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This is my first post on Travel Stack, thank you in advance for your help. I am an American traveler going on a 2-week trip and don't know much about travel insurance and whether it is appropriate for my situation.

I will be going on a 2-week trip to Alaska this month, flying out from the eastern US to Anchorage on 8/17 and flying back on 8/31-9/1. I will be traveling with my friend Kevin. Our trip has an intense itinerary with many expensive day trips such as kayaking, flight tours, river rafting, etc. All of our lodging, car rental, airplane tickets, and trips have been booked on Kevin's credit card(s); I will be paying back my share to him later. I will have my own credit cards on me for additional purchases once there.

My question is, since all of our major purchases are going on his credit cards, is there any reason for me to buy a traveler's insurance policy? I have my own Aetna health insurance plan through my employer, which indicates there are in-network providers in Anchorage. Is there any other type of coverage that I might be missing of which I'm not aware?

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    We can't tell you what insurance to buy - that depends on your own aversion to risk - but here are some things to think about. Flights get delayed and cancelled; rental cars break down. Consider some cancellation cover. What about lost or delayed baggage? You might still be in the US, but you'll be 3000 miles from home. Healthcare: will your scheme fly you back to your home state if a long stay in hospital is required?
    – user90371
    Commented Aug 11, 2019 at 20:16
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    Does your existing healthcare cover you for hazardous sports such as river rafting? Or illness forcing you to cancel the trip? What about stolen personal possessions - passport, credit cards, sports equipment? Before you decide I would recommend comparing the benefits of your healthcare cover with a typical travel insurance policy.
    – Traveller
    Commented Aug 11, 2019 at 20:33
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    Also, do your friend's credit cards come with travel insurance of their own? Some cards do, many don't, only a few cover travel companions even if the journey is ought on the card. Conversely your cards may provide insurance even for travel that's not bought using the card. You'll need to study the terms provided by the card issuers.
    – hmakholm left over Monica
    Commented Aug 11, 2019 at 21:19
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    Also check that the travel insurance works while staying in the country. Probably less of an issue in the US than it is in other countries, but some insurance policies only cover you if you are actually abroad (or cover only some expenses but not all).
    – jcaron
    Commented Aug 11, 2019 at 22:57
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    Is the question "Does my friends travel insurance cover me?" or "Do I need travel insurance when going to Alaska?"?
    – Mikael Dúi Bolinder
    Commented Aug 12, 2019 at 1:10

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Travel insurance is rather complicated.

Since you are staying in the US, your existing health care may cover you. Or not. Check with your health care insurer or read the fine print: Some insurance plans have a very restrictive definition of what "in-network" means.

The other major reason to get travel insurance would be to recover travel expenses in case you cant't actually travel or miss major parts of the trip due to sickness, delays, some natural disaster, political unrest, etc.

That's worth considering for an expensive trip, but you have to read the rules very carefully. Many policies have a large list of "exclusions" which protect the insurance from paying. Personally, I never found it to be worth it: once you find a policy that has decent coverage, it's often prohibitively expensive (10%-20% of the total trip cost).

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