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Just booked a cruise and declined trip insurance from the cruise line. It's not until next may but I know we need to get trip insurance asap. The policies we have looked at have a lot of fine print!! What are things you look for when going for a policy? I know it varies from person to person but what's important to you???

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What's important to me?

 

I want "trip Interruption" to be 4 hours or less. Many policies don't cover unless your trip is interrupted by more than 8 or 12 hours.

Medical. I want my travel insurance policy to be "primary". Many are "secondary". thus causing more paperwork.

Our need require that we get "pre-existing condition waiver"

 

We also have secondary evacuation policy to ensure we can receive continued care near home without too much out of pocket expense thru MedJet Assist.

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We haven't posted this in a while...so here are our thoughts. We travel a lot....as much as 7 months a year. During that time we might spend nearly 100 days on various cruises and several months on land trips. When analyzing our potential risk vs benefit...our primary concern is health insurance...where we have unlimited liability, When it comes to trip cancellation/interruption we have long preferred to "self insure" which means to not buy any cancellation/interruption insurance. Our maximum liability if we had to cancel a trip...would be no more then the cost of the trip (which we can afford). So while we would lose (sometimes a lot of money) it would not bankrupt us (which can easily happen with health bills).

 

But recently we have changed our practice. We obtained another decent credit card which includes up to $10,000 (per person) in trip cancellation/interruption coverage (as long as that portion of the trip is charged to the card). So for $95 a year (the cost of the credit card after the first year) we get up to $20,000 of cancellation insurance on each trip...without paying the big bucks for trip insurance policies. As far as medical, for many years we have purchased an "annual" travel med policy from GeoBlue...which gives us $250,000 of medical coverage and $500,000 of medical evacuation insurance. This GeoBlue policy costs us about $450 a year (cost to cover a couple) and covers the first 70 days of any trip we take throughout the year. So we do try to keep our trips to 70 days (or less).

 

As to "cancel for any reason" which seems to be the new thing in travel insurance...we have no interest. We do not book trips unless we are pretty sure we will take the trip....and other then major issues (such as health, death, etc) we cannot imagine needing to cancel a trip. And those major issues are now covered by our credit card insurance.

 

And we add one thought. Because of the number of trips we take per year. if we were to purchase trip insurance for each trip we would be spending over $7000 (and possibly a lot more then $7000) on insurance. Since we have traveled extensively for over thirty years we figure we are now ahead (financially) by more then $100,000 because of all the insurance we did not purchase :).

 

Hank

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I posted this list two years ago in response to a similar question. Not surprisingly, Hank was also posting on that same thread, on the same subject with some excellent points to consider, then as well as now. 😉

 

 

 

Originally posted by Hlitner ...My point is that each travelers/cruiser needs to assess their own needs and then look for the policy that best fits what they need. Do not get conned into buying something you do not need....and always make sure you have decent medical coverage. Remember, the amount you lose by cancelling or interrupting is limited. But your medical liability is virtually unlimited. Losing the money you pay for a trip is not going to bankrupt you (you were paying for the trip anyway). But medical bills can put you into bankruptcy and ruin your life.

 

Hank

I agree wholeheartedly with the above statement. As for choosing the best policy for a traveler's needs, some pertinent facts would include:

-Do you have Pre Existing Conditions that need to be covered?

-Do you have elderly, very young or frail health family members back home?

-Are you traveling during a period when inclement weather could impact your travel?

-Do you need work related coverage?

-Do you need to cover flight costs? Connection delays?

-Do you need CFAR coverage?

-Does your age make cruiseline coverage an attractively priced alternative?

-Do you need primary or secondary coverage?

-What coverage levels do you want?

 

The answers to these questions vary from one person to the next and would result in different 'best' policy recommendations. Thus, the need to Read and Understand the policy DOC before purchasing.

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1. PRE TRIP COVERAGES

Given you are booking 1 year in advance, there is a higher probability that you would have to cancel. Consider the CFAR for that reason but CFAR is expensive and generally has to be purchased at time of initial deposit.

 

Look for a plan that has extensive trip cancellation definition (without CFAR). We found that CSA Travel Protection and its parent Generali http://www.generalitravelinsurance.com have the broadest definition of family members. Meaning that family members that are NOT traveling ARE covered. So my Grandmother passed away and we had to cancel our cruise, she was covered.

 

If pre existing conditions are important to you: https://www.thediabetescouncil.com/diabetes-travel-insurance-guide/

 

2. IN TRIP COVERAGES

THese are coverages you need once departed. Medical and repatriation/medical transport are usually the most critical because the financial impact of an incident could be severe.

 

Other IN TRIP convenient coverages are baggage--loss & delay, interruption, here's a chart of coverages that may help:

 

https://www.generalitravelinsurance.com/view-travel-insurance-plans.html

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  • 2 months later...
Just booked a cruise and declined trip insurance from the cruise line. It's not until next may but I know we need to get trip insurance asap. The policies we have looked at have a lot of fine print!! What are things you look for when going for a policy? I know it varies from person to person but what's important to you???

 

Hubby has a list of medicl conditions so we need a policy with a pre-existing condition waiver.

 

We want to be able to choose our own hospital if medical evacuation is necessary.

 

We want coverage to be Primary, first payer.

 

We want a policy with high medical coverage and high evacuation coverage.

 

Then we look at trip delay, trip interruption, luggage coverage, etc

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