We are just about to put in a claim for when our flight was cancelled and we had to get a hotel for the night. There were nine of us so it’s almost $1000. Hoping ot works out with no complications
Things are now moving in the right direction. The AON rep apparently wasn't listening when I told her I couldn't document the tour refund and insisted I needed to do so. Tauck did intervene for me and it is supposed to be straightened. When I called AON to make sure that was the case, they said the case was now closed and that I would receive an email in 5 days (5 days to send an email!?!) that would explain everything. I had asked about the amount I would receive. British, it appears that it did not include our hotel stay at the Amsterdam airport. So, good luck. I'm going to wait until I receive the email explanation and the refund before making judgement. Prague, I have to go back in my records again to see if everything matches as I had a question, too. Mike, you are so knowledgeable about insurance. With all of my travels it never occurred to me to get travel insurance until someone mentioned it when I was in my sixties. After this experience it's clear that I need to know exactly what the insurance will cover.
My husband has only had time to call Tauck so far. The agent said we would be covered. He is going to tackle the paperwork today. We are not looking forward to it all.
I do think you have been badly treated. I particularly enjoy your reviews. It must leave a bad taste in your mourh.
We have had to cancel once with Tauck, we got all our money back.
We had a trip interrupted tour at the beginning of Covid, but it was not a Tauck tour.. The tour company told is how much money we should get back from the insurance. Initially, it was denied. We called the tour company back
and they intervened and we eventually received the money. We had all the emails of the people on the trip, contacted them, they had been denied payment too. As a result of us contacting them, they all received their money. Funnily enough, after that, the tour company changed their insurance company.
Last year, we canceled a tour fairly last minute, again it was not a Tauck tour. We had taken out insurance and it was for Cancel for Any reason. We knew we would only get 70% of the tour price back, which we did. We lost around $5,000 plus of course the price of the insurance.
Tauck insurance has always been the most generous in my opinion and as read frequently about it from people here on the forum. I just can’t understood why they are behaving so adamantly with you.. We will see what happens in our situation.
Sorry for being late to the party on this. Such a distressing situation. We have never done a river cruise. We have only done one small ship cruise and were made aware that the insurance coverage was different. You can never be sure in advance what they will cover, because the clauses are not always clear. For land tours, we have taken 13. From 2023 to 2025 we had to cancel one tour hours before departure for an impending death in the family. For another tour, we had a trip interuption on day 3 also for the same reason. The first tour involved Covid which we contracted on departure day, and had to remain 5 extra days in isolation (and also cancelling a follow up non-Tauck tour to Iceland, for which we had separate insurance.) In all instances we got back all unused portions of the trip. The Covid quarantine hotel was paid for.
Sorry I can't recall who said this above, but I absolutely agree that you have to take into account your own personal situation when you consider Travel Insurance. In our case it ended up saving money--3 cancellations/interuptions in just over 2 years. We still have 2 parents living and we will keep buying it. And Tauck's insurance is extremely reasonable considering the coverage.
We are looking forward to river cruising but have lost interest in the Danube!
This gets really confusing really fast. In response to @TBipp, Allianz does offer a policy with a year’s worth of travel insurance coverage. This is not an endorsement of Allianz or said policy. I have no idea of the coverage details or exclusions, deductibles, etc. I have used Allianz in the past, and get occasional emails from them concerning this offering.
I was under the impression that the annual policies only covered trip medical. The cost of trip insurance that covers what you paid for the trip is based on the cost of the trip so it seems it would be difficult to do an annual policy.
Mike, I understand what you are implying but there are companies that provide annual travel insurance. I even think there are people in this forum who have had an annual policy for travel.
I checked this out awhile back based on a friend bragging having annual coverage. What I discovered was that the coverage didn't cover what I spend as a solo for a Tauck trip..................................
We were traveling with someone recently who had annual travel insurance. We were curious, but when we looked into it, we found the same as Goddess. We do have annual evacuation insurance. We just happen to have had an email from them this morning I’ll see if I can post a link
The arguments that people saved a lot of money by not having travel insurance are based on false logic. Of course with any insurance (perhaps with the exception of health insurance which we all use) you are insuring for low probability, high impact events. We all carry fire insurance but thankfully few have to use it. So why pay for it? Easy argument. When I travel I’m not insuring for the visit to the ER for a few sutures. I’m insuring for the heart attack or stroke requiring hospitalization and a high level of care. As for the cost of the trip: nice to have (and Tauck makes that easy) but it’s the catastrophic expense I want covered.
I know of a couple of instances of people very happy they had insurance for medical care on tours. One was an older couple who while on tour she fell and hurt her back badly. Ended up in the hospital several days and he had to stay in a hotel. When they released her the drs said only if she flew home in business class with a lie flat seat. Tour costs were the least of their money worries. A sadder case was a 20 something young couple on their honeymoon who went to Iceland. He fell skiing. Had to be airlifted, weeks in a hospital and had to be medivac'd home. No insurance. Even if you don't want insurance to cover tours costs, airfare, baggage - it's a good idea to have medical and evacuation coverage.
