We never used to worry about getting travel insurance but realize that in today’s environment, it’s the smart thing to do. We have an overseas trip planned for 2024, and initially booked a Mediterranean cruise through Costco, and purchased travel insurance through the broker that they recommended (Zurich) just for the cruise. Now we are planning to spend time before that cruise in a different city and have decided to add on a Viking river cruise that was quite expensive.
I’m a bit confused about the best way to approach getting the additional insurance. Is it best to go to Zurich and have them cover the additional cruise? What about the airfare and the hotels? Zurich prices it based on a percentage of the total cost, but it doesn’t seem to make sense to include our airfares or hotels if they are refundable (in cash or airline credit). But what about medical emergencies, for instance? If we only get insurance for the two cruises, we wouldn’t be covered on the nights we have booked on our own. Would appreciate anyone’s feedback and guidance on the best way to handle this.
I have always purchased travel insurance for the start to the return date of my trips not worrying about if some things may/may not overlap (like airfare). I don’t include car insurance unless I’m renting a car, I don’t usually choose cancel for any reason either.
You can compare what your current policy holder would charge and InsureMyTrip.com -
But you may need to move fast, some require purchasing the policy within x days…
We do have annual travel insurance. We have been stuffing a lot of travel into retirement and it seemed both prudent and easier.
We haven’t had a claim though so not sure how good it really is. Currently we have RoamRight. Before we had something from squaresomething or other. Easy to get but as I said, we don’t have claims experience. Just went by reviews and the coverage we wanted
We have used Squaremouth. You put in parameters of what coverage you want and they give you results and quotes from numerous companies. I also alway pay for travel with my Chase Sapphire as they offer some protections.
I’ll look up who I buy the health through. Edit adding it was through GeoBlue.
Zurich should list a customer service number in the email they sent you after you bought the policy. In the past we’ve changed travel dates on a policy and paid the difference in premiums but that was with a different provider so you should check if Zurich allows it.
We’ve used Squaremouth in the past and the cost we needed to insure was the non-refundable amount and not the total expected trip cost. And even then Squaremouth had an option; you only need to insure the full non-refundable amount if you want a waiver of pre-existing medical conditions.
I use Squaremouth or Insure My Trip (there are some overlaps but also separate companies in each). My criteria are primary health insurance (since I have a locality based HMO) and medical evacuation/repatriation.
Since recommended twice, I’m going to check out Steve.
We’ve used this company before when all we wanted was extra medical insurance coverage for international travel. It was recommended by the agent who handles DH’s employer group coverage and also my transition to Medicare. She recommended their Patriot Lite Travel Medical Insurance and it was very reasonably priced. Patriot Travel Medical Insurance - IMG
We also used Squaremouth. Kid has type 1 diabetes which most insurances stay away from and Squaremouth found up some insurance for her time in Europe one summer.
We have pretty good coverage on our Chase Sapphire credit card. But the medical coverage is a good thing to check out. A friend’s dad had a stroke in South Korea on vacation and had to be in the hospital there for quite awhile and then med-evacced back to the US. It was pretty costly.
We supplement our Chase Sapphire Preferred travel insurance with GeoBlue travel health insurance. Super affordable and recommended by Steve’s team at the insurance store (mentioned upthread).
Geoblue has different types of coverages, the one I purchased requires that I have primary health insurance in the US and it’s fine if the insured has pre-existing conditions. It isn’t meant to be the only health insurance policy for those who want to remain overseas for long periods.
DH and I have purchased an annual travel insurance policy through Allianz every year since 2016, primarily for the medical coverage. On a trip to France in 2016, a friend who also had an Allianz policy, fractured his pelvis in a cycling accident. DH assisted with contacting Allianz on friend’s behalf - everything covered including flying a nurse and friend’s daughter to France and flying all three home in first class.
I chipped a tooth in 2022 in Switzerland, saw an emergency dentist on a Sunday morning, and Allianz quickly reimbursed me for the ~$500 cost of repair.
Thanks for the heads up! Just found out my daughter has a Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card, so might let her purchase her portion of the trip on her own. Then we would only have to get insurance for the other 3 of us.