Travel Insurance Question

You need to purchase it within 10 to 21 days after initial trip deposit/payment. Same for pre-existing condition coverage. From Insuremytrip.com

"There are typically 3 conditions that must be met to purchase a Cancel For Any Reason Rider: Purchase the policy within 10 - 21 days of First Trip Payment; Insure ALL prepaid and non-refundable travel expenses prior to departure; Trip arrangements must be canceled more than 48 -72 hours prior to the departure date.Mar 28, 2023"

TravelGuard has a 15-day window from your first trip deposit to purchase insurance for pre-existing condition coverage and some other benefits, but you can buy it up to 24 hours before your trip, according to their FAQ. You have to have all your trip info -

"Before purchasing, please have the following information handy:

Personal information for all travelers who will be on the policy
Trip details: dates of travel, destination, initial deposit date, final payment date, and any travel companies you will be using
Total trip cost and how that cost is broken down per person in your itinerary."

It is possible you will not know ALL your prepaid and non refundable costs until right before the trip. How does that work if you are required to insure 100% at least several days before the trip?

I purchased CFAR insurance for three out of my four last trips to Europe. I’ve had lots of discussions with my trip insurance agent over how these policies work and the following is a summary of what he has explained to me.

CFAR insurance is time sensitive. Within a certain window of days after making your first payment of any kind for your trip, you have to purchase the insurance, with cancellation coverage at a level that fully insures that payment, whether it be a plane ticket, a tour deposit, etc. The exact window of time depends on the policy you are buying. It might be 14 days, might be 21 days. When you later add more prepaid and non-refundable expenses, you have to increase your insurance as necessary to cover those costs, and do so within another short window of time after paying them.

You are not permitted to self-insure some of your prepaid and non-refundable expenses. Everything you prepay that is non-refundable has to be insured. Airfare is considered a prepaid and non-refundable expense unless you purchase a refundable ticket. If you’re flying on an airline that would give you a credit if you cancel, and you don’t buy a refundable ticket because you’d be okay with that credit, and you want to self-insure that airfare instead of adding the cost of it to your policy (again because a credit is acceptable to you), you’re going to void out your CFAR coverage by failing to insure the airfare.

If your April 2024 trip is a tour and you’ve already booked it and paid a deposit, and that was a while ago, it’s likely too late for you to get CFAR. If your deposit is still refundable under the tour company’s terms, you may think your window of time to buy insurance hasn’t yet commenced, but that’s not how it works. The first payment of any kind must be insured, within the time sensitive period, even if it is refundable. Thereafter, new costs need to be added to the policy only if they are non-refundable.

If you previously had to cancel a trip and were given a travel credit or voucher, be sure not to use that credit or voucher on the trip for which you’re buying the CFAR coverage. The date when money changed hands is what’s significant, i.e., the insurer will consider the money you paid long ago, which ultimately resulted in that voucher, to be your first payment, taking you out of compliance with the rule that you must buy the insurance within the time sensitive period after making your first payment.

Thank you so far to everyone that has answered.

Yes, I have already made a deposit on our RS tour--so I know that is not covered. I am thinking more about the Airfare and Hotel costs that I will incur before and after our tour.

It seems I'd better secure my policy THEN make the airline and other hotel purchases.

Thank you!!

It is possible you will not know ALL your prepaid and non refundable costs until right before the trip. How does that work if you are required to insure 100% at least several days before the trip?

I buy insurance after I make my tour deposit OR incur my first non-refundable expense. I only buy insurance based on what non-refundable expenses I have to that date. If/when I incur more non-refundable trip costs, I modify my policy, and I am billed accordingly.

Robin, if you already paid your tour deposit, and this was a while ago and not, e.g., within the past week or two, then you are not going to be able to get cancel-for-any-reason coverage. You had to get that coverage within a time sensitive period after paying your tour deposit, as more fully detailed in my post from yesterday.

Yes, you still can buy insurance to cover your trip, almost all the way up until time of travel so long as you are medically fit to travel at the time you buy it. And you'll be able to insure as much of the tour cost, the airfare, the day trips, etc. as you wish to cover . . . but this will be "regular" insurance where cancellation has to be for a covered reason, such as a serious illness or accident, a death in the family, a house fire, etc. It appears you missed the window to buy cancel-for-any-reason. You also will not be able to get the waiver of pre-existing conditions.

You can always contact the insurer and add to your coverage; we did that recently when we tacked our RSE trip to Scotland to our Viking cruise. We just booked airfare a couple of days ago, so I put in a request to modify insurance in order to cover the airfare expenses.

Thank you to all. I have bought trip insurance mostly to ensure that my airfare is covered should I have to cancel the trip. I am okay with losing the RS tour from my overall tour as that is a small amount in my overall trip plan.

Thank you to all who answered!! You made my investigating/purchasing insurance much easier! :)