As has been discussed before, there are two versions of trip insurance: (1) Trip Medical and (2) trip insurance to cover what you paid for the trip.
With the second version you know exactly the limit of your possible loss - it's what you paid for the trip. There are very valid reasons for not purchasing this kind of insurance - basically to self-insure.
But the trip medical is not so limited - it can be very large, depending on your medical issue. I've always recommended that travelers obtain a trip medical policy for a tour, even if you don't get the second version. A serious medical problem is a very rare event so the cost of trip medical is fairly low, maybe $100/person/trip.
A serious medical problem is not that rare. Think of how many people die on cruise ships never mind all the accidents I have seen on Tauck trips.
Approximately 200 deaths occur on cruise ships each year. This equals about one death for every 150,000 passengers, or roughly 3 to 4 deaths every week across the global cruise industry.Causes of DeathNatural causes: Most pass away from heart attacks, strokes, or old age, which makes sense since many travelers are older adults.Accidents and overboard incidents: About 19 to 25 people fall overboard or experience fatal falls each year.Other causes: Suicides, medical emergencies, and rare violent crimes make up the rest of the total.Onboard ProceduresMorgue storage: Most large cruise ships have a small morgue with space for 3 to 4 bodies to store a person safely until the ship reaches the next port.Offloading: The crew moves the body out quietly at a port to send them home.
@British - The actuaries who work for the insurance companies are very good at estimating the cost of medical issues encountered by travelers. The price would be much higher if a significant number of travelers encountered expensive medical problems (including death).
Trip medical insurance is cheap because very few travelers file claims (meaning they don't have any medical issues). Travel insurance is very profitable, even trip medical, meaning they take in a lot more money than they pay out, and that includes administrative costs.
For any individual traveler, having an expensive claim is extremely unlikely. However, as I mentioned earlier, there's no upper limit on the costs, so buying trip medical is a good idea (in my opinion). Especially since it's fairly low cost.
What I'll call "first world travel" is medically safe for the traveler overall.
Then, you should certainly have travel medical insurance.
[But what I was referring to is the"bubble" that tour companies provide to us. We are generally protected from many perils in our tours, even if the country we are visiting is not "first world." For example, we are provided with safe water.]
Comments
We are just about to put in a claim for when our flight was cancelled and we had to get a hotel for the night. There were nine of us so it’s almost $1000. Hoping ot works out with no complications
Things are now moving in the right direction. The AON rep apparently wasn't listening when I told her I couldn't document the tour refund and insisted I needed to do so. Tauck did intervene for me and it is supposed to be straightened. When I called AON to make sure that was the case, they said the case was now closed and that I would receive an email in 5 days (5 days to send an email!?!) that would explain everything. I had asked about the amount I would receive. British, it appears that it did not include our hotel stay at the Amsterdam airport. So, good luck. I'm going to wait until I receive the email explanation and the refund before making judgement. Prague, I have to go back in my records again to see if everything matches as I had a question, too. Mike, you are so knowledgeable about insurance. With all of my travels it never occurred to me to get travel insurance until someone mentioned it when I was in my sixties. After this experience it's clear that I need to know exactly what the insurance will cover.
My husband has only had time to call Tauck so far. The agent said we would be covered. He is going to tackle the paperwork today. We are not looking forward to it all.
I do think you have been badly treated. I particularly enjoy your reviews. It must leave a bad taste in your mourh.
We have had to cancel once with Tauck, we got all our money back.
We had a trip interrupted tour at the beginning of Covid, but it was not a Tauck tour.. The tour company told is how much money we should get back from the insurance. Initially, it was denied. We called the tour company back
and they intervened and we eventually received the money. We had all the emails of the people on the trip, contacted them, they had been denied payment too. As a result of us contacting them, they all received their money. Funnily enough, after that, the tour company changed their insurance company.
Last year, we canceled a tour fairly last minute, again it was not a Tauck tour. We had taken out insurance and it was for Cancel for Any reason. We knew we would only get 70% of the tour price back, which we did. We lost around $5,000 plus of course the price of the insurance.
Tauck insurance has always been the most generous in my opinion and as read frequently about it from people here on the forum. I just can’t understood why they are behaving so adamantly with you.. We will see what happens in our situation.
Sorry for being late to the party on this. Such a distressing situation. We have never done a river cruise. We have only done one small ship cruise and were made aware that the insurance coverage was different. You can never be sure in advance what they will cover, because the clauses are not always clear. For land tours, we have taken 13. From 2023 to 2025 we had to cancel one tour hours before departure for an impending death in the family. For another tour, we had a trip interuption on day 3 also for the same reason. The first tour involved Covid which we contracted on departure day, and had to remain 5 extra days in isolation (and also cancelling a follow up non-Tauck tour to Iceland, for which we had separate insurance.) In all instances we got back all unused portions of the trip. The Covid quarantine hotel was paid for.
Sorry I can't recall who said this above, but I absolutely agree that you have to take into account your own personal situation when you consider Travel Insurance. In our case it ended up saving money--3 cancellations/interuptions in just over 2 years. We still have 2 parents living and we will keep buying it. And Tauck's insurance is extremely reasonable considering the coverage.
