Travel Insurance!!!

[artnbarb]

Yikes! I'm overwhelmed with travel insurance options. I'm looking for our trip in April, 2025. We're taking a Gate1 tour that begins in London, then moves to Paris where we'll take a Seine River cruise. As far as I can figure, we have 3 options:

1. If we take the insurance offered by Gate1, we will only be covered for the 14 days of the tour inself, which means airfare and our extra days in London and Paris won't be covered. It DOES include *Reimbursement for Trip Cancellation or Interruption   *Medical Coverage & Emergency Medical Evacuation  *Baggage Loss, Delay or Theft Protection *24-hour Emergency Assistance COST $520 FOR BOTH OF US OR
2. If we want to insure the entire cost of the trip - RT airfare, the 14 day tour, 2 additional nights in London and 1 additional night in Paris, the cost is around $1000 for both of us. This includes medical and emergency evacuation as well as trip delay, baggage loss and cancellation under allowable conditions. OR
3. Medical and evacuation coverage for the entire period, including travel delay, baggge delay, and trip interruption. COST $104 for both of us.

I'm leaning towards option #3, because it covers the entire trip, BUT, if we do have to cancel, we're out the cost of the tour and the cost of airfare. Am I being penny wise but pound foolish? I welcome your thoughts!

 

[JMichael]

Don't know with whom you're flying, but if you cancel, will they offer vouchers for future travel? We try to calculate what on our trips are cancelable reservations (apartment, hotel, car rental, etc.) with little or no penalty. Then we look at what financial exposure we're comfortable with. The last time we bought trip insurance, we looked for a well known carrier. The policy was underwritten by John Hancock Insurance and was very much like your option #3, though it included the main thing we were concerned about and that was required by Cunard which was coverage for our return to the US on the QM2.

 

[Karen Frerichs]

What about combining #1 and #3, which looks like together might cover everything... at less cost than #2? Wold that be possible?

 

[artnbarb]

What about combining #1 and #3, which looks like together might cover everything... at less cost than #2? Wold that be possible?

I don't think you can do that, but it would be perfect!

 

[LauraE]

I haven't done formal tours so I'm not familiar with Gate 1--do they book your airfare for you? If not and you're booking airfare yourself many US credit card companies offer full insurance for airfare purchases with their cards. After many years of independent travel to Europe (Switzerland almost exclusively) from the US I've now learned how to whittle down insurance costs. I insure my flights using my free credit card benefit and book accommodations that are fully refundable within a month of travel time (or less). My sister taught me that about 4-5 weeks prior to my trip the insurance prices are lowest. (They charge the higher rates farther outside of travel for people who are needing to prepay parts of their trips.) Then I insure with the travel insurance company only the amount that equals what is pre-purchased prior to my trip such as train tickets and accommodations that have a cancellation date prior to my arrival. The amount I put for the cost of the entire trip (usually 14-20 days) is less than 20% of the actual trip cost yet I have all the trip cancellation/lost luggage benefits and terrific medical and emergency evacuation coverage for around $87 and I'm over 70years of age. Hope this helps you and if not, others.

 

[artnbarb]

Gate1 can book airfare, but I prefer having direct control should something go wrong - as it so often does. My biggest expense is the tour itself, but for the pre and post tour days we're adding, the Gate1 insurance won't cover us if we have a medical emergency/delay/lost luggage (for those days only).

If I'm willing to risk the entire cost of the trip and still have medical coverage for the entire trip, #3 is the clear winner. If I wish to include the tour itself, plus coverage for those additional days, it's #2.

I appreciate what several people have pointed out about airlines issuing credit, and the extra hotel nights can be canceled, so I'm going back to SquareMouth to revise the total trip cost.

 

[JMichael]

I finally remembered the company we purchased trip insurance from during Covid. We ended up with a John Hancock policy, but I'm guessing they shop several underwriters. We didn't have a claim, so I can't recommend them based on that. However, they were very responsive to our questions and to revising the policy when we had to add an additional stay in New York. https://www.aardy.com/

 

[BEERMAN]

We use Generali. Made only one claim... for a car window I broke on a trip years ago. We paid out of pocket for the repairs and Generali had a check covering that amount at our home when we returned. Their website lets you easily compare 3 separate policies with pricing.

 

[Jan55612]

We have usually used Travel Insured. We have been generally happy with the coverage, but with increasing age and long trips (6 to 8 weeks) the cost has gotten very high. While the policy is for travel cancellation, delays, and medical, I am usually more concerned with good medical coverage because a serious injury or illness could be a real problem.

 

[Alpinista]

What

Yikes! I'm overwhelmed with travel insurance options. I'm looking for our trip in April, 2025. We're taking a Gate1 tour that begins in London, then moves to Paris where we'll take a Seine River cruise. As far as I can figure, we have 3 options:

1. If we take the insurance offered by Gate1, we will only be covered for the 14 days of the tour inself, which means airfare and our extra days in London and Paris won't be covered. It DOES include *Reimbursement for Trip Cancellation or Interruption   *Medical Coverage & Emergency Medical Evacuation  *Baggage Loss, Delay or Theft Protection *24-hour Emergency Assistance COST $520 FOR BOTH OF US OR
2. If we want to insure the entire cost of the trip - RT airfare, the 14 day tour, 2 additional nights in London and 1 additional night in Paris, the cost is around $1000 for both of us. This includes medical and emergency evacuation as well as trip delay, baggage loss and cancellation under allowable conditions. OR
3. Medical and evacuation coverage for the entire period, including travel delay, baggge delay, and trip interruption. COST $104 for both of us.

I'm leaning towards option #3, because it covers the entire trip, BUT, if we do have to cancel, we're out the cost of the tour and the cost of airfare. Am I being penny wise but pound foolish? I welcome your thoughts!

What does your credit card cover? Trip insurance is expensive and it doesn’t take very many trips of not buying it to cover the expenses of a lost future trip. For very expensive tours, we buy the insurance. For less expensive trips, we don’t and rely on credit card coverage to soften any blow).

Insurance is always a risk/reward decision and, as we’ve gotten older, we’ve become more risk averse due to health issues that come with age, but still reluctant to spend heavily on insurance.