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YES, you should have had travel insurance

YES, you should have had travel insurance

Old Mar 30th, 2016, 06:00 AM
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YES, you should have had travel insurance

Story today about couple who booked an $11,000 Viking River Cruise, she died, he decided to take the trip in her memory and VRC wanted an $853 rebooking charge. He got annoyed and went to the press and Viking caved.!

70+ years of age, and $11,000+ equals getting some type of travel coverage!

I am 70+ spending $7000+ in May for European land trip and cruise and that equals getting some type of travel insurance.

They make rules and regs for a reason and travel insurance is available for a reason which is why I posted in Europe and not just cruises as it affects all travelers.
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Old Mar 30th, 2016, 06:44 AM
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When I was younger, I didn't buy travel insurance, but a few years ago, I realized I needed to be sensible. Not only could I get sick, I could even die. So, for the past couple of years, I've included it in my plans.

Then two years ago, my cousin-in-law (the husband of my deceased cousin) caught the flu while in New Zealand. It morphed into pneumonia, and he spent a long time in the hospital, paid for by his travel insurance. Finally he returned home by a medical evacuation flight. I believe he was accompanied by medical personnel.
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Old Mar 30th, 2016, 06:53 AM
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Even within Europe we have travel insurance. My son's MIL developed pneumonia while on holiday in Austria. She spent four weeks in ICU, and it was touch and go for a while.
Her health care was covered by her EHIC card, but the extra hotel costs for her husband, who stayed with her for the full six weeks she was hospitalised there, and the private ambulance to bring her back to the Netherlands for further treatment in hospital here were covered by their insurance.

When my DH's aunt died in Italy her travel insurance not only paid for the repatriation of her body to the UK, but dealt with all the paperwork involved too, taking a lot of strain off my DH and his sister.
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Old Mar 30th, 2016, 08:51 AM
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Peg - could you share which company you use and what type of insurance you buy?

From what I've read, for those who live in Europe the travel insurance you can get is a better deal than for those of us who live in the US. I'm interested to hear what other Americans are getting for insurance and the cost. I can certainly see if you are pre-paying $11,000 but in my case I rarely pre-pay anything and hotels can all be canceled until just a few days before the stay. My airfare this summer will be under $1000 so I can afford to "eat" that if I have to. If I die over there, that's where I'll stay. And for relatively small medical problems (broken arm, etc) it seems cheap enough that those could be dealt with. But I do worry about a major medical problem (like Peg described) and wonder what insurance would be best for that type of thing.
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Old Mar 30th, 2016, 09:21 AM
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I think it is probably cheaper in Europe simply because most people have it.
Americans seem very averse to any sort of insurance and also seem more willing to lose the cost of an airfare than most Europeans are. We certainly couldn't afford to"eat" the costs of transatlantic flights, speaking personally.
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Old Mar 30th, 2016, 09:27 AM
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We luckily had trip insurance when my husband needed cancer surgery and radiation at the same time as a scheduled trip. We needed doctor's clinical notes and a letter. We got every penny back from Travel Guard in 30 days.
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Old Mar 30th, 2016, 09:28 AM
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My 78 year old mother is taking a National Geographic cruise to Ireland this June. I think costs are all in about $10,000. Cheapest trip insurance is $700, mainly because of her age. I put in the exact same information except my age (49) and received quotes that were half hers. She is having hard time deciding if she should get it or not.
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Old Mar 30th, 2016, 09:41 AM
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My MIL died from a heart attack while on a cruise. She was the age I am now. Funny how old that seemed then, when I was in my 40s. We have bought insurance only once, but now, in our 70s with several relatives much older and with health issues, we will do so from now on. I think there are even some policies that cover a year of travel. If you take even two or three trips a year, they might be a good buy.
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Old Mar 30th, 2016, 09:42 AM
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My brother can't visit the US because he can't get affordable health insurance due to his medical history. He is currently spending 10 weeks in South Africa, health insurance for that trip was a tenth of the price for two weeks in the US.

lolfn, only your mother can decide but she needs to consider whether she can afford to lose the price of her trip if she is unable to take it, if she can afford to be flown home if she is taken ill and wants to be home, and morbidly, what happens if she dies on the trip. $700 is a lot if she doesn't need the insurance,but losing $10,000, or having to pay a lot for special flights or whatever is a lot more.

My aunt was seemingly very healthy when she went to Italy, had a great holiday and died of a heart attack on her last day there. Repatriating her body to the UK was not cheap, and the paperwork (partly because it was Italy) was horrendous. As I sadi the insurance took care of it all, but even for them it took nearly a month to get her home.
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Old Mar 30th, 2016, 09:55 AM
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There is no one size-fits-al answer regarding travel insurance. I buy a med evac policy by the year, but I have no purchased the trip cancellation/interruption etc insurance. There is an excellent thread over on the Asia board about trip insurance.

BTW, I think Viking should have rebooked him, no fee. If the only thing the travel insurance would have paid for was the rebooking fee, I'm sure the insurance premium was such higher than that!
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Old Mar 30th, 2016, 10:06 AM
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Although most American issued credit cards include some level of travel insurance, and outside of the Amex Platinum and Centurian cards, they do not compare with a "real" travel insurance policy.

One of the companies we recommend is Sever Corners (www.sevencorners.com). Another is Travel Guard (www.travelguard.com).
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Old Mar 30th, 2016, 10:20 AM
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I am so ambivalent about travel insurance. Bought it once for a big birding trip outside the US, meant to for other big birding trips out of the US but never got around to it, and luckily, all was well.

