Still kicking around the idea of Greece next May. I called Travel Guard (our usual carrier) about trip insurance, though, and they say that they no longer cover losses due to general strikes in Greece. I understand their position, but does anyone know of a travel insurance company that does? If your airplane can't fly in (closed airport) or you can' t take your flight out....well, I'd think that would be half the point of getting insurance.

Thanks!

May have answered my own question. The guy I talked to at AccessAmerica said general strikes would be covered. I've never used AccessAmerica, however.

Anyone have any other thoughts?

Go with whoever covers. But you don't have to make decisions like that NOW--unless your Greece trip involves a cruise or a package tour which requires you to be at the cruise dock or an Athens hotel by a strict deadline. In the case of "package tours" or cruises, where there is a total price at risk, insurers usually require you to take out trip insurance within x days of signing up for your tour.

If you are an independent traveler, not a big deal. Greek hotels on an island have been forced to be understanding. If their own nation's job actions cause you not to reach their island in time for your first night's stay, a hotel cannot really penalize you ... and if there were a strike, a phone call to the hotel would surely take care of any obligation.

If you were going on a group tour, you might arrange to arrive one day before the start of the tour... just build in a little 'cushion'. That's all that would be necessary ... this year these strikes almost all were 24 hours or less.

Thanks for your response!

This actually would be (my first) (small-group) tour experience, so in this case, I would need to arrive by a certain time. I'd need to put down a $500 nonrefundable deposit relatively soon, then the balance later, and I've had it suggested to me that I wait till December to book airfare. The trip is in mid-May 2011.

Now you have me wondering: Do you buy insurance up front for the total estimated value of the trip? Or do you add to the policy as you go? I guess I'm wondering, in part, if you add your airfare later but the insurance company has changed its coverage policies by then...would your airfare still be covered if you had to cancel?

Been doing some research, out of curiosity, about the whole Greek trip insurability conundrum. Apparently, there's a couple of issues: (1) "Civil unrest," in Greece or elsewhere, isn't generally covered and (2) Whether general strikes in Greece are considered to be a known event (similar to the Icelandic volcano) or an unknown event (more like the Icelandic volcano would be, if each individual eruption were to be considered as a single event and therefore unknown). In short, it's more complex than I thought, at first. I'll be looking into insurance comparison sites on line, but if anyone has dealt with this particular issue recently, it would be great to get some comments.

Thanks.

Not every strike is a 'general strike', and not every demonstration constitutes 'civil unrest'.

<i>In short, it's more complex than I thought, at first.</i> You've got that right! ;-)

I understood that the Greek government was underwriting any trip made to Greece, so that any extra expenses incurred due to strikes or protests would be paid for by them.
Whether that will still apply next year is another question of course.

I got the following response from insuremytrip.com:

<< Unfortunately as the strikes in Greece are considered foreseen events none of the policies we offer will have coverage at this time. We do not know when they will change that policy. >>

That's not what the guy I spoke with at AccessAmerica told me, but maybe he was just confused. I know I am, at this point!

hetismij, I did stumble on an article online about the Greek government doing that, but I didn't see any details or how it would actually work. If you have more information, could you please point me there?

I was getting pretty revved up about going, but maybe this is just not the right time for a packaged trip to Greece. The only other thought would be put down the nonrefundable deposit...the balance wouldn't need to be paid until next March. That might give me time to get a better sense of things, and I could probably (although not happily) afford to forfeit the deposit. I don't know.

Thanks for all the input!

beeswing, if you could PM me, I have some thoughts for you.

Travel Interruption insurance policies all have exclusions so be very sure about the policy you choose. Some policies will exclude anything other than "acts of God". A strike that is announced and scheduled, since it would not be a last-minute surprise to travellers, would most likely not be covered. Some policies don't pay for travel delays if your delay is less than a stated amount of time. It all gets very tricky. Insurance companies can't survive if they pay out on every claim. It's the nature of the business.