Trip insurance without medical coverage? General advice on trip insurance?

May 9, 2009 4:35 PM

Asking for the fiancée: is it possible to purchase trip insurance without medical coverage? Also: general advice about trip insurance for this situation is welcome (traveling several weeks in France & England, with expensive train connections).

She says (she has a metafilter account but is using mine in case she gets desperate for other travel advice):

summary: leaves May 18, returns June 17, traveling in England and (mainly) France. Policy must allow cancellation "for any reason," which of course costs extra. Doesn't need health coverage. Wondering if she can get trip coverage for less than $91, if she could only find a policy that doesn't include medical.

details

I'm flying in to London/Heathrow, then plan to take a train to St. Pancras Station, then catch the Eurostar to Paris. The Eurostar is expensive. Pricing makes the non-flexible Eurostar tickets quite attractive -- but if my plane is late I'd be in trouble.

For what-if-I-miss-my-train reasons, as well as what-if-someone-gets-sick-and-I-have-to-stay-home reasons, trip insurance seems prudent. I estimate I'd need $1,500 covered for plane + train tickets. I also want to be able to cancel "for any reason".

Every single trip insurance plan I've looked at includes medical emergency coverage, but I have that through employer-based insurance. The quote I'm currently looking at is $91 (for $1,500 worth of coverage).

Apropos of this question, we looked at our bank and our car insurance companies (State Farm and also Amica), but they don't offer travel insurance.

General advice on trip insurance, or insurance company suggestions, are welcome, too. She's currently looking at this TravelSafe policy.

posted by springo to travel & transportation (9 answers total)

check into travelex - i think they can do coverage without medical.
posted by sfz at 4:52 PM on May 9, 2009

Your travel agent (even an online site) would have offered this. I think generally it needs to be purchased when you buy your tickets, though. Just pop into a travel agency and they should be able to help you. You can definitely get trip cancellation/delay insurance without medical coverage. Whether you can get it after the fact (post-purchase, pre-trip) I don't know.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 4:53 PM on May 9, 2009

We didn't go through a travel agent. Even the American Airlines travel insurance seems to include medical (although it does look like it can be purchased after the fact).
posted by springo at 4:58 PM on May 9, 2009

[fiancée here - ] Checked Travelex - they won't cover because "Trip Length exceeds maximum number of days for the selected product...Trip must be 30 days or less." This trip is 31 days. I'll try to call them on Monday if necessary, but I'm not optimistic.
posted by springo at 5:05 PM on May 9, 2009

I usually use World Nomads, and their health coverage is minimal. Unless you have reciprocal coverage with each country you're visiting, it can't help to have a bit of medical. It doesn't increase the cost very much with this policy.

You can be covered by up to two years with them.
posted by wingless_angel at 11:29 PM on May 9, 2009

So-called cancellation "for any reason" policies, if you can get one at all, are bound to be pretty expensive, and with good reason, insurance companies aren't in the business of insuring against something you can voluntarily choose to do, and the people who take out such policies are the ones most likely to cancel in the first place. Also, it appears they often apply only if you buy the policy shortly after purchasing your tickets, may not apply unless purchased a significant period of time before travel (e.g. it may be too late now), and would probably only pay a percentage ~ 50%-70% of costs anyway.

For the policy you linked, which appears fairly typical, you would have had to have just begun booking the trip within the last 14 days (did you really do this? seems like rather short notice) and would have to cancel by before 2 days of departure in order to get anything back for "Cancel For Any Reason." In other words, if you actually buy the policy on Monday the 11th, you'd have until the 16th to cancel. Is it really that likely she's going to have to cancel in the next week?

In general, travel insurance is fraught with incredibly extensive lists of rules and exclusions. It's great if it works out for you, but read the full policy (not the sales brochure bullet-points) super carefully.

Why not try calling up the Eurostar people and asking what they would do if she misses the train due to a late flight? I would imagine that she could be re-accommodated with only a change fee of some kind. Why isn't she flying to Paris anyway?
posted by zachlipton at 3:25 AM on May 10, 2009

Yes, the flights were booked this Wednesday May 6. There are no direct flights to Paris from here, and flying to London and taking Eurostar seemed a reasonable thing to do. Eurostar would re-accommodate with a change fee IF she buys a more expensive ticket, which she may do, but she probably will get travel insurance anyway.
posted by amtho at 6:55 AM on May 10, 2009

That is, I probably will get travel insurance anyway. Not sure why I wrote that in third person. Hi, I'm the fiancée.
posted by amtho at 7:05 AM on May 10, 2009

Have you looked at a flight from London to Paris - may be cheaper
posted by koahiatamadl at 9:24 AM on May 10, 2009