Travel Insurance/Credit card coverage

Up until recently we did not take any travel insurance. And given what we have saved over the years, we are now money ahead, I am sure. But at 77 we have decided the the dice roll maybe turning against us especially when we have to book a year in advance. The Chase Reserve card does provide some insurance but we are also making sure we have both medical (low level) and medical evac under a different policy. We are now at the age when more things can go wrong -- quicker. In making the decision to insure, you have to determine what you can or are willing to lose. Two trips back because of our initial flight cancellation, we missed a second, unrelated connecting flight. Lost about $300 but that probably would have been the premium if we had had insurance on that trip. So we broken even.

I have the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, and utilize that insurance. (Couple in our low 30's, no medical issues). I have purchased separate policy in the past, but don't anymore. The only thing i would maybe consider buying extra is if we were going to a country that is having civil unrest and non-medical evacuation coverage would be wanted.

Different cards carry different levels of insurance. Our Visa has some coverage, but is usually insufficient to cover our costs. And different policies cover different things. You can often buy simple cancellation / interruption coverage inexpensively. It's when you start adding in other coverages where the cost of insurance can add up. Things like cancel for any reason, lost luggage/theft, medical, evacuation, etc.

Since we travel internationally for quite a few weeks a year, we have an annual policy that covers cancellation/interruption (without the cancel for any reason option), medical and evacuation.

You might consider looking at one of the online travel insurance brokers (like insuremytrip), where you specify the coverage you want and they show you policies that fit your needs.

We have not taken trip insurance for trip costs, for the simple reason that we have little "sunk" cost, meaning costs we cannot cancel or pay a change fee to use; but we are mainly independent travelers. If you are incurring big non-refundable costs for a cruise, tour, hotel package, etc., then it might make sense. I am always leery of Credit Card Coverage, only because there seem to be a number of rules, and it is left to you to prove the point, the old adage of "you get what you pay for" seems to apply.

For Medical, I have had policies that cover me overseas and I generally travel places where care is as good as, or better than in the US, and I am still young enough I can take the risk. I agree with the other poster, as I get older, I more seriously consider coverage. At that point, I would likely go with a good third party policy for Medical.

I always make sure to charge at least part of common carrier expenses to Chase Sapphire Reserve in order to trigger their travel insurance including medical, trip cancellation/ interruption, and medical evacuation. Medical emergency costs also covered by Plan G Medigap. No claims made on 7+ trips made since we turned 65 (medical expenses below the $50 deductible.)
But many of our costs are cancellable hotels -- would probably consider extra insurance for a big-ticket item like a non-refundable cruise.

bill, Viking offers insurance as well, don't they?

The Viking insurance was over $600 per person. The feedback from everyone has been very useful. We are in our mid 60's and I never seriously considered insurance before. It came up on a previous Rick Steves tour where I was trying to decide whether to pay cash or charge the trip. You can save 2% if you pay cash. Using the credit card, I earned that much back in a cash rebate, plus at the time, we got trip insurance. Viking offers 3.2 or 3.3% discount if you pay cash. That makes using the credit card more expensive, even with the cash back feature - unless there is another benefit to using the card - like trip insurance. That is what got me wondering what other people are doing. Now I sort of know.

Thanks,

Another Chase Saphire reserve user. I have not had to make a claim, but I read the coverage carefully. I feel confident it would be enough to cover my needs for travel insurance. There is what works out to be a net $150/year fee but that covers both travel insurance, rental car insurance, and lounge access at the airport. I always make quite a bit back in reward points/cash.

I really need to focus on travel medical coverage for future trips, so this discussion is a good reminder to do that the next time I plan a trip.

Thanks to a tip from someone at our local RS travel group meeting a few years ago, I joined Divers Alert Network. Not that I'm a diver. But. For my $35 per year membership, I get medical evacuation services if I'm more than 50 miles from home. Anywhere. Doesn't have to be a diving trip. It's not insurance: you call them and they arrange the transportation. I figure it can't hurt to have it. Accidents and illnesses happen; at least this will get me to medical help and might even get me home.

bill, the purpose of any insurance is to protect the buyer against a "risk." You have to determine what your risks are, how troublesome they could be, and how much you would pay to mitigate them. Anything else is salesmanship by a hungry insurance company.

That said, because we're over 65, and my mother is 93, and my siblings are starting to be over 60, there are substantial travel insurance-related risks in my life. I have been paying from a few to several PERCENT of recent trips for well over ten years. We take expensive trips, and any credit card insurance is insufficient for us.

It's also careless and unwise to assume that credit card insurance, or any larger, open-market travel insurance is "exactly what YOU need." You MUST do the due dilligence of reading over a dozen pages of the policy (which IS usually written in plain English) to see if it protects against the risks you don't want to have.

