Everyone’s needs vary; but for those who don’t necessarily have credit cards offering a deep scope of coverage, or who’s health insurance already makes life difficult and complicated where they live and work, we’ve found that options offered at Squaremouth and Insure My Trip have been cost efficient as they allow one to better customize their needs according to what their credit cards may, or may not, offer; or what their other insurance policies be they health, home, or automobile also offers – and if there are any gaps in coverage, etc., that the policies available at those web sites offer.
As we live in NYC, in a rental apartment and don’t own a car, we lack many of the coverages that others may have included with their homeowners and/or automobile insurance policies.
And again, given the headaches and exhaustion that is “managing” health insurance in our own backyard, we’ve decided that we might want to have health insurance FOR our health insurance! 😉
Fortunately, we’ve never had a medical emergency when we’ve been away, but during our recent Xmas family homecoming trip to the Philippines, two family members came down with pneumonia (13 out of 14 of us came down with either pneumonia, bronchitis or severe colds), so one can never be assured that they won’t need urgent medical attention as the two who developed pneumonia did.
Also, we’ve found that when situations arose during at least two prior trips and it appeared that we’d end up stranded overnight due to cancellation of trains or planes, the concierge service at the insurance company we typically favor, has always been there to answer our questions about our options.
Again, fortunately in both instances, it turned out that we ended up getting to our destination and did not need to stay overnight unexpectedly, but both times it looked like we would’ve, and the concierge was very helpful.
The first incident we were lucky that a stranger who commuted between Cologne and Brussels overheard our conversation with a rep about total service cancellation on our line at Deutsche Bahn railways and arranged for us to join him in the all expenses paid taxi from Cologne to Aachen (200+ kph ride on the autobahn included!) that allowed us to (just barely) make the train on that line back to Brussels after the line between Cologne and Brussels was shut down due to a fatal accident at another station on that line.
The other was at Orlando/MCO when the airline we were booked on had a computer network outage and it was unclear if our 8pm flight would take off that night – it did, but around 12midnight!
But, for the first couple of hours after we arrived at MCO to check in, it looked like we might’ve been marooned at MCO.
Anyhow, and as noted at the outset, everyone’s needs are different – and yes, a great many likely have the types of credit cards that offer exceptional trip insurance coverage along with exceptional health insurance, too.
But, for those who don’t necessarily have plastic that offers the best of everything and/or whose health insurance similarly does NOT offer the best coverage possible (especially out of network and/or outside of the country), then trip insurance may offer coverage that comes in handy.
So, I’d offer that it’s NOT necessarily trip insurance that’s “bad” – but rather where that insurance is purchased and what types of scope of coverage is best according to one’s needs.
And as such, it’s the policies sold by airlines, cruise lines, and the online travel agencies that are best avoided as they typically are high cost, limited coverage, “one-size fits all” policies that are laden with exclusions and exceptions, whereas policies purchased separately from third parties offer far more variety and “bang for the buck” than anything ever seen on any airlines’ or online travel agencies’ booking pages/portals.
And for us, Squaremouth or Insure My Trip have always served us, and those that have sought my assistance to book their flights.
Finally, and just to be clear: I am NOT a paid endorser for any of the companies mentioned here; nor any insurance companies; and I have NOT received any compensation be it directly or in consideration of the comments expressed here.
NONE. Period.