Had to cancel a recent trip to California because of a health emergency, but didn't lose a penny: two hotels refunded our deposit with less than 24 hours' notice when they heard the reason, the third is holding our deposit for an unlimited time; flights were paid for with miles, and those remain "in the bank" with the airline we transferred them to. Because we are eager to reschedule this trip, that's all fine with us.

Add the fact that if you're not super careful with your comparison shopping or your crystal ball, the insurance you choose might not actually cover your exigency, and...I remain ambivalent.
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Old Mar 30th, 2016, 10:40 AM
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Link to the thread on the Asia board:

http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...not-to-buy.cfm

I make a distinction between trip cancellation/interruption insurance and medical and medical evacuation/repatriation insurance. I would not travel without the latter, I would buy the former only if I had high prepaid costs, which is rarely the case.
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Old Mar 30th, 2016, 10:53 AM
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I have always bought trip cancellation insurance for big ticket trips, although rarely for airline tickets (not sure why, really.) We have travel medical insurance as a pension benefit.

In the past, when we were working, we would not step foot in the United States without travel medical insurance, and I make sure our son has it too when he travels.

All that being said, it seems to be difficult right now for Canadians to get trip insurance--my last cruise I bought it from the cruise line, an upcoming cruise as well, because the major carriers I used to buy from no longer underwrite Canadians. CSA was the carrier we mostly used in the past, I believe Travelguard has stopped as well.

Because of that, I have one trip booked with NO cancellation insurance at all, and I probably won't buy any--the cruise line policy would have been about $1K, but I declined it. Cross your fingers!
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Old Mar 30th, 2016, 10:58 AM
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'I think it is probably cheaper in Europe simply because most people have it. Americans seem very averse to any sort of insurance and also seem more willing to lose the cost of an airfare than most Europeans are. We certainly couldn't afford to"eat" the costs of transatlantic flights, speaking personally.'

This. Plusbr />
There is a cultural attitude across much of Europe that insurance (of any form, not just travel) is a fair way of spreading the cost of something that would otherwise be very expensive, throughout the whole population. If you don't then you get a situation where the rich 'self insure' (ie buy no policy just take the risk) and those who are poorer cannot afford insurance at all.

I note among some Fodorites that there is an attitude that everyone else should just suck it up in the name of 'good customer service' (eg anger when holiday property owners reserve the right not to give full refunds when they have been messed about with last minute cancellations, people perfectly happy to use overseas health services without paying, and their country does not have a reciprocal agreement). I thinks it's a shame that there isn't more joined up thinking about the factors influencing cost and availability of insurance...
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Old Mar 30th, 2016, 11:00 AM
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Btw, I am in my 40s so not ancient or infirm (yet!), but buy a yearly travel policy anyway.
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Old Mar 30th, 2016, 11:10 AM
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Two concurrent threads on Europe and Asia? Is there some angst around this topic today? Can I jump in? It's always a dilemma for me. For various reasons, mainly spelled out by isabel and thursday above, I only get medical evacuation/repatriation insurance. But, as a solo traveller, what I haven't figured out is what happens if I am injured by a bomb, unconscious and unable to tell my insurance people where I want to be evacuated/repatriated to. Anyone solved this one?
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Old Mar 30th, 2016, 11:20 AM
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Don't you have ID on you? I doubt you would be moved anywhere except the nearest hospital until you regained consciousness, and if dead but in posession of your passport no doubt the government(s) could figure it out. It seems to have been taking the Belgians a while with the latest victims, but they have been making progress. And being with another person doesn't help if both of you are victims.
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Old Mar 30th, 2016, 11:41 AM
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RM67, I have not heard of a yearly travel policy but that sounds interesting. May I ask who issued yours?

I have bought travel insurance only when we can't easily afford to lose the cost of the trip. Most of our trips are self planned and I pick hotels where I can cancel the reservation at close to the last minute. However, I have taken one trip that was mostly prepaid and have signed up for another and for those trips I purchased insurance as the trips are not cheap and the refunds would be small.
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Old Mar 30th, 2016, 03:22 PM
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I mainly get it for the medical insurance, and not due to trivial things but you never know -- I know someone who was hit by a car in Paris on vacation, for example. Same reason you have health insurance in the US, actually, it's mainly for very expensive unforeseen events.

I think there is some misunderstanding about the airfare. Travel insurance will only cover costs that you cannot recover. I have never bought a transatlantic airfare where I lost the value of it if I had to cancel, it's always been changeable with a change fee. Yes, those change fees have gotten bigger over the years, but I also would self-insure for several hundred dollars because there is little risk. Perhaps some people buy totally nonrefundable airfare, I don't know what kind that would be, but I never have (at least not for the major transatlantic one, I may buy a cheap within-Europe ticket for 50 euro or something which is nonrefundable, just like train tickets). And if I could not afford to lose $1000 (even if that were true that you lost the entire value), I would not be taking a vacation to Europe, actually.

I just buy what gives me the coverage I want at the cheapest prices by checking insuremytrip.com. Because I don't want to cover very many sunk costs, it isn't really that expensive just for the medical, delays, air evacuation, etc. The medical part is pretty cheap, in fact, you can tell by just putting in $50 as the amount you want to cover and see the premium.
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