Buying travel insurance?

[jgenie]

In one of the travel threads a while back people mentioned buying travel insurance from third party providers. Please share your knowledge. We’ve never purchased travel insurance but now that we’re doing more international travel it’s probably a good idea for us to look into. TIA

[ahisma]

You want third party coverage - don't buy it through your airline, expedia, etc. I like Allianz. If you time it right you can even include pre-existing conditions. I use this portal to compare providers / policies. READ the policies. https://www.insuremytrip.com/

[NCGrandma]

You want third party coverage - don't buy it through your airline, expedia, etc. I like Allianz. If you time it right you can even include pre-existing conditions. I use this portal to compare providers / policies. READ the policies. https://www.insuremytrip.com/

Looks like Allianz policies are no longer available, at least through that link. That’s true of several other providers, too.

What are the main reasons to buy third-party coverage? Not disagreeing, this is just an area I know nothing about.


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[ahisma]

Here's some good reading:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/christo...next-vacation/
https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/insu...vel-insurance/
https://clark.com/travel/travel-insurance/

Personally, I book every trip on a card with coverage and buy a policy (because it's more robust coverage) for our larger trips. This year I bought coverage for a trip to London and a trip to Kauai. I paid about $150 per trip for very robust coverage (covers most anything other than a change of mind - even cancelling for sick family not traveling with you). I didn't buy coverage for Miami ($60 round trip tickets) or Lake Placid (road trip). I'm considering buying a year long travel policy but need to look into that more.

My choices may not be your choices though - I have excellent medical coverage that travels with me (thank you, union).

[pharmjenn]

We buy it now everytime for my 87yo father, and I buy it for my family when we do international trips. I get it discounted through USAA, and they contract with TravelInsured, which you can book directly through. Buying insurance through the airline only insures your airfare, not any other parts of your trip.
I made the mistake of not buying separate insurance for a cruise last summer, knowing that I had the vacation time approved, we were flying in a day prior to even if late would not miss the ship, and we are healthy. I did purchase on my credit card that supposedly offered travel insurance. Our flight to Florida was cancelled and I finally agreed to a flight into a nearby airport for no price change but a decrease in the level of service we had purchased. So we had coach seats, had to purchase food and pay Uber over $100 to get us to our lodging that was very close to the original airport. Then on our return, weather delays caused us to miss our connection, leading to an overnight hotel stay in Houston, and again, seats in Coach when they finally had space for us. The credit card insurance said that because they did get us on a flight, they would not reimburse for the hotel, or the meals we had to spend in Houston. I didn't even bother trying for any reimbursement for the first flights.

I was able to eventually get reimbursed from the airlines for the decreased level of service, but it was not fun. I think having private, third party insurance (and a real travel agent, instead of Costco) would have made everything so much easier.

[Dream]

I've bought travel insurance for my aging parents when they travel out of the country. Bought from Allianz.

https://www.allianztravelinsurance.com/