Hi all - not strictly Disney related but very relevant and I’m hopeful you all can help me. We generally self-insure our own trips by booking refundable hotels and are generally comfortable with the small chance of eating the non-refundable costs.
Now we’re planning to go to France in August and I’m nervous about circumstances rapidly changing again. I have booked almost everything refundable (apartment, DLP room and tix, etc) but our flights are approaching $4,000 and are not refundable. I’m looking to get an insurance policy that really would only need to cover those tickets in the event that the US or France does not allow us to enter.
Does anyone know what language I am looking for or have any recommendations? I do not need “cancel for any reason” or anything like that. All I have seen so far is “the U.S. Department of State issues a Level three (3) or higher Travel Advisory and Travel Alert for the Trip destination, after this coverage is in effect and for a period of time that would include Your Trip.” But that doesn’t seem like enough?
Honestly? Cancel for any reason might actually be your best bet because it leaves less room for loopholes.
That said, read any policy carefully bc a lot of them have been disqualifying Covid related cancellations as not covered because it’s an “act of god.”
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Personally I’d count on the airlines letting you reschedule if you aren’t allowed to enter if flights are the main reason. They are basically required to if they sell a product and don’t deliver it (as I understand it - not a lawyer or anything).
I would STILL buy trip insurance for ALL international travel, a health emergency overseas would be an even bigger nightmare without it.
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Ya, I’m leaning towards “cancel for any reason” I suppose at this point. I think that I need something covering an “embargo” which seems to be in many of the exclusions.
I am sure the airlines will let me reschedule but I don’t want to be sitting on Air France vouchers for a year that I might not even use. I would like my money back.
We bought travel insurance for our Hawaii trip in January, and made sure it had Covid coverage (as we would only cancel if we tested positive on our required pre-flight test). I would look at those policies and see what they cover (we booked through Trawick International). It covered all our nonrefundable costs if we were not allowed to travel due to Covid policies (not just having Covid).
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Thanks. I’m guessing things must have changed now. This is at the top of almost every policy: “This plan covers COVID-19 the same as any other sickness.” So I’m sure if we test positive we will be covered, but I don’t think we would be if we just suddenly aren’t allowed to fly. I noticed this below as well:
“Quarantine means Your strict isolation imposed by a Government authority or Physician to prevent the spread of disease. An embargo preventing You from entering a country is not a Quarantine.”
Travel was still mostly not happening when we bought the policy, so I am not surprised it has changed I guess. Now anyone and everyone wants to travel. Cancel for any reason may be your best bet now.
We have bought trip insurance a number of times because we had to pay for stuff up front. I buy the cancel for any reason policies. Fortunately, we never had to activate the policy.
While many of us may worry about not being able to go, things happen during the trip, like you said. The one time we didn’t buy trip insurance was when we went to WDW in 2019. Airfare and hotel were paid with points. I could get credit for the park tickets. I caught the flu the night before we were scheduled to fly home from WDW. I was so sick. DH stayed with me for an extra 4 days. The kids, then DD21 and DS19, flew home as scheduled. The extra few hundred dollars for travel insurance would have been well worth it.
How about some real numbers? The extra airfare and change fee were $800/person. $1,600 for DH and I (if the kids were too young to fly alone, we would have paid an extra $3,200 for airfare for our family). An extra 4 nights of hotel were paid by points. But the cash price would have been $150+ tax per night. So, that would be an extra $700. If we had trip insurance, I would have saved my hotel points. We are insured by Anthem Blue Cross, accepted nationally, we just had to pay the copayment for Urgent Care. If there was no Urgent Care, we would have had to pay for Emergency Room. Nevertheless, it would have just been our copayment. Both copays together were the cost of a TS for 1 at WDW.
Therefore, moving forward, I will buy travel insurance, especially for international trips and especially as we are getting older!
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