CheapTickets Travel Insurance - 2024 Review

CheapTickets is a leading online travel services company offering airline tickets, hotel and vacation rentals, rental cars, customized vacation packages, and cruises.

Like so many of the online travel portals that we come across, CheapTickets is owned by Expedia. You will recognize many of the same site design elements when jumping between the two websites.

CheapTickets:

Expedia:

Other than the color of the Search bar, it’s the same look and feel on the front page, and same search engine behind it. This is not a criticism – we think that the search engine that Expedia (and CheapTickets) uses is first-class. However, the travel insurance that is offered at checkout is not.

Let's book a trip on Cheap Tickets and see what is offered for travel insurance.

CheapTickets Package Booking – Sample Trip

We took a family of four (2 adults and 2 children aged 7 and 10) from Chicago to Orlando from December 20 – January 1.

Airfare for the family is $757 per traveler for a total cost of $3,027.98. Next, we booked a stay at the AC Hotel in Orlando’s Lake Buena Vista, also priced at $757 per person. 

Next, we added tickets for Disneyworld and Universal Studios. As the 10-year-old is considered an adult, we have to purchase three adult tickets and one child ticket for the 7-year-old.

Final total cost after adding the hotel and tour tickets to the flights is $4442.76.

CheapTickets Travel Insurance

Prior to paying the trip, we’re offered insurance to cover our $4442.76 trip cost. The insurance is $547.36 – $136.84 per traveler. The Package Protection Plan policy - is provided by AIG, a well-known travel insurer.

The policy provides $5,000 in medical coverage per traveler and $50,000 of medical evacuation coverage per traveler. The policy will also provide a waiver to cover any pre-existing medical conditions if we purchase the policy within 2 days of the initial trip payment or deposit.

$547.36 is an awful lot of money to spend on what looks like very minimal travel insurance coverage.

Let’s find something better…

TravelDefenders – Travel Insurance Marketplace

At TravelDefenders, we have done our very best to make buying travel insurance simple and transparent. We work with some of the best travel insurance companies in the US to give you options for travel insurance.

A customer enters their data anonymously, and we provide over a dozen different travel insurance options for them to choose from. We highlight a recommendation of the most cost-effective travel insurance plan at the top.

Inputting the same trip details through the quoting system, we are shown 27 plans to choose from. Since we’re traveling domestically, TravelDefenders recommends having at least $15,000 of medical coverage and $150,000 of medical evacuation coverage to supplement our normal health care insurance. If traveling internationally, we recommend a minimum of $100,000 of medical coverage and $250,000 of medical evacuation coverage.

The least expensive plan with our minimum recommendations for domestic travel is the AIG Travel Guard Essential for $115,56 – the cost for all four travelers combined.

The policy provides $15,000 of medical coverage per traveler and $150,000 of medical evacuation per traveler. It also includes coverage for any pre-existing medical conditions if the policy is purchased within 15 days of the initial trip payment or deposit date.

If we cancel for a listed reason in the policy, such as illness or injury prior to departure, we can get a 100% refund of our trip costs.

Besides costing $431.80 LESS than the Cheap Tickets’ insurance policy (which ironically is another policy provided by AIG), it has three times the medical coverage and three times the medical evacuation coverage!

What if we want to have maximum flexibility to cancel our trip for ANY reason and not just the reasons listed in the policy?

For maximum flexibility, we’ll need to look at a different policy – a Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR) policy.

TravelDefenders – Cancel For Any Reason Policies

As the name suggests, Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR) policies allow you to cancel for any reason whatsoever and receive a partial refund of trip costs – either 50% or 75% depending on the policy purchased. These policies allow maximum cancellation flexibility.

Looking at the quote from TravelDefenders, the least expensive CFAR policy with adequate coverage for our trip is the AIG Travel Guard Preferred (CFAR 50%) for $273.30, which is the total cost for all four travelers combined.

The policy provides $50,000 of medical coverage and $500,000 of medical evacuation coverage as well as provides a waiver to cover pre-existing medical conditions if the policy is purchased within 15 days of the initial trip payment or deposit date.

The AIG Travel Guard Preferred policy is $274 LESS AND has more coverage for medical and medical evacuation than the Cheap Tickets’ policy!

If we cancel for a reason such as illness or injury, we’ll get a 100% refund of our trip costs but if we use a non-listed reason, we’ll get a 50% refund.

If we want a policy that provides the maximum 75% refund, our least expensive option is the Seven Corners RoundTrip Basic (CFAR 75%) for $289.68.

The policy provides $100,000 of medical coverage and $250,000 of medical evacuation coverage and includes the Cancel For Any Reason benefit if the policy is purchased within 20 days of the deposit or initial trip payment date. This policy is $257.68 LESS than the Cheap Tickets’ travel insurance which doesn’t include any CFAR benefit and it also has better medical and medical evacuation coverage than the CheapTickets’ policy.

If we cancel for a reason such as illness or injury, we’ll get a 100% refund of our trip costs but if we use a non-listed reason, we’ll get a 75% refund.

CheapTickets Travel Insurance – Conclusion

We like CheapTickets as a travel booking platform. But we think that CheapTickets Travel Insurance is weak and expensive. CheapTickets customers will inevitably get a better deal by shopping around. Remember to only insure your non-refundable trip costs.

To get the best value for your money, visit TravelDefenders first to shop around before committing to the first travel insurance policy you find. Please stop by and chat, send an email, or give us a call at  +1(786) 321 3723

Safe travels.