Annual Travel Insurance (non-medical): hit list
May 14, 2019, 6:44 am
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Annual Travel Insurance (non-medical): hit list
Please excuse the post -- I have been spending a few hours looking into travel insurance (flight cancellation / interruption / car rental / baggage). With all the flying I do, including lots of INTL travel (Europe/Asia), I already have GeoBlue annual medical insurance. However, having recently been caught with a canceled flight, I started looking into additional insurance products. I hope this helps someone and/or sparks some discussion.
Note: Limits on flight cancelation / interruption benefits are largely PER YEAR on the annual policies I looked at -- depending on your costs of flights and risk profile, higher limits may be warranted.
Here's a quick-hit list of what I've examined. Note, I'm only interested in annual policy coverage products, not per-trip insurance like what is typically hawked when you purchase individual trips, and I am not interested in replacing my GeoBlue coverage, so medical coverage wasn't a thought for me.
In no particular order:
- Generalli. Decent ratings across the board. US-based insurer. Does not offer annual plans, but APRIL (mentioned below) re-sells Generalli coverage as an annual plan.
- Nationwide. Does offer an annual plan, but low cancellation / interruption coverage $1,500. Includes car rental damage coverage, $25,000. Claims via postal mail, scanned receipts via email, or fax. No app.
- AIG TravelGuard. Offers a single, low-limit annual plan. Low $1500 cancellation / interruption, $1000 bag lost, $150 bag delay. No coverage for stolen effects from a hotel room. Quoted $267.
- APRIL. Offers a base $135 annual plan (with unique coverage for missed connection and 'trip inconvenience' [i.e., there is no snow at the ski resort]), with optional add-ons for increased coverage. For me, +$193 to increase to $3,000 in cancelation / interruption, +$29 for increased $500 bag delay and $1,500 bag lost / stolen (includes personal items stolen while on a covered trip), +$99 for 'vehicle breakdown', but covers replacement car rental cost, not the fixes to the broken car, +$79 for $25,000 rental car coverage. Priced out as above, I get $535/yr. Seemingly underwritten by Generalli.
- AmEx Travel Insurance. Does not offer an annual plan. Coverage does look pretty good, however. I wish they had an annual plan, as an AmEx cardholder.
- Travelex. Looking at their website and using their quote tools, their annual insurance primarily covers medical, not flight cancel / interruption.
- Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection. I like their 'fast pay' testimonials and auto-pay for cancelled flights. Looks like easy claims process. However, no annual policies.
- Allianz. Three main annual policies. Low-end policy mainly covers medical, whereas high-end 'All Trips Executive' covers $5k in cancelation / interruption, car rental $45,000, and business equipment coverage (including theft from hotel room) of $1,000 -- also includes loyalty program redeposit fees for a covered trip. Has an app to initiate claims.
*** I'm really curious if folks have any experiences (with non-medical claims) or any recommendations. Thanks everyone, I hope this saves some people time in the future.
Thanks, FTers.
--Neil
Note: Limits on flight cancelation / interruption benefits are largely PER YEAR on the annual policies I looked at -- depending on your costs of flights and risk profile, higher limits may be warranted.
Here's a quick-hit list of what I've examined. Note, I'm only interested in annual policy coverage products, not per-trip insurance like what is typically hawked when you purchase individual trips, and I am not interested in replacing my GeoBlue coverage, so medical coverage wasn't a thought for me.
In no particular order:
- Generalli. Decent ratings across the board. US-based insurer. Does not offer annual plans, but APRIL (mentioned below) re-sells Generalli coverage as an annual plan.
- Nationwide. Does offer an annual plan, but low cancellation / interruption coverage $1,500. Includes car rental damage coverage, $25,000. Claims via postal mail, scanned receipts via email, or fax. No app.
- AIG TravelGuard. Offers a single, low-limit annual plan. Low $1500 cancellation / interruption, $1000 bag lost, $150 bag delay. No coverage for stolen effects from a hotel room. Quoted $267.
- APRIL. Offers a base $135 annual plan (with unique coverage for missed connection and 'trip inconvenience' [i.e., there is no snow at the ski resort]), with optional add-ons for increased coverage. For me, +$193 to increase to $3,000 in cancelation / interruption, +$29 for increased $500 bag delay and $1,500 bag lost / stolen (includes personal items stolen while on a covered trip), +$99 for 'vehicle breakdown', but covers replacement car rental cost, not the fixes to the broken car, +$79 for $25,000 rental car coverage. Priced out as above, I get $535/yr. Seemingly underwritten by Generalli.
- AmEx Travel Insurance. Does not offer an annual plan. Coverage does look pretty good, however. I wish they had an annual plan, as an AmEx cardholder.
- Travelex. Looking at their website and using their quote tools, their annual insurance primarily covers medical, not flight cancel / interruption.
- Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection. I like their 'fast pay' testimonials and auto-pay for cancelled flights. Looks like easy claims process. However, no annual policies.
- Allianz. Three main annual policies. Low-end policy mainly covers medical, whereas high-end 'All Trips Executive' covers $5k in cancelation / interruption, car rental $45,000, and business equipment coverage (including theft from hotel room) of $1,000 -- also includes loyalty program redeposit fees for a covered trip. Has an app to initiate claims.
*** I'm really curious if folks have any experiences (with non-medical claims) or any recommendations. Thanks everyone, I hope this saves some people time in the future.
Thanks, FTers.
--Neil
