Travel insurance wasn’t always at the top of our list during vacation planning. However, our perspective has changed after traveling a few times during the pandemic.

While most countries were still having Covid entry restrictions, we took advantage of the dirt cheap airfares, and visited many places. You might ask why we were willing to take the risk of getting infected by traveling. Well, we were all always up-to-date on our Covid vaccine status, plus compared to New York City where we lived, other places we wanted to visit had a much lower infection risk.

Even though we were not worried about getting seriously sick, we did consider the possibility of getting stranded in a foreign country and not able to come back due to a positive test result. Therefore, we decided to look into purchasing travel insurance which covered Covid related expenses.

Understanding how to choose the right policy and file claims became an important part of our vacation planning. I would like to share with you some tips on choosing travel insurance and filing claims, from our personal experience.

Our stories

Spain – Medical Coverage Claim Filed

Our summer trip to Europe in 2021, was the first time we took out travel insurance. The policy cost about $180 for the three of us. It had $150,000 primary medical and $2,000 trip coverage per person.

While visiting Valencia, our second city in Spain, my partner woke up with sudden extreme pain in his abdomen. We suspected it was a small kidney stone, so at 6 o’clock in the morning we called the medical emergency hotline provided by the insurance policy. The staff picked up the phone right away and recommended a near-by English speaking hospital.

We immediately took a cab to their emergency room. Fortunately, after a few hours of I.V. fluid drip and pain medication, my partner felt better. We were able to enjoy the rest of our trip. The insurance company staff had already filed the claim for us on the same day.

Once we got back to the U.S., we submitted all our receipts. We got all the medical cost of about $900 reimbursed within a few weeks.

Rio De Janeiro – Trip Coverage Claim Filed

Since we had such a good experience with them, we purchased the same policy from the same company for our following trip to Rio De Janeiro, for New Year’s Eve, 2022.

We were all boosted and up-to-date with our Covid shots, but the new Omicron variant was just starting to spread.

On the day before our planned return flight, two of us tested positive. Our only symptoms had been minor stuffy noses for a couple of days, that we thought were allergies. A negative test result was required at that time, to come back to US. Fortunately, we were able to quickly get a nice affordable Airbnb, and work remotely for two weeks.

Even though the policy stated it would only cover 7 days post our scheduled return day, we kept all the receipts, and filed a claim for reimbursement of all 14 days of expenses, including our food, plus accommodations and business class return flight tickets.

We actually got reimbursed for more than we expected, at almost $6,000 for the 3 of us! It’s like having two more weeks of paid vacation in Rio De Janeiro!

So far, we have filed two claims out of the three trip policies that we purchased. Let me break these down and give you tips on choosing the right travel insurance, show you how to use their services and properly file claims.

Choose the best travel insurance company and policy – squaremouth.com

How did we choose our travel insurance policy? We started out with a Google search that gave us lots of links to individual insurance company websites, where we could compare all the policies offered by each company.

Many policy comparison sites looked very similar. Ultimately, we decided to use squaremouth.com to compare policies as it shows you different policies from different insurance companies in one place. It allows you to search against the criteria that fits your needs, and then displays the policy summaries, details and customer reviews.

Note the following tips when choosing a travel insurance policy:

1. Read the policy carefully in detail. The fine print matters!

If you don’t understand some of the details, call and ask. You will get help right away, as the sale person would love to help you.

2. Are Covid related costs covered?

As countries are easing Covid related travel restrictions, this might not be as important a factor now, but you might want to consider if it covers Covid related medical expenses anyway, just in case an infection occurs and you need to visit the local hospital.

3. Would you like to cover the cost of your trip, or just medical/dental?

We wanted to make sure if we were stuck in a different country due to a positive test, the needed expenses would be covered, hence we opted for both travel and medical costs. Covering the trip cost also ensured we would get reimbursed if there is a delay. However, adding the coverage of the trip cost usually raises the premium dramatically.

4. Is the medical coverage primary or secondary?

We always choose primary medical coverage, because it saves the hassle of filing claims first through your own primary health insurance company, if there is one. The secondary coverage only kicks in for the portion which is not covered by your own health insurance company.

