Bad Company

Hi all, I wonder if anyone here can help.

My wife and I looking to travel to Florida to visit family, we’re missing our grandchildren badly. We know that we can’t travel from the UK or any of the Schengen countries direct at the moment. We’ve come up with a plan of flying from the UK to Barbados, staying for 2 weeks then direct from there to Miami. As far as I can see that should work unless anyone here knows otherwise?

Thanks in anticipation, we obviously want to be sure before we book and pay for flights.

spouse of scouse

Are you able to get travel insurance that will cover you for covid-19 treatment?

Lion in Winter

This. OP do NOT underestimate the size of a hospital bill in the US. If you have a hospital stay you will be looking at a minimum of tens of thousands of dollars, unless you have insurance.

tht

Things could also change while you wait for 14 days... just because you can get a flight to a third country does not mean you will be allowed to travel from there 2 weeks later, either onward or home. Health Insurnace etc aside, if you fly somewhere you should plan for the possibility of being stranded there for some time.

Rete

I feel for you as I'm in the same boat even though both me and the grandkid live in the US but on opposite sides of the east coast. I've not seen her since March 2019. Better for the kids and you to remain where you are instead of traveling. Let the second wave finish off before you think about booking a flight.

durham_lad

Similar situation here. It has been 12 months since we saw our daughter having had to cancel our trip to the USA in September. I can understand why the OP is so keen to go, they want to be a part of their young grandchildren's lives. I would definitely be concerned about health insurance before making the trip.

spouse of scouse

This pandemic is keeping so many of us apart from people we love. My husband has one surviving sibling out of 13 of them (yes, they're Catholic!). We've spent a lot of time with his brother and s-i-l over the past 10 years, were due to go to the UK in May to see them again. His brother, although active, has a heart condition that's getting worse. We don't know if we'll see him again. It's horrible, for all of us.

Bad Company

We have insurance available.

We know it’s a risk but are we really more at risk in Florida than at home in England? I wouldn’t have thought so.

The risk of the rules changing and not being able to fly from Barbados to USA isn’t something we’d considered, that’s a bit of a worry.

Lion in Winter

I wasn't thinking of your risk of illness, but of a giant, unpayable bill if your health insurance doesn't cover costs of covid care should you happen to come down with it in Florida. A lot of travel insurance is now specifically excluding covid from its health cover, so if travel insurance is what you have, it's well worth checking.

Bad Company

Covid cover included:-



Obviously we’d go for the enhanced cover.

Looks like Covid is covered.

Lion in Winter

I'm no insurance expert, but that does look ok to me as long as "emergency medical expenses" includes standard hospital care for several days, for example, and not just the emergency room or something. Somebody who knows more can say if I'm wrong. If it were me, I would call them up and ask and then get it in writing, but then I've lived here for ages and have learned to be wary of health insurance companies and their plans.

Nutmegger

It's not just the risk to you, but to the ones you love. Will you quarantine in FL for 14 days before you see your family to ensure that you didn't pick up any bugs in transit?

spouse of scouse

One thing I'd mention is that, unless your trip has a business component, your trip is classed as 'leisure' and thus limited to 31 days in total if travelling to the US. If you factor in 14 days in Barbados that leaves you less than 2 weeks in Florida (after taking into account travel/flying days)

I'm not trying to be a killjoy mate, would just hate to see a fellow BEer stuck in the US without very good medical insurance. I think Lion in Winter's suggestion of calling the insurance company and having a talk with them is a good one.

Bad Company

I know you’re not trying to be a killjoy and I really do appreciate the help & advice. We have insurance already in place for the trip to Barbados (it’s one of the few countries the FCO say we can still travel to safely which means that our annual policy covers it.) so the one I put on here is just for the time in USA. The other idea I thought of was to buy a health policy from a US insurer.

spouse of scouse

Sounds like you've been doing a lot of research, mind numbing stuff isn't it.

Ok, so I'm not an expert in travel insurance, the only experience I have is through personal travel. Given what you've said above, I guess the things I'd like to check (you may have done this already) are:
Your policy for your UK - Barbados - UK trip definitely covers covid-19 treatment, travel delays, quarantine, repatriation etc.
The policy you've been looking at for Barbados - US - Barbados is definitely for a trip beginning and ending in Barbados, covers you as a UK citizen, and provides sufficient cover for all eventualities. I did notice a 'disclaimer' at the beginning of the policy wording document that warns that the policy limits may not be sufficient for medical expenses incurred in North America.

I don't know whether or not you'd be able to buy a policy in the US.

I wouldn't travel at the moment, even though I'm worried about family members, but whether or not you do is your decision. If you do decide to go I hope everything works out well for you.