We are looking forward to river cruising but have lost interest in the Danube!
This gets really confusing really fast. In response to @TBipp, Allianz does offer a policy with a year’s worth of travel insurance coverage. This is not an endorsement of Allianz or said policy. I have no idea of the coverage details or exclusions, deductibles, etc. I have used Allianz in the past, and get occasional emails from them concerning this offering.
I was under the impression that the annual policies only covered trip medical. The cost of trip insurance that covers what you paid for the trip is based on the cost of the trip so it seems it would be difficult to do an annual policy.
Mike, I understand what you are implying but there are companies that provide annual travel insurance. I even think there are people in this forum who have had an annual policy for travel.
I checked this out awhile back based on a friend bragging having annual coverage. What I discovered was that the coverage didn't cover what I spend as a solo for a Tauck trip..................................
We were traveling with someone recently who had annual travel insurance. We were curious, but when we looked into it, we found the same as Goddess. We do have annual evacuation insurance. We just happen to have had an email from them this morning I’ll see if I can post a link
https://www.emergencyassistanceplus.com/lp/dtc-nb-j-50d/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Search_Brand_Prospecting_Geo1_Core_DC4886_Exact_Match_Non_Insurance&utm_term=emergency assistance plus&utm_tcode=e3981&utm_promo=50off&tw_source=google&tw_adid=817741958546&tw_campaign=20604585574&tw_kwdid=kwd-330077107335&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20604585574&gclid=CjwKCAjwmozTBhAeEiwAkEGZzucCoeovFxW3PVILpCqSYBQK5k0fsmihCu1icURsv5aIbDRvoIWA9xoCxpUQAvD_BwE
I stress, this is not travel insurance, it’s evacuation insurances which covers you even if you are only 100 miles from home.
The arguments that people saved a lot of money by not having travel insurance are based on false logic. Of course with any insurance (perhaps with the exception of health insurance which we all use) you are insuring for low probability, high impact events. We all carry fire insurance but thankfully few have to use it. So why pay for it? Easy argument. When I travel I’m not insuring for the visit to the ER for a few sutures. I’m insuring for the heart attack or stroke requiring hospitalization and a high level of care. As for the cost of the trip: nice to have (and Tauck makes that easy) but it’s the catastrophic expense I want covered.
I know of a couple of instances of people very happy they had insurance for medical care on tours. One was an older couple who while on tour she fell and hurt her back badly. Ended up in the hospital several days and he had to stay in a hotel. When they released her the drs said only if she flew home in business class with a lie flat seat. Tour costs were the least of their money worries. A sadder case was a 20 something young couple on their honeymoon who went to Iceland. He fell skiing. Had to be airlifted, weeks in a hospital and had to be medivac'd home. No insurance. Even if you don't want insurance to cover tours costs, airfare, baggage - it's a good idea to have medical and evacuation coverage.
As has been discussed before, there are two versions of trip insurance: (1) Trip Medical and (2) trip insurance to cover what you paid for the trip.
With the second version you know exactly the limit of your possible loss - it's what you paid for the trip. There are very valid reasons for not purchasing this kind of insurance - basically to self-insure.
But the trip medical is not so limited - it can be very large, depending on your medical issue. I've always recommended that travelers obtain a trip medical policy for a tour, even if you don't get the second version. A serious medical problem is a very rare event so the cost of trip medical is fairly low, maybe $100/person/trip.
A serious medical problem is not that rare. Think of how many people die on cruise ships never mind all the accidents I have seen on Tauck trips.
Approximately 200 deaths occur on cruise ships each year. This equals about one death for every 150,000 passengers, or roughly 3 to 4 deaths every week across the global cruise industry.Causes of DeathNatural causes: Most pass away from heart attacks, strokes, or old age, which makes sense since many travelers are older adults.Accidents and overboard incidents: About 19 to 25 people fall overboard or experience fatal falls each year.Other causes: Suicides, medical emergencies, and rare violent crimes make up the rest of the total.Onboard ProceduresMorgue storage: Most large cruise ships have a small morgue with space for 3 to 4 bodies to store a person safely until the ship reaches the next port.Offloading: The crew moves the body out quietly at a port to send them home.
Cruise ships are different from land tours. They are Petri dishes.
@British - The actuaries who work for the insurance companies are very good at estimating the cost of medical issues encountered by travelers. The price would be much higher if a significant number of travelers encountered expensive medical problems (including death).
Trip medical insurance is cheap because very few travelers file claims (meaning they don't have any medical issues). Travel insurance is very profitable, even trip medical, meaning they take in a lot more money than they pay out, and that includes administrative costs.
For any individual traveler, having an expensive claim is extremely unlikely. However, as I mentioned earlier, there's no upper limit on the costs, so buying trip medical is a good idea (in my opinion). Especially since it's fairly low cost.
What I'll call "first world travel" is medically safe for the traveler overall.
A lot of my travel is not first world.
Then, you should certainly have travel medical insurance.
[But what I was referring to is the"bubble" that tour companies provide to us. We are generally protected from many perils in our tours, even if the country we are visiting is not "first world." For example, we are provided with safe water.]