5. How much of the medical and/or travel cost do you want to cover?

Medical coverage is really dependent on personal comfort level, but I wouldn’t go lower than 50K.
For the travel cost to be covered, you don’t need to be exact on all the travel expenses. Instead, consider how much of the “portion” you want to be covered. Say, if you pay $2,000 for hotel and $1,000 for your flights, and you want to just cover $2,000, then the maximum reimbursement will be based on $2,000, times a factor, depending on the policy. You can request to have the policy cover up to the maximum of the total you spend, but you will need to show all the receipts, if and when you need to file a claim.

6. How are the customer reviews for this policy/insurance company?

This is the part where I spent the most time, and was the most critical to me. Remember, you want to make sure the company has good reviews and responses not just on assisting you with the purchase of their policies, but also with help during the filing of claims.
Some insurance companies just want to make the sale, and when it comes to actually filing a claim, you can never get anyone on the phone. Making sure they have good reviews for claim filing is key. It’s also very important to have good reviews on emergency assistance.

The website square mouth.com not only provides a place to compare policies from different insurers, but also provides reviews on each policy and insurer. It’s a true one-stop-shopping experience for choosing your policies.

We used the a company called “Tin Leg”. They had very good reviews, and we sure were very satisfied on both claims we had to file with them.

7. What’s the cancellation/change policy of the insurance policy itself?

Sometimes you might need to cancel your trip. Can you also cancel the policy?

Print out all the documentation with contact info prior to travel

During an emergency, if you need to make a call and talk to someone on your phone, it’s much easier to find the phone number or refer to your policy number if it’s on paper in front of you. It’s also more convenient for looking up your policy details, instead of downloading a PDF, and trying to blow it up to view on your small device.

Reaching out for assistance while traveling

It’s important to keep the 24 hour hotline handy in case of an emergency. While my partner was having extreme pain at 6 AM in the morning in Valencia, Spain, we immediately called the hotline. The gentlemen picked up the phone right away, and noted our situation and location. It only took him a few minutes to give us a few options for nearby hospitals. He also had someone call us back to follow up later in the day, plus told us the claim had already been filed on our behave. We just needed to keep all our receipts, and submit them after we returned from our trip.

Again, the key is to look into their reviews, and make sure the insurance company has great ones for handling emergencies and filing claims.

Inform the insurer as soon as possible

You want to inform the insurer as soon as an incident occurs, so they will have a record on file. Some of those with good customer service, will even file the claim for you. Don’t keep the insurer in the dark, and then surprise them with a claim after you complete your trip.

Keep all receipts

It goes without saying, you need to keep all your receipts, including medical expenses, food, drinks, groceries, accommodations, transportation, and return flight tickets.

I just wrote on each, noting the dates and what each was for, like “dinner”, or “lunch” and such. Then threw them all in a big bag, and dealt with them after I returned from the trip. You don’t want to waste your precious vacation time organizing them.

Even though our policy mentioned the travel delay overage only covered a 7-day extension, post the original return date, the insurance staff actually told us to go ahead and submit all 14 days of receipts. So, keep all your receipts!

Organize all your paper work before submitting the claim

Personally, I think a little homework goes a long way. I organized my expenses by using Excel to itemize them, and based on the numbers on the list, wrote down each number on each corresponding receipt.

Then, I stapled the numbered receipts on sheets of papers for easier reference. The Excel sheet provided the itemized total expenses to be claimed.

I think the staff handling the claim did appreciated the extra work I had done. In the end, I filed the claim for 7 more days than the policy allowed, plus some other questionable items, such as Covid testing costs, and I was reimbursed for more than I claimed.

Summery of the Expenses:

As you can see below, I noted what the receipts was for as soon as I got them, so it would be easier for me to identify them after the trip. After they were itemized, I created a list of the corresponding numbered receipts, in the spreadsheet above.

Conclusion

Everyone, of course, wants a smooth and memorable vacation, but unexpected things can happen and you need to minimize the risk and damage to your long-planned holiday. Understanding how to choose the best travel insurance policy and how to prepare materials for filing claims has become an important part of our vacation planning.

