Has anyone ever used an annual travel insurance plan? Dh and I have a few trips coming up in the next year. Very out of our norm lol. And I was thinking it might be better to get an annual plan instead of separate ones for each trip. Advice? Tips? Recommendations? Thanks.
Yes I have. In the last 2 or so years, I’ve had one and had great luck with flights! It had run out and I hadn’t renewed it when I had a missed connection and a long wait. Travel gods playing with me.
The key thing (for me) is to pay attention to medical evacuation limits. While baggage insurance (I rarely check a bag…) and other stuff is nice, it’s the evacuation piece that is super important for me. Depending on where you go, pay attention to the amounts.
Travelguard and Allianz are two of the big ones. Prices are very similar. Google “best annual travel insurance” and there is a good article explaining some of the differences.
Fwiw, I’ve never made a claim. And your credit card also comes with some travel insurance. So understand what it comes with also!
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I have gotten a year of health insurance for foreign travel. I have never paid for travel insurance annually. Usually I don’t use it at all, although I did I think a couple of times when we rented condos someplace (Mexico, Greece maybe) and I don’t remember why.
I have evacuation covered on a policy from my company and it covers family traveling with me. I have traveled extensively over the last 25 years for work and also for holidays. (As an example, I was looking for another purpose and in September of 2014 as an example, between Sep 1 and 19, I went from from Boston to London to DC to Boston to Frankfurt to Boston to DC to San Francisco to Boston from Sep 1 to 19 and then stayed at home for the rest of the month for Rosh Hashanah/Yom Kippur before heading out on the road again). Probably because of that, I have several of the premium credit cards and they definitely would handle baggage lost or damaged. Plus, I try never to check bags if I can avoid it, although last month we did check a big duffel bag to Japan/Korea and a second suitcase on the return filled with stuff we bought.
Fortunately, like @lucy_van_pelt, I have never filed a claim for medical care or evacuation abroad, but I did, I think, get a damaged bag replaced. Not sure if it was the insurer associated with the credit card or the issuer.
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I know people who have purchased the Allianz annual policy and been satisfied with it. They then supplemented it with the Medjet evacuation policy. We have not done this- we purchased travel insurance first through seven corners and now our TA recommends Travelex.
With Allianz, if you do have to use it, the balance on the annual plan drops so if you will still travel you might need additional insurance, IIRC.
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Several of the cruise bloggers I’ve followed use these two companies and are happy. They travel at least once a month, and almost all international even if only the Bahamas or Mexico. They seem happy with the coverage.
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Geo Blue offers year long plans - I have not used it personally for a long plan - only to cover a specific trip
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I also looked into an annual plan.
Decided against it after careful consideration and research. Annual plans were designed for business travelers originally.
Annual travel insurance plans are good for those who want medical coverage. Not so good for those who want to get reimbursed for travel plans that go awry.
I had a trip a couple of years ago, I booked it close to departure. Knew that the trip wasn’t going to be cancelled so I insured that trip for much less than I paid and made sure it had good medical coverage.
I have been following a woman who fell on her first day of her cruise, broke her hip, had to abandon the trip and had to get home. I think they charged something like 30,000€ on their various credit cards for the medical and related expenses. Her husband had extra hotel charges, they needed to upgrade their flights home. That did not include all the lost expense of not taking the cruise.
It sounds like they got all their money back for all their expenses but it was nice to know that they were adequately insured. I think I’m a big worrywart though…
I have bought Geoblue’s annual plan as it covers pre-existing without having been purchased right after you book your trip. I think it takes two international trips to break even (buying two separate policies). My thought is that besides a big foreign trip, we may pop over to Canada and we will need to have medical coverage there too.
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Some travel medical insurance will only cover the cost of getting you to the closest medical facility that can take care of your issue (and the patient may or may not agree on the quality or type of facility they transport you to). It may not cover getting you home, especially if you cannot sit in a regular airplane seat. Thats why my relatives get that medjet insurance. I also know someone who sells insurance for getting bodies home if someone dies overseas! If anyone needs a referral…
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