AIBU to tell you to advise you to get insurance when you travel?

[Frannyhy]

Airbnb guest arriving yesterday had her flight cancelled. She asked me to change her reservation to today. I called Airbnb for advice. Of course they will alter a reservation which I am quite happy with.

But and it’s a big but, they say any refund is at my discretion. I’m not giving her one - this is the third time this has happened this year and I’m not taking the hit for this. I have refused everyone.

Of course if they wish to cancel the reservation and get a partial refund that’s up to them.

A few pounds spent on travel insurance would avoid this. It’s money well spent.

80 euros is less than the excess on most insurance policies.

Of course it's stupid to not get it and then set up a GoFundMe, but if you can pay off the cost of potential medical care yourself and deem the risk to be acceptable, do what you want.

Exactly, these people who are "judging their own risk" clearly can't afford it! They're just trying to save a few quid. I recently bought travel insurance for myself and DD, a week long trip, £9.60 for the 2 of us. Yes chances are that neither of us will need hospital treatment in that week but why risk it for the sake of £5 each? The guy in that article reckons they looked at insurance and it was supposedly £4000 as she was pregnant. There must have been other factors because being pregnant alone wouldn't make it that much. Or he's just lying.

People shouldnt have to be reminded. but they often do.

My mil has a heart condition and was going to fo abroad with out insurance at all. I had a chat with hee and convinced her to get insurance the day after she booked. Good job to as ahe was admitted to hospital and couldnt go. It took a while to get one that gave her good coverage and value for money.

Lots of people wait until a few days before. But you should get it, before. Just incase you need to cancel.

The guy in that article reckons they looked at insurance and it was supposedly £4000 as she was pregnant. There must have been other factors because being pregnant alone wouldn't make it that much. Or he's just lying.

Agree I travelled in both my pregnancies, to various countries. Didnt cost that much extra. A few pounds at most.

There is no way travel insurance was 4k, just because she was pregnant.

Going to the US without insurance is insane.

My exh got a really bad stomach bug. We took him in. He had blood tests and IV fluids as he couldnt keep water down. We were there 6 hours and it cost $6000 dollars. I mean the hospital was amazing. Blood tests all back in a couple of hours in the middle of the night. Excellent staff, but pricey.

Not an issue as we had insurance

Well I was going to say that if you book a holiday and then discover that you are pregnant or have any other medical condition, you should consider cancelling or rearranging if you would be uninsured for pregnancy complications/early delivery etc, but it seems that the couple with the premature baby in the US actually booked the holiday when she was already pregnant for the purposes of a 'surprise baby shower' to visit her family .

There is no way travel insurance was 4k, just because she was pregnant

Pregnant with Octuplets perhaps?

But, be aware that some insurance won’t cover the UK.

Usually you tell them where you are going. So that would flag wether you are covered or not.

To travel to the US where every man and his dog knows how £££ hospital care will be, whilst pregnant without insurance is spectacularly fucking stupid!

Exactly. We have rolling annual travel insurance but I have phone every renewal date to top up for a pre-existing condition and one time the chap on the phone was just chatting about various countries and said the US by far has the highest medical costs.

I find it hard to believe that couple in the article were quoted 4K for travel insurance.

Well I was going to say that if you book a holiday and then discover that you are pregnant or have any other medical condition, you should consider cancelling or rearranging if you would be uninsured for pregnancy complications/early delivery etc,

If you already have your insurance, you just call them and tell them. It may increase what you need to pay by a small amount. That's what happened to me before a holiday to florida.

Same with medical conditions.

If you die abroad, they might not release the body to be brought back until they are paid. International funeral directors are not cheap.
Insurance companies will sort all this out. If you are not insured, your family might have to cough up thousands of pounds to be able to bury you at home.

Speaking from experience.

Oh, that's good to know Tennesee. I was concerned that insurers would consider pregnancy 'deliberate' even if unplanned, so they'd refuse to cover, but I suppose that it makes sense that they continue to offer insurance, but obviously charge a little extra, because most trips at 6 months will be uneventful, but obviously there's the small chance of expensive complications.

Although I have heard that you need to check that the insurer will cover the baby as well as the mother. Wasn't there a case of a premature birth overseas and while the birth and the mother's medical care was covered, the baby was in a premature baby unit, and that wasn't covered as the child that wasn't born, or possibly not even conceived when the insurance so wasn't named on the insurance. Which would make it rather useless.

