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An update on my quest for travel medical and emergency cancellation insurance. After research of various companies and policies, I selected AIG Travel Guard Extended for my trip. I selected AIG because of my specific needs, including older parents and personal pre-existing medical conditions, and because it was actually a mainstream company. Because all my advance hotel reservations are fully refundable, I selected the $3000 limit on travel cancellation: $2400 for the transpacific trip, $100 for the mileage redeposit fee for American Airlines for my trip to Ayers Rock, and $500 to cover the expected cost of Melbourne-Tassie and Tassie-Sydney flights. I could have gotten away with $1000 of coverage as I can change my United ticket for a $200 fee, but that would assume that I would be in a position to go to Australia at a later date.

The base cost of the policy was $89, plus $35 for the pre-existing coverage. Considering the fact that Expedia charges $15 to cover a domestic flight with no medical coverage, I thought that $89 was reasonable. Because I wanted coverage of my pre-existing medical conditions, I had to purchase the insurance within 15 days of the initial deposit on the trip - in my case, buying the airline ticket. I did not buy any of the other options, such as car rental insurance or additional flight insurance.

I was sufficiently impressed by AIG that I became an affiliate. I am happy I did, because today AIG announced that they are helping those stranded from the cruise ship Sea Diamond off the coast of Santorini.

AIG is not the only qualified company, but their plan happened to suit my needs the best. Please do your research to decide if you need a medical and/or cancelation policy, and if so which company and policy best fits your needs.

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