What do people think. Is it a useful thing to have? Under what circumstances will you purchase it - if any? Any reconmendations on where to get it?

www.insuremytrip.com

If you do a search here you will turn up lots of information. The idea is that you buy it only if you are paying monies upfront and would not be reimbursed by your credit card insurance.

For example, a cruise. Or a tour.

Hi R,

What is it that you wish to insure?

Try www.insuremytrip.com

We don't buy it. Our health insurance covers us worldwide. Most of the things we reserve (e.g., hotels, rental cars) can be cancelled with either no penalty or a very small penalty. Usually the only sizable liability we have is airfare, and it's not worth getting travel insurance for just that.

My health insurance dropped their out of country coverage about two years ago and we didn't know about it until we asked for a proof of coverage outside the country. DD was applying for a visa for Spain and insurance was required. So check your policy if you are concerned about health insurance.

I bought it last year for the following reasons:

1. accomodation in Venice would charge me for cancellation anywhere from 50%-100% depending on when I cancelled.
2. airline tickets through US Air would charge $200 per ticket for change plus the difference in airfare.
3. my health insurance does not cover out of country or evacuation.

This was my first time purchasing insurance and it paid off because my husband had to have emergency surgery the week before our scheduled trip and also was back in the hospital the week we would have been away. Call it intuition or whatever but I am glad I did it.

It depends upon where I'm going. I don't buy it when I go to Europe but did buy it for Egypt and Turkey and would for Asian countries if I were traveling outside the large cities.

www.insuremytrip.com offers several companies and several options. Medical is not expensive but trip cancellation adds a chunk to your premium.

I shoudl clairify - I am mainly thinking about trip cancelation insurance. I just purchase airline tickets 10 months in advance.

You could always purchase "air only" insurance. But, you must review "covered reasons" and "exclusions".

www.insuremytrip.com is a good place to start. When requesting a quote, select "air only" from the drop-down menu.

When you consider purchasing Trip Insurance you have to first determine what it is you wish to insure against (i.e. how much you stand to lose) and then what it costs to insure for that risk.

In the case of rholt's airline tickets while they may not be "fully refundable" he/she could cancel that particular trip and for a small "change fee" (usually $100 per person) have up to one year to use the original value of the ticket on a subsequebnt flight. In this example, if the ticket cost $1,000 and the insurance premium was $300 you would only purchase the coverage if you were certain you could never rebook your trip since the rebooking fee is less than the premium.

You also have to make sure the policy you purchase covers the risk you wish to insure against. For example, Trip cancellation will reimburse you only if the trip is cancelleled for specific reasons such as an illness of the insured or an immediate family member of the insured. It does not pay if you cancel simply because you change your mind. Also, if you are worried about cancellation for medical reasons be sure you fully understand the clauses in the policy that relate to pre-existing conditions. Some policies do not cover pre-existing conditions and some will only cover them if you purchase the policy wiyhin a certain number of days from the time you make your first payment for the trip.

Read the policy terms carefully.

A few points:

For most plans, pre-existing conditions are excluded for a certain period of time before departure - 60 days, 120 days, 190 days, etc. Nine months is well beyond that...

Air Only premiums are quite low. For less than $100 you can purchase a policy with "cancel for any reason" if purchased within allowed days from first trip payment.

Extra attention must be paid to "cancel for any reason" coverage.

Good Discussion, Thank You

Please - if your health insurance doesn't cover you outside your home country take out health insurance. Contrary to popular belief health care in Europe is not free, and can be extremely expensive. Should you need a special flight home it will be beyond a normal persons budget.
Why spend thousands on a holiday and scrimp on insurance?

For most of our trips, I don't buy trip insurance. Even if the airfare I buy is non-refundable, usually there's a way to get some sort of credit and my health insurance is excellent.

For something like a cruise or planned tour, though, I do. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to get my money back.

It's interesting that if you use a good broker, you might end up with different policies for each person on the same trip to meet each one's needs.

Case in point: I have a pre-existing condition, and I therefore must always have insurance that takes that problem into consideration. My husband has no conditions, but he's a decade older. My kids are young and fit.
And sometimes we have different arrival dates. I'll be traveling with one kids and my husband will join me with the other a week later. It's not unusual for us to have policies with three or four different carriers because the broker is looking carefully at all the rates.

For just that flexibility, I have enjoyed my experiences with tripinsurancestore.com. They check all the rates and conditions thoroughly. When I change my trip arrangements, they adjust my policies within hours.

For airfare, odds are, its not worth it. Particularly if the flight is booked on an airline that you are likely to fly again in the future.

Where it does make sense is when you have large non-refundable expenses--perhaps a weeklong apartment or house rental.

Also remember that with most policies, in order to get coverage for pre-existing conditions, you have to purchase insurance very soon after making your first trip payment (2 weeks is a pretty common window).

ttt