When to buy travel insurance

Lori Park, a Chicago-area resident, and her 80-year-old mother, Nancy Park, were on a cruise to Hawaii when her mother became ill. She spent five days at the ship’s hospital before sailing to Mexico and then back to the United States.

All of that unexpected medical and transportation costs added up to thousands of dollars, but were covered by the $436 travel insurance the two women bought before they set sail.

Lori Park says she never vacations without insurance. “It’s something I think is important every time I travel,” she said.

Need travel insurance?

There are five broad types of travel insurance: flight policies that pay if the plane crashes; baggage insurance to cover damaged, lost or stolen baggage; interruption/cancellation insurance to cover you for non-trips; Medical insurance for doctor visits and hospital stays; and evacuation coverage that pays to transfer you to an appropriate medical facility. You can buy individually or in bundles.

Travel experts say insurance can help people avoid the costs of a disaster like it did for the parks. But it is not necessary for everyone.

“Insurance adds about 13 percent to the cost of a trip,” says Jay Smith, president of Sports Travel & Tours in Hatfield, Massachusetts, which specializes in sports travel. “If a person is traveling domestically or if the airfare is refundable or can be used in the future and the hotel is canceled before travel – even if it is 48 hours in advance – then there is no valid reason to insure.”

If you plan to stay with friends and buy your ticket with refundable frequent flyer points, you don’t need insurance to cover the cost of accommodation and airfare. They only insure you against events that could expose you to significant financial loss (for example, having a serious illness requiring hospitalization or missing a cruise due to a flight delay).

How to buy travel insurance

To find the right policy, consider the type of coverage you need and how much risk you are exposed to, and then shop around for the lowest premium.

Insurance companies set policy costs based on your destination, transportation methods (scheduled airline or charter? rental car or taxi?), accommodations (cruise ship? resort? Airbnb?), activities (swimming with sharks? sky diving?) and local weather ( Hurricane season in the Caribbean?).

Then, they look at age and pre-existing conditions. Insurance will be more expensive for someone in their 80s than in their 70s. People in their 70s have seen quotes of $10,000 for extended overseas cruises, even if fully vaccinated. This is why it is important to shop and compare policies, benefits and costs.

What coverage do you want or need? While Covid is still active, you may want to cover yourself and your partner for the disease. Choose a policy that provides primary medical coverage rather than secondary coverage; The latter requires you to submit claims to your regular health insurer first and then follow up with the travel insurance company for any outstanding balance.

The cost of travel insurance depends on how much medical and evacuation coverage you purchase. Higher dollar limits are better, but more expensive. As the name suggests, you may want to consider “cancellation for any reason” cover, which pays for trips you cancel for any reason – even if you change your mind.

“It’s always a good idea to cover prepaid and non-refundable travel expenses, especially during hurricane season,” says Dan Drennen, director of sales and marketing at the Travel Insurance Center in Omaha, Nebraska. “If you have the right trip-cancellation-interruption coverage purchased before the storm is named, you can rest easy knowing it won’t wipe out your bank account if the storm ruins your trip.”

It doesn’t take a hurricane to show why you should consider travel insurance. Janet Jones Caraker of Island Jack Travel in Dexter, Missouri, said she knows a traveler who took her entire family, her husband, grown children and grandchildren, on a trip to Ireland. They chose not to buy insurance and while they were there, the woman’s husband died.

“There’s no grief like the chase. [pay] $100,000 to have her husband’s body taken and sent home, Karaker said. “There are people who can afford that, but most can’t.”

It’s not just how much you stand to lose if you can’t or don’t make this trip; How much does vacation leave set you back? How much more expensive will transportation, accommodation and activities be in the next year or so? And when does the chance to take that vacation, especially a bucket-list trip that requires coordinating vacations for multiple family members, arise?

How to save money on travel insurance

Just as coverage can vary from one insurer to another, so does the price. To save money on insurance, start by checking your credit card to see if it offers coverage. If you choose to pay for insurance, buy as much as you need – if your luggage is worth $2,500, don’t insure it for $15,000. If you pay for vacations, resorts, or flights with redeemable points, you don’t need insurance at all.

For the most part, Medicare does not provide coverage outside the United States. If you have a private Medicare Advantage or Medicare Supplement policy, see if it offers this type of coverage. If not, you need a travel insurance policy that covers medical expenses abroad. If you travel frequently, consider an annual policy that covers all your trips.

If you are paying for your vacation in class before you travel, will the insurer allow you to pay a reasonable amount for the insurance? If you only put down a 10% deposit, you don’t want to pay the full cost of the insurance.

Determine what the pre-existing condition is. Generally, if you have diabetes for example, this is only considered “pre-existing” if your medication is changed within two weeks or before your departure.

The bottom line is that if you go shopping for travel insurance, you should read the fine print and make plenty of notes to compare what’s offered, what’s not, and what it pays.