Travel Guard - To buy or not to buy

Insure what you cannot afford to lose. If your loss would be a financial disaster, insure to protect against financial catastrophe.

While the pre-paid cost of a trip (non-refundable transportation, pre-paid tour cost and/or accommodations etc may be a painful loss, if the trip went forward, you would be out those expenses and life would go on.

On the other hand, if a serious medical condition arise away from home, and you need a medical charter flight staffed with medical personnel to evacuate home, how may of us can (or would want to) afford those cost. A 300 mile medical transport flight from Medford to Portland is priced over $30,000. What would a 3000 mile medical transport flight from Europe cost?

I buy Medical Evacuation insurance and self insure against trip cost. I use to buy the AIG Travel Guard Medical Evac policy but apparently AIG no longer markets that policy to Oregon residents.

Edgar thank you for your reply. However, you did not answer my question. Of course, travel insurance is needed and should be bought.

My question was what was the experience of those who had to make a claim with Travel Guard.

We have had claims fully paid promptly by Travel Guard in the amounts of $15,000. twice for canceled, non refundable trips and several smaller claims in the $250 to -3000. range for medical care received abroad. We had the appropriate paperwork, physicians’ notes, receipts filed with our claims. Claims were always paid in about a month from the time we mailed them our files and claim forms. I can’t imagine not using them again.

Thank you Suki. That was a very helpful answer.

I will never use Travel Guard again because they would not honor a claim or work with us. I’ve talked about this issue before but feel free to PM me for more info.
Last trip I used John Hancock but had no claims so don’t know if they would be better.

I used to buy Travel Guard insurance in past years and had two claims. Both were paid after about a month. One was for $4k and the other was over $10k. It was a fairly simple process to get them the info and documents they requested. The premiums got to be eye-watering after a few years so I started shopping around.

They were both pre-Covid claims. I’ve heard from friends that they’ve been having problems getting their claims paid this year. One of them was for a cancellation due to the traveler actually contracting coronavirus which is clearly a covered event. Also it seems Travel Guard isn’t refunding the premiums for cancelled trips that have no claims. Only giving credit to insure a future trip. So I don’t plan to use them again.

I switched to Allianz for our travels since 2018 and am really happy we had CFAR insurance with them this year. I filed a claim for a cancelled trip and they paid 75% of the nonrefundable fees. They also refunded the entire premium for a trip that a tour company cancelled. I plan to insure my trips with them from now on.

I have had two claims with Travelguard in the past. One for lost luggage (that was never found) and for additional hotel stays when flights were disrupted. We scanned all paperwork and got a prompt check within about 10 days but all was under about $2,000.

Margaret

I'm in Edgar's camp on this one. I remember horsewoofie's travails, and as was reported by Tom_MN, Travel Guard does not cover the agent/tour operator's going bankrupt or committing fraud.

For group travel I have been involved with, we have used an agent whose underwriter is Generali, the big Italian insurance company. This year, they refunded everybody's premiums for a trip that was cancelled due to Covid, and provided prompt reimbursements for medical claims on past trips.

We've had one claim with Travelguard. It was for medical expenses incurred while on a cruise. We were fully reimbursed shortly after submitting documentation which was easy to do. No complaints at all and will buy from them again. Most of their policies come with some medical evacuation coverage. As with all policies read the fine print about the med. evac. coverage. Some policies will only pay for evacuation to nearest appropriate medical facility. Others may, or will, return you to your home for further care. Can't remember what the deal is with Travelguard. However there is a company called MedJet that you might want to scope out if you have the time. It us NOT medical or trip cancellation insurance, just evacuation back home. Many different plans. Hope this helps

My mother had a claim 15 years ago this summer for a cruise that Travel Guard paid in full, quickly, and without argument. I don't remember the exact amount, but it was over $10,000.

I had a claim with them also, during the Iceland volcano issue, for travel interruption and they paid quickly and for more than I expected. The policy was purchased several months before the volcano became an issue. I was still able to get where I needed to be, just a couple days later than originally planned, so there was no additional payment due to me.

Both situations the first action was to contact the insurance company before doing anything else. We were able to follow their instructions exactly which I feel helped in getting our payments vs. running off in a panic and doing things that might not have been covered or may have voided coverage we were due.

I have purchased their coverage a total of 20 times in the past 25 years. I have only had the one claim. I guess they have come out ahead on me. I would still get their insurance again without hesitation.

I do understand that the reason for a claim will impact the ease of receiving payment. Some claims will require extensive documentation that might be somewhat difficult to obtain. And, yes, you may be denied for reasons you feel should be covered. That is the nature of insurance in general.

I had an RS tour and solo travel planned for next month. I purchased a medical/evacuation/repatriation policy from Travel Guard for this trip. I did not insure the trip itself because I was willing to risk the airfare and hotels and I knew that Rick would have my back. Of course, I received a refund from Rick, I also got my money back from the airline. I had a non-refundable hotel stay that I am happy to accept a voucher for. (I have saved more booking non-refundable stays than I will lose here).

I filled out an online request for a voucher from Travel Guard on Saturday and received a full refund today. So I guess this agrees with the statement up thread about this type of policy being more easily refunded. I will use Travel Guard again.

There is no way to remediate 100% of the risk of life.