If This Doesn’t Make You Buy Travel Insurance, Nothing Will, 2016
Ive long been an advocate for travel insurance and usually see some pushback. Objections usually run along “XXX credit card has trip cancellation or lost bag insurance so why should I buy extra travel insurance?”. Well, I hope the following tale will convince you that the $38 we spent on travel insurance was money well spent and that you’ll reconsider before your next trip.
Our Story
I knew we were in trouble when we landed in Madrid. Deal Dad had complained of stomach pain but during our layover he turned pale and was doubled over. It was severe enough that I considered missing our flight to Gran Canaria and taking him to an ER, but he insisted it was tolerable and we got on the flight.
The pain came and went over the next 12 hours and we had a somewhat normal 1st night on the island. By 3AM it was back with a vengeance. Being Sunday our options were limited to the ER and we debated whether he could just wait until Monday.
HERE is where I’m so grateful for the travel insurance. Allianz has a 24 hour worldwide number you can call to verify benefits or to get medical referrals if you need them. I called and was immediately informed that we had $25,000 in primary coverage with no deductible.
If we hadn’t been armed with the knowledge our bills were paid it would have been temping to wait it out until the local clinic opened on Monday morning.
Doing so could have had life-threatening implications.
Upon arrival doctors quickly determined Deal Dad needed inpatient treatment and immediate intervention. The diagnosis? A large kidney stone. He’ll need follow-up treatments at home to completely resolve the issue. Thankfully three nights and one surgery later he is back with us at the hotel and stable enough to enjoy the last half of the trip.
A note about the medical care here in Gran Canaria: the treatment the doctors provided at the private hospital was equal to or better than any provided in the states . Access to western medical is a prerequisite to any destination I choose and it came through in spades.
The cost? 4500 Euro, payable up front.
Here’s where a shout out goes to American Express who, when I called and explained the situation, immediately approved up to 15,000 Euro and told me to just call if I needed more. Based on my previous claims I know Allianz will have reimbursed me long before the AMEX bill comes due.
In case you’re wondering: we do have good health insurance in the states. They’ll probably cover some of this eventually or at least apply it towards our annual deductible. How much or how long until we see a dime? No idea. The after hours service could only tell me that we didn’t need a pre-certification. They could not tell me under what plan this type of situation qualified.
The trip we didn’t expect
If you followed along on Instagram or Twitter you might be confused right about now. I took great efforts to downplay the seriousness of the situation to the Deal Kids. We both agreed it was best for them to get as normal of a trip as possible. That’s why the kids posed for photos having fun- they were having fun for about three hours a day. The rest of the time they were in our hotel room- which I’m SO grateful was a two bedroom condo. They kept themselves busy playing video games or watching Netflix (so I guess they were still having fun). Meanwhile, I monitored Deal Dad at the hospital 5 minutes away.
Needless to say we have not enjoyed a restful respite. But now that Deal Dad is out of the hospital we can focus on his recovery and not on the 4500 Euro bill. We dodged that worry by paying $38 for travel insurance.
PLEASE don’t get caught out if you get thrown a curveball on your next trip.
A Love Letter to Allianz Travel Insurance
Just a quick update today to Deal Dad’s hospital stay in Gran Canaria. Thanks to you who asked about him- I’m happy to report he is doing much better. But the real story here is how quickly Allianz Global Assistance paid our hospital bill of over $5000.
I knew Allianz was good because of illnesses in Asia last year. In that case our bills of $500 were paid in about 10 days. However I figured a 5K claim- especially with a 24 page hospital bill written entirely in Spanish- would require me to jump through some serious hoops.
Not so. I filled out a paragraph long claim form, faxed over the bill (I could have scanned it but faxing was easier) and had an “claim approved” email in exactly 10 days. That was last Thursday- today it’s Monday and I’m holding a check for $5048 in my hands. Time from claim entry to check in hand? 2 weeks exactly.
We’re really good at shouting to the rafters when things go wrong. I just wanted to share a story today of a company that for 25 years has done right by me. Allianz, you’ve got a customer for life!
Why Chase Sapphire Reserve Travel Insurance is Not Enough
Like many of you I’m the proud owner of a shiny new Chase Sapphire Reserve card. Unlike many of you I’ve had extensive experience with travel insurance claims. Because I’m an accidental expert on travel insurance a number of you have asked me if the Chase Sapphire Reserve travel insurance is comparable to what I would buy through a company like Allianz.
The answer is an emphatic NO. For our upcoming trip to Chile and Argentina I will not be relying on my Chase Sapphire Reserve travel insurance. Here’s why I shelled out the $102 for 5 weeks of family coverage:
Allianz offers:
Medical
Deal Dad rang up over 5K in bills during a five day hospital stay in Gran Canaria last year. In the grand scheme of things his malady was minor compared to the worst that can happen. Chase’s $2500 wouldn’t have even begun to fill the bill. We saw 100% of our expenses reimbursed in 14 days.
Chase’s coverage is SUPPLEMENTAL. That means they pay after your home insurance company. Even great coverage in the USA will require a co-pay. In our case we would have paid 30% (of course we were out of network) after our annual deductible was satisfied. If we were lucky our health insurance might have covered the $2500 Chase wouldn’t have. They certainly would have taken longer than two weeks!
