Your travel insurance

greenwoodheights

Hey all-

Just a little overwhelmed by all the options. Did anyone opt for Cancel For Any Reason? Did you opt for a pre-existing condition waiver? Was it worth it? Read some horror stories where people had to cut their trip short due to deaths/illness in the family, but the insurance co. didn't reimburse because the problem was deemed to be due to a pre-existing condition (sometimes going over a year back), and basically..."you should've figured your trip could be cut short"...though the family member may have been healthy and doing well at the time of departure.

But some of these plans are going for $300/$400. Wondering if anyone got coverage that covers just about any circumstance out of your control that would reasonably prevent you from traveling, for more around $100?

Thanks.

Summer2011Bride

Yes, ours was $99 for both H and me (well this wasn't for a HM, but was for our CA vacation last year) and covered cancellation for any reason. We booked through Southwest vacations and got trip protection from them. Obviously if you aren't using Southwest, this wouldn't be an option; what company are you booking your trip through (or are you booking everything individually?)

dazyabbey

We got a pretty decent package but it didn't include cancel for any reason. We figured it couldn't be anything besides weather or death that would keep us from our honeymoon.

Jells2dot0

Agree with summer- the destination and who you book through will make a difference. I have booked several trips through agents that use Travel Impressions and their policy is cancel for any reason and based on the cost of the trip. At most, it's something like $149/person for Hawaii, Caribbean, Costa Rica. If you go somewhere like Fiji or Tahiti, the policies can be more because the destination is more remote and more expensive. Also, check out insuremytrip.com to compare policies and their coverages.

alithebride

i've only bought one cancel for any reason policy and that was for our 3 weeker to italy a few years ago.
the other times just the basic ones.

but you should also know waht the airline and hotel penalties are.

for example-for our 2nd week in mexico in december we were booked at an AI down by tulum. since i ended up in the hospital for emergency appendix surgery on friday afternoon and we were supposed to be at the next resort the next day dh called and canceled. since we had the 24 hours notice for cancellation policy we were only charged for 1 night (saturday) and were refunded for the other 5 nights we had booked.

GoBucksOH

check out squaremouth.com

the site allows you to put in your information and then shows you pricing from different insurance providers. I was also overwhelmed, so I contacted their customer service rep and she was super friendly and answered all of my questions.

We ended up opting for pre-existing condition and ours came out to around $120 for both me and hubby.

good luck!

greenwoodheights

These are good tips, and it seems like the cost is taking into account (or should be, anyway) how far you're going. Good to know. I'm not set on what agency we're booking through yet, and I know they'll have tips, but I thought I should be armed with my own knowledge as well, from experienced travelers.

Not going too, too far- Riveria Maya, so it's encouraging to know that maybe this insurance thing can happen for under $200. Nice to hear that PP got pre-existing too, for only $120/pp.

Thanks for the head start.

dalm0m

Check out a comparison site like www.insuremytrip.com Shopping around can save you money.

I was able to get my 83 year old father cancel for any reason, plus $500,000 of medical coverage & pre-existing illness coverage (he'd already had 4 heart attacks) for $179 for a European vacation.  The same coverage for DH & I was about $75 each. 

You really have to compare what you are getting.