Trip insurance

We’ve never gotten trip insurance for any trip, but I know that some folks here wouldn’t leave home without it. A trip to Antarctica that was once being considered required purchasing evacuation insurance, but that trip didn’t happen.

To my mind you need to look at what exactly you want to insure and have that clear in your mind before you buy.

I get trip insurance mostly for medical and med-eval. I don't really care about insuring delays and luggage (I am a carry on gal). None of my hotels are pre-paid and can be refunded up until a few days before travel. I do take multi-day tours but the company I am currently using I think I could work with if something happened to me and I couldn't go.

I travel on Delta and know I can cancel and get a voucher for future flights.

Having said that, I do often go with the Allianz offer at the end of my flight purchase because it's easy and mostly covers what I need. Travel Guard is another company I have used especially when I've booked a tour thru Rick Steves or Road Scholar and have a lot of money sitting "out there".

There are also a couple of websites you can use to figure out what might work for you with an a la carte style of deciding what you want covered. The 2 I've used are Squaremouth and Insuremytrip

If you are going to travel a lot in a year you can also look at a yearly coverage from Allianz or other company, depending on where you live.

I agree with Pam. I always get trip insurance for medical and emergency evacuation (a nice high amount). You just don't know what might happen and you don't want to be stuck in another country very ill or injured with no medical insurance. I've bought insurance from Allianz and Travel Guard but I've never had to make a claim, so I can't say anything about their customer service. But I feel it was money well spent and I will never go on an overseas trip without it.

https://search.ricksteves.com/?button=&date_range=2y&filter=Travel+Forum&query=Trip+insurance&utf8=%E2%9C%93

This is a weekly topic topic, so there's a wealth of info here. Everyone's needs are different, so there's no one answer. The important thing is to get coverage within two weeks of your first booking if you want preexisting condition coverage.
Good luck- hope you don't ever need to use it!

I use Squaremouth to compare insurance companies based on my requirements. Last year I used Aegis and they paid my $1500 claim for hotel and missed flights because of a travel delay.

As you debate your insurance needs, find out if your US health insurance policy covers international and evaluate your financial risk. Your most expensive issue will be if you have to be med evac’d home to the US; estimates run between $80K and $120K. There are previous threads about this.

Last year I changed the insurances I bought. Previously I bought an inclusive Allianz Premier annual policy to cover the trip and medical plus annual Medjet to cover evacuation. Because I booked last year's trip over a year in advance (when RS tour bookings opened) I only bought a Basic Allianz policy to cover non-refundable trip expenses when trip costs were no longer refundable, an annual GeoBlue medical because it covers pre-existing conditions without the 14-day buy time limit and an annual Medjet evac policy. For this year's trip I only needed to buy another Basic Allianz policy. I tend to over-insure and don't leave home without it, which satisfies my risk avoidance comfort.

Thank you great advice! I haven’t figured out how to search yet so thank you for posting the link!

US citizen here. Bought it last year for our trip to Banff only because my car insurance wouldn't cover my rental in a foreign country. I ended up having a medical emergency and went to Calgary by ambulance, luckily it was not as serious as they thought but it was very reassuring that I had coverage. I was charged over $4,000 in Canada, but at one point they thought I might not be able to fly home (suspected a pulmonary embolism) and our costs could have soared. I will never travel out of the country again without it.

you insure for very high risk. Losing luggage is not that. Even reimbursing airline tickets. If you can afford to get these things you can afford to lose the money (not pleasant but won't ruin you) I figure we paid for a couple of our many trips to Europe with the money we saved not getting trip insurance. What can ruin you is the need to be airlifted home -- that can cost 100K; we knew someone who had to double mortgage their home to get their daughter home from Cairo after she was hit by a car and didn't have insurance. When we were working our employee insurance covered emergency medical care and mine covered evacuation. Later we got evacuation insurance when we were retired; our medigap policy covered emergency care.

And as we have gotten older that has shifted as risks go up. The first time I actually bought travel insurance I ended up in a French hospital having my arm put back together with surgery. Was glad to have it. Now we have an annual policy which we hope to never test. I also have an annual evacuation policy --

Recommend by Bogleheads.
I have purchased med/evac 4 times. $100 ish.
Website is not pretty, but they are great.
https://tripinsurancestore.com/

Thank you! Great info! Yes my primary coverage needs are medical expenses and having to be airlifted home. I went to square mouth and found a policy. Sounds like this policy with transport me to closest hospital to get care then make sure I get home. In what instance would I also want a med jet policy? Also do these policies get cheaper or more expensive the closer I get to my trip time? Thank you for the help! This is all new!