Travel Insurance for Luxury Travelers
 

Last year whilst my wife was pregnant we took out travel insurance, however normally we don't bother.

I also decline the reductions in car excess when renting cars. I haven't ever been involved in a collision or accident and have been driving for 18 years. When I first do something that causes damage my behaviour might change, but until then I'm relaxed.

I've never paid for additional travel insurance and just rely on what AMEX and HSBC Premier offer. The only time I've made a claim was whilst staying in The Armani Hotel in Dubai and my ex needed a doctor, which turned into quite an expensive visit that cost more than the holiday itself. HSBC paid it all back within a week.

I get year-round worldwide travel insurance as part of my bank's services. A few years ago my wife broke her wrist in Fiji on the last day of a cruise from Tahiti so the ship's doctor fixed her up temporarily with a splint. Air NZ would not change our flights and our LA hotel would not give us a refund for a cancelled stopover. So I had to buy from Fiji Business Class flights straight through to London - about £6000 from memory - and the insurance paid everything - flights, medical assistance, the LA hotel expenses - without the slightest quibble. Got the cheque in a week.

As I do a lot of cruising - just back from Antarctica - most cruise companies ask you to prove you have insurance. Otherwise you can't go.

I'm not sure what kind of figures we're talking about here but for a trip less than $10k per person, Amex Platinum should be all you need. I've claimed from them twice and both times were hassle free. One was baggage delay, the other was trip cancellation - Orient Express Train + 4S hotel booking. Everything was refunded including prepaid activity bookings.

I've generally avoided buying travel insurance but have thought about it multiple times... Even mores for my parents, who are in their mid 70s.. Right now I've relied on a the benefit provided by my credits cards, Chase Sapphire Reserve or Citi Prestige... It's not full blown insurance but I believe it checks enough boxes for my taste. One thing it doesn't do super well is if there are any irregular operations necessitating purchasing additional airfare or travel arrangements... but other than that it's got basic trip cancellation/interruption (up to 10K), medical evacuation ((up to 100K), emergency dental/medical and etc.... I do believe that Amex Plat Charge card offers unlimited coverage on the medical evacuation so I've considered getting one of those for my parents.. so, sure it's not comprehensive insurance but it's something....

FDW

Often it should be cheaper to book flexible rates as possible. So far I even didn´t take an insurance for non-cancelable travels and take the risk. If it´s only a hotel I always hope at least someone of my family can use it. Flighs which are pricy if long haul are always a problem. Also sometimes many things are excluded, for excample known health problems. If I Count how many bugs I saved I guess on journey would be free;). Also my Platinum Card has some kind of insurance.

In general I think as older you are as more important is a travel insurance.

P.S. Checked my Platinum Card. Yes, there is a insurance if I have to cancel but only up to 6.000,00 € per Person. Enough for flights buttight for a whole trip.

Only travel insurance I usually go for is medical if somewhere where costs could end up being significant (say an evacuation to a modern hospital). There are a lot of tropical destinations where anything serious, you would need a medivac to get proper care and those are not cheap!

Totally agree. Potential medical costs should be the main concern, particularly if your credit card covers basic travel contingencies. I have great "domestic" medical insurance but always buy travel insurance when going overseas for the medical coverage.

I always purchase travel insurance for my trips, primarily for the medical component as many countries require proof of ability to pay before treatment, and of course US health insurance is not accepted. There are two important pieces to the medical coverage. One, you want to make sure you purchase the policy within 14 days or your initial trip deposit so that you can get the pre-existing condition waiver. This rule varies among companies, for some it is 21 days, but 14 days is a good rule of thumb. Two, make sure the medical coverage is first payer, meaning that your travel insurance policy will pay for your treatment first, and then go after any other coverage that you may have for reimbursement later.

I also purchase a separate annual medivac plan.

MikeFromTokyo is spot on that insurance is about figuring our your personal tolerance for risk. Some people may prefer to self-insure, meaning it would not impact their lives in any significant way to shell out $100,000 for a medivac, or lose $80,000 on nonrefundable trip components.

