When to purchase travel insurance?

[kinkacruiser]

I have a cruise S.American cruise booked Feb-March 2011 and paid the deposit with the booking. In about a month I will need to organise about $5K worth of airfares. When do most people take out overseas travel insurance. For that matter when do most people book overseas flights? I'll be choosing the round the world option.
Thanks for your help.
Kinka

 

[Hvr]

Buy it now. Travel insurance covers you for heaps of stuff and having it now means that is something happens and you can't travel you will usually be covered. For example, you fall over and break your leg the week prior to travel, then you should be covered for either cancelling your trip or the cost of delaying it.

But as with all insurance you aren't covered until you purchase it.

 

[Travel Guru]

I second that.

I recommend taking it out as soon as the non-refundable portion (and that includes any agency cancellation fees) becomes higher than the cost of the insurance.

Whether you take it out a yr before you go or a week before you go, either way you pay the same price, but you've lost that pre-departure period of time when things go wrong and for which youll only be covered once you take it out.

On the topic of when to purchase your airfares, with RTW fares, theyre less prone to fluctuation than point to points, so it becomes less about when the price is right and more about availability because theres generally only 1 booking class you can use for RTW fares, so once its gone, its either change dates, waitlist or dont travel.

TG

 

[JohnK]

Interesting thread which raises a similar query.

I generally purchase a yearly travel insurance policy but when it runs out if I don't have any planned travel I defer the purchase of the annual policy until closer to the time of the next trip. If something goes wrong (such as a broken leg a week before the trip) do you need to have travel insurance at the time of purchasing the airfares or are you still covered if you have travel insurance at the time of the accident?

 

[dajop]

do you need to have travel insurance at the time of purchasing the airfares or are you still covered if you have travel insurance at the time of the accident?

You are covered from the day you pay for the insurance, irrespective of when flights are paid for, although be worth double checking T&C of specific policy for annual policies to ensure it doesn't exclude travel arranged prior to taking out the insurance.

 

[Travel Guru]

Interesting thread which raises a similar query.

I generally purchase a yearly travel insurance policy but when it runs out if I don't have any planned travel I defer the purchase of the annual policy until closer to the time of the next trip. If something goes wrong (such as a broken leg a week before the trip) do you need to have travel insurance at the time of purchasing the airfares or are you still covered if you have travel insurance at the time of the accident?

As far as I know, and ive never heard anything to suggest otherwise, it doesnt matter when you paid for the tickets, cover begins the day you take it out whether the tkts have been paid previously or not.

Of course on some of the cheaper annual policies, itd be worth double checking the T&C's as they may well keep the price low by cutting out some areas.

TG

 

[JohnK]

Thanks for the feedback. Sounds like what I would expect from a travel insurance policy. It may be worth looking over the terms and conditions of Travel Insurance Direct annual policy just in case I ever need to cancel a trip.

 

[kinkacruiser]

Thanks everyone. I can always count on a speedy reply to my queries.
Regarding the flight bookings, could I book them as soon as both legs are available Syd-Santaigo-Miami-LA-Syd? Is $2300 (approx) a good price for this route? Is it OK to book via a flight specialist agent? I'm a novice at this and need to coordinate flights with the cruise departure/arrival dates.

Travel Guru, I couldn't understand the bit about the booking class. Can you elaborate please?

Thanks again,
Kinka

 

[JohnK]

Travel Guru, I couldn't understand the bit about the booking class. Can you elaborate please?

There are various booking classes when booking tickets for air travel. These classes determine the cost of the airfare. With Qantas economy it goes something like N, O, Q, E, G, L, M, S, V, K, B, H, Y. When the lower classes are booked out the airfare increases to the next booking class. In this example Y is the most expensive economy class airfare.

With a RTW airfare on Qantas it books into "L" class and the price is fairly static and based roughly on season of travel and number of continents travelled. Once "L" class availability is gone on a flight then you cannot use that flight on a RTW booking.

 

[Travel Guru]

Travel Guru, I couldn't understand the bit about the booking class. Can you elaborate please?

Hi Kinka,

It's no longer relevant, initially you mentioned youd be using a round world fare, but the routing you just mentioned isn't round world, so its not relevant, and just depends on what is available.

JohnK did provide a good summary of booking classes etc.

Is your cruise out of and back into Santiago, or is it between 2 of the points mentioned in the routing (ie Santiago-Miami)?

TG

 

[kinkacruiser]

Thanks John K, that's perfectly clear now.
Travel Guru,
We embark in Santiago and disembark in Fort Lauderdale (a 29 day cruise late Feb-late March next year). I wasn't sure what sort of booking this far deal was, just assumed it was RTW. The TA came up with that estimated price a few weeks ago. Should I book sooner rather than later?

