Trip insurance coverage for cancellation only

We fly with air miles, so I always just cover the full cost of whatever tour we are doing; no airfare and no hotels for the period before or after the hiking tour. I do get medical included as part of the package, but I believe that one can filter for “cancellation only” instead of a package when searching on Squaremouth or InsureMyTrip.

Most Travel Insurance requires that you buy coverage for ALL costs, not just some that you pick and chose, to have them cover Cancellation. See my second post here:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/budget-tips/existing-condition-travel-insurance-issue

It is possible that you can find what you want by buying Cancellation insurance from the group tour provider, if that's what you're using. Naturally, that wouldn't cover bankruptcy of the tour provider. For independent travel, this idea won't work. Sometimes you might get the terms you want by paying extra for cancel-for-any-reason coverage. But that's much more expensive, and usually does not pay 100%.

I am assuming that you already understand the difference between cancellation protection and trip interruption protection.

I would not want to buy coverage that includes everything, especially since we already have excellent coverage for medical care outside the country. I have contacted Insure my trip and they do not have a policy just for cancellation/interruption. However, Squaremouth gave me a quote for coverage from Battleface, for cancellation/interruption, only. The insurance cost is about 5% of the tour cost. Whether that is a fair price or not, I have no idea and will do further research.

Not only do I not want to pay for insurance that duplicates what we already have, I can just imagine the nightmare trying to coordinate benefits between multiple companies. In our case, we'd have much better assistance and coverage thru our own medical insurance.

I am considering picking up a Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, for the trip cancellation coverage. I just need to find out how fast I can get a card, since my tour payment is due quite soon.

I have purchased trip cancellation/ interruption insurance separately from BCAA, our local auto association. With BCAA, you can set how much coverage you want. For example, if your whole trip including flights, hotels and a tour is $10,000 and you only want the tour part covered which is $5,000, you can ask for only $5,000 of coverage.

If you Google for that type of insurance, you will easily find an insurer that provides the specific coverage that you require.

Just be aware that you have to meet special conditions for there to be a payout. For example, death or serious illness of yourself or close relative, loss of job, etc. You cannot just cancel because you changed your mind about going and want all your money back. Read the fine print and ask questions by talking to the agent.

Good luck.

Funpig, I wish it were that easy. I've done a lot of googling and spoke with representatives of two agencies. Most insurance (at least in the U.S.) is lumped together. It appears next to impossible to find just cancellation, only. I found one company, Battleface, that has a cancellation policy, another, Trawick, has a lower cost policy, but still includes some level of medical and evacuation.

I have to think there are many folks, particularly those under 65, that do not need the medical coverage and would like just the protection of just cancellation coverage. The cynic in me has several theories.

Going forward, or at least until we are on medicare, I will use the cancellation benefits of a credit card.