I travel frequently, but have never purchased travel insurance.

I've booked airline tickets for my brother, who will be traveling from the US to Australia to visit us. This is his first international trip and he's a bit anxious about the amount of money he's laid out for non-refundable tickets (about $2,200). He'd like to purchase trip cancellation insurance, just in case, so I've offered to help with the research.

I've obtained an online quote from Travel Insured International, which seems to offer a decent comprehensive package for about $125 and has been given a superior rating from a third party website.

Is anyone familiar with this company? Any good/bad experiences you'd share? Any recommendations for other companies to look into?

Any and all help appreciated, as I'm a newbie at this.

Go to www.insuremytrip.com

You can compare coverages and pricing for just about every type of trip insurance available.

Hint: Read the policy terms carefully to make sure the policy you are purchasing will cove the type of loss you wish to insure against and when it comes to trip cancellation make sure you fully understand what events would constitue grounds for cancellation.

It's a legitimate company. Just be sure that the reasons for cancellation listed in the fine print are those that might cover conceivable reasons your brother might need to cancel. And buy the insurance soon. You can usually only purchase cancellation insurance within a week or so of booking the trip.

We had TII coverage through Untours for a 2008 trip to The Netherlands. We had to cancel due to a medical emergency and had a refund from TII within a week of them receiving the doctor's and hospital bills.

We have used Travel Insured more than once and are using it for our upcoming vacation. We have also used Travel Guard and have needed it.Insurance is very picky about what they cover, finding reasons why they don't cover things but ultimately fair, if strict. We usually fly American since they fly out of the airport near our home, and they have been more than accommodating about changing flights (even without the stated change fee) for a medical emergency.

I want to echo RoamsAround's advice about doing some comparisons on www.insuremytrip.com and reading the fine print. We have normally used TI because we can get a discount through USAA's website. We have used Travel Insured in the past with no problem - have only had one claim and they paid promptly. I got in the habit of just going to the website and buying. Because I have an elderly mother with health issues, I always buy (timing) so that the pre-existing condition waiver applies. Remember this exclusion applies to not only the insured, but to the insured's family members in a lot of situations. Anyway, I recently just had to purchase some insurance and realized I had completely spaced buying in the 14 day period from deposit that TI requires. Checked insure my trip and found a company with a great rating that had a much longer period and got coverage at a very good rate. Lesson learned for me was to check back at that website more frequently than I had been doing! So again - compare and read the fine print.

We always use Steve at the www.tripinsurancestore.com they get great reviews in the International Travel Magazine which is how we found them. They have access to many different agencies and are cheaper then the agency itself. Check them out, nothing ventured nothing gained as the saying goes.

You'll love Australia, great people.

Thanks for all the tips, I'll take a look at all of them.

And yes, I do love Australia, I live here.

There's no rush to purchase travel insurance unless you need a pre-existing condition waived or, "cancel for any reason".

As mentioned, it's critical to purchase a plan that actually covers anticipated reasons. You have to pay careful attention to everything, particularly definitions, exclusions, restrictions, in the actual policy/certificate (usually available for your review ahead of purchase).

Travel insurance does not necessarily cover all contingencies, though you would think so if you make presumptions based on the "overviews" presented in the brochures and on the websites.

Things to watch out for include full refund of airline tickets (and not coverage only for a change fee), 100% reimbursement "cancel for any reason" - some policies refund only 50%, and there are other restrictions.

You also have to pay careful attention to claims submission procedures. Some requirements are difficult or impossible to fulfill once you've returned home.

Pay attention, also, to whether medical coverage is primary or secondary, as it may make a difference to you.

Most people purchase travel insurance for the "peace of mind" and that's all they get.

Here's an interesting article - and there are plenty of others if you Google.

http://www.airfarewatchdog.com/blog/...surance-chart/

That was interesting djkbooks, thanks. I'm leaning towards the 'cancel for any reason' with Travelex, but I need to do it soon as the clock is ticking - there's a 21 day limit after booking.

I've looked into travel insurance quite a bit and it is true that the fine print negates some of the things the headlines make you think you are getting. For example, I wanted insurance to pay to haul me home if I became disabled, but many policies that at first appeared to cover that actually only paid to haul you to the nearest facility that could treat you. I read that to mean if I were injured in Geneva, they would pay for an ambulance to take me to a hospital in Geneva, and it would be up to me to arrange transportation home.

Soured a bit by what I had found, I decided just what my most likely losses would be if I bought non-refundable tickets, but couldn't go. Almost all my lodgings allow cancellation, at least a day in advance, without penalty. Food, local transportation, and attraction fees would not be lost, because I would not have paid them. Finally, I looked at the conditions of my non-refundable tickets, and found that if I canceled them, there would be a not unreasonable fee, and the balance would be issued to me as a voucher, which could be used on that airline within a certain period (one year from the initial flight date, if I recall correctly. So even if I cancelled the trip, I would still have most of my money to use on another trip. We have had to have some medical treatment overseas, and the cost out of pocket has been very reasonable (some places didn't even charge), and, until we had to go on Medicare, our insurance covered a good part of what we had to pay (Medicare, everyone should know, does not cover overseas treatment, although I think they do cover Mexico and Canada).

So my suggestion would be to analyze just what your real losses would be in certain situations, and then decide if insurance to cover those situations is worth it.