Travel Insurance?

[100AcreWood]

I would have never considered travel insurance before Covid, but now I'm wondering if we should considering how quickly plans can change. Has anyone actually used travel insurance and did it pay out or was it a total pain to get reimbursed?

 

[tvguy]

Well, Covid certainly has tilted the scales in favor of Travel Insurance. I've only purchased Travel Insurance twice, once for a Disney cruise because it was the most expensive trip I have ever take, and it was between Christmas and New Years so airports would be busy and weather bad.....and my last cruise on Celebrity. They were offering full coverage for $25 a person.
I have no personal knowledge of any problems getting reimbursed, HOWEVER, my Travel Agent got involved in a court case where a claim was filed, and promptly paid. A client had to cancel a cruise because his employer canceled his vacation time the day before the cruise. Travel insurance paid promptly. But like all insurance, they reserve the right to seek restitution from the person responsible for them having to pay out a claim. They sued the employer for reimbursement. Cost my Travel Agent thousands in legal fees because they sold the policy. The employer lost the case and had to reimburse the insurance company. As if it weren't awkward enough to have your boss cancel your cruise the day before, but later your boss has to pay back thousands to the insurance company.

 

[barkley]

i've used it in a situation where we were on vacation and had we been at home the medical issue that came up would have been a minor trip to our primary care physician but since we were on vacation our only option was to use a walk-in facility (like urgent care). my ppo insurance plans have historically only covered 'emergency care' outside my regional provider network so they wouldn't have covered the visit or the lab work. as i recall we called the travel insurance company while we were sitting in the waiting room, they noted the report that we were seeking medical assistance and just had us provide an itemized receipt from the medical provider. got our reimbursement (minus the deductible) in a couple of weeks.

 

[AnnaS]

For us it's a must for cruising and leaving the country. Have never put a claim in BUT

We were scheduled to cruise to Alaska - land/cruisetour (June 2020) when COVID hit. We purchased insurance of this big trip and did get our policy money back.

 

[Darcy03231]

I purchase trip insurance and have had it pay out before. Most frequently its been for cancelled flights due to thunderstorms and we've been reimbursed for the hotel and our meals. Another time the airline lost one of our bags (which is why we only travel with carryon now) and it was never found. Travel insurance paid for that too. Biggest one was for a cruise. We took insurance that paid if we missed a port of call. We were supposed to cruise the western Caribbean (Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Belize, and Roatan) but there was a hurricane and the cruise changed the itinerary to the eastern side (St. Thomas, St. Maarten & Nassau). I think it was $250 for each port of call missed. There were 10 of us (DH & I and our 4 kids and their spouse/SO).

 

[nw6675]

Depending on the type of trip, we will buy it. I had two claims in the past with one being a DVC rental during covid and the other an Orlando vacation home precovid. Both paid without issue. The only negative was it took about two months for the recent one to pay because of the volume they had.

 

[cats mom]

Depending on who is traveling, to where, and for how long, we do sometimes purchase a medical travel insurance plan.
Never comprehensive, trip cancellation, or theft protection.

Since we've never completely canceled a trip (well, except the cruise that was canceled due to covid shut-downs and was fully refundable because of that), we can generally work with vendors directly if there are disruptions, we have very little risk of luggage loss or theft since we travel with carry-ons only, and we have never needed to file a medical claim even when we had insurance, we figure we've come out ahead not buying insurance.

We do go into trips with the understanding that anything non-refundable has the potential of being a complete loss if plans are canceled or disrupted though.

 

[pens4821]

I’ve only ever purchased it for beach trips because we go hurricane season, but it’s always worked out for us. We’ve had to use it a handful of times because of hurricanes (leaving early so partial refund and cancelled all together so full refund), and once because of the death of my grandmother. Never had any issues getting our money. It’s a bit of time, but it worked out well for us every time we’ve needed it.

I’ve thought about it for other trips. Most things we do you can cancel or at least reschedule so have not though.

 

[DisneyTexan]

I have bought travel insurance many times, but have never used it for anything COVID-related. The cover page of the website that I use for comparing and purchasing policies has information on COVID insurance. If that is your main concern, be sure that the policy specifically covers it. Many policies do not.

The message board won't let me post the website for insurance; it is www dot insure my trip dot com

I have used trip insurance to reimburse for meals and a hotel stay after a cancelled flight in Las Vegas, and another time for minor medical expenses and a cancelled snorkel trip because of my husband's sinus infection while in Aruba. We were eventually paid for everything, but getting the airline documentation together for the cancelled flight was a pain.

 

[mikehn]

I buy travel insurance mostly for the medical piece of mind. I belong to an HMO, which has it's limitations. So depending on where I am traveling and for how long, I have to weigh this risk. A simple doctors visit outside my HMO boundaries can put me in a big hole.

 

[laughinplace199]

We used to only buy travel insurance when going out of the country. However, we did buy it for our WDW trip last week. I was afraid we'd either get Covid before our trip and not be able to go, or we'd get it while there and need to isolate in the hotel, possibly needing to add days to our stay.

Luckily, I've never had to make a claim, but it was great peace of mind having it.

 

[Where’s the beef]

I buy it for just about everything now and have used it recently to get money from concert tickets we had to miss after getting COVID (manage to avoid for 2.5 yrs then get it when we had Paul McCartney tix, thanks universe). Payout took about a week I think and was painless, just uploaded test email.
FWIW, this is a reason you should always get a PCR test if you test positive in a home test. You may need official proof for a number of things down the road, including insurance claims.

 

[lyric_rains]

We used to only buy travel insurance when going out of the country. However, we did buy it for our WDW trip last week. I was afraid we'd either get Covid before our trip and not be able to go, or we'd get it while there and need to isolate in the hotel, possibly needing to add days to our stay.

Luckily, I've never had to make a claim, but it was great peace of mind having it.

What is the process for buying insurance for a WdW trip? Is it through Disney?

 

[laughinplace199]

You can insure your trip with any travel insurance company.