The last thing you want during your vacation is to worry about unexpected medical expenses or the extra cost of delayed or interrupted travel. Even though countries all over the world are easing their Covid travel restrictions, it is still highly possible to get infected while traveling. Adding travel insurance can give peace of mind to your year-long planned holiday. Be sure to choose your policy carefully, from companies with great reviews for emergency assistance and claim handling.

It is important to know how to choose the right travel insurance policy to fit your needs, such as for medical only, or to also cover unexpected travel interruptions or delays. The coverage amount should be tailored to your financial needs and budget. It is equally important for you to understand how to organize your receipts to file claims. Following our tips on choosing travel insurance and filing claims can make your long-planned trip go much smoother, and to maximize the reimbursement you deserve, if there is an unfortunate incident.

We chose, for example, Tin Leg’s “Luxury” policy which only cost about $180 total for 3 of us. The first claim, we received approximately $900 of medical expenses reimbursed, and for the second claim, we were reimbursed about $6,000 for travel expenses! I couldn’t image having to pay that much additional cost out-of-pocket, if we hadn’t purchased the insurance.

Have you booked your hotels yet? If not, check out our tips to maximize savings on hotels bookings first!

The post Great Tips on Choosing Travel Insurance and Filing Claims appeared first on Best Bargain.

We are same as most of Americans who are making average middle class wages. Still we had stayed in some of the most wonderful places, such as 2 bedroom penthouse at Barceló Puerto Vallarta and Copacabana Palace at Rio de Janeiro.

Over the years, I had developed a few strategies on how to maximize savings on hotel bookings. I believe these tips shared here should be beneficial to lots of vacation self planners.

How to maximize savings on hotel bookings

• Do your research as early as possible
• Never book non-refundable, unless the travel date is near
• First narrow down the area where you want to stay
• Consider vacation rental for large group
• Deciding which web site to book
• Taking advantage of cash back or mileage earning
• Use the right credit card to earn maximum points/miles
• Periodically review after booking

Do your research as early as possible

Unlike airfares, most of the hotel rates are fully refundable. You should start looking as soon as you have an idea on where your next destination and dates are. For some of them, especially if you book directly through the hotel web sites, there is no prepayment required.

I usually book one or two of them as “safety net”, so that I can cancel, if something else better comes along later. Because there is no prepayment, there is no financial burden to book a few. Just make sure to track them and set reminders, so you will remember to cancel them, before the deadlines!

Another reason you want to book your accommodations early is that, unlike airfare which changes dynamically, accommodation rates, including hotels and vacation rentals, rarely come down.

When hotel inventory is high, the rate is naturally lower than when the traveling dates are approaching and less rooms are available. Similarly for vacation rentals, the number of the available houses and condos in your destination is pretty much fixed; hence, the sooner you book, the more (cheaper) options you have.

Even though I start my research of accommodation early, sometimes up to one year ahead, I wouldn’t put down fully refundable payment, unless I am 90% sure that’s the one I will go with at the end.

Never book non-refundable, unless the travel date is near

As you want to start your searching as early as possible, you certainly don’t want to lock your options down by booking non-refundable rooms. Fortunately most of the hotels and/or vacation rentals provide fully refundable rates, some might be a little bit higher than the non-refundable rates. However, your plan could change, or something better might come along. Only choose non-refundable rate if your are 100% sure of the trip AND the date is near, AND the rate different is significant.

First narrow down the area where you want to stay

Depending on the purpose of the trip, you would want to make sure staying in the area for the conveniences of what you want to do. Obviously, if you are attending an event, you would want to stay closed to the event venue. If this is your first visit of the city, you might want to stay in the areas closed to most of the sight scenes, or, transportation hubs.

Once you have the area of your choice, the options of the accommodations will be narrowed down to do easy comparisons.

The trip can be quite memorable seeing a famous landmark just outside of your windows, such as this huge Eiffel Tower right outside of our two bedroom suite in Residence Charles Floquet

Consider vacation rental for large group

If you are traveling with children, you know getting a separated room makes a big difference for the whole vacation experiences.

