Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Note that oftentimes if you travel overseas, your health insurance will NOT cover you. Most policies also pay to send your remains back home if you die on a trip, something that’s very expensive and not otherwise covered. These are two very good reasons to get trip insurance, am thinking.
I've never had a health insurance policy that didn't cover emergency care outside the country although certainly not in-network. And Medicare doesn't cover you. As I said, you have to know your own situation.
Sorry. I do have year around travel insurance through AIG. Didn't think about it because i bought it for hospital stay. Used it twice... After the first time I paid a hospital bill myself.... Thankfully it is not as expensive overseas. But stil about 10.000 for 5 days. 2 says ER, 2 days intensive care, 1 day in a room for bladder infection Had sky high fever....
According to my doctor there would be another 0 in the USA....
I will call tomorrow and share my experience/outcome.
Travel insurance is certainly not a scam. I just want to mention, you should consider getting an annual policy instead of getting coverage for individual trips.
Travel insurance is certainly not a scam. I just want to mention, you should consider getting an annual policy instead of getting coverage for individual trips.
Good luck, OP!
I totally agree; unfortunately, they have maximum age limitations.
I do have travel insurance, cost 250 a year.... Just forget about it.
Called Expedia and got it set straight.
Everything is the same, except Chicago. Have a 3 hour wait, what is fine with me.Hour at customs, the other 2 hours go fast enough.
Was on the phone for 23 minutes, not bad.
The real problem was.... original I had only 25 minutes in Chicago to change planes, what is impossible even without customs. I didn't see that.
Life is one long learning curve... Learned something today..... Check and double check.....
Everyone, thank you very much for all the help and advice.
Travel insurance is definitely NOT a scam. Purchasing it for medical expenses when travelling overseas is the best reason for it. If I can afford to tragel, I can (unhappily) absorb the loss of the cost of a plane ticket. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in uninsured medical expenses???? No thanks.
Where you screwed up is buying airplane tickets from a third party site like expedia. And if those flights aren't on one ticket, expect a refund on the cancelled flight, but probably nothing on the other segments.
If you have serious medical issues, they will allow you to change your flight schedule (up to 1 year later) without insurance. Happened to me last year. I had to postpone a flight 6 months and it wasn't a problem, and I have never purchased insurance. All they asked for was the hospital name and the medical problems. They told me they allow one medical emergency per year.
Glad to hear the rebooking went relatively smoothly. I know it's easy and popular to bash airlines, but my experience has been that if you're reasonable about what you want in such circumstances, the airline is pretty good at giving that to you.
So true. And all these stories about passengers treated bad. I think they bring it on themselves. Never had any problems, And have never seen any unruly passengers.
Knock on wood.....
If you have serious medical issues, they will allow you to change your flight schedule (up to 1 year later) without insurance. Happened to me last year. I had to postpone a flight 6 months and it wasn't a problem, and I have never purchased insurance. All they asked for was the hospital name and the medical problems. They told me they allow one medical emergency per year.
That's NOT the risk. What can be financially catastrophic is a medical emergency overseas, where most people have no coverage on their domestic coverage. (And most people that do think they are covered overseas don't realize how limited that insurance is.)
That said, you're spot on. I'm fact, we've gotten that one year credit on a totally non-refundable fare. Under the medical situation you described (and when it became clear that the medical issues would be continuing over more than a year, Delta kindly refunded the money. But that was years ago, and I can't imagine it happening again.)
Earlier THIS year, we had an international flight to/from a cruise. United was the airline flying us home after the cruise, and they changed the schedule giving us a six hour layover. No good alternatives, and We chose to cancel the entire cruise. Of course, United offered and issued a full refund. But Delta was flying us to the cruise and under no obligation to offer us anything. Nevertheless, they generously issued credit which we used a few months later.
Guess which airline we go out of our way to fly?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