As we need hotels and transport to the port/airport, as well as flights I'm inclined to leave all this to the expert (travel agents). At this stage, my comfort zone does not extend beyond booking a domestic flight and hotel .
Cheers,
Kinka

 

[JohnK]

Thanks John K, that's perfectly clear now.

No problem.

As we need hotels and transport to the port/airport, as well as flights I'm inclined to leave all this to the expert (travel agents). At this stage, my comfort zone does not extend beyond booking a domestic flight and hotel .

A travel agent is probably the way to go but why don't have a go researching airfares online? Sometimes you will be surprised what is available (nothing against Travel Agents but some like to push specific airlines) and assuming you are sensible and leave some buffer on arrival and departure times then you should be OK. You could even try and find some routings on your own and ask your travel agent to find the same routing and even try and beat the price.

Personally I like to be in control and prefer to book my own travel where possible including flights, transfers, accommodation and simple tours.

 

[kinkacruiser]

A travel agent is probably the way to go but why don't have a go researching airfares online? Sometimes you will be surprised what is available (nothing against Travel Agents but some like to push specific airlines) and assuming you are sensible and leave some buffer on arrival and departure times then you should be OK. You could even try and find some routings on your own and ask your travel agent to find the same routing and even try and beat the price.

Personally I like to be in control and prefer to book my own travel where possible including flights, transfers, accommodation and simple tours.

Good idea. I have a rough idea how much I should have to pay, so it will be an interesting exercise. There's a minefiled of sites re flight bookings, hotels and transfers to choose from. Are you allowed to share any of the sites you use ?
Cheers,
Kinka

 

[JohnK]

There is no hard and fast rule on which websites to use. Also try airline and hotel chain websites directly. For transfers just type in a simple google search such as "limousine from bangkok airport to rayong".

For flghts try

Expedia
Zuji
Kayak
Orbitz

For accommodation try

HotelClub
Agoda
Wotif

 

[kinkacruiser]

There is no hard and fast rule on which websites to use. Also try airline and hotel chain websites directly. For transfers just type in a simple google search such as "limousine from bangkok airport to rayong".

For flghts try

Expedia
Zuji
Kayak
Orbitz

For accommodation try

HotelClub
Agoda
Wotif

Those are top sites. I used some yesterday. I feel a lot more confident about doing my own bookings now.
I used Expedia, locking in all the flights and came up with a handsome price....better than the TA quoted with her dummy input.
One more query.....
For the return leg from LAX, we are looking at March 24. When is the earliest that bookings will be available for this...about 2-4 weeks time?
Thanks,
Kinka

 

[harvyk]

It depends on the airline, but for QF I would estimate 2 weeks time. You can currently book online up until the 13th of March 2011. (although I have heard that flight go on sale 363 days in advance, so a TA may be able to book flights for you as early as tomorrow)

All that said, you may want to hold off booking for a little while incase any specials come up. Whilst I personally wouldn't wait until the last couple of days, as an example I can still book return flight to the US leaving tomorrow and not be paying an exorbitant amount. Infact you may be charged a premium for booking so far out. According to the QF site it was cheaper to book a flight leaving tomorrow than it was for me to book a flight leaving next Feb...

 

[lovetravellingoz]

As far as I know, and ive never heard anything to suggest otherwise, it doesnt matter when you paid for the tickets, cover begins the day you take it out whether the tkts have been paid previously or not.

Of course on some of the cheaper annual policies, itd be worth double checking the T&C's as they may well keep the price low by cutting out some areas.

TG

Cover begins then, but will not cover "intentions". You will need to have at least made some major bookings.
Naturally if you have only made deposits..that is all the Insurance will re-imburse.

Re John's broken leg , the leg will need to have been broken AFTER (note edited) to the insurance being taking out as they do not cover any pre-existing conditions such as that.

By the way I had two sisters that used to work in travel insurance and it was a common attempted rort for people who had made bookings, but not insured at the time, to then take out travel insurance if they had a problem arise to try and recoupo what was by then a known loss.

The Insurers therefore will look very closely at any pre-departure claims for policies taken out late in the piece.

 

[JohnK]

Those are top sites. I used some yesterday. I feel a lot more confident about doing my own bookings now.
I used Expedia, locking in all the flights and came up with a handsome price....better than the TA quoted with her dummy input.

Good to hear. I hope you are able to save yourself some money. It was pleasure to be able to assist.

Re John's broken leg , the leg will need to have been broken PRIOR to the insurance being taking out as they do not cover any pre-existing conditions such as that.

Hey, easy on the borken leg already.

Do you mean the leg would need to have been broken AFTER insurance being taken out? If it is PRIOR then it is a pre-existing condition.

 

[RB]

Do you mean the leg would need to have been broken AFTER insurance being taken out? If it is PRIOR then it is a pre-existing condition.

Yes that would be the case.

 

[phonakins]

I think my stress-head self would rather get it as soon as I've put money down for ANYTHING.