Considering travel insurance for Aug trip -- advice?

[michigan girls]

Just booked mine with CSA, via the link above. Protecting my trip, and helping the forum - it's a win-win

[SusanNJ]

I was curious, when you enter in the price for the insurance, do you include what you paid for with airfare or solely just the cost of the villa?

[PA Girl]

As I understand it, trip insurance cost is tiered so you pay, just for example, $100 for the first $2,500 of coverage, $200 for $2,5001 to $5,000, $300 for $5,001 to $7,5000, $400 for $7,501 to $10,000 and so on. I used those numbers for easy math only.

Including airfare may not have any impact on cost if your villa is $3,000 and your airfare is $1,000 because you would be paying for the $2,501 to $5,000 bracket anyway.

The above was explained to me by my close friend, who is an insurance agent. I had the same question about including airfare because I figured if worst came to worst, we would just eat the change fee and not include the airfare in the coverage. In our case, the airfare didn't bump the cost up so there was no reason not to include it.

[TropicAtHeart]

We travel free using points for airfare and hotel, yet I always get trip insurance anyhow due to the health coverage, trip delays and so forth. I add up any resort fees, airline fees (minimal) and other transport so it ends up not much, but I also factor in how much a resort charges if you don't show up to check in (some resorts can charge full rate even if you were just staying on points).

I have purchase CSA insurance for every trip for a number of years and I have broken even at the very least overall. I used it for medical needs and even staying a night in PR due to a plane problem (airline would have put us on another later flight, but would have caused us problems with the later connection and plans).

In fact, it's the only time of the year we have health insurance. Insurance premiums are too high and going higher in the U.S. due to all the new regulations so I'm happy to have insurance and get medical care if needed outside the U.S., where it's cheaper anyhow, if only for vacations. It certainly gives us peace of mind and has been worth it.

[cocosmom]

Probably going to catch some grieve here but I am shocked! Tropicatheart, you don't have health insurance because it is too expensive but you go on vacations? I have not been on a vacation in 4 years because we can't afford it due to the economy but I pay for health insurance each month...can't imagine. Sorry, an 11month teacher here with no pay increase in 4 years who will be sitting home again during the month I have off. I most be doing something wrong

[TropicAtHeart]

No flack from me cocosmom, I feel your pain. First of all, I also have not had a raise in many years. In fact, due to this bad economy many have taken cuts just so companies would survive. We never take a vacation if it isn't completely free, that's how we can go. We have kept perfect credit so we can take advantage of the credit card bonus offers and we never keep a balance on any card. We use certain payment systems in order to get to the required spending level needed for bonuses since we don't have much monthly spending otherwise. There is a way to travel free every year outside the U.S. and a number of good blogs that can help understand the process. In fact, even resort fees and food end up free for us since we use card points to pay for those too. We don't have kids. We work hard as lower middle class and yet take incredible vacation for free. We've been to the South Pacific islands, stayed in overwater bungalows for 2 weeks at a time and even flew free. Been to Europe twice, Hawaii three times, and other places. The biggest challenge is nailing the award seats. You have to do it almost a year in advance. So, we get 2 weeks a year of rest. But, you have something to be thankful for, you have rest at home and that can be healthy. If you have good credit and discipline with spending you can travel free too. We even use Capital One points to pay tthe travel insurance. Also, you must not be a teacher in Ohio. Our city has top of the line insurance for our teachers and their whole families and I know some elementary teachers who make so much they own a second home they stay at during their 3 month summer vacation each year. That's part of the reason we can't afford insurance for ourselves since our teachers and school staff are making the big bucks and our property taxes are the biggest burden we have in our budget. Most of our teachers make $75,000 to $100,000+. I'm happy for them, but many residents are losing their homes and moving south.

[StJohnForever]

We always get travel insurance no matter what time of year. It helps me sleep at night even when we fly with frequent flyer points ('free' airfare). There are lots of other costs (e.g. car, villa, caterer - if we were using one) that would be covered if we have to cancel our trip at the last minute. Just like car, property, or health insurance, we never want to have to use it but, are sure glad we have it! It is a small cost for the comfort. BTW...we, too, use CSA and have been happy with them. Go for it so you can enjoy your vacation.

[Pat]

Need to chime in....I recently posted about CSA and it was all positive. They sent me a check within three weeks of submitting my claim. We were called home due to mother's death. Will never travel without insurance after that ordeal. USAir charged us $738 to change our flight! They also reimbursed us for unused days at the villa.

[Backtotheislands]

We bought trip insurance for our trip last August, but check carefully! Not all insurance covers hurricanes.
Tropic at heart, teachers in most parts of the country do NOT make that kind of money. In Texas, pay is way lower and my district does not pay health insurance. I love my summer, but for 10 months of the year I work 10-15 hr days and we are not paid for our time off. I have no trip planned this year, but am still hopeful. Just FYI!

[TropicAtHeart]

Yes, I knew you weren't a teacher from Ohio where many enjoy much better health coverage. Here where I am the public teacher unions have crippled many homeowners and many in the private sector are leaving Ohio for places like Texas where taxes are much better and where there are more jobs. It can be expensive to live in the north due to utilities and public union powers. But, you still can go on vacation by signing up for credit card bonus offers. We can't afford vacations either so we found a way to travel free every year. We may not have much in this world to call our own, nor afford health insurance nor have 2 cars ( we have one we share between our jobs), but we get awesome vacations for free and we never take it for granted. We even make money from credit card and checking account offers. Things were better before Congress ( Frank/Dodd) came up with more bank regulations. Banks used to be able to offer cash advance checks at introductory offers of 0% interest and 0% transaction fees. Those really benefitted the on-time monthly payers like us and we could make thousands just taking that money, invest it in 5 to 6% cds, leave enough money in the account to make the monthly payment then cash out the cd before the 0% interest expired and then pay it in full. Ahh, those were the days, but no cds like that anymore either. Oh well, at least we still can get the travel reward cards. This year it's back to USVI and BVI, then next year back to French Polynesia for a two week stay in Bora Bora and we still have enough airline points for a free St. John trip in 2015. I highly recommend trying to gain points through cc offers if you are so inclined. If you start now, you could have a free trip by next year. Sometimes, we have skipped a year in order to build up points, but after many years we now stay ahead. Back to the trip insurance, we had to use it last year for a doctor visit to our hotel room. It's amazing how expensive that would have been here in the U.S. if you can even get a house visiting doctor. The trip insurance took care of that bill so we didn't have to seek reimbursement. We used CSA. We happened to see the bill that they charged CSA and it was no more than going to a doctor's office in the U.S., but this was a 'house call' to our hotel room. That was in French Polynesia.

[petepie]

I always get travel insurance. Started getting it when we had kids, thinking that they can get sick very quickly. I've found that rates can vary depending on who is going since some companies have discounts for kids and where you're going and coverage. So you really have to read the fine print. We had one claim with CSA that they paid, so I'm a convert. You should only get as much coverage as you'll need for your actual losses. If you book a room for $2000 for a week, but the cancellation fee is only $300, then trip insurance will only reimburse you for your loss, the $300. So don't pay extra for coverage you won't need. Typically our coverage is 100% of airfare & villa, and the whatever rental car and other hotel cancellation penalties.