Travel Insurance

I see travel insurance is required for COVID-related issues. Wondered if charters are using regular health insurance or going to outside insurers.

Not sure what that means, but we use Allianz wherever we travel, which provides excellent medical and medivac coverage, as well as clearly-defined coverages for Covid-19-related sickness and testing/quarantine. Other insurers like MedJet provide excellent medivac coverage with private transfers when possible…

From other reports on this forum, many choose to use personal insurance. This does not meet the strict requirements that have been detailed as requirements-in addition to the health insurance part there are requirements for Med-evac and quarantine expense. From what has been observed here, few questions seem to be asked, and if asked flashing your insurance card seems to work.

However there are some new things to consider. In an environment where Covid is present in a new form, i.e. the BA.2 sub-variant, and therefore becomes more prevalent and at risk of being contracted one should consider the financial implications of testing positive. Vaccination or prior illness appears to protect against severe illness, so if you fall into one of those categories the issue is paying for quarantine in a place that costs a lot of money to stay, and is the insurance worth the cost?

The issue is what an extra 7-10 days food and lodging and rescheduled travel would cost out of pocket per person versus cost of insurance just for these expenses. There are many places that just offer this coverage rather than full trip insurance. Something to consider before travelling.

The cost of extending your time away can be significant for working folks, less so for retirees…But we would never consider traveling without trip insurance, even during non-pandemic times. Just the consolidation of flights and tightened schedules make meeting connections hit or miss so trip interruptions are more common today…And even for direct flights delays happen…We’ve been reimbursed for overnights and lost rentals multiple times and we are ahead of the game. Also for medical emergencies involving hospital stays with immediate reimbursement by Allianz…. And of course the medical/medivac coverages are extremely important (pre-travel, during travel, and after), unless you have existing, PRIMARY international medical/medivac coverages?
We pay ~$150 - $200/couple for 6 months of excellent coverage so it is a no-brainer for us…Some folks here prefer MedJet for the 5* medivac service, it just depends on your situation, and what you want to pay.

crmoores…so you are using an annual plan with Allianz? Is there a limit involved for each trip? Thanks!

No we have a retirement home in the Carib and spend 4 - 5 months here during the winter and just buy a one-trip insurance policy with high medical/medivac limits ($50k/1,000k). One-trip policies are good up to 6 months. Allianz has provided excellent and timely support in all emergencies.

Ok…thanks!

We chose Trawick Safe Travels Voyager this trip just because the med coverages are higher, but Allianz is great to work with and I’ll probably use them again in the future

Thanks - I am most concerned about meeting govt requirements for entry.

Three trips in the past year and don't recall them ever asking for insurance, although we have medical and evacuation.

Sure! We’re relying on the insurance for medical and medivac emergencies on several-month trips so yes I’m sure you can get the minimum required coverage anywhere. But we were soooo glad that the insurer reps were really on the ball when we needed them. So even if looking for the minimum requirements do your due diligence on the insurer you choose..

John- in preparing a family trip in June, just wondering what insurance you ended up obtaining and at what per person cost? Like you, we are interested in what the cost is to be compliant.

In November, we went with Allianz and it was pretty inexpensive. Since we were using owners' time and flights were refundable I didn't put in a very high cost of trip which made the insurance very affordable.

In January 2021 we used our Blue Cross/Shield insurance that says that we are covered for medical evacuation. This also worked.

The reason we decided to use Allianz in November is because our friends and family were accompanying us so we wanted to make sure we were covered for a quarantine facility if one of us tested positive.

We used Square Mouth, link below, to get quotes. It was about $60pp for two weeks basic coverage for medical evac etc (minimal or no trip cost coverage)

https://www.squaremouth.com/single-...ntent=ca&utm_source=travel+insurance