The Deal Mommy

Image via Guardian UK Newspapers.

Our departure date is just five days away and I’ve got SO much to do…but “monitoring for protests and terrorist incidents” just got added to my list. You see, our first destination is Belfast, Northern Ireland, which while having been out of “the troubles” for decades, is back in them this week due to the G8 summit.

Fortunately, it’s scheduled to be wrapped up before the weekend when we arrive, but I still need to keep an eye out for any lingering effects. Luckily, we land in Dublin, not Belfast, and our hotel reservations are cancel-able so we can just stay in Dublin if the North looks too hot.

The one element that we would be out is the 95 Euro I paid for train tickets to Belfast. However, I ALWAYS buy travel insurance that includes cancellation due to terrorism or strikes. I’ve used Allianz Travel Insurance for close to 20 years (they used to be Access America) and they’ve come through for me twice:

• I broke my ankle two weeks before a scheduled trip to Aruba and they paid for the entire cost of my non-cancellable condo rental and all change fees for my United award tickets within two weeks of filing the claim.

• When living in Bangkok alone, I got food poisoning and needed the word for “Imodium” in Thai.  I called their collect nurse line and chatted with them and they spelled it out for me so I could get to the pharmacy.  Three days later the front desk of my apartment building told me I had an urgent message from the US and to call them back collect.  I was fine by then and didn’t connect the dots…I thought someone had died back home but it was Allianz making sure I was OK!

I know I have some coverage through my American Express Platinum Card and other cards, but I still pay the little extra (for this 26 day trip it’s $33 a person) and have never even thought about not doing it.

Have you ever had to re-arrange due to politics?  Did having insurance help?  Please share!

Note: Affiliate link to Allianz.  Thanks for your support if you use it.