[Bobby]

Hola Everyone! Planning for international Travel this summer for a family of 5. Tickets are so expensive. Just airline tickets are coming out to 2k per person as it involves multiple cities. Travel cannot be avoided.

There are some unknowns at this point and if we book right away may have to cancel or change dates. If we wait for some more time ticket prices will go up for sure.

Any thoughts on travel insurance? Insurance costs are coming to 10% of ticket costs if we include cancel for any reason option.

I Have never bought travel insurance and have heard mixed experiences. So please help me decide if travel insurance is worth it by sharing your experience. My hope is recovering cancel/change fees if we have to using travel insurance and hence going with cancel for any reason option.

Any other tips/websites/reliable agencies for travel insurance is much appreciated.

I’m using insuremytrip for checking the costs.

Thanks in Advance as always!

[Sarah]

United doesn’t have change fees anymore for travel from the US. Also I saw them offering a chase cc bonus of 60000 miles which would get you 1 of your tickets free. And you get a free checked bag for everyone in your party. And 2 club passes. And they offer trip insurance, altho I still get world nomads travel insurance.

I’ve only had 1 incident where I used my travel insurance, there was a big storm and I had to spend a night in Houston on my way. They reimbursed for the hotel taxi and Uber, and meals. It worked out great and saved me a lot of $.

[Teresa]

Check out the 10X Travel FB group for lots of discussion on this topic.

[Amy]

My family of 7 traveled most of last summer and we purchased a year long policy through Allianz. We never needed to file a claim so I can’t speak to how that process would be but it worked well for us when we needed to prove health coverage to enter some countries in Asia.

GL!

[David]

Check with your credit card company as well. Some offer travel insurance if purchased with that card.

[Lori]

We typically purchase travel insurance that includes health care when we travel internationally. Your US health care likely would not cover anything out of the US. We get packages that also include airfare and lodging. It’s worth it to us.

[Valeria]

I found that breaking your trip to the last US stop instead of the whole trip gives you a cheaper option.

Example, you want to go to London from the US , check the flight from your location in the U S to the closest US city that will offer a transatlantic flight to London. Example you are in Ohio, check the flight Ohio to NY and then the flights NY to London, compare to checking Ohio to London, there should be one better than the other

Good search

[Heather]

We have an annual health insurance policy that covers us outside the US (we use GeoBlue).

For other travel insurance, instead of getting insurance, we buy flexible fares and refundable accommodations. We get main economy flights so if we have to cancel, we have flight credit (we fly frequently enough to be confident we’ll use the credits). We prefer to fly using miles, because those fares are even more generous in main cabin on most airlines (for refund policies). Hotels, we book refundable rooms even if they cost a little more. Using these strategies, we haven’t lost money the past two years – and we’ve canceled 4 trips that we planned *after* the start of the pandemic.

We do have great credit card coverage and with that, we’re covered for delayed or lost luggage, cancelations for medical reasons, and some other things, but it is NOT the same as cancel for any reason.

[Barbara]

Lots to think about here.

In general, you should think of insurance only as covering true emergency changes, not “we changed our minds on dates” or even “something came up at work and now I can’t go” type reasons. Cancel for any reason insurance is expensive and will not cover the full cost of the trip.

If your dates might change, I would look for hotels that are flexible and allow changes and cancellation. Similarly, airlines these days allow changes without fees – though of course if prices have gone up you’d have to pay the difference in airfare. They also usually allow you to cancel tickets and receive a credit (obviously this is only useful if it’s an airline you would fly again in the future).

Premium credit cards cover trip interruption/cancellation only for covered reasons (illness, death in family, weather that disrupts flights…). They’ll pay you back for non-refundable trip costs. Most require you to pay for the full trip with that card (Chase Sapphire Reserve/Preferred is an exception, you only have to charge a portion). Credit card insurance has no medical coverage for medical emergencies while traveling.

Standalone policies for a single trip are usually affordable, cover the same things credit cards do, plus emergency medical evacuation to a hospital. But NOT actual medical coverage, so if you require treatment that won’t be covered. You can insure exactly the amount you want.

There are also annual plans that cover the same things that a standalone policy does, but apply to all trips you take in a year. Many people love these, but the annual coverage limit is very low. It definitely wouldn’t cover even one of my major trips like a safari/liveaboard dive trip/adventure trip. It could be combined with a credit card policy though.

In any case, I would absolutely purchase an international medical coverage policy if your personal insurance doesn’t cover you internationally. These are completely different from trip insurance.

[Carissa]

Not sure where you’re flying but I highly recommend eightydays.me if travelling in Europe. They will book all of your legs on discount flights. Last summer my husband and I did 5 european cities from NYC for $2500 total

[Heather]

Personally If you think dates will change I would buy the 10% insurance. I would also consider opening a credit card with the best points offer right now. Between the purchase and the points I would think the 10% charge would be covered.

[Wallace]

We had the same delema we’re going to Europe in July. We decided to purchase the travel insurance because air travel in and out of Europe has been touch and go lately. If we missed a flight or had a connection canceled or lost a hotel reservation we would be in a pickle. Prices once your over a barrel will be allot higher. I think for 15 days 2 adults 2 children was $1100. Covered air fair, hotels, transfers, medical, all of our possessions for theft or any other loss.. For us it was worth it for the peace of mind. Once you are in a foreign country having someone at the insurance company to lobby for you in the event that anything goes wrong could be invaluable when you think about the dollars involved.

[Heather]

Not specific to your question, but we are also planning to travel in and around Europe, a total of 8 flights. I searched all flights using the one way setting to find the cheapest options.

I then switched to multicity at the recommendation of uncle Google and it was $600 more.

I may try again for the to Europe and back flight, but will likely purchase one way tickets for in Europe flights.

[Laura]

You shouldn’t spend this kind money without some protection, unless potentially losing $10,000 wouldn’t sting for you.

So many things can happen…an illness, accident by one member of your group preventing travel, airline delays/cancellations. We use Allianz and are right now waiting for an almost $4000 refund for a cruise we had to cancel because my husband had to have immediate back surgery. (We’ve been approved; just waiting for the refund.) We booked this trip last year so who knew then this would happen?

We’ve used Allianz to protect our trips for years now and this is our second claim.

The first was for a travel delay when returning from Scotland. We got stuck in New Jersey overnight so we got reimbursed for our food and hotel expenses there.

[Author]

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