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Should I buy Travel Insurance for $199

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Just wondering people's experiences. Most insurances are written so they vary rarely have to pay. Is it worth it?
 

PsuFrh

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We buy it when using our Timeshare properties. Flights get delayed or, in our case, cancelled. This results in time lost and rebooking, food or even a hotel room until you can get another flight. Baggage gets lost. We have filed claims and been fully reimbursed including the lost day at the resort and the car rental that we didn't get to use. You need to keep excellent documentation to show your losses, but the possibility of things going wrong is worth the effort. As with all insurance, most of the time you won't need it, but when you do, $199 isn't too much to pay, in my opinion, and it covers other people in your group even if they are arriving separately.
 

Passepartout

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Just wondering people's experiences. Most insurances are written so they vary rarely have to pay. Is it worth it?
It depends on what you are insuring. If it's a policy through a TS company ton reimburse you for points/weeks and a small stipend for delayed luggage, it's probably not worth it. But if you are on Medicare, and it provides primary medical care worldwide (Medicare is only inside USA), evacuation and repatriation, a travel concierge for arranging flights when yours are cancelled, and coverage if Covid causes you to have to quarantine in Timbuktu, $199 might be a bargain.

Get it's coverages and plug them into a comparison site tike can be found at www.squaremouth.com
 

dougp26364

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I don’t typically buy the insurance. I find it’s more expensive then the benefits offered and, the benefits are often duplicated by the CC we use.

There are exceptions. For instance I buy trip/travel insurance anytime we are out of country and for cruises.

Always read the fine print of any insurance policy. My hard lesson was a policy that paid in the event of a delay caused by a strike. We were in a cruise ship that couldn’t dock secondary to a fisherman’s strike in Spain. As a result, we missed our flight home, had to spend the night in a hotel in Barcelona, had meal expenses and taxi fares. The hotel, meals and taxi were covered. The cost of rebooking the flight….. not so much. Turns out only specific strikes were covered such as public transportation strikes. We were out $1,800 because I assumed instead of read through the different contracts offered. Others who were on the same cruise had their flight expenses covered.

Typically flight delay expenses within the continental US are covered. The two times I’ve had missed connections, the airline or my CC covered the hotel. In my lifetime I’ve had my baggage delayed a few times, but never the required amount of time that I could get reimbursed for incidental expenses. Each time the airline delivered our bags within 23 hours, including one overseas trip.
 

CalGalTraveler

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We rely on credit cards for most flight delay and lost baggage coverage insurance. Always buy medical and repatriation for International but never buy insurance for domestic because we are covered by med insurance.

I try to book refundable or flight credit fares and hotels with cancellation up to time of arrival. Been taking advantage of the covid cancellation waivers at timeshares or cancel by the 31 day (or whatever cancellation date the TS specifies).

If you have health concerns suggest that you buy the $69 or so cancellation policy offered by some of the TS majors so you can cancel up to time of arrival and get your points back. This is your best insurance, easier to get your refund because you don't need to file and fight an insurance claim plus $130 cheaper.
 

pedro47

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Please read the fine print; especially the reasons for cancelation of your vacation trip. Please read what is cover and not covered. Will the policy pay for any cancelation reason? IMHO, that is very important in a travel insurance policy.
 

Dean

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Philosophically we don't routinely buy travel insurance. In most cases it's just not a good buy. We do buy it for our MVC simply because of the economy of scale. It's one price for lots of trips and multiple people. Other considerations are where one's risk is inherently increased, like a health issue or for a large trip that would truly hurt the wallet. Like Title insurance on timeshares I feel many buy it more out of emotion and assumptions than it'd being financially reasonable. The numbers are about the same as extended warranties with about 15¢ per dollar returned and the rest going to profit and commissions.
 

bobpark56

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We find an annual medical + repatriation policy to be best for us. We use GeoBlue Trekker for that.
 

DRH90277

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We buy the $199 travel insurance every year. We own a number of Marriott timeshares (over 10) and it covers all of them as well as our Vacation Club Point (VCP) reservations (a low cost per reservation). I think we have to be on the trip for the insurance to apply - read the policy.

Week ownership reservations - We have had a few claims over the years usually for reservation cancellations due to illness. The claims have usually been to recover our maintenance fees at 100%. We have usually been able to cancel hotel reservations and airline tickets for either a refund or a credit toward future use, so no insurance recovery. I think claims coverage would be limited to your out of pocket after other insurance coverage. I suspect trip delay, trip interruption, missed connection, baggage delay or loss, car rental collision, accidental death and dismemberment, emergency evacuation and repatriation, might be infrequent uses. I like the accident and sickness medical expense limit of $25,000 as I think it covers 7 guests (especially useful for active grandchildren).

Vacation Club Point reservations - Because you can cancel up to the travel date, I doubt that the trip cancellation due to illness is of much use as you would get the points back (so no maintenance fee claim).

Another thought - We buy the insurance every year in about May for the next calendar year. Remember, the coverage addresses the year of the reservation, not it's use year. So, continuous every year coverage ensures coverage for carryover weeks, points, etc.

Hope this helps.

PS - The travel insurance might be useful for cruises acquired through use of Vacation Club Points.
 
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bizaro86

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I'd be cautious with the MVC insurance. They had a loophole where they never paid out even when resorts were closed because of hurricanes.
 

DRH90277

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I'd be cautious with the MVC insurance. They had a loophole where they never paid out even when resorts were closed because of hurricanes.

An act of God is an accident or event resulting from natural causes without human intervention, and one that could not have been prevented by reasonable foresight or care. For example, insurance companies often consider a flood, earthquake or storm to be an Act of God. Fire can also be an Act of God if it starts from lightning strikes.

There is no free lunch. Most of us would probably not want the insurer to price the "standard travel insurance policy" to cover Acts of God? I suspect one could find a policy with coverage for special risks such as a hurricane, earthquake, flood, etc. at a higher price.
 

bizaro86

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An act of God is an accident or event resulting from natural causes without human intervention, and one that could not have been prevented by reasonable foresight or care. For example, insurance companies often consider a flood, earthquake or storm to be an Act of God. Fire can also be an Act of God if it starts from lightning strikes.

There is no free lunch. Most of us would probably not want the insurer to price the "standard travel insurance policy" to cover Acts of God? I suspect one could find a policy with coverage for special risks such as a hurricane, earthquake, flood, etc. at a higher price.

The policies specifically included hurricanes, but because they occurred prior to trips the insurer didn't pay out. Most reasonable people would think insurance to cover a trip cancelled by hurricane would include a trip where a hurricane closed the resort.

Anyway, MVC (and their chosen insurer) has consistently been the least owner friendly of all the big TS companies when it comes to natural disasters.
 

ahdah

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If you are looking for insurance to cover illness not storms or COVID, then I suggest you buy MVC insurance. The policy covers your Marriott villas. I take the insurance and have had to use it because of illness and it was not a problem collecting. We drive, so all it covered was our annual maintenance fees but we did not loose our money.
 

bobpark56

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Just wondering people's experiences. Most insurances are written so they vary rarely have to pay. Is it worth it?
You forgot to tell us what kind of travel insurance you are talking about.
 
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