Travel Insurance

I have used several different companies through the years. I always used to use CSA,
then found a site that compares several different companies..... you pick your options.

Insurance Comaprisons

or

SquareMouth

See: https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/trip-planning/travel-insurance

Travel insurance can minimize the considerable financial risks of
traveling: accidents, illness, missed flights, canceled tours, lost
baggage, theft, terrorism, travel-company bankruptcies, emergency
evacuation, and getting your body home if you die. Each traveler’s
potential loss varies, depending on how much of your trip is prepaid,
the refundability of the air ticket you purchased, your state of
health, the value of your luggage, where you’re traveling, the
financial health of your tour company and airline, and what coverage
you already have (through your medical insurance, homeowners or
renters insurance, and/or credit card).

The first question you need to ask yourselves and answer is what can you afford or not afford in terms of consequences. The second question to ask is if the "peace of mind" you buy worth the price. Keep in mind that you pay for peace of mind. It is what insurance companies call profit. If you can afford to self-insure the profit is yours. Warren Buffet may or may not need insurance, but he does own insurance companies (through Berkshire Hathaway).

The analogy to travel insurance is auto insurance. Do you need collision insurance if you can afford to replace the vehicle? (Yes, it may hurt if your car is a write off, but do you have the "emergency" funds to replace the car and still pay for your daily expenses?) And if you do need collision, can you live with a $500 deductible vs the more expensive $100 deductible? The bigger question for auto insurance is liability insurance and how much. Some of us may be able to pay for a replacement vehicle, but few can self-insure a multi-million dollar liability claim and/or the cost of defending against the claim.

The travel insurance analogy to car insurance liability coverage is medical and medical evacuation coverage. One may easily replace a lost bag or even writing off a non-refundable air travel ticket, but many would be financially hurt paying $50K to $100K USDs for a chartered medical evaluation flight from Europe to North America. And keep in mind some providers may want "cash on the table".

Note that you can buy Medical/Medical Evacuation insurance coverage and not the all-peril travel coverage.

As a bottom line, if you do buy insurance, read the fine print to understand your coverage and the exclusions.

Edgar has given an excellent and succint statement on travel insurance. Would that the webmaster could make it pop up automatically every time someone brings up the topic.

Great post from Edgar. Yes, we always buy travel insurance - with medical and evac - when we travel abroad. Travel Guard is our company of choice but that doesn't mean there aren't other good ones out there.

https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/trip-planning/travel-insurance

I would definitely recommend travel medical insurance. If you are older with potential health issues, you should be concerned that you have adequate coverage.

Some employment health packages may already include travel medicial insurance. Check with your employer.

Some credit cards also include travel medical, usually up to 15 days.

Auto associations provide very affordable travel medical. We used our 15 days credit card coverage and purchased additional number of days coverage from our AA.

It is advisable to read the fine print to understand the terms and conditions and how to make a claim.

+1 for squaremouth. You can compare prices and select the best rated coverage for what you need at the price you want to pay.

I use it for all expensive trips and buy it mainly for the medical evacuation. Many of the policies will also cover terrorist attack evacuation as well. If you had just started a trip to France during any of the recent horrors that have taken place, that would have come in VERY handy.

I know I wouldn't want to stick around waiting for a flight in 2 weeks during any of that.

It is just peace of mind, and really not very expensive if you buy it on squaremouth. I think it cost about $60.00 for cancellation (with a list of allowable reasons), med evac, and terrorist evac, plus coverage on luggage and other items. That was for 2 people.

• * * Edit * * * I just looked it up for my upcoming trip to Rome: - Cost was $67.00 for 2 people and here is what it covered. This was found through Squaremouth, but the actual coverage is through RoamRight. You only insure for the non-refundable portion of the trip.

