Travel insurance- Yes or No?
 

I've booked a one week trip to Bermuda. I'm debating whether to purchase the travel ins. or not. I have a couple of times in the past. Has anyone had good or bad experiences with travel insurance?

I've had great experiences with travel insurance. I've traveled over 200 weeks in the past 10 years. I've never purchased travel insurance and I've never needed it. I've saved enough by not buying it to travel a whole lot more times on the money I've saved.

Travel insurance is like many other things. It's only good if you need it.
What are the odds you'll need it?

My husband has the same thoughts regarding it. We've stopped buying extended warranties too for the same reason.
I'm wondering how much of a hassle if would actually be to get money back if you did buy it. There seem to be so many exclusions and conditions.

It all depends on a risk/reward calculation that only you can assess.

We seldom buy trip insurance for what I'll call "ordinary" travel - week trips here and there, etc. However, we do buy it for travels where there could be a "cascading" of penalties or costs. For example, I'm about to buy some insurance tonight for an upcoming trip where cruise tickets have been paid for and are not refundable within a certain period prior to the ship sailing; the plane that we will flying on to catch the cruise is prepaid and nonrefundable, as is the flight we will be catching to fly home. And so it goes... nail, shoe, horse, rider...

A couple of years ago we bought cruise insurance because an immediate family member was ill when we booked and we weren't sure if we'd feel good going on the trip if she got worse. She did, we needed to be there, and the insurance stepped in and saved us a couple-three thousand bucks, for a $200 policy. A couple of years later (i.e. last year) the same thing happened to my brother-in-law, and again, the insurance covered what would have been a nasty penalty.

As Patrick says, over a period of years you can spend a lot on insurance for little yield. If the trip is a megabux outing, consider it. If you could rebook the flights or reschedule the hotel stay, don't sweat it.

BTW, I also carry insurance on my house, and have yet to need it. But somehow I don't think I've wasted the money.

I have only bought it once..when we bought four relatively expensive, non- refundable tickets kind of far in advance of our trip to Asia. I had been having some health issues that possibly could have either forced cancellation of the trip or could have been quite costly if we'd been travelling.

You can choose the coverage amount. Our hotels were all cancellable with 24 hour notice, so I did not include that in the policy. I think the policy for all four of us was $204 - less than half the cost if we'd even had to just change the date on one leg of the trip.

And BTW- if you have "pre-existing health issues, make sure you read the fine print. Travel guard covers them only if you buy the policy within 14 days of the purchase of your trip. If you do make a claim, you must be able to prove that you were able to travel at the time you purchased the policy.

we routinely buy insurance for trips to europe. this year i bought insurance for a planned trip to washington, d.c., as we splurged on first-class tickets through orbitz.

it's a good thing i bought the insurance, as in january i slipped on some ice and broke my right shoulder. there's no way i could get on a plane a week from friday and so i'm now filling out the claim forms.

I buy it sometimes for Europe trips but not always. Most health insurance through your job etc. will only reimburse you on return to the states IF you manage to bring back the proper documentation. As I get older I think I will probably buy it more often. Those over 65 that have medicare need to know it won't cover them out of the country.

I agree with the other posters - it's mainly up to the trip you're taking. A few years ago we booked a spur of the moment air and hotel package to the Bahamas for the next weekend and turned down the extra $60.00 for insurance. After all, what would happen in only one week? My husband came down with his one and only case of the flu and we lost the whole cost of the trip is what can happen. We still do not purchase it for regular trips since usually hotels can be cancelled up until a couple days before, but for any large package I'll shell out the few dollars and be safe.

I agree with the above posters. We travel alot and have only purchased travel insurance once: when we went to Tahiti for 10 days.It cost us over $3000 and we wanted to cover that huge sum of money. We paid around $250 per person.I think it was the most expensive travel insurance there was.
I would only purchase it again if the trip was very costly and I was travelling in off-season (hurricanes/cyclones exc..).
Debbie

I always buy trip insurance for my journeys out of the country. At my relatively young age, it's not the health and evacation coverage that's most important, but trip interruption and delay. Over the years, I've made 5 claims and, in my unlucky case, I would say I'm slightly ahead of the game. An example of a claim: on coming back to the U.S. from Belize in 2003, the East Coast was snowed under. I was stuck in Dallas, with no way to get home, for nearly three days. Trip insurance covered hotel (of my choosing), rental car, and meals while I was stranded in Dallas.

