just giving this post a nudge back up top -

I am also very interested in a reply to this

Steve

See the string I pushed back to the top. There's lots of good info there! 🙂

Thanks - that other thread helped. Funny thing about Travelguard- the woman asked me for my date of travel, which is 4 weeks away. I told her I ws concerned about hurricanes. She said hurricanes are covered as long as the hurricane isn't named before you buy the insurance. Then she put me on hold to go check to see if any hurricanes have been named that will affect STT in 4 weeks. (????) She was happy to report that there is nothing on the horizon that is expected to ruin my vacation 4 wks from now - whew - what a relief 🙁

Uh... I meant "thread" not "string"... close, but no cigar - duh! 🙂 I guess if there's a named hurricane out there, they don't want to take the chance, which makes sense I suppose. I'm glad the previous information was useful to you 🙂

I wound up booking with Travel Guard today. I used the comparison website referenced on the other thread and Travel Guard seemed to be the most cost effective and had a high rating. The only problem is that I am not happy with how they set up the policy and they won't let me change it without writing to them and then paying a higher premium.

I am paying for the entire trip out of my pocket, with the exception of my parents who are coming for a portion of the trip and are paying their own airfare and for a rental car. My son is coming for a portion of the trip and his only expense is his air. Everything else, including the entire villa is on me. I added up everyone's cost and arrived at a total (which the website asks for when you get the quote), then I called and gave the sales person the total and the number of travelers. She divided the total trip by the number of travelers and came up with a per traveler claim limit. I did explain that the bulk was out of my pocket. No problem, policy granted.....very nice salesgirl named Danielle. It took just a few minutes - I paid like $220 and had the entire deal insured.

As soon as I hung up, I became concerend that IF the limit is PER PERSON, what if a disaster strikes after some of the people in my part depart? As an example, if each member in my party is carring $1,500 of the trip, and two of them are gone when something happens, the other 3 are left with only $4500 in coverage. Since I would be one of those three, and I paid for more than $4500, I would be OUT without coverage for my share. So I immediately called them back to ask how this works and I reached another sales person (stephanie) who made me feel like a criminal for calling. She kept trying to trip me up about who had what expenses (I had a spreadsheet, so I wasnt confused about any of it) She would say things like -"so, you paid for a villa and they don't charge you PER PERSON? so you can have 500 people in your villa?" (very sarcastically). Then she kept telling me that if I file a claim, they WILL double check all of this and I will have to prove everything. I started to get a sinking feeling that if something does happen, Travel Guard doesn't plan on paying dime and they've got 1001 technicalities to get themselves out of it. She said I would have to PROVE that each expense was allocated to a certain person. I explained tha tthe other girl didn't tell me that and the other girl even did the division math for me to break my total down to a PP rate. So, how would I have known that I have to detail everything per person and be exact? Any way, all she could do was apologize for the other girl and tell em that I had to write a letter. She could not change the policy, cancel the policy, etc.

I decided that it is probably easier to get the villa people to write my contract to match Travel Guard as opposed to getting Travel Guard to match my trip. I was feeling kind of bummed about my trip when I hung up from Stephanie - like I had just been on trial for murder and the decision was pending.

Travel Guard needs happier people who know how to talk to happy people who are planning vacations. If you call them, plan your call in advance and have every little thing detailed. I have the sense that somehow, someway, my $200 worth of insurance will be worthless - one way or another - especially if Stephanie is on the case.

You should call her "Hurricane Stephanie".

I couldn't resist.

Bluwater - Is there a clause that lets you cancel the insurance within 10 days or so and getting your money back? Seems to me that I've seen that when I've purchased travel insurance before. Just a thought. Good luck!

Coden, I will check to see if that is the case. Now that you mention it, I seem to recall seeing that in the comparison of policies. Thanks!

bluwater,

never used or considered trip insurance, so it's one of the few things in the world about which i have no opinion. buttt, one general principle of insurance law is: THE BIG PRINT GIVES AND the small print takes it away!

happy hunting

papabou

Blu - I hope it works out for you. We haven't purchased insurance for this trip yet. I guess I need to look into that soon.

papabou, so TRUE!

Coden, yes, anyone going during "the season" should consider protection, especially for "pay in advance" items like villas and hotwire care rentals that can't be cancelled.

I did call USAir to ask them about the evacuation policy. If an evacuation is called, USAir will, if asked to, book travelers holding roundtrip tickets on the first available flights out, without any additional charge. I am guessing that other airlines work the same way.