travel insurance

[sengsational]

No, it specifically says due to natural disaster, which is defined elsewhere in the policy, and doesn't pertain to an outbreak.

Ah, thanks for picking that up. For the benefit of those following along:

Natural Disaster means earthquake, flood, fire, hurricane, blizzard,
avalanche, tornado, tsunami, volcanic eruption, or landslide that is due to
natural causes and includes an event that is directly due to naturally occurring
wildfire, earthquake, windborne dust or sand, volcanic eruption, tsunami,
snow, rain or wind, that results in widespread and severe damage such
that either the government of the country where the Natural Disaster occurs
issues an official disaster declaration or the U.S. Government issues advice
to leave the country where the Natural Disaster occurs.

So even if a government says "leave because of the risk of getting a disease", it doesn't count as a natural disaster because it's not in the list.

 

[explanade]

It sounds like you did not get any travel insurance? Did you prepay for the whole trip? Even then, the land part might be refundable. If you got a good price on the airfare, you might not be out too much if you have to eat that.

I used miles for the intercontinental flight.

But booked nonrefundable short flights within Thailand and from BKK to HKG.

Also some nonrefundable hotels. The rates were lower but in some cases, nonrefundable rates were the only ones available for some of these places on those dates on booking.com.

 

[braumeister]

So even if a government says "leave because of the risk of getting a disease", it doesn't count as a natural disaster because it's not in the list.

Correct (unfortunately). Those insurance contracts are interpreted very, very specifically and literally.

 

[TrvlBug]

We self insure except for cruises (& tours if we were to ever take one). For our two cruises we purchased the cruise lines' coverage. On our upcoming cruise to Alaska we went with their standard coverage which provides 100% refund if cancellation is due to illness/death of us and/or close family members. 75% 'refund' to be applied to future cruise if we cancel for any other reason. At this point in our lives, we self insure medical evac although I'll be looking at third party coverage that includes this.

 

[Scuba]

One distressing thing I realized when we researched travel insurance for a planned 3-month trip is that no company will cover trip cancellation due to serious illness of a pet. Years ago we lost 75% of a prepaid cruise fare because our dog was diagnosed with cancer and we didn’t want to leave him for 2 weeks. Apparently the travel insurance industry doesn’t consider pets to be family members.

 

[Bryan Barnfellow]

One distressing thing I realized when we researched travel insurance for a planned 3-month trip is that no company will cover trip cancellation due to serious illness of a pet. Years ago we lost 75% of a prepaid cruise fare because our dog was diagnosed with cancer and we didn’t want to leave him for 2 weeks. Apparently the travel insurance industry doesn’t consider pets to be family members.

Scuba,
What great dog companions you guys are. I would have done the same. Screw the money.

 

[Chuckanut]

One distressing thing I realized when we researched travel insurance for a planned 3-month trip is that no company will cover trip cancellation due to serious illness of a pet. Years ago we lost 75% of a prepaid cruise fare because our dog was diagnosed with cancer and we didn’t want to leave him for 2 weeks. Apparently the travel insurance industry doesn’t consider pets to be family members.

I understand how people feel about their pets, especially dogs. But, given the abuses we see with support animals on planes, in restaurants, in stores, and the general disregard about 50% of dog owners have for things like clean-up and leash laws, I think the insurance company has no other choice.

 

[Scuba]

Scuba,

What great dog companions you guys are. I would have done the same. Screw the money.

Yeah, it was an easy choice to prioritize our dog. Sadly, after 17 radiation treatments and 3 chemo treatments, he died. But we couldn’t have gone away on a vacation and enjoyed ourselves while our dog was dying. Still miss him. [emoji22]

 

[audreyh1]

There is cancel for any reason trip insurance although way more expensive. Unless you know an issue is likely, you have to weigh against self-insuring.

 

[ivinsfan]

One distressing thing I realized when we researched travel insurance for a planned 3-month trip is that no company will cover trip cancellation due to serious illness of a pet. Years ago we lost 75% of a prepaid cruise fare because our dog was diagnosed with cancer and we didn’t want to leave him for 2 weeks. Apparently the travel insurance industry doesn’t consider pets to be family members.

There are limitations to the degree they will cover human family members. Second cousin, you are not going to get covered.
Cancel for any reason would cover the cousin and family pets but would of course be a lot more expensive.

 

[zeogold]

You’re rolling the dice by not purchasing travel medical insurance.

Personally on all my trips I’ve never had to use it, but it’s just something that I budget for on the off chance that I do need it.

If something serious happens to you, is it really worth it saving some small amount of money up front if it means you could be in debt for years to come? If something happened to me and I didn’t have the money to cover it, I know that my Mom would bail me out, but I would feel like an incompetent ass hat if she had to.

Point being, if you can afford to travel, you can afford to buy insurance.

 

[audreyh1]

You’re rolling the dice by not purchasing travel medical insurance.

Personally on all my trips I’ve never had to use it, but it’s just something that I budget for on the off chance that I do need it.

If something serious happens to you, is it really worth it saving some small amount of money up front if it means you could be in debt for years to come? If something happened to me and I didn’t have the money to cover it, I know that my Mom would bail me out, but I would feel like an incompetent ass hat if she had to.

Point being, if you can afford to travel, you can afford to buy insurance.

Or you can self insure if you have deep pockets.

 

[Sunset]

You’re rolling the dice by not purchasing travel medical insurance.

Personally on all my trips I’ve never had to use it, but it’s just something that I budget for on the off chance that I do need it.

