Trip insurance

[GG53]

We will be traveling in Late April to St. John. The will be 7 of us including 2 kids, all in relatively good health. Do you feel trip insurance is a good idea or an unneeded expense at that time of year?

[Hawaii]

I just purchased trip insurance thur Travel Guard about 1 hour ago for our family of four. For me it is peace of mind knowing if something happens you are covered. We are going in July but my main factor is if someone gets sick (such as my parents) or even us or one of the kids. I have planned a long time for our trip so the 194.00 spent is just reassurance. This is something you have to decide for yourself and what you feel comfortable doing. Either way, have a wonderful trip. I can not wait until July

[HaveToTravel]

I think it's always needed when you're dealing with nonrefundable trip costs and deposits that outweigh the cost of the insurance itself. You just never know when you'll need it for something unexpected. I purchase it for all our trips, and have had to use it once. I was so glad to get reimbursed for costs we would have been out otherwise--it was a great decision for us to have it and we're in good health too.

[Great Expectations]

We own a rental villa and recommend to our guests purchasing trip insurance from CSA which covers the cost of pre-paying a private rental villa. We do that even though our cancellation policy is that we refund all monies at any time for any reason without penalty once we re-rent the dates since the more notice we receive of a cancellation, obviously, the easier it is for us to re-rent the dates so we urge our guests to get trip insurance to protect them financially against any last minute emergency such as medical or weather. We had one guest who had a medical emergency and rather than go to the hospital on St. Thomas he was advised by his doctor at home and one on St. John to charter a private jet (it was not even an air ambulance) to get him and his family back to Philadelphia where an ambulance met them on the tarmac along with a bill for the charter jet for $25,000. If you purchase CSA trip insurance through the hyperlink in the top left corner of the VIOnline Webpage, an added bonus is that you will be supporting this invaluable forum and its terrific source for advice.

[hoosierdaddy]

Just to give an opposite position, we never have bought trip insurance. This may sound counterituative but I think the more you travel the less important insurance is. We travel twice per year. One with kids and one without. My thought process is if we would have paid for trip insurance for each trip it would have cost more than if we had an issue and had to cancel, which we have not. So I look at it as a waist of money to pay for something that I more than likely will not need and if I did need it I would have paid more for it over the years than I would have recovered if I needed to use it.
Again this is just my opinion and it works for me. Also we are health people and I am very relaxed so I am not one to worry about what may or may not happen.

[jimg20]

Just to give an opposite position, we never have bought trip insurance. This may sound counterituative but I think the more you travel the less important insurance is. We travel twice per year. One with kids and one without. My thought process is if we would have paid for trip insurance for each trip it would have cost more than if we had an issue and had to cancel, which we have not. So I look at it as a waist of money to pay for something that I more than likely will not need and if I did need it I would have paid more for it over the years than I would have recovered if I needed to use it.
Again this is just my opinion and it works for me. Also we are health people and I am very relaxed so I am not one to worry about what may or may not happen.

Basically, he is saying that he is self-insured. He is taking the premiums from all of his trips any paying for the one that goes badly. That is a concept many employers are following.

JIM

[PA Girl]

I purchase it first for the medical/emergency evac coverage and potential loss of vacation costs second. If we are in an accident or my kid needs medical care asap, I don't want to have to worry about evacuation costs.

I fully admit I am a worrier by nature so the cost is worth my peace of mind. Pre-child, we never purchased it. Now that he is with us, I always get it.

Some companies provide very customized coverage where you can pick and choose what you want covered.

Also, take into consideration what costs you are willing to tolerate. I don't include our airfare in the total trip cost because a change fee isn't that big of a deal if something goes wrong.

You really need to look into when coverage kicks in and other compensation for unused portions of the trip. We were delayed once and our coverage started after hour 12 of the delay. Other policies start after 24 hours.

Someone posted a while back that they lost two or so days at the back end of a trip and the trip insurance wouldn't pay because their trip was x% complete already.

Do you have an insurance agent you deal with for house/auto? If so, give them a call. I have heard that some offer a blanket annual trip insurance policy. The company we use is in the process of getting approval to offer it in my state. Our agent said the cost will be very tolerable.