Both my husband and I snore :-), so, we like to have a separately room for our son to keep our snoring from disturbing him.

However, booking a suite in a hotel can be very pricy, comparing with a regular room. Some times you might want to sacrifice the nice hotels’ amenities, if the rates of a big suite is just out of reach, but you need more than just a room. Vacation rental, such as Airbnb® and Vrbo® can provide such alternatives for the big groups.

Deciding which web site to book

Once you narrow down the list of hotels you might stay, based on the area and your budgets, it’s time to decide which travel web site you would book to get the best rates.

Comparison Sites

Get a general idea with comparison web sites, such as tripadvisor.com, trivago.com, hotels.google.com or kayak.com. These sites give you rates for different travel agent web sites to help you decide which site to book for your hotel room.

Hotel Official Websites

If you have status with the hotel chains, and the hotel official site offers similar rates as any other sites, definitely go with official site to take all the benefits for being a hotel premier member.

CITI thankyou.com

• If you have CITI® Prestige card, and the length of your stay is the multiplication of 4, read this. If the length is 4 nights, definitely check with CITI thankyou.com® portal to see how much saving you will get with one night off. CITI Prestige card members get 4th night free for hotels booking on the thankyou.com portal.
  The rates offered on thankyou.com portal might be higher or lower than other travel sites. In most cases, especially for high end hotels, the saving of one night free can be significant.
  Lots of people don’t like to switch hotels when they travel. On the other hand, we actually don’t mind checking out different area of the city, or different amenities, by switching to a different hotel/resort after 4 nights stay. If you are like us, CITI Prestige card gives you twice of 4th night free per year, as long as you don’t use them on the same hotel consecutively. This way would save you 2 nights for 8 nights staying on 2 different hotels.
• If you have CITI Premier card, don’t forget to check what the rate is on CITI thankyou.com, after the benefit of $100 off $500.

American Express Offer

If you are an American Express Gold or Platinum card member, don’t forget to check their AMEX offers. They constantly offer statement credit back with major hotel chains. Check out this page for current list.

Note that their hotel offers are mostly required to book directly with hotel websites.

TripAdvisor Plus (TripAdvisor Plus has been discontinued as of March 2nd, 2024.)

You might want to check how much you can save with TripAdvisor Plus®, especially for lengthy stays. TripAdvisor Plus is a membership program. Even thought it costs $99/year, in most of time, the saving of one booking can be greater than the membership fee itself.
I remember TripAdvisor used to let you see the hotel rates as if you were a member, and ask you to join, only if you decide to book. However, recently, I don’t see them showing such rates w/o login as member first. Still, they give you 30 days free cancellation policy, as long as you don’t make any reservation.
TripAdvisor Plus negotiates special rates with hotels. Hence, the saving is per night. If you have long stay, the saving can add up greatly.
For example, I was looking for a suite room in NYC for my family of 3 to travel in summer 2023. As many of you may know, summer is the peak season visiting NYC. I found this great rate of $220.24 for an one bedroom suite at Manhattan Club in midtown NYC for July 2023. Total for 11 nights is $2,840.52 (fully refundable) with TripAdvisor Plus, comparing with Expedia.com of $4,915.35 (non-refundable). It is a whopping $2,000+ saving on a 11 night stay!!
On the other hand, I would only pay for this service, if I am 100% sure I can get a lot more than the membership fee for the hotel I want, comparing with all the methods mentioned above.

Taking advantage of cash back or mileage earning

Many travel web sites partner with cash back program, such as Rakuten, or mileage earning program, such ad AAdvantage® eShopping, Alaska Mileage Plan® Shopping and United MileagePlus® shopping. Make sure before you go to the travel agent web site, login to one of those cash back/mileage earning web sites, and click on their link to take you to the travel agent web site. Worth noting that this earning is in addition to the credit card mileage/points earnings you might have.

For Airbnb bookings, you can earn Delta miles by using this link: https://www.deltaairbnb.com/ . For Vrbo, if you have Capital One Venture or Venture X card, login to your account, and use their shopping link to get 5% statement credit back. If not, you can also earn United MileagePlus miles with Vrbo bookings. Visit here for more details.

