USVI-On-Line

A word about travel insurance - I was never a big fan of getting travel insurance, but a few months before our May trip I decided to get it. Not knowing how my wife's condition was going to turn out - I found a company that accepted pre-existing conditions as long as you had not made the final payment for your trip. Here it was, a couple of months before our trip and I'm able to get coverage.

The policy was HTH TripProtector Purchase at TravelInsuranceCenter.com. The company is great - they answered all my questions and I finally got around to filing the claim. We got a call from them yesterday and they're going to reimburse us the villa deposit on 2 villas plus the airline fee to redeposit our miles back into our accounts.

We haven't received a check yet, but the insurance guy said that we should be getting everything back once he verifies the claim with Destination St. John. Plus they moved really fast on the claim - they got the claim on 7/10 and we got a call on 7/16.

I'll never go on a big trip again without travel insurance.

that's great, George. I had to make a claim on a trip to Italy a few years ago and was glad I had it.

I hope Steph is doing better every day.

mary beth

Thanks for the infor George. I have never used Travel insurance either and this makes me rethink it.

How is FlaSteph? I hope she is recovering and feeling better.

Tracy

George,
Thanks for the information...I am going to buy it for our September trip.
My parents are elderly...86 & 89. God forbid...but if something were to happen to one of them before our trip, would canceling be a valid reason for getting reimbursed?
Steph is in my prayers.

Mia, if one of your parents illnesses prevented you from traveling that could be a valid reason. You really need to read the fine print of these policies and find out, like George did, what is considered pre existing.
My parents were the reason I started getting the insurance. Now I get it just because you never know. Never had a back problem before, booked a trip to Italy and then WHAM. I was in therapy about 3 months and even though I was much better by the time of the trip it was just not something I could have handled at that point nor enjoyed. I was glad to have it but everyone has their own views on taking the insurance.

Thanks for the tip. We are not big travelers, but we purchased some insurance when we booked our flight through U.S. Air. I thought the policy was going to cover our airfare, but when I read further, it looked like it covered a lot more. I think we'll be okay, but do you think we need more?

citygirl

We also purchased trip insurance for our upcoming trip. We never did so in the past but as our family grows, so does the expense of going to St. John.

citygirl wrote:Thanks for the tip. We are not big travelers, but we purchased some insurance when we booked our flight through U.S. Air. I thought the policy was going to cover our airfare, but when I read further, it looked like it covered a lot more. I think we'll be okay, but do you think we need more?

citygirl

CityGirl
Usually, the biggest expense is the villa followed by airfare followed by liquor. The first two a covered by trip insurance. Check your policy to see if the villa is covered. If not, you can get cheap insurance to just cover the villa.

As for the liquor – you’re on your own.

Thanks everyone for asking about Steph. Just a quick update – She’s doing great and recovering well. She’s on tough lady and you’d never know by looking at her what she has been through. We dream of the day we can get back to STJ. And when we do – I can assure you that there will be a “Rum Drought” while we’re on-island.

Thank you FlaGeorge I'm checking my policy now.

citygirl

glad to hear that George!

I'm glad all is going well.

Squaremouth.com returns quotes from numerous different providers.
Click on “Compare travel insurance”, then punch a few trip info items to get a bunch of different quotes.
To make our selection, we clicked on sort by price and then the “Show coverage for:” drop down box button.
We looked at “Pre-existing condition” and then “Hurricane/weather”.
Found a policy that covers “Hurricane warning issued within 24 hours of departure” (not all cover that!), then paid $50 extra for “cancel for any reason” to be “reimbursed for 75% of the prepaid, forfeited, non-refundable Payments or Deposits paid for your Trip”.
I believe you get best prices if you buy the insurance within 2 weeks or so of making the initial deposit.

My wife's luggage was lost on the way home(thank God) from a cruise one time.We had to wait thirty days to see if the Airlines found it and they didn't. So needless to say it comes in handy, she had to replace all her clothes and since it was a cruise the amount was quite high because of the fomal dresses and such you need to take for dinners. I don't go without it!
Scott

Travel insurance makes sense for the right situations. You need to read the terms and conditions very carefully to make certain that your major expenses (air, rental car, villa, excursions, personal effects, medical, death/body repatriation) are covered for the conditions that you are likely to encounter.

Once I've read the policies I've found that its usually not a very good deal given exclusions for force majeure (hurricanes, storms), dangerous activities (diving, in some cases snorkeling), acts of war (ask me what happens when a Scud hits a rental car), etc.

Where it has made sense for me was when traveling with an infant - babies get sick fast. So, the last time I bought trip insurance was in 1997. My biggest limitation is time. No insurance is going to give me back that block of time. Many of the travel insurance companies pay a commission to the travel agent.

It seems to me that trip insurance works best for worriers and those with pre-existing conditions, for serious big ticket vacations that are paid in advance.

Why do so many people get trip insurance for villa vacations, whether they need it not? Because the villa rental agencies all recommend it as a way for the renters to mitigate the no/low-refund policies of most agencies.

If you want to read more, check out "Travel insurance: Why you rarely need it" on the Consumer Reports website - http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/trav ... vel_ov.htm

If you feel you need travel insurance then you should buy it. But it is not recommended by the experts. When Aunt Mamey says everyone buys it, give her the print out from Consumer Reports.

Cheers, RickG