Trip Interruption Insurance

Justin, I replied to this question in the other place where you posted it. On that other thread, there's a post that notes that many countries are no longer requiring quarantining if you have covid. So in those countries, a doctor is unlikely to certify that you are "unable to travel," as under the laws of his country, you CAN travel. He'll only provide that certification if you truly are severely ill and unable to travel for THAT reason, e.g., bedridden due to your symptoms.

However, if you're on a Rick Steves tour, a case of covid will result in your removal from the tour and you'll be unable to rejoin. And you'll later want to submit a trip insurance claim for the un-used portion of the tour cost and the extra costs you've incurred as a result of the trip interruption. Don't assume that a self-test and the tour company's certification that you were removed from the tour will be enough for your claim. It's a trip interruption for medical reasons and typically a policy will have language in it that you need to have been seen by a doctor at the time the claim arose. Insurance companies are serious about the language of the policy! The hassle of finding a doctor and explaining the reason to be seen is worth it. All you want the doctor to do is perform his own test and certify that you have covid. Do it!

Hi Vickie, thanks for your response and sorry for the double post. I realized after that the question was maybe more appropriate on this forum.

The country I was thinking was Italy. The tour company seems pretty relaxed in terms of covid policies; basically, they just follow whatever the government policies, which is to isolate 5 days after symptoms start, but no test after that. Basically, since this is more a government and tour policy -- and symptoms could be mild to serious -- I wasn't sure if insurance would cover the mild cases. But it appears not. Fingers crossed, I guess.

Thanks for your help. Appreciate it!

We were in Italy in March/April, and husband got COVID on the second day of the RS Sicily tour there. Tour policy was to test if you had symptoms, and he did have cold symptoms (very mild, we would not have thought to test on our own). Positive test = no more tour. We stayed at the tour hotel for 3 more days (at our own cost) although were not instructed to strictly quarantine, and hotel staff basically just said to mask up. That was it. (we did use care, of course, and ate in the room, or outside at uncrowded cafes, etc).

Our insurance was TravelGuard, and they were quite helpful on what documentation we would need for any insurance claims. Basically, we had to get an "official" COVID test result documentation, which included an antigen test at a local pharmacy. No need for a clinic or medical doctor visit. Hotel staff knew exactly where to send us, we got the documentation of the positive test. As far as we know - we have just filed our claims and have not heard back yet - this was all we needed. I am sure this varies greatly with insurance provider and level of insurance. Pretty sure we did not get any kind of "premium" package.

RS refunded the $200/pp/day for the remainder of our tour; we assume/hope Travel Guard will cover the difference.

Similar experience to Rebecca. We took a photo of the home test and sent it to RSE your office for them to process the $200/day refund. Our travel insurance provider Allianz only required a PCR test document - no doctor’s appt requires because Rick Steve’s rules require you to leave the tour if you are positive - triggering the trip interruption and payment of other trip expenses - such as the remaining non-refundable RSE tour costs, air fares, hotel stays, etc.

Thanks Rebecca, please let us know how it turns out.

Also, I may not have made it clear, but I was thinking of traveling not on a RS tour, so there would be no $200/day refund for quarantine.

We are going through this process right now. RS is refunding the $200 per day and gave us a letter that we forwarded with our claim for tour interruption with Chase. We may have to further stress that we were “required” to leave tour because of the positive Covid test but we’ll see. Unfortunately, we were in Obidos, Portugal at the time and their pharmacies no longer do the tests with official documentation. We would have had to travel to a hospital and were advised that it would have been a huge hassle.