hurricanes and insurance

[psychtobe]

Hello,

 

For starters, this question does not relate to cruises specifically; however, this board is my go to for questions about travel insurance in general, so your input is appreciated.

 

I've never bought trip insurance before despite traveling a lot, but I'm thinking about purchasing for an upcoming trip. In late October we are flying roundtrip from the west coast to Florida, staying 4 nights in a hotel/timeshare, then flying home. For 3 passengers, the airfare is $1000, the hotel is $200.

 

I'm worried about hurricane season, and I want to buy insurance that would fully refund my airfare (and hotel too, if possible) in the event the weather is very bad or threatening or the resort is in bad shape. However, most of the policies I've priced say the airline must "cease operations" for 24-48 hours, and the resort must be "uninhabitable" to be covered. That's not what I want, because just because part of a resort is inhabitable doesn't mean I still want to go there; and I can imagine some pretty horrific weather that doesn't ground a big legacy air carrier's operations - they have flights all over the world that would continue to operate.

 

Does what I'm looking for exist? How do I buy it? I can afford to lose the $1200 if it comes to that but if $50-100 will buy peace of mind, I'll probably do it on this occasion because of hurricanes.

 

Thank you,

[cruiseco]

Hello,

 

For starters, this question does not relate to cruises specifically; however, this board is my go to for questions about travel insurance in general, so your input is appreciated.

 

I've never bought trip insurance before despite traveling a lot, but I'm thinking about purchasing for an upcoming trip. In late October we are flying roundtrip from the west coast to Florida, staying 4 nights in a hotel/timeshare, then flying home. For 3 passengers, the airfare is $1000, the hotel is $200.

 

I'm worried about hurricane season, and I want to buy insurance that would fully refund my airfare (and hotel too, if possible) in the event the weather is very bad or threatening or the resort is in bad shape. However, most of the policies I've priced say the airline must "cease operations" for 24-48 hours, and the resort must be "uninhabitable" to be covered. That's not what I want, because just because part of a resort is inhabitable doesn't mean I still want to go there; and I can imagine some pretty horrific weather that doesn't ground a big legacy air carrier's operations - they have flights all over the world that would continue to operate.

 

Does what I'm looking for exist? How do I buy it? I can afford to lose the $1200 if it comes to that but if $50-100 will buy peace of mind, I'll probably do it on this occasion because of hurricanes.

 

Thank you,

 

Short of buying a Cancel For Any Reason plan, TravelSafe gas the best hurricane coverage:

 

"t) a cancellation of Your Trip within 24 hours of Your Scheduled Departure Date and time if Your Trip destination is under a hurricane warning issued by the NOAA National Hurricane Center, provided the cancellation of Your Trip occurs more than 15 days following Your effective date of coverage for the Trip Cancellation Benefits"

 

No other plan that I know of lets you cancel just because a warning exists. As you've found out the others require a complete cessation of services by your travel supplier.

 

http://www.travelsafe.com for more info

[sirwired]

I will point out that once the hurricane is past, if the resort is open, you cannot cancel without a Cancel for Any Reason rider. It doesn't matter if the beach is a mess and the area trashed. If it's open, you are going. Also, you need an actual Hurricane (and under some policies, an evacuation) in order to file a claim.

 

A tropical storm? Nope.

An overall lousy week of weather? Nope.

 

Definitely look into a Cancel for Any Reason Plan. However note that such plans are not cheap, and do not provide a 100% refund.

[psychtobe]

thank you both- pricing at around $140 through TravelSafe for "cancel any reason." I'll think about it...