Evacuation
The $100,000 Chase offers sounds like a lot. However, FT4RL alum Michael used to operate emergency medical charters and clued me in on the cost. From a remote area 100K might not even cover one person. What if you’re in an auto accident and multiple family members need evacuation? Take out a 2nd mortgage.
Use Chase to Hack Allianz
That’s not to say that Chase Sapphire Reserve Travel Insurance doesn’t have value. Chase offers terrific insurance when it comes to trip cancellation, lost luggage, and delays.
Here’s the cool thing about Allianz: their medical coverage remains constant no matter the cost of your trip. So the difference between a 5K trip and a 1K trip is significant in cost, but nil in benefits.
So here’s what you do: use your Chase Saphire Reserve Travel Insurance for all of your tangible items, then claim the cost of what’s left over as your true trip cost for Allianz. You’re being honest- just leveraging to your best benefit.
An Example
For our five week trip coming up we have about 20 flights booked (5 trips, four people). The cost to cancel 20 individual tickets is 20 x $150 (average)= $3,000.
For five weeks we have 35 nights hotel. The vast majority of those are cancellable, so we could recoup those charges. Let’s say we lose $500 if we have to cancel something out of the cancellation window.
All of my car rentals are cancellable and most aren’t charged until pickup, so no lost cost there if we have to cancel. We do have $200 in ferry tickets, though.
Let’s say we book one activity in each city at a cost of $50/each. That’s $200 per city X 5 cities=$1,000. Activities are the hardest to refund so we could lose that money.
Adding $3,000 + $500 + $200 + $1,000 I come up with a trip value of $4700, or $1175/person.
Chase covers up to $10,000 per person per trip up to $20,000 total. We are well within their limits.
Therefore we don’t need Allianz to cover anything but medical. I usually set a floor value of $1,000 because no trip is worth $0.
For a $4700 trip an Allianz policy would cost $214. For the same trip at a value of $1,000 I paid $112. The limits for baggage, cancellation, etc. went down accordingly but the medical stayed the exact same.
Please share your travel insurance experiences. I’m sure other companies are great, also, I’ just have experience with Allianz. I’m happy to try to answer any questions as well.
Travel Insurance Annual Plans: Are They Right For You?
We had a really good conversation recently about Why Chase Sapphire Travel Insurance is not enough. The post generated a lot of comments and questions that I want to address further. Allianz and Traveling Mom are working together to promote travel insurance annual plans. They asked me to dig deeper into the options and share my thoughts.
Review: Why you need travel insurance
That’s Deal Dad’s hospital bed in Gran Canaria. He spent five days of last year’s spring break in that bed. While it was stressful and basically a nightmare, it wasn’t expensive thanks to a $38 policy from Allianz. $38 instead of a $5,000 hospital bill? I’ll take it.
Here’s Deal Girl’s antibiotics in Vietnam. She came down with a fever on the plane between Hanoi and Danang and had full blown tonsillitis two days later. Fun fact: western medicine is widely available in Danang, but kids’ formulations? Not so much. Tonsillitis + horse pills does not a happy kid make. We ended up dissolving the pills into an soda.
The bill for Deal Girl’s hotel room call and medicines? $80. The bill for my hotel room visit and drugs four days later for bronchitis in Hong Kong? $400. Allianz paid for both within 10 days.
Nuff said?
Travel Insurance vs. Credit Card Insurance
Travel insurance covers medical and evacuation at levels you can actually use: credit card insurance might cover one or the other but none covers both. I covered Chase Sapphire Reserve in detail last time. I’ve since learned that American Express Platinum and Citi Prestige also cover evacuation but will be no help with medical bills.
Travel Insurance vs. Medical Insurance
Your standard medical insurance will cover you when you travel- it’s a matter of how quickly and how much. By default you’re out of network so will have to pay higher copays if your plan requires them. Domestically you may be fine, but our hospital bill in Gran Canaria was 24 pages long…in Spanish. I’m so glad I didn’t have to submit that claim to my medical insurance company!
Travel insurance is primary- meaning no copays or network hassles. I’ve had three claims and all got paid within two weeks.
Travel Insurance Annual Plans: Pro and Con
Many of you asked me the pros and cons of annual vs. each trip plans. I shared that I have an annual for myself via Allianz and buy for Deal Dad and the kids as needed. I use the $125 basic annual plan for singles. Going forward I may put everyone on an annual depending on Deal Dad and the kids’ travel plans.
The pro of going with an annual plan: set it and forget it. Existing conditions are going to be covered because you already have the insurance in place- no worrying about buying the insurance within 14 days of the trip. You can also choose not pay for the pieces you don’t need such as cancellation if you have a credit card that takes care of those. My main reason for buying travel insurance over and above the credit cards is medical- the annual plan takes care of that piece for an affordable price.
The con of annual plans: you have to pay for every family member. With the trip only plans you can buy insurance for the adults, then the kids are free. It may be more cost effective to buy as needed for the less frequent travelers in your family.
Allianz has a new option only available via phone: The Premier Annual Plan. Starting at $450/year, it covers an entire household up to and including grandparents if they live with you. It could be a real cost saver for families. I’m definitely checking it out for my own family.
