Tripadvisor Now Offers Annual Travel Insurance, Filling a Void

Insurance should always be a numbers game: What you think you could possibly need covered, versus the cost of the policy. The AllTrips Basic policy provides $20,000 in emergency medical/dental, $100,000 in secondary emergency medical transportation, $1,000 in primary baggage loss/damage, and $200 in baggage delay. Here, the main attraction for almost everybody is the medical transportation, a risk that’s rare but could potentially entail substantial financial costs for travelers. And it’s a risk that many travelers do not have covered automatically through their other insurance policies.

The value of the emergency medical, along with emergency dental capped at $750, depends entirely on whether you have travel coverage as part of your normal health insurance. If you do, the new secondary policy may not add much more; it covers only what you can't first recover from your regular insurance. But you need it if your regular health insurance doesn't cover you away from home—especially outside the U.S. This is often the case for seniors on Medicare who travel outside the U.S., where Medicare offers no coverage and Medigap policies typically carry a $250 deductible and a 20-percent copayment.

The baggage coverage is a nice-to-have. The primary purpose of insurance is to cover big risks, and the financial risks of baggage loss, damage, or delay are usually more trivial. Also, airlines are first responsible for damage and loss, so although the insurance pays you rather than the airline, the insurer will usually defer to the airline.

Basic will sell for $135 per person per year, or $270 per couple. By comparison, most insurers charge around $175 to $300, depending on age.

For about twice the Basic rate, Prime policies add $3,000 per person in trip-cancellation/trip interruption coverage (TCI/TII). As with all insurance policies, purchasers should check the coverage fine-print for the specific “covered reasons" to make sure theirs concerns are all included.

In addition to providing the same “post-departure” benefits available in the Basic plan, the primary attraction of the Prime plan is obviously the availability of annual cancellation coverage. Maximum cancellation coverage of $3,000 is relatively low, and might not be enough for travelers on expensive luxury cruises, safaris, and such. But given the ability to recover at least part of a nonrefundable fare or deposit—most notably a nonrefundable airfare—a limit of $3,000 per person will be sufficient for many travelers.

AllTrip Prime policies cost $275 per person per year, or $550 per couple. In checking the several online insurance agencies we list often, I didn't find any annual policies offering both cancellation and emergency medical coverage together.

Annual policies for both medical and TCI/TII make a lot of sense for travelers who take two or more trips each year, especially ones that may entail stiff nonrefundable components or heavy cancellation penalties.  Among those are nonrefundable airfares, cruises, resort packages, vacation rentals, and package tours. Medical and TCI/TII policies that aren't age-rated are especially attractive—and relatively rare—for senior travelers.

Clearly, if you take only one trip each year or fewer, a one-trip policy is probably your best bet. But the math changes when you take multiple trips.

Anyone risking big nonrefundables and penalties should consider travel insurance, and should shop around for the best policy to fit their needs. Frequent travelers, and seniors, especially, should include Tripadvisor’s Trip Protection in their comparisons when they do.

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Consumer advocate Ed Perkins has been writing about travel for more than three decades. The founding editor of the Consumer Reports Travel Letter, he continues to inform travelers and fight consumer abuse every day at SmarterTravel.