Personally I like to use Rakuten. Instead of cash back, I can earn American Express® Member Reward points with $1 cash back = 100 points, which is much better value, when transferring points to partner airlines’ miles.

You can also install Rakuten Chrome extension or Firefox add-on, which will automatically alert you, if you surf to any of their affiliated partner for earning points.

Signing up Rakuten® is free. Currently they are offering $10 welcome bonus by signing up.

Use the right credit card to earn maximum points/miles

Once you decide on which hotel to book and where to book it, it’s time to decide which credit card you should use to earn most of miles.

If you are booking directly with hotel web site, it makes sense to use hotel’s co-branded credit card, as usually they provide the most benefit.

If you are booking with credit card travel portal, such as Chase, American Express, CITI and Capital One, you have no choice but using their credit cards.

It is worth noting that booking hotels on Capital One travel portal with Venture X card earns 10X points. This might be a big factor during your decision making.

For any other travel web sites, such as Expedia, TripAdvisor and Orbitz, you should use CITI Prestige or CITI Premier, as both give you 3X points on hotels and Airbnb (not Vrbo).

If total of your booking is about $500, CITI Custom Cash card would be the best choice, as it gives you 5X thankyou points for up to $500. Note that CITI Custom Cash does charge foreign transaction fee, so the hotel charge should be USD to use it, or it’s not worth it with the fee.

Periodically review after booking

If you book the accommodation early and fully refundable like I recommended, you should periodically do a search with your spare time, just in case something better and/or cheaper comes along.

Conclusion

Does it look like a lot of work to just make an accommodation booking? It is actually not. Considering you only take a few time vacations a year with your family, and spending so much money each time, you really want to maximize savings in all aspects of it. Just follow these highlighted principles should do the trick.

With the booking I mentioned above for our NYC summer 2023 trip, comparing to the non-refundable rate on Expedia.com, we saved $2,000+ for a fully refundable one bedroom suite just for the hotel along,. In addition, I earn 2,840 X 4 = 11,360 AMEX Member Reward® points via Rakuten plus 2,840 X 3 = 8,520 CITI thankyou® points with my CITI Premier card. Not a bad saving for a little bit of extra steps taken.

After have the trip booked, you should consider getting a travel insurance policy to protect your vacation investment. Read our tips for choosing a right policy and filing a claim if needed.

The post How to Maximize Hotel Savings appeared first on Best Bargain.

Ever passing those nice lie-flat business class seats, and hoping one day you would be able to afford that kind of luxury? Like most of people, I used to think that those seats were out of reach with the sky high fares. With a little bit of researching, grabbing one of those seats can be a reality. Read on and I will show you my recent experience of booking 3 business class seats from Asia for less.

Recently years, I had traveled with my family of 3, flying long haul business class, including flying from JFK to Rio in AA flagship first class for 2022 New Year eve celebration, for 63,000 mile/pp. I had never paid nor been able to pay the full fare for those seats.

There are already a lot of the blogs out there explaining how to earn and redeem miles. You just need to do some research. However, this article is more focused on my personal experiences when booking the post pandemic high season seats, for summer 2023, to share a few tips on how to lower the overall costs, yet, still have a taste of luxury.

How did I Book Business Class from Asia for Less

Depending on the departure and final destination cities, a flight from Asia to Europe can last over 10 to 15 hours long. Wouldn’t it be nice to sit in one of those lie-flat business seats during the long-haul 10+ hour leg? It certainly makes the trip much easier traveling with a toddler like us.

Flying business class from Asia to Europe has been always pricy. One way ticket can range from $2000 to $5000/pp. To pay for 3 seats with full price is definitely not something we could afford.

You might be able to get a better deal by buying round trip, instead of one way. In my case, I was planning a trip for summer of 2023 to fly from Taipei to Madrid during peak season for gay pride. We were planning on visiting a few more European cities, then flying to US to visit our friends and families. Hence, buying round trip flights was not an option.

Of course, if you can find the enough mileages and you can find the award availabilities, or, if you are luckily to find any airlines are running impossible sales or “mistake fares” on the routes of your desire, great! However, these usually are not the case.