For example, I made the pleasant discovery that my usual product, Travelex, doesn't mean my-mother's-pre-exisiting conditions when they warn about limits on protection against pre-exisiting medical conditions. Their policies only refer to the TRAVELERs' pre-exisiting conditions. Other policies could easily be different.

I often buy third-party (an insurance company ... ) policy because it can protect against bankruptcy of a tour company that issued its own insurance. But sometimes a cruise company's insurance can have really attractive terms, like "cancel up to the day before departure with full credit for a future cruise, not cash." That may or many not be the terms that you'd like to have.

This is not a product where you buy from a two-page folder and assume that it's just what you need. Every family has different needs. There are no shortcuts. And strong protection is expensive. Now that I'm over 65, the same policy has gotten more expensive. That's life!

When I tried to make a small claim for medical treatment on a Windstar ship, I was told that I had to submit a denied (because it was out of the U.S.) Medicare claim before they would pay something that was clearly covered under the policy. They were hoping I would go away, rather that work, to collect $125.

Medical evacuation is the BIG risk you need to insure against. A friend had a fall in Italy and badly broke her leg. She did have a policy and ended up on an air ambulance back to the US after initial treatment in Italy. That cost around $90000!

As a Chase Sapphire user be ware that your entire trip (well whatever you charge) must be charged on the Sapphire card or nothing is covered. If you book your flights with your Alaska Visa or Delta AMEX but your car and hotel with Chase - zero is covered. At least that is how it was explained to me when I tried to use it for the non-refundable condo cost in Hawaii but I used my Alaska visa for my flights. Now that said - I have done the math a few times to see if getting travel insurance is worth it but it has never penciled out in my favor. As we get older I might get medical evacuation insurance but we haven't yet.

Insurance is expensive, no question. But if paying $600 could save you $90,000, it is money well spent.

I usually don’t insure air as the airlines give you a credit for the value of the ticket that can be used for a year. As I travel frequently, it should not be a problem to use the credit.

@Donna, it was my understanding (based on reading the fine print of the Chase benefits multi-page online brochure) that "part", not all, of your common carrier costs had to be on the CSR for the insurance to be triggered. Used CSR to pay the taxes on an award ticket. But since I haven't had to file a claim ... can't say conclusively. In your case, you paid your common carrier (plane tickets) with another card.
Like any insurance, it's all in the details.

@ Donna. There are different Chase Sapphire products. Chase Sapphire Reserve definitely states that only part of the trip needs to be charged on it for all non-refundable costs to be covered. One of two things happened. You had a different product, or someone lied to you when you tried to claim.

Insurance is a contract. Anytime you purchase insurance, it's important to know what is included and how you get reimbursed? Too many people think insurance automatically covers everything and shop based on price of the policy. When something goes wrong, however, they find out - too late - that their policy doesn't cover their circumstance or that the reimbursement process is a hardship.

I've yet to purchase travel insurance. Primarily because I don't find value in what the policy covers vs. what I have to pay for it (risk vs. premium).

I'm looking at chartering a sailboat in the BVI this coming February. Trip insurance is $200 but we haven't yet read what is covered/not covered?

@Carol - could have been the person I talked to didn't really know because they would not honor my claim - Chase Sapphire Reserve. Bummer but I should have pushed back more. Thanks for the information!

We ended up using the Chase Sapphire Reserve card and buying a Medjet policy.

Bill, thanks for coming back to the forum and letting us know what you did.

Safe travels!

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/general-europe/a-reminder-about-having-proper-travel-insurance-especiallly-medical-evacuation
Just a reminder to folk to make sure they have evacuation insirance

Having read all of these comments and those in the linked discussion, I am seriously thinking about travel insurance for the first time. Are there any travel insurance companies that others have used and would recommend? Or not recommend?

Travel Insurance is important for covering your airfare, as well as private tours and cruises that you book in advance.

However, my wife and I did a 4 week drive tour of Wales and England and I booked all the hotels/B&Bs, tours and rental car. I could cancel each reservation if done 24 hours prior to arrival. Therefore, if for some reason we could not make the trip, cancelling all the reservations would be easy, except perhaps the first hotel for one night.

I always buy trip cancellation insurance for airfare, cruises and land tours. Also, I purchase medical coverage and medical evacuation coverage from my AmEx card. It is relatively cheap, like $55 for a month for both of us.
Full cancellation insurance is a bit expensive, but it paid off for a cruise that I had to cancel because of the death of my Mom.

As for paying in cash to a tour company instead of charging it on a credit card, yes, you save a little paying cash, transferring electronically, but within the USA the charge is usually about $30 for me. Also, when I use my AmEx card, I get Delta flyer miles.