Travel insurance for multiple flights?
January 11, 2015 6:10 AM   Subscribe

Does some kind of trip cancellation insurance policy exist for these circumstances?

I've been researching trip cancellation insurance for the last few hours. Skimming through policies and trying to make sense of the jargon is a slog. Unfortunately, most of the companies that offer "cancellation for any reason" policies are based in North America so calling them from where I live (Middle East) would be pretty expensive. Thus, I turn to the green for your wisdom, insight, and suggestions.

What I know:
- "cancellation for any reason" policies do exist but tend to be pretty expensive
- most other/typical cancellation insurance is for emergency situations like health problems, natural disasters, or a death in the family

What I would like to know:
Is there a "cancellation for any reason" policy for a trip that includes multiple one-way flights?

Situation:
My partner and I have tentative travel plans for this summer. We live in the Middle East. We would be traveling from the UAE to the UK, Ireland, and Morocco, then returning to the UAE within a 3 week time period. When I try to look up flights as part of a multi-city itinerary, the costs do not line up with our budget (not even close). However, if we book one-way flights (i.e. home to UK city 1, UK city 1 to UK city 2, UK city 2 to Dublin, Dublin to Marrakesh, Marrakesh to home) as separate journeys, the prices are much better and well within our price range.

The prices are affordable if we book these tickets now as it's far enough away that the fares have not yet started to rise. I would very much like to book everything and pay less and have it all sorted.

However, my partner is worried about getting time off approved. He would rather not book anything until he can get confirmation of vacation time (and this would not happen until April or May at the earliest; we would be traveling in July). My job situation is up in the air as well - I am not certain where I will be working by/in the summer, though it is very likely I will have July off.

So, my thinking is:
Booking earlier tickets for X amount + high insurance cost of Y amount is still much less than booking last minute tickets for Z (higher) amount.

I'm having trouble figuring out if there is some kind of insurance that would cover our bases, though. Is it possible to get cancellation insurance on multiple one-way flights, or on this kind of patchwork itinerary? Is there any kind of blanket policy that covers a time period, rather than a tour or itinerary package booking?

Any suggestions regarding our scenario and whether to book now or wait are welcome. As we would be booking some flights through a third-party site and some directly with the airline, it is difficult to figure out cancellation costs and refund policies if we just took our chances and forgot about insurance altogether.

Thank you.
posted by gursky to Travel & Transportation (2 answers total)
 
My advice is to not buy the tickets until the dates are secure. If you'd still normally buy flight insurance for health or weather, then do that.

Most travel agents offer trip insurance if you book all the arrangements through them, as do tour companies. Again though, probably not cost effective.

If you want to book the tickets to secure the seats, you can buy full-refundable fares, again, a more expensive option.

So by buying early, and not getting insurance, you risk not being able to take the trip and having to take a hit on the tickets.

You may pay more if you wait until April to buy the tickets, but chances are that the potential increase in prices will still be less than other options. Also, with fuel prices dropping, the prices may remain stable or drop.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 7:15 AM on January 11, 2015


The premium for booking tickets late generally only starts getting steep 4 weeks or less before the flight date. Even if you find out in May and are traveling in July, you'll still be pretty much fine. Prices may rise for other reasons, but then again they might also fall.

Given the usually extreme price difference between refundable tickets and non-refundable, I'd be surprised if this would be in your financial interest (otherwise, why would anyone buy refundable tickets?)
posted by goingonit at 5:37 PM on January 11, 2015


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