How many times has this question been asked??? And here I am asking it:
Should I get travel insurance for my 11-week trip to Europe?
I don't plan to do any pre-planned tours, will keep my cost to a decent budget (or so I plan) and will book most of my lodging along the way. I am signing up for some art workshops and putting down a deposit. My homeowners and credit card will cover lost luggage and trip accident (if I die). No coverage for trip cancellation.
Thank you!
Can you afford a $50-75K medical evacuation flight back if you have an accident or get sick? If so, and you have medical coverage that is valid abroad (which Medicare is not), then you probably don't need travel insurance.
Michelle, Insure my trip and Squaremouth.com let you tailor trip insurance to your needs. You get to pick from many insurance companies, and only have to pay for the type/types of insurance that you think might need.
We really like the Squaremouth website; it is very easy to use, and they guarantee all of the companies that are allowed to provide you a quote.
We won't leave home without travel insurance.
Even with a basic plan, coverage is quite comprehensive. An often overlooked advantage is covering airline change fees should you need to reengineer your itinerary for a covered reason. I had never purchased travel insurance before but did last November at the height of the Swine Flu scare. Had someone in my traveling party contracted the flu, change fees alone would have been $1000 total. Thankfully, we didn’t need to use it, but it was so cheap and covered so much that I’ll always get it from now on for international travel. I still don’t bother with it for domestic travel.
I just bought a travel medical policy (also comes with some interruption/delay/baggage insurance) through InsureMyTrip.com, and so far, I like them. E-mailed me my policy and card right away, with hard copies to come in the mail.
Since I'm buying this for a visa application, I needed a confirmation letter sent to the consulate, and they were very quick to respond to my requests about the letter. Plus, it was under $24 for my 19-day trip.
So here's my story...
The very first time I ever purchased trip cancellation insurance was for a trip to Europe with my husband and his parents. We spent over 1 1/2 years planning this 3 week 'extravaganza' (we had traveled there several times previously). Pinging off the walls with anticipation. Fast-forward to 1 week before the trip -- my husband's sister's ex-husband, who hadn't exactly accepted the realities of the divorce, started staying up all night writing pot- and alcohol-fueled emails to his ex-wife. He very carefully avoided directly threatening her, but alluded to recent news stories concerning ex-husbands who had killed their ex-wives. Charming. And very scary. Four days before our trip, my father-in-law (God bless him) decided he just simply couldn't leave his daughter. What if something happened and he wasn't here? (We all knew the slim chances of that, but sometimes fear wins out.) So, my in-laws cancelled 4 days before our trip. My husband and I, after much deliberation, decided to go on; he'd moved heaven and earth to get 3 weeks off. The point is, all 4 of us could've cancelled and been out $0. As it was, my in-laws had no difficulties in cancelling (albeit due to his dangerously high blood pressure - and he's a heart patient), and we could have cancelled, too. Now, the fact that he'd had a quad bypass and an especially bad family history of heart disease makes this case a little out of the ordinary, but the point is you just can't predict the crazy ex-husbands of the world. Perhaps YOUR ex-husband is a bad case of pneumonia (are there good ones?), a recent cancer diagnoses of a loved one, the death of a dear friend, whatever. READ YOUR POLICIES VERY CAREFULLY!
Shop around carefully. I'll never travel without trip cancellation and evacuation again. Baggage ins - nah. It's on my back!
Mr. Ex-Husband was not even on our radar 2 weeks before the trip...You just never know.
(Access America through American Airlines - best $ at the time)
Your homeowners insurance and credit cards will not pay for medical evacuation nor preparing a body for for abn international flight (and the flight) back to US. Both cost thousands of dollars.
Personally, I would and have not left home without those coverages.
On a trip to Israel, a lady in my group died the day after arriving in Tel Aviv. The insurance paid for the above and paid for her son to escort his Father with Mother's body back to the US.
The Travel Insurance on my trip was $139....which was cheap.
We won't even come down to the USA for a weekend without medical insurance. Travel insurance is just part of our trip budget.
Michelle - Most of the time we just get medical and evacuation insurance to cover from unexpected medical and emergency expenses including transportation. You can get one time trip coverage or find a yearly policy. American Express has one for cardholders that covers you any time you are over 100 miles away from home and staying overnight. You can pay it on monthly installments or in one lump sum - I think it's $109 for the year.
We have taken a couple of tours for which we had to pre-pay everything and would be out even more money if we were delayed. For those trips, we have taken out the full trip coverage for delays, sickness and emergencies. It wasn't that expensive - we used Travel Guard.
Here's a couple of experiences from friends and family:
A family member was in a motorcycle accident in Italy with her Italian fiance. Wasn't their fault. She was in the hospital for at least a week and had to put it on credit cards. His family helped pay the bill in addition to bringing her food in the hospital. Then they had to pay for first class tickets home at full price because she couldn't sit in coach with a cast on her entire leg and she needed help during the flight so he had to sit with her. They are still paying off thousands in debt because they didn't have insurance that covered most of it. Her medical insurance reimbursed her for some of the medical expenses but not any of the transportation. Medical and evacuation insurance would have covered it all.
A close friend was traveling with her uncle in Egypt when he suddenly passed away. He had travel insurance so her family back home contacted the insurance company who made all the arrangements with the government in Egypt as well as flying him back home. It was a hassle dealing with the insurance company at first but they didn't have to do anything but make a few phone calls and there were no out of pocket expenses.
We never leave the country without medical and evacuation insurance. That is just mandatory imho as any unforseen illness or accident even with the healthiest person can quickly add up to 5 or 6 figure $$$.
Anything above that is optional and depends very much on the type of trip you're planning.
We never get TRAVEL insurance,, unless we book a prepaid cruise or tour( which I did once when I took my dd on a RS Family Tour)
BUT, we always ,, always get extra MEDICAL insurance.
Exactly, Steve. Policies aren't what you want them to be...if only!
I made a couple of calls to the insurance company before I bought their policy so that I was very clear on just what was and wasn't covered (serious high blood pressure-related problems). Asking those questions AFTER purchasing a policy might not work out as well for you. As in NOT.
Again, KNOW WHAT THE POLICY COVERS, AND DOESN'T COVER. And then you'll be fine. Most aren't a jumble of legalese; they're pretty clear. My ex-brother-in-law has gotten his act together (amen), but if anyone comes across a goofy ex-b-i-l clause please let me know! (actually, that goes for s-in-l, too...)
And lastly, since I had done my homework, all it took was indeed a doctor's note for my father-in-law. Plane ticket, any non-refundable train/apt/hotels (had we had any and I had added them) would have been covered. Makes it much easier to book those non-refundable train tickets!
Michelle, I hearby volunteer to travel with you for the entire 11 weeks...just sayin' 8^D I'll research the insurance...
Well, the initial debate is over, I will get travel insurance and ensure I've got medical coverage, it's now a matter of with who....
Thanks, Steve for the Squaremouth tip, they do a great job with comparing plans/companies.
I can see it's best to be prepared, even if nothing happens.
Happy Travels....
From someone who broke their ankle (both bones) right by the pyramids in Egypt....I'd say get the insurance.
What I did not know is that travel insurance doesn't pay for your costs up front, they reimburse afterward when you send them your receipts. I was with a group and my tour leader fronted the money for my hospital stay and operation.
However, in Egypt two days in the hospital and the operation (I have two Egyptian metal screws in my ankle, what a souvenier!) only came to $2,000.
