Travel Insurance in the age of Coronavirus

Tomorrow, I was supposed to be flying to New York and from there to Peru and on to Argentina.

Argentina this evening announced a mandatory 14-day quarantine for travelers from the United States, so those plans are no longer taking place.

These are, fair to say, far from normal circumstances.  But dealing with all of the fallout from them requires a checklist or seven and a willingness to sit on hold for hours on end.

First things first, canceled my flight to New York.  Despite their Coronavirus travel update, Delta has not confirmed a full refund of my ticket.  Their phone lines are jammed, so good luck getting to talk to a human being.

Next, canceled the flight to Argentina, made through Expedia on LATAM and for which I am being offered a credit that I'm not likely to use.

Then, on to Hotels.com where I was offered a partial refund for one of my hotel stays and no refund for the other.

And finally, our airline in Argentina, which has given me no indication of refund or credit whatsoever, just a "thanks for applying" email.

The trip insurance that I bought through AIG?  Apparently only covers what was booked with Expedia, so that only covers the airfare to and from Argentina, which LATAM is already offering to credit.

So the bad news is that I'm likely out several hundred dollars on this trip.

I would STILL recommend travel insurance, however, especially in light of recent events, because it covers things like emergency medical care and evacuation.

Oh well, at least there's still time to stock up on toilet paper I guess...