Travel Agent vs. Travel Insurance Broker?

[napria]

I’m wondering if there’s an advantage to purchasing insurance from our Travel Agent, who is with a Luxury Travel Agency, vs. using a trip insurance broker? I have quotes from both, and researched the broker (who has numerous positive reviews across multiple websites), and no surprise the broker’s quote is a few hundred dollars less, with better coverage and better terms.

[CDNPolar]

Just now, napria said:

I’m wondering if there’s an advantage to purchasing insurance from our Travel Agent, who is with a Luxury Travel Agency, vs. using a trip insurance broker? I have quotes from both, and researched the broker (who has numerous positive reviews across multiple websites), and no surprise the broker’s quote is a few hundred dollars less, with better coverage and better terms.

 

To me the few hundred less is a no brainer especially if coverage is better and better terms.

 

Just ensure that with any insurance for medical, cancellation, or interruption, that you understand the terms for pre-existing conditions, what constitutes a stability period, etc.

 

I also never buy from anyone until I have a full policy in front of me that I have read letter for letter, word for word, and probably asked 20 questions from that.

 

I would go with the broker.

 

Actually - a broker can have great reviews - but who is the insurance company that they are selling you?

[klfrodo]

My opinion and personal experience only.

My TA sells insurance. And makes a small commission. But, after 10 to 15 years following this particular board, I can guarantee that I know more about the intricacies of travel insurance than my TA does (not to say I know it all. I still get confused a few times.). If questioned about is this covered? is that covered? the response would be to call the insurance company. If asked do I file a claim under trip delay or trip interruption? They wouldn't know. What they do know is that having travel insurance is important.

 

The next question is probably why I use the TA then. Because they are friends and treat us like family. GREAT on the travel/pricing/OBC/follow-up departments. Just weak on the travel insurance department.

 

So, my opinion is the broker who can guide you to the coverage that is most important to you and your needs. A good broker will also be just a phone call away to assist if needed when filing a claim.

[napria]

The broker is recommending Travel Insured “FlexiPAX”. I’ve never heard of them, but I downloaded a 57 page pdf.  The broker was recommended on CruiseCritic, and I’ve seen great reviews on multiple sites (including Trip Advisor, Yelp and Better Business Bureau)

Edited May 8 by napria
Correcting autocorrect

[GeezerCouple]

6 minutes ago, napria said:

The broker is recommending Travel Insured “FlexiPAX”. I’ve never heard of them, but I downloaded a 57 page pdf.  The broker was recommended on CruiseCritic, and I’ve seen great reviews on multiple sites (including Trip Advisor, Yelp and Better Business Bureau)

Was the broker TripInsuranceStore?

We are among those who buy policies from them.

And... we've had claims, including some large ones.  ALL got paid promptly.

We also used Travel Insured (the actual insurance company), but our plan had a different name, so probably different terms (that have worked very well for us).

 

Note:  You can mention names of insurers or insurance brokers here.

It's just "travel agents" whose names are not allowed here on CC.

 

GC

[napria]

GeezerCouple, thanks for clearing that up.  I wasn’t sure if I could say who the broker is, but it is indeed TripInsuranceStore.

 

Thanks also for letting me know that you’ve successfully used them.  I think we’ll go with them.  That’s one thing off my mind after a very chaotic day.  

[FetaCheese]

From Travel Insured, FlexiPax is a relatively new product offered by brokers only

  You will not find that product on Travel Insured website.  

 

Have purchased it 2 times from Trip insurance store.  Slightly different coverages than World Wide trip protector, but above broker can guide you to best policy for "your exact trip".

[Coral]

My TA has an Allianz policy that covers pre-existing conditions when insurance is purchased at final payment. This policy is great in other ways also. It is not cheap but an all around great policy. I have had successful claims and Allianz has been easy to work with.

 

I can't find a broker who has this type of policy (pre-existing conditions covered when purchased at final payment).

[GeezerCouple]

37 minutes ago, Coral said:

My TA has an Allianz policy that covers pre-existing conditions when insurance is purchased at final payment. This policy is great in other ways also. It is not cheap but an all around great policy. I have had successful claims and Allianz has been easy to work with.

 

I can't find a broker who has this type of policy (pre-existing conditions covered when purchased at final payment).

 

We've been able to get this type of coverage through TripInsuranceStore in the past.  We only got it once... we made reservations but really thought we would NOT be going; I'm forgetting why we handled it this way.  In any event, we ended up going - surprise!  So we needed insurance that didn't exclude pre-existing conditions.

The main "problem" was that we have always (before this and after this) gotten CFAR (Cancel For Any Reason), and this "final payment" date for travel insurance didn't provide that choice.

Fortunately, that was one of our trips where we did *not* have a claim! 😁

 

I don't know if that policy is still available; that was pre-Covid, so a few years ago.

 

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[GeezerCouple]

Thanks to both napria and FetaCheese, for mentioning FlexiPax.

 

I contacted TripInsuranceStore to ask about this particular policy.  We have always purchased coverage through TIS from Travel Insured, and had excellent service including prompt payment from TI.  Of course, we certainly wish we hadn't learned how the claims worked... *IF* we hadn't needed to file any claims in the first place!

 

Anyway, it looks like that new FlexiPax may be suitable for us.  I'll probably check further, but it seems that if they had offered FP in the past and we had gotten that, we'd have saved money on the premiums (definitely) and we would still have gotten the same amount back for those claims that we had filed.  That latter I'm not 100% sure about yet, but it's definitely worth checking further.

 

And as long as we can still purchase the policy through TripInsuranceStore.com *and* get their claims assistance for the occasional times we need it, that should work well.

And again, MANY thanks to the various CC members who, back in mid 2013 helped us learn about both travel insurance in general, and TIS specifically...  That has saved us so much money, given the claims we've had.

(We'll never know if any of our claims would have been denied because they were due to pre-existing conditions, because we always got that waiver so there were no such exclusions.  My opinion is that at least a few of the claims would at least have been looked at very carefully.  And that probably would have meant all the time and effort of having medical records inspected to verify whether there were pre-existing conditions or not.  I don't see how we would have had claims paid within 2-3 weeks if they'd needed to comb through our recent medical records.  And a few claims might have been denied...?)

 

And the timing learning about FlexiPax is good.  I think we are about to plan our first "real trip" since late Dec, 2019 - finally! 😁  We have really missed traveling... a lot!

 

Thanks again for mentioning FlexiPax.

 

GC

[donaldsc]

InsureMYTrip and Trip Insurance Store are both good brokers.

 

DON