Travel Insurance

This is my first post about using the Vacation Club we purchased while in Mexico during our last trip. We are using our benefits this year for another week in Mexico. Having booked this vacation somewhere in November or December I thought I had purchased travel insurance for a reasonable $70. What I actually purchased was nowhere near travel insurance. Let me start by outlining the benefits of good travel insurance. Benefits you should look for are:

Medical Payments – These are payments made on your behalf in case of a medical need. Typically your US based medical insurance doesn’t cover you while abroad. There are two types of benefits one being Primary, the other being Secondary. This means who is responsible for payments first. Having a secondary medical coverage means that what ever insurance you already have is responsible and only when that benefit is exhausted will a Secondary benefit kick in. If you have no Primary, then the Secondary becomes the primary payor.

Emergency Evacuation – This benefit is designed to get you the proper care and/or get you home. This is useful if your seriously injured and need medical care that isn’t available at your destination. This benefit will pay to bring you home otherwise you’re on your own.

Trip Cancellation – This benefit covers all or part of your expenses related to booking the trip. Usually this benefit covers you for any reason but sometimes I’ve seen exclusions so read the fine print. This is very useful when traveling during stormy seasons. Also covers if you get ill right before you go on a trip. This is also a common benefit for certain travel based credit cards. We use AA branded cards and ours provides some coverage for this.

Cancel for any reason – as the name suggests its a catch all for reimbursement of non-refundable charges.

Lost, Stolen luggage or Damaged luggage – This covers your bags and contents of the bags. This is also a common benefit for certain travel based credit cards. We use AA branded cards and ours provides some coverage for this.

Rental Car Insurance – If you’re planning on renting a car abroad you should probably have coverage here. You can’t expect the experience you have in the US while renting, driving or dealing with insurance coverages. You really want to insulate yourself from regional laws and customs so make sure you have this benefit. This is also a common benefit for certain travel based credit cards. We use AA branded cards and ours provides some coverage for this.

Those are the highlights of most travel insurance. I found Nerd Wallet to have a really good article about travel insurance. Here is what I supposedly purchased from our Vacation Club thinking it was standard travel insurance. As you can see below, the protection was only covering the insolvency of the club. The other odd thing is the email was dated 12/5/23 and the Protected Until date is also 12/5/23. I should have read this in detail when I received the email. I ended up buying insurance from a broker.