Last week I was told by my travel agent that my group tour to Russia has been cancelled due to lack of clients. While I'll be getting a refund of the tour, I still have to pay the penalty to cancel/change my AC flights, re-apply visa, etc.

For a long time, I've been buying additional annual all-inclusive plan for about $150 through Manulife CoverMe because I know my Avion card coverage is pretty weak for trip interruption and it has no trip cancellation benefit. Apparently, this time, it is not covered by Manulife for the change fee either because it is not a "covered risk".

I came across Blue Cross. Their policy looks better because by default they "cover" except "exclusions" while others does "not cover" except "inclusions". However, they are way more expensive than others. about $250 for only 17 days or $450 for 30 days.

Does anybody have any claim experience with them? Or any other insurance provider you would recommend?


I also checked:
RBC Travel Health Protector - no trip cancellation for annual plan. you have to buy for each trip.
AMEX Ultimate Travel Protection - underwritten by RBC, similar coverage to RBC's own.
AMEX Plat - cannot find certificate of insurance, but should be similar to RBC's.
TravelCuts - no annual plan but cheap single trip options.

Thanks.