Do you buy the insurance add-on from the DL web site?
 

Do you guys buy the (Allianz) add-on insurance from the DL web site upon booking? ...especially when traveling international?

Never

You started a vaguely similar thread last April :)

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delt...ng-online.html

Here's another one from further back:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delt...rip-delta.html

new since April is that most(?) of the high annual fee AMEX cards now have some form of trip insurance/cancellation protection:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...ect-cards.html

although it is not as good as the CSR coverages.

Bottom line, you have to look at what if anything your personal health plan covers when traveling and what features your credit card provides, what the exclusions are, and then decide if you want to pay for extra coverage, which sometimes might not be any simpler (e.g. the Allianz plans I've looked at recently provide primary coverage for medical costs but you still have to pay yourself and then get reimbursed afterward, which is the same process as through my employer health plan, so it doesn't really help much in the end) and then decide what your personal risk tolerance is, etc.

This also isn't really DL related other than they resell stuff through their web site but you could just as well get a quote directly from Allianz or some other agency.

only on expensive international trips

I guess what I wanted to ask is which insurance option do most DL international flyers to Asia use? The one from the DL booking web site or from another web site? (I heard American Express offers a customizable travel insurance, although AIG and Allianz still seem to be pretty high-rated. I just upgraded from the DL Gold to the DL Platinum CC).

One thing I actually found out was that it is cheaper to tick the box for that Allianz insurance while completing your booking, as opposed to buying it from the DL web site after the booking was made.

I made a trip last December, and booked the ticket to anchor the price, even though I was not sure I would go ahead with the trip. In the end, my trip pushed through and ended up buying that insurance from the DL web site at the last minute. I think it cost me around $380+.

I just made another DL booking just now. The price of the Allianz insurance prior to checking out at DL was around $275+. After the itinerary was confirmed minutes later, the same insurance is now about $380+ on the My Trips page.

(That other thread I started months ago was asking whether the CC itself provided coverage, or an actual/ separate plan needed to be bought for coverage. The DL Gold apparently did not provide the 'coverage,' but only 'assistance.')

I think if you buy from DL you are paying to insure the full cost of the airfare whether you actually need it or not. By which I mean, if for example you book with a credit card that has trip cancellation benefits, then tacking on the DL insurance is essentially paying again for a benefit you already had. For people to whom this applies, it would be worth going to an individual provider -- I will mention again Allianz because it's the one I'm most familiar with -- at Allianz you can generate a trip insurance quote putting in a total trip cost of $0. This will give you a quote with no trip cancellation/interruption benefits, only medical payments and evacuation coverage. This can be quite cheap, and was what I was doing for some international trips until recently, since I was usually booking airfare with a CSR for the 3x points and the CSR has good cancellation/interruption coverage already.

You can also go halfway, for example if you have a total vacation outlay of $2k in expenses you could put in $1k for the trip cost (or any other amount between 0 and $2k for that matter) and if you have a loss that's the limit of what will be covered, but the premium will be lower (maybe not enough to make it worth it, or maybe it will be)

Recently however with also having an AMEX Plat which has an amazing medical evacuation benefit, and the determination that my employer's health plan covers me internationally just as well as the Allianz medical stuff for the places I've been to, I've just not been purchasing insurance at all. (I've luckily never had to make a claim, but mom has had a few minor $100-$200 expenses and gotten reimbursed from Allianz with very little hassle, FWIW)

In the end though I'll reiterate that there's no one-size-fits-all here and it will depend on what CCs/policies you already hold and/or are considering, what losses you can afford to self-insure, and your personal equation for risk vs. peace of mind.

I don't buy from the Delta site. But since retiring and upping my annual travel, I've been buying an annual policy from Allianz. And I charge most all travel to my Chase Saph Reserve.
The Allianz policy covers lots of things, the most important to me is medical evac coverage. I can handle the penalty on a trip cancellation (I've only cancelled 2 trips in my life, one medical and Delta waived the fee and the other for work and my boss covered the fee).
Because I do 10 to 12 trips a year, the annual policy is the best deal I've found.
And I use the Chase Saph Res card especially for car rental because it is primary (and the one time filed a claim, it was processed quickly with no hassle once the rental company provided me with the documentation required.

Agree this has nothing to do with DL. Same coverage through same company is offered by multiple other airlines.

None. Biz trips covered by company insurance, personal rely on insurance from CSR or now AMEX Plat

Single trip travel insurance is way too expensive. I always buy multi trip annual insurance.

Same. We have an annual travel insurance that covers the whole household. No other travel insurance needed.

I would never waste the money on these shady insurances. In 12 years of road [warrioring] (and dozens of personal trips) I've never had the need for it. Even in IROPS, airlines have always been able to find a way (even if a day or so later) to get me where I'm going.

I would recommend to anyone that wants that piece of mind to get a credit card that includes trip insurance. I have a CC (CSR) that provides trip and (primary) rental car insurance.

Correct me if I’m wrong here: The downside to the Allianz annual plan is that trip cancellation or interruption has a max annual limit, whereas per-trip plans cover each trip entirely.

So of you have to cancel a trip and use up your credit for the year, you are SOL for future cancellations, with an annual plan. Not great if you are taking expensive international trips, which are the only trips I insure.

Granted, cancellations may be rare, but that is why we are insuring in the first place...

Never buy travel protection from your transportation provider. Generally what carriers sell are trip protection not trip insurance. You should generally buy your insurance from a third party provider as the trip protection sold by travel providers is usually very heavily weighted in their favor.

Delta offers Allianz, a well rated / reviewed insurance company.