Trip insurance

Your best bet is to compare policies on www.insuremytrip.com or www.squaremouth.com. There you can compare the various policies so you can find one that covers what you want without anything extra. I don't usually get cancellation insurance, so I can't speak to that.

HI,

Here's a link to my recent posts about trip insurance that we had to use in August. We bought an AIG Travel Guard policy that covered cancellation, medical, evacuation, etc.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/general-europe/trip-insurance-our-recent-experience

Paul

Thanks for the information, this will be very helpful. We are hoping not to cancel but we want to be covered for any medical emergencies if they come up.

We started buying trip insurance when one of our RS guides told us what happens if you have a medical emergency and have to be flown home: first class tickets for patient and an accompanying nurse or other attendant. That makes trip insurance a bargain.

I think of trip insurance like I think of fire insurance. You pay hoping you will never have to use it. When you price it out (and it's easy with Insuremytrip.com) look at the whole package-cancellation, medical, evacuation. I focus most on medical and evacuation. If you have a catastrophe and need to come back to the US, and you can't fly commercial, think $50-100K for air ambulance.

We buy insurance through Travel Guard. We also want medical and evacuation coverage. Most coverage picks where you will be sent for medical care. Travel Guard has a Gold Plan that allows you to pick. They also have extra coverage if you book within 15 days of your initial trip payment. I like the feature of paying for the insurance in increments as we make payments toward our trip instead of paying upfront.

Check out the wordings on your credit card. You MAY have all the coverage that you need included in your card.

If you are a member of an atuo association, they have very affordable products.

I could be mistaken, but I think most travel insurance is the same price no matter your age, physical condition (such as chronic illnesses), or the activities you plan to engage in -- barring high-risk rock climbing, skydiving etc.

This makes it a bargain for elderly travelers. Over the years I've personally known 2 different elderly travelers that had to use their insurance, both because of a bad fall.

You really need to read all the small print. We buy it because of elderly parents. In many cases, their pre-existing conditions are less significant for coverage than the conditions of the TRAVELERS. OTOH, the older the travelers are, the more the insurance costs. Cancellation is one of the more expensive coverages. I can't believe "having" a certain credit card covers any significant proportion of the same risks without the purchase of an add-on product.

Most posters here are independent travelers. But if you're buying a package, or a cruise, in some cases their own Cancellation coverage is the most generous. But their own coverage often doesn't cover the bankruptcy of the company itself, which most third-party insurances do cover. If you care, some travelers buy separate air evacuation packages (often on an annual, not per-trip basis) because it gives the traveler more decision-making power and sometimes better coverage. Of course that adds to your total costs.

We've use Travelex most, and also Travel Guard.