Trip Cancellation 100% of the trip cost ($3,000)
Trip Interruption 150% of the trip cost ($4,500)
Hurricane & Weather Common carrier delay for 24 hours, Mandatory evacuation conditionally covered, Accommodation made uninhabitable, Must be purchased before storm is named
Terrorism Covered for foreign and domestic
Financial Default Covered after 14 day wait
Employment Layoff Covered, If employed for 1 continuous year
Cancel For Medical Reasons Included in Trip Cancellation and Trip Interruption
Cancel For Work Reasons Not selected
Cancel For Any Reason Not selected, This benefit is separate from Trip Cancellation
Emergency Medical $50,000 per person, Secondary coverage
Pre-Existing Condition Covered
Medical Deductible $50 per occurrence
Medical Evacuation & Repatriation $500,000 per person
Non-Medical Evacuation $100,000 per person
Travel Delay $1,000 per person, $200 daily limit, Covered after 6 hour delay
Baggage Delay $300 per person, Covered after 12 hour delay
Baggage & Personal Items Loss $1,000 per person, $250 per item, $500 specific items limit
Missed Connection $500 per person, Covered after 3 hour delay
24 Hour AD&D $10,000 per person
Flight Only AD&D Not selected
Rental Car Damage Not selected
Money Back Guarantee Up to 14 days after purchase
24 Hour Assistance Service 24 hour assistance provided
Additional Benefits Concierge Services Coverage

crgraham32: $67 for two?

Mind sharing your age? For some reason insurance companies charge old people more than young people.

We haven't always taken insurance, but will from now on. We've seen too many things happen to others. Take a look at the Travel Guard options as offered through RS versus directly from TG. I think there are some differences in coverage and/or cost to the advantage of getting it through RS.

I am 43 and my daughter is 16 so that probably weighs in on the price, but you would be surprised at the price differences between policies on Squaremouth. They were all over the board, but that is why I like it. I can choose exactly the coverage I want, with a highly rated company, and I can shop the price.

That said, I would assume that travel insurance is like any other insurance. The more risk you present for a claim, the higher the premium. Age would weigh heavily on the risk for a medical claim.

Thanks, Frances, for the tip about SquareMouth. I went to the site and was able to find a policy that fit my needs and had better pricing than I had seen elsewhere. I will use this site again for future travel. I am in my early 60's, in excellent health, but know too many people who had medical issues crop up unexpectedly. The insurance gives me peace of mind.

I will certainly look into squaremouth in the future, that's a new word and site to me, so thanks. But I wanted to make two additional comments: (1) I have used Travel Guard various times, never made a claim thankfully, and have found the people who answer their toll-free sales line to be very knowledgeable and helpful, and have run my preferences through a couple different types of their policies to find the best price for what I needed; my priority has always been done severe illness or accident, and needed hospitalization and/or evacuation; I figure I can absorb the trip expenses, certainly unhappily, but possible; (2) at Travel Guard and I imagine many, if not all, companies, in order to get coverage for pre-existing medical conditions, you must buy your policy within 15 days of your initial trip expense, such as tour deposit or air travel purchase.

Good point Larry! Many of the policies that include trip cancellation require purchase within a set number of days of the first major purchase of travel in order to cover both cancellation and preexisting conditions.

However, for med evac and similar, many of them do not require purchase that far in advance.

Check your credit card. I just discovered that mine, an airline associated card, includes a fairly comprehensive insurance coverage that does have the all important medical evacuation coverage. The only restriction is that it only covers travel related expenses charged to that card. So if I were to pay cash for a RS tour, it in itself is not covered by the credit card where if I pay for the plane ticket with the card the medical coverage is in effect until the end of my return flight.

It your card includes this coverage and it is sufficient for your needs, it might save you a few dollars because you don't have to pay extra for another policy which duplicates what you already have.

We always get travel insurance especially for the medical evacuation. Never had to use it but we are in our 60's and it's peace of mind. We get Allianz.

Regardless of what you buy (or consider) read the fine print.

For example, if you plan on doing a Via Ferrata Dolomite walk in Italy, a claim could be challenged. My Travel Guard policy excludes:

The ascent or descent of a mountain requiring the use of specialized
equipment, including but not limited to pickaxes, anchors, bolts,
crampons, carabineers and lead or top-rope anchoring equipment;

However, I use Travel Guard because it does not exclude amateur skiing. Some policies consider skiing a hazardous sport. Travel Guard's exclusion is limited to professional events:

participation in professional athletic events, motor sport or motor
racing, including training or practice for the same;

Is a hot air balloon "air supported" ? If it is, Travel Guard excludes:

air travel on any air-supported device, other than a regularly
scheduled airline or air charter company;

On our last few trips, the airline (United) had an option to add insurance including evacuation -- about $60 for two of us -- which we took to supplement our Medigap coverage. No info on how Allianz responds to claims, however.