Has anyone heard of this as standard practice in the US? I'm aware of trip insurance (through companies such as Travel Guard) for a particular trip, but I've been in another forum recently where some folks in Britain are talking about buying a policy that covers any/all travel for the year, and quite reasonably priced. (i.e., approx $200/couple/year as opposed to the $800 we paid to cover a single cruise.)

I heard of these policies too, but do they cover everything or just the flights?

I think "insuremytrip" gives a comparison including these annual things

If you paid $800. for trip insurance for a single cruise, you don't need "our" help.
You can afford anything.
M

Amex has, or at least did last year, an annual insurance policy. But if memory serves me right it only covered the first 30 days of each trip. Think it was a medical coverage type of policy but don't think it covered evacaution cost (if you needed to be brought back to your home area). I mulled it over and did not take it.

I was looking into this recently - my DH travels a lot. Do a google search on some combination of "annual travel medical insurance" and watch what comes up. There are many, many companies selling these products. Shop around.

TUCKERDC
$800.00 for insurance? Are you sure you got the right number??

Hi There
I'm from Australia & have purchased these policies for the last 3 years. Don't know about USA but here they cover for MORE than the one trip policy. The benefits were higher than the single trip policy & had extras eg: allowance for kennel/pet care if delayed home by accident/airline etc. For example - to cover our 5 week to the US & Canada in Aug this year - a single trip policy was AUD650.00 & an annual policy was AUD365.00 by shopping around. The only condition on the annual policy was that no one trip could exceed 38 days.
Maybe you have similar deals :0)

Eurock: Thanks for your response. Especially since there's no first-hand experience from any US citizens here, it really does seem to confirm that this is a concept much more popular overseas than here.

Mikemo/John: Don't jump to wrong conclusions. When you are stretching to do a 'trip of a lifetime,' - and committing to it months aforehand - protecting that investment is just one more step, especially when that step covers possible medical care/medical evacuation, etc.

And, Mikemo, I wasn't asking for help. I'm simply curious whether this is a basic 'lifestyle'difference between travelers in the US and frequent-travelling folks overseas to whom it just seems a given.

tuckerdc,
Different strokes, lol.
We're 60 somethings and travel WW sin trip insurance.
M (SMdA, Gto.)

I went through the same analysis last year. I was pricing trip insurance for a major trip with premiums in the $700 range; that seemed pricey compared to the cost of an annual policy (about $300 for someone my age). However, reading the fine print, I found that the annual policy didn't cover trip interruption (which must be purchased separately). In my personal experience, trip interruption is the ONLY coverage I've ever made claims on (on 5 separate occasions -- don't travel with me!!), so the annual policy offered only nominal comfort to me. I ended up buying the coverage for the particular trip (and as luck would have it, very nearly had a claim for trip delay, salvaged only by a merciful airline agent who was grateful that, on a miserably snowy day rife with delays, I was actually nice to her and was willing to go above and beyond the call of duty to help me).

The answer, as always, is to read the fine print and determine whether or not the policies offered meet your needs.