These are couple of useful tips I used to help me reduced the cost, yet get to flight with Air France business for long-haul. The trick is to combine the resources you have, not just focus on one single option.

1. Searching for Award Seats First

Depending on what credit card point and/or airline mileages you have, search all of those airline award seats first. Look for the promotion and mileage transfer bonus. At the time of researching, I had about 160,000 Capital One miles, and Capital One was having 20% bounce transfer to Air France/KLM Flying Blue miles. Also Flying Blue was running a promotion of 100% bonus miles with buying miles. I leveraged both promotions, and got enough miles I needed for 3 business class seats.

2. Options of Leaving from or Arriving to near by Cities (but not both)

Wait, wasn’t I looking for flights from Taipei to Madrid, not From Hong Kong to Madrid? Why did I book that? At the time of booking, there was no business class award availability from Taipei to Madrid, for any of the airline partners for my credit card points to transfer to. I started to look into flying from near by cities, such as Hong Kong, Bangkok, Tokyo and Seoul to Madrid, and also, from Taipei to any Madrid near by cities in Europe.

My definition of “near by” city is about 2 to 3 hours flight, which I can purchase cheap economy seats for. We would definitely sit in economy for short haul-flights, if the price is really low.

With this in mind, I found Flying Blue had 3 available business seats for the date we wanted to fly, from Hong Kong to Madrid with Air France long-haul, and Air Europa short-haul between Paris and Madrid, for less than 292,000 miles.

This amount of the miles night seem a lot for the normal redemption for Asia-Europe route, if you are flying solo, or flexible on dates. Being requesting for 3 seats in the peaking summer, we were happy with what we found!

Once got the challenging route nailed down, I just needed to spend about $450 to get 3 direct flight economy Cathay Pacific tickets from Taipei to Hong Kong, which is only 2 hour flight.

3. Think About Your Stopover City

You can either make the “stopover” city in Asia or in Europe. Even though there are more budget airlines in Europe, keep in mind that most of the Asian airlines’ economy seats include free check in luggage. Don’t forget about using train as alternative option in Europe.

With an add on bonus, Cathay Pacific allows free advance seat assignments, if you are traveling with kids, even with their version of basic economy tickets.

To maximize our dollar, We are actually taking two extra days staying in Hong Kong to visit our friends.

Therefore, we opt to purchase the the short haul economy in Asia, Taipei to Hong Kong, and make the stopover in Hong Kong.

With the stopover option, you will need to be mindful about travel restrictions and visa requirements of your “stopover” city, as you will need to go through immigration, and then check in the second journey of the flights, because they are separated bookings.

At the time of writing this article, Hong Kong still have Covid restrictions and quarantine rules. However, we are betting on the fully opening by summer of 2023.

4. Keep Long-Haul Leg, Long and Overnight

Of course, if you can get the direct flight, it’s the best scenario. In most cases for the award premier seats, you will need to compromise with a connection.

I tend to avoid middle eastern airlines, such as Qatar, Etihad or Emirates, even thought in most cases, they have the best products with highest ratings. Because of the their hub cities, their two legged flights will be divided evenly into about 7 to 8 hour each.

In most of the cases, you will need to wake up in the middle of sleep, wait for a few hours for the second flight at the terminal, and then another 7 to 8 hour of long flight.

If I were to flight solo, I might prefer them for the experiences. However, flying with a toddler, I need to make sure he has enough and best sleep possible. Believe me, the enjoyment of your vacation depends on it! A long 10+ hour overnight flight in the lie-flat seats will give you plenty of rest, when you arrive Europe in the early morning.

Conclusion

As we needed three seats, award availability search was much more challenging. Still, I got three Air France business class seats from Hong Kong to Paris, with European business connection from Paris to Madrid, and three economy seats from Taipei to Hong Kong with free stopover in Hong Kong, all for roughly $2,500 and 150,000 Capital One miles, for peak summer season traveling. Comparing with over $19,000 full fare, just for the same Hong Kong to Madrid flights, it’s a pretty good use of my mileages.

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