Times when travel insurance has paid off for you

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Just that. Anybody had Experiance of travel insurance "working" & what was the result ?

They paid a £300 dental bill for me in Germany.

I have no personal experience, but work on an intensive care unit. I have accepted multiple patients from all over the world who have been repatriated back after falling unwell on holiday.

They’d of been categorically fucked without it.

My uncle had a heart attack on a plane, they had to divert to the closest airport, he was in a Spanish hospital for a few weeks. The insurance company paid all the fees plus accommodation costs for my aunt and cousins, food expenses etc whilst they were there and the flights back home. They would have been screwed without insurance

The time when DH smashed his skull to pieces avoiding a motorbike that pulled out in front of him just 4 months after he retired from a 40 year accident free job as a truck driver.
We had two holidays coming up in quick succession. It was too late to cancel either and they paid out in full for both.
It was a travel pack with a bank but they won't cover him now as he's had a couple of 'heart incidents' since with no firm diagnosis.

Missed port cover on a cruise, we got £400 back (£100 per person).

Have worked in that industry, claims can range from a couple of hundred pounds for a lost camera to life-changing amounts for medical repatriation, intensive care in the US or Caribbean, repatriation of dead relatives, etc

Try googling the cost of helicopter evacuation from a ski slope, cancellation of a round the world cruise, cost of a heart attack and recuperation etc, you will be shocked

In one joyful holiday DPs luggage went missing. They covered him to go shopping for replacement clothing and personal items until it came back.

DC also got ill on same holiday and they covered trip to hospital to see a DR, taxis to and from hospital and medication.

I also know someone who had a bad fall and was bed bound, they paid for all medical bills, and months in the hotel (4 star) plus medical assistance on flight home.

Missed a port on a cruise in 2023 and travel insurance paid £100 per passenger (3) with no fuss.

My son broke his foot while we were on holiday in Europe.

Insurance did all the negotiating with the medical and surgical team. (I only have a rusty O level in the language so was grateful for this.)

Settled all medical bills.
Reimbursed cost of ambulance.
Paid for me to stay in nearby hotel while he was in hospital.
Paid for him to have 1 night in hotel between discharge and flight home.
Paid €100 taxi fare to airport.
Paid for last minute flight tickets home on BA. This was one ticket for me and 3 for him so that he could extend his leg in plaster
Paid for taxi from airport to our house - usually £70 at least.

I didn't have to pay the hospital a penny at any point.

Hotel invoice went straight to insurer.
Taxis and flights were organised and paid for.

When you're facing surgery for your child in a foreign country, having someone to sort out the money is invaluable.

Had an accident on a ski holiday.
Had all costs which I wasn't able to get a refund on repaid (excluding the accommodation) which I made use of for the remainder of the trip.
Organised at no cost to me a private transfer to the airport and 2 additional seats to allow me to have my leg extended for the flight home.

I was extremely grateful to have the insurance. Not just for the financial aspect, but they arranged everything!

Yes it covered about £600 (I think the excess was £250) of a trip to A&E in the USA. We were there for four hours.
My mother paid for a trip with a different credit card than usual and forgot she would not be covered by the travel insurance provided with the other card. My DF had a stroke and it cost her £12,500 to medivac him back to the uk.
I'd never travel without it.

Missed connections, delayed flights meaning missed time in paid-for hotels, hire cars, even a couple of experiences/things we had tickets for. My partner has needed medical care which has been fully covered on insurance. And just the peace of mind knowing that we're covered for all these things makes a huge difference to the travel experience.

14yr old DD who is a ski racer and was out with academy had a crash paid for recovery from
piste, clinic treatment, husband to fly out to accompany her home all transport for him to get to her, both of them back to Geneva overnight hotels and flights - cost was 1000s

When I was younger, the villa we were staying in got broken into and insurance paid for us to move to another villa and replaced the money that was stolen. On a separate holiday we were also involved in a car accident abroad and insurance covered all medical bills and car repairs. Another separate holiday and my mum sprained her ankle and again all medical bills were covered.

As an adult, thankfully I’ve never needed to use insurance (although it was close with Covid). But the “pay off” has been knowing if we got sick I wouldn’t be stuck finding the money for medical bills which could potentially amount to hundreds of thousands depending on the circumstances.

When DH was diagnosed with cancer and we had to cancel our trip.

When DS lost a rucksack & coat on a scout trip.

When our holiday accommodation was broken into and Dh’s bag with phone etc was nicked they covered the cost of replacements

2006 husband had brain tumour. Diagnosed 2000... stable since radiotherapy in 2002. Booked to go on holiday end October 2006 . All covered by insurance. September...4 weeks before holiday the damn thing reared its ugly head again and we had to cancel. Everything was paid back.

Broke my arm a week before a skiing holiday. Insurance paid in full.

In 1992, I worked for an insurer and had an approval limit of £6.5million.

It only took one car accident to exceed that for a family.

Get the insurance.

A family member died on holiday. It would have made a horribly stressful time much, much worse if we'd had to try to sort repatriation of the body and all the bureaucracy ourselves, and pay (it's expensive).

Around £2500 worth of medical fees and travel rescheduling after I had to have emergency surgery whilst on holiday in France.
they were amazing- Nationwide, it’s free with our current account.
also when our car broke down and was written off (also in France!) - replacement car all the way home.

DH has had an accident requiring emergency dental treatment, another X-rays (we did watersports) and a medical issue, plus another medical problem which required cancellation.

He dealt with the paperwork in all cases, iirc all dealt with reasonably well.

And it's paid off in for all the other holidays when we've not had to worry about what would happen if one of us got sick or injured!

I claimed £500 for the contents of a bag stolen from a train.

I would never ever travel without it. My brother has an accident in the states as a child and required a few nights in hospital. Even back then in the 80s the cost was over $20K so would hate to think what it would cost today. I’ve only ever used it once and was to cover a pair of AirPods taken from a hotel room while on business.