That being said, a lot of the potential reasons for claims are not things that most people think could really happen to them - volcanoes, airport power outages, hurricanes in New York, getting hit by a car, tripping and breaking your arm, supplier bankruptcy, etc. Many people will say, well it's summer so so our flights should be on time, and grandma is healthy, so I don't need insurance.

I have a low risk tolerance, in part due to being a TA and seeing all of the things that can and do go wrong. Plus, my family's business is insurance, although not travel related.

I look forward to reading more thoughts about this. I'd love to hear from Americans who have found affordable annual travel insurance policies. I understand that Europeans almost automatically get policies thru their bank that are not available to us living in the US. I've researched travel insurance several times and find it tied to individual trips and quite expensive. We travel frequently and I'd love to find an annual policy.

For several years we have paid for MedJet evacuation insurance. This is an annual policy that I tend to buy for three years at a time. It gives me some comfort to know that we can be brought back home should we need extended care. And I continue to rely on Chase Sapphire insurance that comes with charging the travel components to it. How well that will work with parts of trips paid with points interlaced with paid travel I have no idea. We have never had to absorb more than a few hundred dollars from trip disruption but I do feel as this is an area where I have a little gray cloud over my head.

Points btw..... Mostly reservations on Points are cancelable at short notice. If not I guess no insurance will help you

any insurance refund nights if one arrives late ?

my risk tolerance includes risk of expensive insurance not paying out, especially when its a standardized offering with lengthy fine print and exclusions.

I have never purchased travel insurance and I have had an unexpected health emergency that was not a pre-existing condition. That trip was mostly charged on my Amex plat and I didn't remember that coverage so approached all the suppliers directly. Most made an exception although some required a doctor's letter and the non-refundable portions totaled about $600 or so, mainly because one lodging supplier refused any refund (Landmark Trust, a British charity).

That was way cheaper than had I been buying travel insurance all along. I hear that the commission on many of those policies can routinely go as high as 35%, which tells me all I need to know.

I have however noticed that luxury and high-end city hotels have been hiking up their cancellation times to as much as 72 hours in the last year, which is frustrating.

So I'm a strong NO on this insurance, but then I am willing to make the effort required to ask these companies to waive their restrictions if something bad happens and have so far mostly succeeded with that.

Very interesting and important topic. Here's my thinking:

David, many of the standardized medigap insurance plans (including F, the most common type) automatically include coverage when outside the USA. So most people with Medicare may already have what they need.

And you don't need the credit card auto collision coverage to be primary outside the USA as virtually no US auto policy covers outside the country. You also don't need it if you don't have collision coverage, which is often done with older non-collectible cars.

My Citi card provides $5000/traveler, but now that I book premium airfare, that no longer covers my whole trip, so I'm sort of in the same situation.

The only time I booked trip insurance was back in 2014 when I had a trip planned around the time of my cancer diagnosis. I was able to qualify for a pre-existing waiver and my travel was after my expected recovery, but of course if things didn't go according to plan I didn't want to miss out. (3.5 years cancer free now, went on the trip, had a great time).

No travel insurance for sure
 

Insurance companies make big money selling "travel insurances" which will need a lawyer to get some money considering all the exclusions.

I think a comprehensive worldwide health /accident insurance is the only thing you need if:

• you book only flights which are changeable / refundable,
• choose hotels / resorts according to their cancellation policies and are willing to bear that risk,
• have a credit card covering you for car hire damage excess fees and
• are a reasonably experienced traveler who is multilingual and able to sort out things yourself.

Hence for sure no travel insurance for me, but wise risk management. I not like the idea that everything can be "insured".

Evacuation - we have a DAN (yes, scuba diving) family membership

Cancellation
Big Expensive Trips - we buy a travelex policy
Little Trips - we have adequate coverage with our UA Mileage Plus credit card

Note, many of our trips use airline miles which can be redeposited without penalty.

To be clear, so that anyone on Medicare that may read this has the facts from Medicare.gov:

To reiterate my earlier point, having coverage is only part of the equation. You also have to have the ability to pay upfront first (and float that balance until you receive your benefits). Furthermore, a $50,000 lifetime maximum isn't much coverage and paying 80% isn't great either.

