The past few years, my family has purchased an annual trip insurance policy. This is a policy that covers all of our trips for an entire year. We’re about to go on a cruise, and I just renewed my annual travel insurance policy.
Why get trip insurance?
The biggest reason I get trip insurance is for the emergency medical coverage on international trips. Many health insurance companies do not cover medical costs on a cruise ship or in another country. Those costs can really add up! Just one visit to a cruise ship’s medical center can cost a few hundred dollars. A helicopter evacuation from a cruise ship costs $20k or more!
If my family was staying in the USA for all of our trips, I might not purchase travel insurance. Or, if we just had one international trip, I might buy an individual policy for the one trip. But, in the next 12 months, we are heading to: Caribbean countries, Japan, China, and Canada (so far!). Knowing that we have coverage for my entire family gives me peace of mind, and an annual trip insurance policy that covers multiple trips makes sense for us.
In addition to medical expenses, trip insurance policies cover:
- Trip cancellation costs
- Trip interruption costs (flying back home early)
- Trip delay (extra days in hotels)
- Baggage delay (new clothes while your luggage is missing)
- Rental car insurance
- and more, depending on the policy
What about coverage through credit cards?
Yes, some credit cards include travel protections. However, in some cases, you have to pay for the entire trip with that credit card, not just a small portion. Last fall, Chase added restrictive language to its trip insurance policy. And, emergency medical coverage is much lower than on stand-alone policies.
Allianz AllTrips Premier Plan
I renewed my Allianz AllTrips Premier Plan for $435 for the year for my family of 5. The cost went up by $10 over last year. Last fall, I successfully submitted a $189 claim from a cruise ship’s medical facility and received a very quick reimbursement. Hopefully, this is a policy we won’t have to use, fingers crossed.
Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
Most insurance in the US covers urgent or emergency services abroad… The only ones that don’t are Medicare and Medicaid. Sure, it won’t just cover random non urgent doctor visits but neither will it cover that in the US unless you go to your specific doctor/plan. So it’s basically the same coverage travelling out of state vs out of country.
Like you I have an annual Allianz travel policy. Please be very careful to get a policy with primary coverage because some less developed countries have hospitals that won’t release you until you pay and primary coverage pays quickly.
Since my health insurance company said that I’m covered while traveling I mostly get the policy for trip interruption and medevac. The trip interruption paid for itself in January when Citi said that their airline credit card would provide no trip interruption coverage for my family, leaving me out $1600. Allianz at least paid part of the cost.
@Christian I’m glad you had trip insurance to cover some of that!
Great summary and something anyone that travels internationally should purchase. Like you I don’t worry about travel in the US since my medical coverage would be fine. Also, I am fortunate enough I really don’t worry about lost bags, delays, cost of unexpected hotel, etc. I can easily handle those and filing with whatever insurance is provided through my credit cards is sufficient.
Like you, the reason I get travel insurance is medical coverage (understand even if a country has “free” medical care that is for citizens, not tourists) and cost to return to the US. Unfortunately I put this to effect on my last trip (SE Asian cruise). My wife passed away in Vietnam. It was almost $20,000 total to transport her from the cruise ship to a funeral home in the US. Plus almost $7000 in medical cost and then 6 nights in a hotel that wasn’t planned plus food and an unplanned flight home. The $450 I paid for coverage for both of us covered these expenses.
I go on usually 2 international trips a year so just buy coverage for those trips instead of an annual plan.
@Retired Gambler I’m so sorry to hear about your wife’s passing! I can’t imagine how difficult that was. I’m glad that your travel insurance covered those expenses. My sincere condolences.
I’ve heard of the company usually pops up when booking a trip but was not aware you could purchase an annual policy.
@Boonie Yes, the annual policy comes in handy for my family!