@BarbaraofSeville I dont know about that case. Is that the Dax in New York one?

Most insurance companies insure the pregnancy and post birth baby. It depends on circumstances.

If you have a history of premature births and want to fly at 7 months I expect that that would push costs up or they would advise they xpuldnt cover certain aspects.

Like when I was pregnant they woildnt cover kidney infections as I had, had one 3 months previous. But covered all other pregnancy related medical costs.

Ita about looking at what they cover, what they dont. Never had a company refuse to insure me when adding something on.

My friend had to call hers the week before she flew and she broke her finger and had to eat a splint. It didnt cost anything to advise them of that because she told them, she was covered.

Had she have needed treatment, but not told them she wouldnt have been covered.

The maddest thing about that story with the premie is that the mother is from the US. She must have known the importance of arranging appropriate insurance. Having paid for travel insurance whilst pregnant I don't believe what they said about cover costing £4K for an instant, unless there was a pre-existing condition which meant preterm labour was more likely. In which case, they rolled the dice, decided to travel anyway and their gamble didn't pay off. Hope the baby continues to do well but it's frustrating seeing people make poor choices and then go cap in hand to the general public when it was completely avoidable.

Sorry forgot to say that the Dax in New York one was shit show. They did have insurance. Costs were all covered by the Ronald McDonald charity and their insurance, the money they raised on go fund me was promised to the charity but never appeared. They claimed their friend set it up, without them knowing. This man set it up before the insurance company even made a decision.

They were still asking for money after the insurance company confirmed that they were covering most costs and private flights home.

They live near my ex pils. They kept the money themseleves and are pretty smug about it. No money went to the care of the child or the charity.

I’ve had a go fund me shared to my fb of a guy who has been badly assaulted on holiday and is critically ill. Very very sad obviously but didn’t have travel insurance and the comment are along the lines of “young guys don’t think about these things”.

He’s 26!

In some cases insurance won’t cover you if you stay with family rather than booked accommodation.

Perhaps Stupidity Surcharge perhaps?

Sorry I know I'm being a bit mean but these numptys make me cross (not you Perhaps, the plonkers in that article).

In some cases insurance won’t cover you if you stay with family rather than booked accommodation.

And lots do. Like all adults, you have a responsibility to check your insurance covers your situation. Not just pick the first one you come across.

I have friends who work in consular services. The sheer numbers of people who travel abroad without travel insurance and get themselves into bother is astonishing.

To give a different perspective, several years ago I was diagnosed with cancer the day before I was due to leave on a major trip. I had full travel insurance but the only money we recovered was through the kindness of individual businesses who had compassion for our plight. Insurance company found loophole after loophole to refuse us payment until we finally gave up the fight because we needed to focus on my treatment. Lost a couple thousand dollars in flights and I was never again under any illusion that insurance companies reliably honour their side of the bargain.

Is agree having travel insurance is a no brainer. I have cover as an included perk of my Mastercard, don't most people have at least some cover through their Visa/MasterCard?

To give a different perspective, several years ago I was diagnosed with cancer the day before I was due to leave on a major trip.

To give a contrary instance. We were planning on a family holiday to New York and had paid several thousand for accommodation, flights, attractions, car hire, etc. My OH was diagnosed with cancer between booking all that and the travel dates. When we contacted the travel insurer, they said they wouldn't cover the holiday but that we could claim under the policy for cancellation. We deliberately chose a policy with zero excess (it's worth another tenner or so for a policy with no excess) and got every penny of our costs back within a few weeks of sending in the claim - in fact we made a small profit because of the exchange rate changing! No sign of any delays or arguments with the insurers. We were VERY surprised and impressed as we had expected a battle with them given what other people claim about insurance firms not paying out.

I think some people use stories of other people not being paid out by their insurers as an excuse for them not to bother or being too tight to buy insurance. Not saying some insurers don't play games, but pretty sure a lot of the unpaid claims are because people haven't been entirely honest on their proposal firms or can't back up their claims for losses.

Downside with travel insurance is that small print usually excludes illness of over 80 year olds. The most likely thing to affect our holidays is serious illness of a nearly 100-year old parent with multiple health conditions, and I haven't yet found an insurance that will cover for this.

Do you mean taking someone of that age travelling or having to cancel if they are unwell?