Travel insurance?

[phylny]

What's your experience(s) with buying travel insurance? We're taking a trip to Italy which will cost in total about $13,000 and the cost of travel insurance is about $1,200. The trip is at the end of September.

Thanks

[CurtEastPoint]

1. Make SURE you check the max they will pay and the exclusions. That sounds kinda high to me.

There usually is 'cancel for ANY reason' (more $$) vs. 'cancel for these reasons: business, ill, etc.'
Also check to see if car is covered.

[phylny]

4. Thanks, I'm looking through it now. We won't have a car.

I'm mostly concerned because my father is 91. I mean, he's in good health, but he's 91.

I'm reading through it now. Thank you!

[IphengeniaBlumgarten]

8. If you had a medical emergency ...

the cost of medical transport back to the US might be huge. Sure you could get local treatment... but the medical transport for a serious condition is the scary part.

[phylny]

10. Good point/advice - thank you!

[gopiscrap]

2. How long will you be gone.

I would check several different agencies. Also if you have AAA talk to them. My wife and I just spent 17 days in Africa and Europe total cost about 15K and we spent 336 dollars per person on travel insurance. I started the coverage the day we left the US and terminated the day we entered back in the US. It covered lost flight, hotel, repatriation and medical and death. Have a great time!

[phylny]

5. Thanks. We don't have AAA but I never thought to research other options

and I will now. I appreciate your response.

[gopiscrap]

16. You're welcome. Have a great time.

I loved Italy. I was born in Germany and have spent a total of about 4 months in Italy!!!

[AirmensMom]

3. Absolutely buy it!

We went on a cruise/Disney vacation 25 years ago. The day we were leaving, there was a snow storm, the flight was delayed, and we missed our connecting flight. They got us on a new flight, but we didn't have time to rent our car to drive to the ship... not to mention we were sweating bullets the entire time, instead of being excited about our vacation. We had to hire a taxi ($$$), which got us there JUST in time. (Cruise ships wait for no one!) But if we had missed the ship, the insurance would have paid for us to take a helicopter to the first port of call.

Since we didn't have our car, we then had to take a bus to Disney, which wasted our entire first day at Disney. Our travel agent got us an extra day there and it was all paid for, including the bus fare and hotel room, return flight change, etc.

You never know what will go wrong. For something that costs $13,000, I would consider it well worthwhile to buy the insurance.

[phylny]

6. Thanks for your response. I feel your pain!

[AirmensMom]

7. And I'm insanely jealous!

We were in Italy a few years ago. I would love to go back. Enjoy your trip!

[phylny]

9. I'm tracing my ancesters' roots, to an extent.

Naples, Pompeii, Sorrento, Amalfi Coast, Rome. I'm just missing Reggio Calabria and Sicily - maybe next time

[AirmensMom]

11. Fun!

We only had a few days and were visiting friends in Tuscany. They put us up in an old monastery, which was cooler than cool. The caretaker had no idea what to prepare for breakfast, so he shopped for absolutely every possibility every day. And he made the best cappuccino we have ever had. He also gave us a private tour of the monastery, even to the places that were off-limits due to war damage. For some reason (our friend didn't speak very good Italian and the caretaker didn't speak very good English), we were the only ones staying at the monastery, while the other friends stayed somewhere else. Needless to say, we got first-class treatment.

On the way back to Frankfurt, where our main vacation was, we had a long train layover in Florence, so we enjoyed a beautiful day there and experienced one of those pop-up parades. I even ate fresh pasta. OMG, yum! We would both love to go back there.

Sounds like you will have a full trip. Save something for next time.

[elleng]

12. WOW! Have a great time!

I'm just now rerunning (in my mind) our honeymoon 35 years ago; 'today' we were on the last leg of our trip, in the lake region.

We DID Sicily, Easter in Siracusa!

Never took out travel insurance, neither did my folks, and they were well taken care of in Britain, where one of them became ill once, but things resolved well.

Bon voyage!

[ProudMNDemocrat]

13. We bought Travel Insurance for our Australia trip......

We took a 3 week cruise from Seattle to Sydney in October of 2018 that we booked 5 months earlier. It was a good thing we did.

We did not have to cancel due to a family or medical emergency. It was not money wasted. The insurance depends on the total value of the travel itself.

If you should have to cancel, the insurance is worth it.

[sinkingfeeling]

14. Must have. I was forced to cancel a 3 week trip to Alaska with

cruise, costing about $12K due to BIL's illness and death. Got back all but $500. We cancelled less than 3 weeks from departure.

[phylny]

15. Thanks to all who responded.

It looks like we have fairly good coverage through our credit card, which I used to purchase airline tickets and the tour. I'm reviewing it now.

DU is great - not just for politics!

[LNM]

17. That's what I was going to suggest.

We got a Costco CC which when we used to pay for flight/car/lodging covered repayment of those purchases in a medical emergency. I then bought emergency medical insurance for a 3 week trip for ~$100 from Allianz Global Assistance.

Good Luck and have a good, safe trip.