Travel Insurance, for all circumstances? Anyone ever had to make a claim?

The perpetual recommendation for any travel insurance is ---- READ the fine print -- two or three times. Almost every policy is different as to what is included or excluded and how many "i" that must be dotted in a special way. Most credit card cover is secondary but some premium cards are primary. A lot of pro money belt users have argued that having everything in the money is the best approach and others claims that the use of the room safe is the best practice. Each has approach has some risk. Nothing is risk free. Simply a case of deciding the risk you are willing to assume.

It would appear that credit card travel insurance is very basic which is why I always take out a proper travel insurance policy. I've never had to make a theft claim but several medical claims were paid out without fuss.

All of this would still be true if traveling in your home country (except the passport thing), wouldn't it? Anybody take out travel insurance for that?

We carry a separate year around travel/medical policy that covers us anytime we are more than 500 miles from home. Combined with limited coverage on a premium credit card and we are good to go. BUT --- we have never had to make a claim so don't know how well it will work.

We always get travel health insurance, but we don’t always get trip protection insurance. Depending upon the trip, we might decide that we can bear the financial loss of any changes. This actually came up recently when a member of our large group had to drop out of a trip for health. The plane tickets were nonrefundable, so now that person has a credit with the airline, minus the change fee. The change fee is in the neighborhood of what travel insurance would have been, so I think we’re even. The airline credit will be used.

We did make a claim during the bomb cyclone at JFK in January 2018. Because the airline refunded our ticket and we stayed with local family, trip insurance only covered our extra taxi fares. I’m not sure it was worth it. Of course, if we’d had to pay for a hotel I would probably feel differently.

You can’t insure against every calamity without spending a ton on insurance. We take the risk that buying less insurance evens out over the extra we sometimes spend that insurance might have covered. I don’t think it was necessarily reckless of the family in the linked story to not have trip insurance (if that was indeed the case). I would probably get it for a cruise because of the initial outlay and because I rarely cruise, so I would be unlikely to use a credit. But a family member who cruises all the time has had to cancel a couple of cruises and reused the credit.

A fellow tour mate on our recent tour to Scandinavia was in Buenos Aires on the beginning part of his journey to Antarctica last January. While in Buenos Aires he was hit by a bus. He went to the hospital there with a broken hip. The hospital did basically nothing for him but he had to shell out $10,000 to be released from the hospital. He was then evacuated back to the states to the tune of $120,000. He was obviously unable to continue the tour to Antarctica so that cost anywhere from $15,000 to $25,000. Then, of course, he needed surgery and pt in the states. He had to fight the travel insurance company to pay up so add the cost of lawyers. The travel insurer (Tripmate) said they were not the primary insurer. This was eventually resolved but what a hassle not to mention stress when you are severely injured. I plan on calling my travel insurer to ask what their policy is for a situation like this.

Just bought Alberta Blue Cross Travel Insurance for our September trip to Italy. Off to read the whole fifty-two pages of the policy with a highlighter right now. I can imagine worse fates than being stuck in Italy longer...but not at the cost of a giant fight with an insurance company after a loss like this family had.

Edit: AB Blue Cross says "Benefits are payable if: b) your or your travelling companion’s passport or other necessary travel documents are lost or stolen while on your or their trip". So this policy is good for the one specific circumstance under discussion. To a whopping total of $150: "If any one or more of the following documents are lost or stolen, we will reimburse the expenses incurred by you to replace the lost or stolen documents, up to a benefit maximum of $150:
a) passport; c) birth certificate; or b) driver’s license; d) travel visa."

This was an interesting read...I agree with everyone's advice to read the fine print.

This has led me to look at my policy as well. The following is covered:

Travel Documents
Failure to obtain a valid passport or travel visa (excluding an immigration, student or employment visa) necessary to enter the country of destination of the trip, for reasons beyond your or your travelling companion’s control.
Loss or theft of your or your travelling companion’s passport or other necessary travel documents while on your trip.

Personal Currency
The insurer agrees to reimburse up to $100 for loss of personal currency when caused directly by theft or robbery and supported by a police report.
Travel Documents

The insurer agrees to reimburse up to an overall maximum of $400 for the replacement cost of any of the following documents when the loss is caused directly by theft or robbery and supported by a police report: passport, driver's licence, birth certificate or travel visa.

Benefits are not payable for loss of or damage to: a) contact lenses;or
b) prescription eyeglasses;or
c) artificial teeth and limbs; or
d) hearing aids;or
e) forms of money and currency (except as provided under Personal Currency); or
f) securities; or
g) tickets;or
h) credit cards;or
i) statuary; or
j) paintings; or
k) fragil brittle objects; or
l) objects of art or antiques; or
m) animals (except as specifically provided for cat or dog).
Benefits are not payable for costs incurred due to theft from an unattended vehicle unless it was securely locked and there was visible evidence of forced entry.

As a point of interest:

If, as a result of a Covered Reason, you or your travelling companion are unable to use a shore excursion ticket or special event ticket purchased while on your cruise or tour, the insurer will reimburse up to $100 per ticket to a maximum of $500