CFAR travel insurance rider only?
January 2, 2020 7:32 AM Subscribe
I purchased our airfare using a credit card that insures travel. It only insures trip cancellation for the usual reasons. We are not planning to cancel our trip, but if we were to cancel, it would not be for a covered reason, thus, I'd like to purchase an additional cancel-for-any-reason policy... but how?
Background: Mr. Millipede and I are scheduled to go to Italy for a week in June (yay!) with a bunch of friends and (eep) without our twins, who will be 16 months old at the time. Said twins will be very well cared for by their grandparents and their nanny for that week. If anything were to occur where either the grandparents or the nanny were unable to provide this care, we would have to cancel the trip--we would not be comfortable with anyone else in the entire world providing their care. They will still be pretty young, and I do not want someone they don't know and aren't bonded to taking care of them while we are away for so long.
"Not having childcare, thus dooming your wonderful trip to a villa in piedmont" is not a covered event for trip cancellation. So, I want to buy an CFAR policy--but I'm only seeing them as riders to other (expensive) policies you have to buy in full, which sucks for me because my credit card already offers everything else, and I don't need duplicate insurance. Is there any sort of stand-alone CFAR option?
Background: Mr. Millipede and I are scheduled to go to Italy for a week in June (yay!) with a bunch of friends and (eep) without our twins, who will be 16 months old at the time. Said twins will be very well cared for by their grandparents and their nanny for that week. If anything were to occur where either the grandparents or the nanny were unable to provide this care, we would have to cancel the trip--we would not be comfortable with anyone else in the entire world providing their care. They will still be pretty young, and I do not want someone they don't know and aren't bonded to taking care of them while we are away for so long.
"Not having childcare, thus dooming your wonderful trip to a villa in piedmont" is not a covered event for trip cancellation. So, I want to buy an CFAR policy--but I'm only seeing them as riders to other (expensive) policies you have to buy in full, which sucks for me because my credit card already offers everything else, and I don't need duplicate insurance. Is there any sort of stand-alone CFAR option?
You might look into coverage that allows for cancellations due to an illness of close family member (i.e. your children and parents).
posted by zeikka at 1:52 PM on January 2, 2020
posted by zeikka at 1:52 PM on January 2, 2020
With all travel policies, the fine print is really in the details, and sometimes they vary state to state. A TravelGuard policy I have covers illness of caregivers for "mental and physical impairment" but specifically excludes anyone who is a "babysitter, childcare service" etc. You might be able to find a policy that covers loss of childcare, but I would read it over a dozen times to make sure.
That said, there is a lot to be said for self-insuring. That is a not going to be a cheap policy. Regular coverage from a reputable insurer costs like 10-15% of a trip that costs thousands, and with the "any reason" policy you're still going to be on the hook for 25% of the cost of the trip on top of that. Certainly beware of any insurer with rates that are significantly below the market; there's not much regulation of travel insurance and some of them seem to specialize entirely in denying claims.
posted by wnissen at 2:54 PM on January 2, 2020
That said, there is a lot to be said for self-insuring. That is a not going to be a cheap policy. Regular coverage from a reputable insurer costs like 10-15% of a trip that costs thousands, and with the "any reason" policy you're still going to be on the hook for 25% of the cost of the trip on top of that. Certainly beware of any insurer with rates that are significantly below the market; there's not much regulation of travel insurance and some of them seem to specialize entirely in denying claims.
posted by wnissen at 2:54 PM on January 2, 2020
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posted by OrangeDisk at 9:07 AM on January 2, 2020