I only bought trip insurance one time. This past fall, we had a trip to the Atlantis in the Bahamas. Everything is prepaid a month before (hotel). We also were flying US Air and they were rather shaky. And of course the crazy hurricanes that seem to be coming worse and worse each year. So, we didn't need it, but that was one trip we thought warranted trip insurance. If your hotel in Bermuda is prepaid and most smaller hotels there have a cancellation policy, than why not?

Like any other gamble, the odds are in favor of the house, or they wouldn't bother being inbusiness. In my city, as in many others, the tallest skyscrapers have been built by insurance companies with their profits. Insurance makes sense only if you are at paritcularly high risk or if the financial loss would be a disaster.

I agree with the general concensus of the above posters that trip insurance is not necessary for most routine trips--only for very expensive trips that have to be prepaid. And I especially agree with Anonymous that the odds are against your needing it. But it also depends on your personal and family medical circumstances, and that can change the risk/benefit analysis. If I have a parent who is ill a the time, I'll purchase the insurance since I figure I have an increased chance of needing it.

And then there's the most important factor of all, which guides me in most insurance-related purchases: what I call the "sleep at night" benefit. If knowing that I'm covered for an emergency is going to make me sleep better at night, it's money well spent.

Since i retired we buy ins. when we go to europe every year. We have used it one time as i fell and broke my arm. You must make up your own mind. sister

I've only purchased trip insurance one time. That was for a trip to Israel, the cost of the tour was almost $3,000 and we purchased it quite a ways from time of departure. As fate had it, I started feeling not so good about a month before the trip. I talked to my doctor, let him know I could cancel the trip due to health concerns. He insisted I was "just nervous" and I could travel. 3rd day in Israel I felt like I was having a heart attack - difficulty breathing, dizzy, sweating. The Israeli doctor told me it might be thyroid problems and gave me a prescription. Thankfully, all medical, including medications, are covered in Israel. But I had really thought I would need to go home early, and it was a comfort that the trip insurance was there. (Had actually begun the process of leaving early.)

Thankfully, the medications worked and I continued the trip. I even discovered I had a thyroid problem that no American doctor had diagnosed!

So, for me, for trips out of the country I will buy trip insurance if it is not included on the credit card. If the trip is within the US, I'll skip it.

We don't usually buy travel insurance either. Most plane tickets can be changed with a $100.00 change fee, less than the cost of most insurance policies.

Exceptions have been for 'package' deals to Mexico where you prepay and if the price of the package drops and you're insured, you'll get the difference back. Of course, we don't buy trips like that any more, so....no insurance for us. Jean

I buy it when I'm taking a package tour, and I'm glad I had it the one time my boyfriend got a nasty leg infection before going on a hiking trip. We cancelled and were refunded the full $5000 trip cost.

Reasons to get trip insurance:

A) you or someone you're traveling with actively participates in sports, ie: bike riding, surfing, football, skiing, races cars, etc. Most of our cancellations come from sporting injuries. Not surprising since we sell surf tours.

B) you work in an industry where you can get sick easily. Day care providers, teachers, nurses etc.

C) You're leaving your kids at home with relatives. If your child is seriously injured or ill, you'll want to be able to come home. Same with an elderly parent, if you're concerned about their health.

D) You're going somewhere where healthcare is almost non-existent. If you're going somewhere remote and you need to be airlifted, they usually won't touch you without cash or proof of Med-Evac insurance.

E) you just paid thousands of dollars for a vacation that is non-refundable. Most tour companies, cruises etc...if you're within 48 hours, no refund.

F) You have a complicated itinerary with multiple flights and stops. Trip insurance would cover the costs associated with delays, lost baggage, damaged baggage, and flight cancellations. The airlines will cover the bare minimum and do everything possible not to cover anything at all.

Thanks for all the advice! There are so many pros and cons.

If you have an elderly parent, insurance is worthwhile. I've collected on it when I had to leave mid-vacation. Not only are there benefits of non-cancellation policies on prepaid parts of your trip, but the so-called bereavement fares on airlines are a joke.