Travel Insurance - Recommend or Not

If you have anything that causes uncertainty then you absolutely need insurance. Remember, you can only insure your potential lost. For example, if the total trip was costing $30,000 you don't insure for $30,000. You insure for deposits lost, re-booking fees with airlines (not total tickets), etc. So you need to judge that fairly accurately when viewing the policy. The insurance premium will run about 5% of what you insure. Go to Insuremytrip.com or Squaremouth.com for comparison of policies. Be sure you have one that covers pre-existing and read the fine print several times. I also have Crohn so I know the potential problem.

My last 2 trips I have gotten travel insurance through Travel Guard, which has a special relationship with Rick Steves Tours. Price was very reasonable, service was fine, thank goodness I have not needed to use it. You should check it out. The major thing I am insuring myself for is any major injury or illness that would require evacuation back to the States, and could be hugely costly. With any insurance you should definitely read the fine print and call their customer service to ask any questions. One requirement of Travel Guard, as I remember, was that in order to be covered for pre-existing conditions, you need to buy the insurance within two weeks of your initial travel expense. You could not make all your plans and expenses, and leave arrangements for insurance until the end. But you should clarify that for yourself, with any company.

We use Travel Guard as well, and wouldn't dream of traveling abroad without insurance. Aside from your son's existing issues, a serious accident or sudden, debilitating illness could end up costing a fortune in hospitalization or evac costs if having to be flown back home with support.

Having been active on travel forums for years, I've known people who've had those very things happen, and blessed their lucky stars that they were covered. So yes, absolutely, buy it, and be sure to read the fine print regarding pre-exisiting conditions. As a side note, a very experienced travel agent/guide that we've occasionally done work with uses Travel Guard for her own many trips abroad. We were in her office some years ago when the agency was frantically working to help get a badly beaten/injured client out of a remote location, and as she said to me, "Thank heavens he's insured: cost is going to be the LEAST of the problem!"

I the past we have bought insurance to cover our airfare from the airline we bought from. But, this last summer I gave it more consideration after our daughter had two brain surgeries prior to our most recent trip. Look at insuremytrp.com to compare types of insurance. We didn't have that much $$ to cover, just airfare, deposits, etc. but the real important part was evacuation for us. You can buy a "pre-existing condition" insurance. It wasn't that expensive. I think you need a medical problem free 6 months at the time of purchase to qualify for some types. We had that, but we decided to get the pre-existing any way so if there was a problem we wouldn't have to fight the health history part of it. I would definitely buy it. Just the piece of mind knowing you have coverage if needed. Just compare the companies and look at each detail to make sure you get what you think you need. For us, it was mainly the evacuation and some additional medical as a back up to our medical insurance.

For our trip in March, through my insurance company I obtained travel insurance. Although my wife and I are both healthy, my parents are 90 and not well. For that reason alone I got the insurance, which besides covering losses while on the trip, losses if I had to cancel before leaving because of my folks' health. I have booked air, hotel, apartment, B&B, some train travel. $5000 worth of coverage for $170. Money well spent in my opinion.

We ALWAYS buy trip insurance! We have made claims 3 times, one with Travel Guard and one with CSA, and if possible, I will avoid CSA, based on the difficulty of receiving reimbursement. Our first experience with Travel Guard was simple, just sent a doctor's statement that my father-in-law could not travel due to a broken shoulder. We were promptly reimbursed for 100% of the cruise and airfare we had purchased. Our second claim was for a mere $500 shipboard medical expense, which we had to pay ourselves before disembarking. It took a full year, and you would not believe the hoops I had to jump through! Each time they would tell me that they had everything they needed, but then a couple months later would tell me they needed something else -- all for a lousy $500. I'm sure it cost them more than that for the process! They would have been better off to just cut me a check, but I seriously believe that their job is to stretch it out as long as they can and hope that we would forget about it. My final CSA claim was just last summer, when my husband was diagnosed with cancer and we had to cancel a three week trip to Europe for our daughter, son-in-law, my husband and me. I THOUGHT I had purchased trip insurance, but they would only pay for the cruise. Thank goodness I paid for everything else with my Chase Sapphire Preferred card, because I had an additional $5000 coverage. That took a 70 page claim and months of back and forth to get a $3200 check, but at least we got it. Since most airfare was paid with Rewards points, that is the biggest problem. One airline (Alaska) promptly refunded our points, and charged us $125, which was reimbursed by our Chase card insurance. But Lufthansa is a HUGE problem for us. We used 250,000 points for 2 1/2 tickets and paid about $2000 in cash for the rest. The policy is no refund unless there is a catastrophic illness or death. We cancelled two months in advance, have sent all the documentation proving the illness, and 4 months after our claim, still no refund, and no way to insure the tickets from our points. (Chase's insurance company will refund the $2k if necessary.)

So my caveat is 1. Buy the insurance. 2. Make sure everything is covered. 3. Keep documentation of EVERYTHING: Your itinerary, every ticket, voucher, all the refund policies, all your bank statements and credit card statements that prove you paid. (We had to send 18 months worth of bank statements to prove we paid for the cruise and a resort stay!)

Jan

Thank you for the great responses and feedback. We will definitely check out the rates and compare. Sounds like Travelguard is a reliable way to go. Also, thank you for noting the "pre-existing" fine print. We will definitely read over it several times.

Travel without insurance is playing Russian roulette. Something serious (God forbid!) happens and you are poor like a church mouse despite the fact that healthcare in Europe is quite cheaper than here. Google travel insurance for Europe. You will find a lot of options. Some of them look significantly cheaper than Travel Guard.

We always go through Insure My Trip and purchase early because of our pre-existing conditions. One of mine is Crohn's.

I recommend that you explore their website a bit and then call them. They can help you find the best options for your family and the trip. They will even email you options to compare side-by-side while you are talking on the phone.

I have learned over the years that the length of the trip, door to door, and where you are going can affect the insurance cost as well as the ages of those insured.

As others have said, the most important part of the coverage for us is that for being hospitalized in Europe or sent home in case of a health emergency.

I never used to get travel insurance, but I am a convert. 2 years ago my hubby and I had a tour booked and we did get insurance from Travel Guard. My mother-in-law was 93 and in bad health. 2days before we left my Mom had an accident (she had been fine so we did not worry about her!). I had to cancel and take care of her post surgery. Travel guard paid every non-refundable cost. Well worth the cost.

This week we booked a trip to Italy and I got travel insurance. It is costly, but priceless when you need it!

A couple of points regarding your son's condition. For many travel insurance policies, you need to buy the insurance within a certain number of days of your first payment for the trip to have pre-existing conditions covered. So look carefully at the exclusions of any policy that you are considering.

Also, for most medical evacuation coverage, the patient/family are at the mercy of the insurance company in determining whether the person should be evacuated. After seeing someone consigned to treatment in rural Egypt, I started purchasing a medical evacuation policy that allows me to make that determination. I have a policy through MedjetAssist. Happily I've never had to use it, but they are well reviewed. It is relatively inexpensive, so I maintain it as an annual policy – it will also cover evacuation on trips within the US.. However, this policy only covers evacuation. I still purchase a standard travel insurance package, and I've had to use it twice. For me, it's worth the investment to have both types of policies.