Travel insurance

The travel agent says she favors the cancel for any reason type.

If I were travel agent, I would always favor that as well.
1. If I recommended they don't need insurance that covers cancel for any reason, and later on they do, they will be mad at me for not recommending it. I hate having customers being mad at me.
2. Since it is more expensive, I make a bigger commission.

Risk tolerance is a highly personal matter. You're on your own on this one.

Excellent points--I hadn't been considering her commission. And while risk tolerance is always personal, I wondered whether getting the any reason type is something lots of folks have done.

First off, you can shop for your own travel insurance here https://www.insuremytrip.com. Rates and terms might be better than what you are being offered. Be sure and note pre-existing condition exclusions. Most policies, but not all, waive that exclusion if you purchase a policy within 10-14 days of your initial payment toward your trip. As for any cancel for any reason, yes, once I coughed up the money (I can’t for the life of me remember why-premonition?). It was for a RS tour. A few months later my daughter announced she was pregnant and would deliver when we would be in Spain. Canceled and had my money within a few weeks.

Be sure to read the fine and understand what is needed to prove the cancellation. Just your saying so is probably not enough. I have been burned on two cancellation policies I did not read the fine print and understand what was needed or (in one case) how the cancellation refund was handled. Generally cancelling for any reason might not mean for any reason. "Cancelling for any reason" in my opinion is a marketing term.

Thanks for the replies. And yes, reading the fine print is essential! As for what "any reason" means, the policy I'm considering does include a very wide range of reasons, but the real kicker is that "coverage" means a refund of only 80% of the prepaid expenses, not all of it--and many other policies return only 70-75%. So there is a big premium for not complete protection. Since we have no elderly parents or expecting kids, we may be safe with just the regular insurance.

I think more important than coverage for the price of the trip is medical treatment, evacuation and repatriation. I can (sadly) get over the cost of one trip, but having to cover $100,000plus for treatment or a way to get back home is what scares me. I always speak directly with an agent when purchasing a policy to get exactly what I want instead of buying a premade policy online.

You are right. Cancellation for Any Reason has limited coverage-usually only 75% of your costs while a standard policy can get you 100% if you cancel for one of the listed reasons. Here is a brief but good explanation: https://www.insuremytrip.com/travel-insurance-plans-coverages/common-coverages-in-comprehensive-travel-insurance/. You can call Insuremytrip.com and get an agent who can walk your through your decision. And the previous poster is right-medical coverage and evacuation are key.

The Credit Card cancellation is usually very limited. It is NOT a cancel for any reason coverage. It may also make you work for any refund by having you pursue the travel providers for any refunds from them first. If you end up with an air fare credit useable for a year even if you don't get to use it, for example, that is normally not part of the refund you get from credit card coverage. Be very careful.

The credit card cancellation is just standard cancellation/interruption for specified reasons that arise prior to travel, and does require trying to get refunds elsewhere--and only applies to non-refundable items. So it probably wouldn't cover a credit for air travel. And since it doesn't include medical insurance anyway, it has limited usefulness.

For medical, the policy I was looking at had per person limits of $25,000 for emergency medical/dental coverage, and $500,000 for emergency medical transportation. Do these seem reasonable?

$25K is bare bones for me but I worked in health care and have seen the bills. I usually go $50-100. The amount you can buy is age limited-it starts to decrease at age 70. The evacuation is adequate at $500K.

Well, since we're both 70, I suspect that increasing from $25,000 might be expensive, even if possible! We may need to stay with bare bones and hope for continued good health!

reading the fine print is essential

This is particularly important as it relates to medical evacuation. Many polices (there are exceptions) will only evacuate you to the nearest facility that can treat you. There is a company which, if you are hospitalized, will evacuate you on a medical aircraft back to your home for continued care. It is called MedJet Assist and has a variety of plans available for both short and long term travel. You might want to google them and see if their coverage will be appropriate. It is not medical insurance at all --just evacuation coverage.

It all makes my head spin, so I usually just go without it and hope and pray nothing happens!