Travel Insurance

[PHXFlyer]

On several occasions we have heard about situations here where financial loss would have been mitigated had the traveler purchased insurance prior to their trip. I was just randomly surfing around the internet recently and found this travel insurance company which intrigued me. Unlike Access America, whose insurance products are offered by links from airline websites such as US Airways, Delta and Continental, this coverage seems to be more comprehensive, has reasonable "add-ons" for additional protections, provides coverage for trip cancellation due to changes in employment status or simply job-related issues (unable to leave work/must return to work early) and even covers "pre-existing" medical conditions as long as you purchase the coverage within 15 days of buying your tickets.

The company is Travel Guard and they have several different coverage options available. Just to give you an idea I got a quote for travel I recently purchased to go to New York for Thanksgiving. Given the current economic situation I don't know for sure that I'll be able to go, however I saw a decent fare and had some travel credits so I went ahead and ticketed a round-trip. Here's what I found from Travel Guard.

Product
You have selected Gold(Protect Assist)
Your Quote
Base Premium:
$52.00Additional:
Cancel for Any Reason $20.80
Optional Flight Guard $45.00
Total Fees: $7.00
Total: $124.80

The base premium seems to be 10% of the total ticket price rounded up to the next whole dollar. (Mind you, I didn't pay nearly $520 for this ticket. After the travel credit my out-of-pocket expense was less than $200)

The "Cancel for Any Reason" coverage is just that. It doesn't provide for a full "refund" of your ticket, but if for any reason other than those covered by the Base Premium you will get half of your money back. Half is better than none is it not?

"Optional Flight Guard" is additional coverage for injury/loss of life due to, well, a crash. I opted for max coverage (half a million dollars) just to point out how affordable this whole package is.

Again, the "Cancel for Any Reason" and "Optional Flight Guard" coverage is optional. In my case, however, the whole package @$124.80 is less than the cost of one change fee should my plans change at all! Not too bad in my opinion.

[airhead]

I know my Discover Card provides a million dollars of life insurance in the event of my death due to a crash if I purchased the ticket with the card in good standing (all balances paid in full in time within the last 6 months billing periods.) Although this is not advertised in the bold print I found it reading the fine print.

[justme]

Wow! A million bucks! That's an excellent find, thanks for reading the fine print!

[PHXFlyer]

Originally Posted by airhead

I know my Discover Card provides a million dollars of life insurance in the event of my death due to a crash if I purchased the ticket with the card in good standing (all balances paid in full in time within the last 6 months billing periods.) Although this is not advertised in the bold print I found it reading the fine print.

Originally Posted by justme

Wow! A million bucks! That's an excellent find, thanks for reading the fine print!

Sure that coverage is great for your designated beneficiary should you die in a plane crash. What if you come down with Swine Flu and are hospitalized in Fiji for a week? Without the added insurance you'll probably wish you were dead!

[PHXFlyer]

Here's another travel insurance resource insuremytrip.com. On this website one is able to compare policies and coverage from 18 providers. There is also a sub-listing of travel insurers who have a "cancel for any reason" rider available.

Unfortunately by the time this is read it is usually too late but hopefully it will be a useful resource for a subsequent trip or someone wh o is planning a trip and reading this website.

[JR in Orlando]

When I was flying a lot overseas several years ago, Travel Guard offered a yearly policy as well, which covered all the trips during that period. This was cheaper than buying flight insurance on each flight.

[PHXFlyer]

Originally Posted by sunil00719

you may not even realize it but you are 1) either already covered or 2) excessively covered. between your insurance company, the cc you use to book the travel and other supplemental coverages (many airlines offer it themselves for additional auto charge at the time you book) you most likely have more than enough coverage. there is a huge knowledge gap out there which insurers are capitalizing on by selling coverage that you don't need!

The insurance offered when one books online is always through a third party. Here in the US a company called Access America has arrangements with several airlines to sell their policies online at the time of ticket purchase.

I do not want to influence anyone's purchasing decision but in my opinion Access America is a company to be avoided. There are far too many situations listed in their terms and conditions that allow them to deny a claim. For instance pre-existing medical conditions. A friend of mine once tried to file a claim under the policy he purchased from Access America and they denied it because they deemed his injury while traveling a pre-exisitng condition! He only had to pay a bit less than $200 to change his flight to go home early (in order to see his doctor) so after fighting with them for a few weeks over their denial decision he finally just gave up. The $200 wasn't worth the time and effort to fight them.

You make an excellent point about automatic insurance from your own credit card. Amex probably has the best travel insurance coverage of all the major card issuers. It pays to sit down and read those little booklets with the tiny print when you first get your card to familiarize yourself with benefits you otherwise would not know you had.

[PHXFlyer]

I did not realize this "sunil" character was a spammer. This and all other sunil posts have been reported.