Travel Insurance for "freebie" trip???

We are planning a trip to the Caribbean next winter. Our out-of-pocket expenses are going to be relatively low, but we are still wondering if trip insurance would be a good idea.

This will be a 2-week vacation at an all-inclusive, but we will be using incentive weeks, with one being free and one at $1500. We will be using AA miles for our flights, at a cost of $220 total. Prior to our flight out, we'll be staying at a park/stay/fly hotel which will be prepaid, probably $150 or less.

So, our upfront expenses will not be huge, but given we are traveling in the winter along the East Coast, we are concerned about possible travel delays and cancellations. We're not sure what would happen regarding our lodgings from the resort's perspective if our arrival were to be delayed a couple of days, but I'm guessing there would be no compensation from an insurance policy for the trip. Is that right? I assume AA would change our flights without charge if delays were caused by weather.

But we are also concerned about illness/injury while on the trip, and the possible need for evacuation. Our current health situations are good, but we're getting older, and well, anything can happen.

Anyway, I went to InsureMyTrip.com to see what I could find. I encountered a problem right away when prompted for a trip cost. Since we're getting some "freebies", I wasn't sure what to enter. I'm guessing a "free" week should be valued at zero, even though is value behind it...if we were to lose the week, it would several thousand dollars to "replace" it. It would be the same for the low cost week. And if we had to get our miles restored, there is a cost to that. But I believe the costs I should include for this purpose are only those actual our-of-pocket costs,I outlined above.

At this point, I guess I'm just wondering if my thinking is right about how to value my trip for the insurance search, and what folks think about purchasing insurance for this trip given our concerns. Any thoughts on this will be appreciated!

I always buy travel insurance when travelling to Hawaii and non-US locations, focusing on the medical evacuation piece. You should try different vacation/trip costs to see if the pricing is different. I normally put in very low costs of trip but high medical evacuation (500k) to keep the pricing low. I don't care for the reimbursement of trip cost.

I never purchase travel insurance. I've never seen the point. IMO, insurance is for losses that you can't reasonably cover out of pocket. If I can afford to take the trip, I can afford to lose that same money.

What I *do* have is a supplemental health insurance policy that provides international medical coverage, including repatriation. The cost is ~$150/yr.

-Steph

tiel said:

But we are also concerned about illness/injury while on the trip, and the possible need for evacuation. Our current health situations are good, but we're getting older, and well, anything can happen.

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I purchased travel insurance for the very first time last summer. I purchased it for 2 reasons. We have older relatives and an incident might cause us to cancel or return home early. 2) in the unlikely event that we would have to be evacuated--that would be a huge expense.

It costs $280 for our family of 4 for six weeks of travel in Europe. As it turned out, our Eurostar train was canceled because of striking MyFerryLink workers. We had to spend an extra night in London. Our trip insurance reimbursed us for hotel, travel to and from the hotel, and food--$400.00.

Next time we travel to Hawaii I won't get travel insurance as we can use our own health insurance and I'll gamble and just eat the cost of an unforeseen event. But I would get it again when traveling to a foreign country where I would have to pay healthcare cost if something should happen.

It depends on the country. It could be like the US. You go to the emergency room and it could be thousands of dollars. A lot of Americans learn that the hard way.

On the other hand, Our friends traveling with us in Italy had to take their 5 year old son to the emergency room. He had a severe reaction to pinenuts. It was serious. This was in Tuscany. He got excellent treatment. Their total bill came to $41.00. That was not a misprint.

Squaremouth.com

https://www.squaremouth.com is a vehicle that lets you compare the cost of travel insurance from a lot of travel insurance companies. And if you book your insurance through them they'll act on your behalf if you encounter any problems with the insurance company. I went through them to purchase insurance.

You might also find this Rick Steves article helpful. https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/trip-planning/travel-insurance

Good luck.

The costs of anything you got for free would not be included in the insured cost. Though you might want to include the costs associated with redepositing the miles to your frequent flyer account should the entire trip need to be cancelled. Check the policy, they may only cover up to $150 per per ticket to redeposit miles even though the airline may charge more. But if you are going to buy insurance, you probably want to have that covered.

We have a similar type of situation with our trip to Europe this fall. We have a paid cruise with two nights in hotel before and 7 nights after. The first two nights are cash but we can cancel right up to day before arrival. I didn't include those in the insured cost. The same for two of the seven nights after. Five of the seven nights after are Marriott Reward Points stay, also not included. We wanted to mainly cover a trip delay in case we miss the cruise, for medical, evac and repatriation.

Thanks to all for your providing your perspectives.

I believe we will purchase a policy, mainly to cover emergency medical and repatriation possibilities. Although we feel the chances for problems are low, the cost should be low, but the payoff great if something does happen. Now we just have to figure what the coverage level makes sense.

SRenaeP said:

I never purchase travel insurance. I've never seen the point. IMO, insurance is for losses that you can't reasonably cover out of pocket. If I can afford to take the trip, I can afford to lose that same money.

What I *do* have is a supplemental health insurance policy that provides international medical coverage, including repatriation. The cost is ~$150/yr.

-Steph

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I am the exact opposite. I ALWAYS take out travel insurance, even for my drive-to timeshares. The company I use will even reimburse our maintenance fees if we have to cancel last minute and that to me is worth it in and of itself. If something were to happen, at least we wouldn't lose our hard earned money.

mpumilia said:

I am the exact opposite. I ALWAYS take out travel insurance, even for my drive-to timeshares. The company I use will even reimburse our maintenance fees if we have to cancel last minute and that to me is worth it in and of itself. If something were to happen, at least we wouldn't lose our hard earned money.

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It really comes down to if you are willing to self insure. Over time you may end up spending more in insurance premiums than if you just ate the MF on a cancelled trip once every 10 years.

dioxide45 said:

It really comes down to if you are willing to self insure. Over time you may end up spending more in insurance premiums than if you just ate the MF on a cancelled trip once every 10 years.

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Yes. Good point. But my problem is I am not that lucky. If I don't purchase it with my luck I will have to cancel. So I keep on buying it. :rofl: