Recommendation for Travel Insurance?
 

Hi,
My mom has decided to come with me on my trip to Europe in September. Due to my dad being really sick earlier this year (January, he's better now), she would like to purchase travel insurance that would cover cancelling her trip in the event he gets sick again. The insurance offered by Continental wouldn't cover that. Does anybody have a recommendation for a policy that would cover such a scenario? Thanks!

I used Travel Guard my last trip. There is a website..I THINK it's called Insuremytrip.com, Google travel insurance. That site allows you to compare several different companies, what they offer, options, restrictions, and price. Some of what you get, depends on how soon you buy it after paying for your trip.

http://www.insuremytrip.com
This site is helpful for providing info and cost comparisons.

I've purchase trip insurance thru Access America -- http://www.accessamerica.com
It was for a domestic ticket on American Airlines. In my situation, I was visiting my mom (she'd had series of health problems last year). I ended up having to extend my stay and used the insurance to cover cost for change fee & added ticket cost.

We've bought insurance from several carriers through Insure My Trip. It has worked out great for us. Their competitor is travelinsured.com, and their are others. As crefloors mentioned, if you've already booked the trip more than (usually) 3 weeks ago, then you'll need to be even more careful than normal as certain clauses require that the insurance be bought early on.

I suggest you read every single clause in each policy (it gets easier once you've bought it a few times), to you are sure what you will be getting.

Aloha, beatofhawaii.com

If you have an airline ticket paid for with FF miles, do you include the "theoretical" cost of that when buying insurance? Would an insurance company reimburse you for such a loss?

We bought travel insurance through Travelex. My understanding of the coverage of tickets bought with FF miles is to purchase insurance that will cover the penalty cost of making a change or putting the miles back into your account (i.e. around $100 in our case).

Thanks for the responses everybody!

In case anyone else is wondering about the question I posed above, I called the folks at Insuremytrip and was told that none of the companies on their website reimburse anything for FF tickets, that it is strictly between the passenger and their carrier.

That's just what insuremytrip.com told me too.

Your mom will be able to get insurance, but she won't be able to get coverage for pre-existing conditions unless she applies within 10 to 15 days, depending on the insurance carrier.

For FF tickets, if you cancel before starting the trip, you can probably get the miles recredited to your account, so there's no loss to be covered by insurance. But if something comes up after you've reached your destination (by then you are usually barred from making changes in the FF ticket and would need to purchase a one-way ticket home), the trip interruption coverage takes care of the costs. At least that's how I understand the general idea, but it is crucial to read the policy provisions carefully.

Around 2004 I flew to Hawaii on an AA frequent flyer ticket. Our DOG got sick at the kennel and I had to fly home to take her to a SPECIALIST. AA rescheduled my flight and I don't believe I incurred any fees AT THAT TIME or they were minimal. Things may be different now.

Aggiegirl,

We had a similar situation just last month. We cancelled our trip literally 30 minutes before we were to leave, when we got word that my father-in-law had become gravely ill (not unexpected). He passed away 2 days later.

We had purchased trip insurance thru ADAR (google ADAR insurance and you'll find it). Our apartment agency actually required a policy for items in the apartment, and it also included trip cancellation.

ADAR's policy included the death or extended hospital stay (8 or more days) of an immediate family member, but you will want to read any policy you consider ordering. The price was reasonable - 3% of our apartment, or 25.80 Euro (about $40).

We just received our full refund Monday, after cancelling on March 29. There was a fair amount of bureaucratic silliness and delay, but I kind of expected it from a French company.

I see that in addition to our apartment agency, My-Apartment-in-Paris.com, several other agencies including RentVillas.com (which we've used before) also use ADAR for trip cancellation insurance.

Hope this helps.

laughingd2, sorry about your father-in-law. Thanks for the info. Thanks everybody for the responses.