It's a good idea to look at all of the coverage that you have available to compare with any potential travel-specific plans of interest, and weigh that against your risk tolerance.

There are a couple of general factors you leave out that matter.

1. What do you mean by 'travel insurance'? Generally speaking, what people refer to as travel insurance falls into 2 categories. Medical insurance and trip insurance. Some people are talking about both when they use the term 'travel insurance' but many are talking about only one or the other. Medical insurance should be a must for anyone who understands that even you can get hit by a bus and that can result in huge medical bills. Trip insurance can be ignored IF you are willing to risk the potential costs you won't have covered. A hotel cancellation, a flight cancellation, a lost bag, etc.

2. Attitudes to insurance differ by nationality in many cases. In a country where you are used to having to pay for things out of your own pocket, you find more people willing to go without insurance. In a country where medical coverage is universally provided, few people would be happy with the idea of having to pay out of their own pocket if something happened to them.

3. Self-insuring (whether you think of it that way or not) and your ability to do so is the only other option. If you don't buy insurance then that is what you are doing, again, whether you think of it that way or not. Generally speaking, you should be able to come up with a number as a percentage of your income that you are willing to lose. Anything that will cost you more than that, you should be insuring for. So for example if you had to lose the cost of all flights and hotels and that came to 1% of your annual income, you might feel comfortable enough self-insuring. If it totaled 10% of your annual income however, you might not. Then you should insure.

This point of calculating what you are happy with self-insuring, never applies to medical coverage however as you cannot calculate how much that might be. Hotel, flights, a lost camera, etc. are all costs you can know beforehand. Medical is not. You can also find plenty of horror stories online of people who even bought some kind of travel insurance and thought they were covered for something, only to find out they were not. So reading and understanding your whole policy is a must.

One simple example of what may or may not be covered is when a woman travels while pregnant. If she has a premature birth, she may find for example that her hospital costs for the birth are covered but the costs of any care given to the baby are not! The baby is not insured and what's more you can't buy insurance for the baby before it is born. Lesson, don't travel when pregnant.
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medjet (and IIRC DAN) etc is from hospital rather than point of injury.

i have not explored medical, but cant imagine i would be happy with standardized mass market plan. 'real' insurance can be expensive and still have exclusions. many choose to not have 'real' insurance for many things.

would be interesting to have great coverage and access to medical / security on ground, likely expensive.

luxury can be expensive - (tens of) thousands per night. insurance refunding late arrivals would be interesting.

presumably some here stick with biggest chains in hopes that they may be more likely to negotiate.

As someone who takes photography tours that involve hiking and being in somewhat remote environments, I've found that the coverage from the Austrian Alpine Club (UK) is very reasonably priced and cover a lot of the medical treatment and evacuation that I might need.

For the membership fee one gets up to 25,000 Euro of rescue costs, repatriation cost with no limit, medical treatment up to 10,000 Euro as well as third party liability up to 3M Euro. All of that for the 52 Pounds (or 40 for Seniors) for a year makes a lot of sense. https://aacuk.org.uk/p-mountain-rescue-search-insurance

ALLIANZ has yearly travel insurance policies. Ours was $350 per year.

Short Answer: Hard Pass

Longer Answer: like many others (e.g. MikeFromTokyo), we tend to travel so last minute that the necessity for it asymptotically approaches zero.

The term "travel insurance" means many things. If you really can't sustain the risk that your bag might arrive a day late or that you might need to pay for a meal here and there, then you need a comprehensive policy which covers everything which could go wrong on a trip. Those tend not to be worth the money.

But, you should think about health care costs and medical evacuation. Some countries will not admit you without proof of coverage and in others, the standard may be that you pay cash and then submit to insurance on your return. Medical evacuation by air ambulance from Europe to the US can easily cost $120K. And, what about a companion who needs to stay and help out or someone who can't fly for a month but just needs a hotel?

The problem with many of the posts here is that they are generic and do not address any specific issue.