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Travel insurance update

(WSJ) "Typically terrorism attacks spark an increase in travel insurance sales, but insurance experts caution that most policies offer limited protection. Most policies only cover you if the attack is in or near a city that’s on your itinerary and within seven to 30 days of your trip. If you want to cancel a trip to London or Paris because of the Brussels bombings, your insurance likely won’t cover you. And any policy purchased after government alerts are issued won’t cover known threats.

“Unfortunately, the threat of terrorism is not enough to trigger a policy’s terrorism coverage,” says Adam Rusin, product manager at Squaremouth, a travel insurance comparison shopping site.

The best insurance if you think you might be afraid to go is “cancel for any reason” coverage, which is more expensive but more useful."

Posted by
518 posts

The best insurance if you think you might be afraid to go is “cancel for any reason” coverage, which is more expensive but more useful."

I've purchased this in the past and the cost of it (like travel insurance in general) is low compared to the coverage afforded, even taking into account the probability of whether or not you'd use it.

Posted by
2790 posts

Note that some of the "cancel for any reason" has more restrictions. I bought it for my upcoming trip and I actually would only get back about half of the airfare. (I generally would not buy this type, but was changing jobs and was not 100% sure I could get off!)

I am sure there probably were those that paid 100% but it's always a cost benefit analysis.

Posted by
518 posts

I know that with airfare if you need to cancel, you can typically apply the credit towards a future flight, with maybe a service charge or fee of some sort. Lately though, I've been booking hotels at special rates (lower rates) that are non-refundable, where you don't get back anything (no credits towards future stays, etc.), this coverage would be good in such a situation.

Posted by
4853 posts

You need to determine just how much of your trip is non-refundable or cancellable. You can probably get out of your hotels, so that leaves airfare.

Me, I'd rather put that money towards medical evac. That is what concerns me.