If something serious happens to you, is it really worth it saving some small amount of money up front if it means you could be in debt for years to come? If something happened to me and I didn’t have the money to cover it, I know that my Mom would bail me out, but I would feel like an incompetent ass hat if she had to.

Point being, if you can afford to travel, you can afford to buy insurance.

I feel it depends upon which insurance you are talking about.

We carry health travel insurance, as medical costs and evacuation can run well over $100K (example being one of the survivors of the volcano eruption in New Zealand).

But trip insurance, I rely on the CC , as it will probably cover most expenses.
Worst case if the trip insurance from the CC refused to pay would be for us a loss of $10K (our most expensive trip to date).

On a philosophical level, if we take the trip we are still out the $10K, the difference really is staying home or enjoying the trip.

 

[EastWest Gal]

Or you can self insure if you have deep pockets.

So if trip insurance costs a few hundred dollars, and you have deep pockets, why not insure the trip?

 

[sengsational]

I like what Clark Howard says about buying any kind of insurance. It's something like....if (the bad thing happened), would that break the bank, or would you be able to roll with it? A lifetime of taking these small risks will pay back in the long run because insurers are making money (they pay out less than they collect). At one end of the spectrum is insuring the electronic gadget for $20 when the dang thing only costs $200 (and if it did break, you'd just get a new one without batting an eye, and probably forget you bought the insurance at the cash register). On the other end of the spectrum is if your house burned down...I think you'd bat an eye, hehe! I figure repatriation from some distant land is somewhere in the middle.

 

[camfused]

Or you can self insure if you have deep pockets.

I don't see the sense in this. If, let's say, you have an incident that cost $100,000, paying $200 instead seems to be the better deal. If you don't use it, then you are out only $200, which is less than the interest earned on that $100,000 in one month.

 

[eroscott]

do you buy travel insurance when you are planning a vacation? Going on a cruise this winter and looking at insurance. If you buy insurance, do you buy it from the cruise lines or an independent third party? Any recommendations on third party insurers?

Was on a roadtrip a couple years back while in another state and had an accident with a deer (propelled in the air by another vehicle). Those medical expenses and the 'ambulance' flight for $50K convinced me to get travel insurance just for the medical.

After a fair amount of research we are using Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection. https://www.bhtp.com/
Toward the end of the checkout process you can get extra medical that doubles the standard.

 

[Lawrencewendall]

I bought 3 tickets to Texas from Maryland back in the late 2000s when my DS came back from Afghanistan in February. Little did I know that the website automatically added travel insurance. Ended up that Maryland was swamped with MAJOR snowstorms and we could not fly back. All airports in Maryland/Virginia were closed. We camped out in Texas for an additional 2 weeks and the travel insurance picked up most of the bill until we could get back to MD. About 3k in hotel, car rental and food bill. Oversight worked for us in this case.

 

[jpjr]

I agree with getting medical/repatriation coverage, but look closely at your policy if you expect something like coronavirus being covered. Our policy for a trip in April actually excludes "epidemic" or "travel warnings by gov't entities", guess we'll have to get sick before we leave.

 

[camfused]

^^^^ That is good to know. This is why Cancel For Any Reason should (mostly) save my bacon when I cancel our Italy flights.

 

[Sunset]

AA just sent out an email, to try to encourage folks to buy airline tickets:

"We know customers are thinking carefully about purchasing future business trips and vacations. To offer customers more flexibility, we are pleased to announce that we will waive change fees up to 14 days prior to travel for travel purchased between March 1, 2020 (4:30 p.m. CST) and March 16, 2020 (11.59 p.m. CST)."

https://www.aa.com/i18n/travel-info/no-change-fee-terms-and-conditions.jsp

 

[ivinsfan]

Was on a roadtrip a couple years back while in another state and had an accident with a deer (propelled in the air by another vehicle). Those medical expenses and the 'ambulance' flight for $50K convinced me to get travel insurance just for the medical.

After a fair amount of research we are using Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection. https://www.bhtp.com/
Toward the end of the checkout process you can get extra medical that doubles the standard.

How much of this did you actually have to pay?

 

[ziggy29]

We have been planning a trip to BC (Vancouver and Victoria) for May. We are still planning it, but are making sure everything we book is 100% refundable. And we also are looking into something that will provide medical insurance coverage for a week in Canada, which as of a week ago was pricing around US$40 for the two of us with $50K coverage and $1000 deductible. Though I don't know if this stuff is going to have a significant impact on the cost for the next few weeks/months.

On the other hand, maybe this will help us find some travel bargains in our planning, I don't know.

 

[braumeister]

After a fair amount of research we are using Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection. https://www.bhtp.com/
Toward the end of the checkout process you can get extra medical that doubles the standard.

I wish you the best of luck, but my experience making a very simple claim with them a couple of months ago was horrible, and I'll never use them again.

 

[Dtail]

I posted this question also on the Travel thread. Not sure where it belongs.

Here is a question for you folks.

I posted this question on the travel thread also.

We are about to cancel our Dominican trip. We can cancel the hotel with no issue, but the airline fare is different.

We already paid 1200 for the airfare and have insurance coverage through Alliance.
It states in the Alliance policy that an Epidemic is not covered. I asked how about if a pandemic is issued by the WHO?
The rep stated that if it is not stated that it is a covered event, then it is not covered.
I countered that it doesn't state anywhere in the policy that it is not covered as the default choice, if it is not stated as covered.
If a pandemic is declared, do you think I have a case for a claim?