We are planning two trips to Europe next year (a 14 day river cruise for H and me) and a different 14 day land tour that I am going on with a friend. Because travel insurance seems to be about run about 6% of the trip cost, we are thinking of getting the Chase Sapphire Reserve card and forgoing any additional travel insurance.
Does anything have any experience with using just the travel insurance that comes with that card? Or do you feel that the CC insurance isn’t good enough? We are 60 and in excellent health. Given the high annual fee of that credit card, we would only be getting it if we can use the travel insurance. Thanks for any feedback!
I use the CSR travel insurance benefit for many trips, but did purchase a separate policy for our cruise. Make sure the coverage limitations will work for you. I was researching whether the delay portion would be sufficient when I realized our trip total for 6 exceeded their limits even for cancellation.
Get and pay for some travel health insurance (like GEO Blue) in case anything happens. I have a good friend who broke 2 wrists the first night of a trip to Greece and ended up in a hospital in Greece. Because of her foreign travel health insurance, she was treated very well, did not have to pay out of pocket, and they arranged her travel home. Every since, nobody in my family travels out of the country without this (it is very inexpensive).
This. OP, your health insurance likely does not cover medical costs incurred during foreign travel. CSR travel insurance benefits do not cover medical expenses, so you need a separate policy for medical. Make sure it covers the cost of getting you home in a health emergency or if one of you were to pass away while traveling.
A third vote for purchasing travel insurance for both medical care and medical evacuation.
I don’t bother ensuring the cost of the trip, and use credit cards that offer baggage delay and flight cancellation insurance to pay for the trip. If you do not attempt to ensure the cost of the trip, the medical insurance is very inexpensive. Maybe $40 for a week.
I have a Chase card (preferred, not reserve) and assume they will cover up to 10K per person, and will cover some of car insurance stuff when international. We sometimes also get a minimal amount of travel insurance, to cover better if we have something serious happen and we have to be flown home or whatever. My regular health insurance covers international, but you can get a minimal travel insurance policy where the medical coverage will be very good, even if you’re only covering a fraction of the cost of your trip.
I pay for any travel expenses with my Chase Sapphire card to get the 10,000 coverage. I buy Geo Blue for health coverage as my insurance doesn’t cover international travel. I always pay the rental car with the Chase. We used the coverage once in Canada when they said we damaged a car. It was a pain dealing with it but they did cover the charges.
@kiddie@scubasue The CSR travel insurance benefits states this (see below). Am I missing something? Or do you not think this is sufficient?
Emergency Medical and Dental Benefit
If you or an immediate family member become sick or injured while you’re 100 miles or more from home on a trip, you can be reimbursed up to $2,500 for medical expenses, subject to a $50 deductible.
Emergency Evacuation and Transportation
If you or a member of your immediate family are injured or become sick during a trip 100 miles or more from home that results in an emergency evacuation, you can be covered for medical services and transportation up to $100,000.
Bluntly $2,500 is not enough. Do check if your primary insurance covers you (ours does) then as long as you’re prepared to pay out of pocket before reimbursement, it can work - but do not rely on $2,500 in coverage. People talk a lot about medical care being less expensive outside of the US and while true, I have the $50,000 medical bills to show that you’re one accident from huge bills in any country.
When my friend was injured in Greece on vacation, she felt that the level of care she received was better because they knew she had the good medical insurance (not sure which she had). So not only did she not end up owing a lot of money, she was well taken care of. She needed additional care (and surgeries) once she came home, but the US doctors said what had been done was correct.
Chase reserve is very similar to Amex Platinum. Amex covers trip cancellation, emergency medical evacuation, but does not cover medical. I am still working and my company insurance covers overseas medical, so I don’t take out additional medical insurance.
I have CSR and while I rely solely on CSR insurance when traveling within the US, I always purchase additional travel/medical for international travel.
To me, the fine print which says the 100k in medical expenses is only covered if your situation requires medical evacuation would be a deal breaker. Since that would likely only be necessary in a 3rd world country OR maybe in the event of some kind of natural disaster or military emergency, situations where you would be covereday be very limited.
The fine print also says that medical expenses for non emergencies are not covered. That excludes a lot of medical care you may need before you can continue your trip or return home.
I would carefully read the “exclusions apply” details so you completely understand what types of medical care will not be covered before you decide whether or not their coverage is sufficient.
Also, keep in mind that all insurance companies will look for any fine print detail to deny your claim.
Some of the travel insurance companies have annual policies available that may be cheaper than two separate policies, and would also cover any other trips you take.