If going on a tour, insure the tour. Flights, insure what won’t be reimbursed.

And, besides what Suki insures, possible medical costs that your at-home plan wouldn't cover. (Medicare covers nothing outside the US.) Medical evacuation coverage, though unlikely to be needed in Europe, is cheap. Plus, when I had to isolate last spring because of asymptomatic Covid, I was glad for trip delay insurance that covered part of my hotel cost and the cost of a return airfare later.

If you haven't already, I suggest you look at insuremytrip.com and squaremouth.com, useful tools for shopping in this complex market. Besides giving you apples-to-apples comparisons of different plans and options, they have a lot of educational material about travel insurance.

Jdill7, will you please share which insurance company denied your claim? Did the policy have stated Covid coverage and trip interruption?

I think you just have to be very diligent at reading everything stated on any policy you plan to buy.
There is so much fine print it’s difficult to take it all in.
Companies will still find ways not to pay you.
Best of luck.

Many policies do now include expenses incurred as a result of covid under “trip interruption”. Websites like Squaremouth and InsureMyTrip will help you filter for those.

You need to insure all the non-refundable costs of your trip, including airfare if appropriate and the cost of the tour itself. Then the extra expenses incurred as a result of will be covered under the trip interruption provision.

The company is Tin Leg. I found them through Insure My Trip. Then other sites. What I didn’t know at the time (and the companies don’t advertise) is that my Gold policy ( for Covid) used a third party processor called Broadspire. When they rejected my claim outright, I looked them up on BBB. Very bad reviews! I talked to Tim Leg’s Zero Complaint Officer and she confided that they had so many issues with Broadspire they dropped them and are now processing all claims in-house. But it was too late for my claim to be converted she said. I’m in my fourth claim review. I’ve quoted their policy details to them but they want me to use money I paid RS for my medical issues. The entire amount we pay Rick Steves is NOT all for food, housing, and transportation. Much of it is for touring services. I was denied those services and the economy of group travel when I had to leave the tour. I was NOT trying to get more money back than I paid or what I spent! I understand how insurance works. I am not a scammer. I do not quibble with RS policies either. I just got a raw deal from the insurance claims processor. Make sure to call the insurance company and ask who processes their claims. I did the next time I traveled. A travel agent told my friend to only insure the tour, not flights. Another travel agent said to insure flights and the amount per day (approximately $125/day) that RS does not refund this year. I was asking what others have done.

Of course you are not a scammer, but I am not sure you understand how insurance works.

They only reimburse for things that are “covered” events as defined in the policy. Most insurances policies of all kinds, whether travel insurance, flight insurance, or business insurance, have traditionally excluded coverage for pandemics. That is written into the policy and most people ignore it, thinking that won’t happen (I know I always have).

So when the pandemic started in 2020, most people could not recover non-refundable expenses on their travel insurance, and businesses could not recover their losses under their business interruption insurance. Everyone lost out, and the insurance companies “won”.

When people started traveling in 2022, some insurance companies updated their terms to include coverage for covid-related expenses under the trip interruption, trip cancellation, and medical expenses sections of their travel insurance, as an exception to the standard pandemic exclusion. Covid coverage with travel insurance is now pretty routine, but for travel in 2022 it was not. We saw numerous stories of people who could not recover their out-of-pocket expenses for quarantine hotels, medical treatment, or changes in flight arrangements if they were due to covid.

You need to check your policy to make sure it specifically provided overage for expenses incurred due to getting covid. It needs to be under the “”trip interruption” section of the policy; that is where they will reimburse you for expenses that were not part of what you originally paid for—- in your case that was the RS tour. RS refunded the full cost of the part of your tour you did not take. So now you are ONLY entitled to reimbursement of the extra expenses due to covid like medical care, new hotels, transportation costs. IF and only if there is a specific statement of covid coverage for trip interruption in the policy.

Reply to Sasha. For a second I thought you were mansplaining. Yes, I know how insurance works. Over my lifetime, I've sent in a claim or two (or more) for flight issues, auto accidents, fires, break-ins, water damaged floors, etc. Sounds like I've had an exciting life, right? I DID read the policy beforehand, and I specifically bought a policy designed for Covid-related damages. So unless you have a suggestion for my original question, you can rest easy that I know how insurance works and I need no more tutorials on that topic.

My question only mentioned my past experience to inform my question about what to do now. No one can solve what happened in the past. I was looking for guidance for the future.

No mansplaining here, I am a female. And I was only trying to help you, by suggesting it is only not “what” to insure but “how”. You need to make sure the covid provisions include coverage for trip delay and trip interruption.

As far as “what” to insure, as others have stated, you need to include all the non-refundable costs you want reimbursed if you have to cancel your trip. That would usually be, at a minimum, the cost of flights and the tour you booked.

If you leave out the cost of the tour itself as you propose in your original question, what will you do if you fall and break your ankle the day before departure, and cannot go on the tour? Or, heaven forbid, you are diagnosed with a life-threatening illness a month before and have to cancel the trip to get necessary treatment? (This is what happened to me, but I wasn’t booked on a tour, so I only had to change my flights).

I hope you get it figured out to your satisfaction.