Who do you use for travel insurance?

Costco offers it's members a pretty good price.

What are you insuring against exactly? "Travel insurance" is a very broad term.

My own medical covers urgent and emergency care while traveling internationally. It does not cover medical evacuation or repatriation, so I get insurance for those through Nationwide. (They do also cover medical.) I made a spreadsheet of my coverage priorities and evaluated plans against those requirements.

I haven't placed a traveler's claim with Nationwide, but I have submitted claims with them for other insurance, which they paid promptly and without difficulty upon my easy, electronic submission of receipts.

Note: to ensure "pre-existing conditions" Nationwide only has a 10 day window from initial payment, shorter than other companies.

We are a family of 4 traveling. I guess I’m insuring airfare and any tours paid for in case of Illness where we can’t travel. (I know, need doctor note). I suppose any other type of illness abroad.

I use InsureMyTrip.com and SquareMouth.com to show me my options then pick one after reading the details. For our last two trips I ended up with a policy from TinLeg for medical care and evacuation/repatriation. I only buy cancellation insurance for package tours and cruises.

It's an unwise consumer practice to choose an insurance plan based solely on someone else's successful insurance experience. Here's a copy of a previous post of mine on this topic:

The purpose of any insurance is to protect the buyer against a "risk." You have to determine what your risks are, how troublesome they could be, and how much you would pay to mitigate them. Anything else is salesmanship by a hungry insurance company.

That said, because we're over 65, and my mother is 93, and my siblings are starting to be over 60, there are substantial travel insurance-related risks in my life. I have been paying from a few to several PERCENT of recent trips for well over ten years. We take expensive trips, and any credit card insurance is insufficient for us.

It's also careless and unwise to assume that credit card insurance, or any larger, open-market travel insurance is "exactly what YOU need." You MUST do the due diligence of reading over a dozen pages of the policy (which IS usually written in plain English) to see if it protects against the risks you don't want to have.

For example, I made the pleasant discovery that my usual product, Travelex, doesn't mean my-mother's-pre-exisiting conditions when they warn about limits on protection against pre-exisiting medical conditions. Their policies only refer to the TRAVELERs' pre-exisiting conditions. Other policies could easily be different.

I often buy third-party (an insurance company ... ) policy because it can protect against bankruptcy of a tour company that issued its own insurance. But sometimes a cruise company's insurance can have really attractive terms, like "cancel up to the day before departure with full credit for a future cruise, not cash." That may or many not be the terms that you'd like to have.

This is not a product where you buy from a two-page folder and assume that it's just what you need. Every family has different needs. There are no shortcuts. And strong protection is expensive. Now that I'm over 65, the same policy has gotten more expensive. That's life!

When I tried to make a small claim for medical treatment on a Windstar ship, I was told that I had to submit a denied (because it was out of the U.S.) Medicare claim before they would pay something that was clearly covered under the policy. They were hoping I would go away, rather that work, to collect $125.

I do not recommend Travel Guard. Terrible customer service and getting them to pay a claim under the cancellation provisions is very difficult. My mother was placed on hospice care, terminally ill back in mid June. We canceled a trip we had planned for August and I filed a claim at the end of July. After multiple calls to determine if all paperwork was appropriate, they sent a form requesting release of her medical records. I signed it using my POA in mid September. The claims person handling the claim repeatedly told me that she was extremely busy and could not rule on the claim or seek the additional medical info. Well, my mother passed away in mid October and my POA expired at death. The doctor would not release the info since Travel Guard did not request it timely. Finally, a check arrived last week for the amount of the claim. No explanation. It was truly one of my most frustrating experiences!
We just booked travel for 2020 ( Morocco and Tanzania) and I researched options on insuremytrip.com.

I have heard good things about Allianz. Does anyone have personal experience with them?

We've had Allianz for years. Haven't had to utilize it, knock on wood, but major advantage is that the policy will cover all travel within a year. Many companies make you buy a policy per trip. Travel on!

I use the travel insurance that comes with my Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card. I have not ever had to make a claim, but I feel it covers what I need should a problem arise.

Lulu, this isn't your first rodeo in Italy so what did you use last time?

We do use Travelguard on the recommendation of a local travel advisor who has been in the business for nearly 40 years, has guided tour groups herself, and owns property in Europe. We haven't had to use it yet so I can't comment on how easy it is to make a claim. I do know that you policy should cover medevac service back to the U.S. should that be necessary.

I looked back and we used Travelguard (much cheaper when just the 2 of us). We mostly bought it at the time because our boys were still home in college, so we purchased the cancel for whatever option.

Never had to use it. I was hoping to get really life experiences is one had to use, or opinions as to what is the best and why.

So, I’ve been researching what Insurance covers. Apparently, hotel fees that have not been prepaid are not covered (even if the free cancellation window is out a week). Is that correct?

I want to compile a list of questions to get answered when I call tomorrow.

-- Apparently, hotel fees that have not been prepaid are not covered (even if the free cancellation window is out a week)

What does that mean? A hotel fee is not an insurable "risk" for you if it hasn't been paid. And are you distinguishing internet and nuisance "fees" as separate from payments for the room-rate at the hotel? If you had to pay a Resort fee in advance to get the booking, then the insurance would cover it, if it's included in the "Trip Cost" figure that you used to calculate your insurance payment.

Do you mean that the hotel has your credit card number and WILL charge you if you fail to appear? That sounds unusual in today's travel economy.

Most of the hotels let you cancel up to 3 to 7 days out. And the hotel gas my CC when I booked, they just don’t charge it. That’s normal with any hotel bookings.

So, let’s say you don’t make the window for whatever reason and have to cancel. Some charge you a full nights stay, others the whole time, depending when you cancel.

I wonder if that’s covered under trip interruption? I’ll find out when I call.