Tin Leg travel insurance review 2023
“Verified by an expert” means that this article has been thoroughly reviewed and evaluated for accuracy.
“Verified by an expert” means that this article has been thoroughly reviewed and evaluated for accuracy.
BLUEPRINT
Updated 6:50 a.m. UTC Aug. 8, 2023
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Tin Leg
Why trust our insurance experts
Our team of experts evaluates hundreds of insurance products and analyzes thousands of data points to help you find the best product for your situation. We use a data-driven methodology to determine each rating. Advertisers do not influence our editorial content. You can read more about our methodology below.
- 2,332 coverage details evaluated.
- 385 rates reviewed.
- 5 levels of fact checking.
About Tin Leg travel insurance
The travel insurance comparison company Squaremouth founded Tin Leg in 2014 as an alternative to other travel insurance products.
Based on 3,197 Tin Leg travel insurance reviews on Squaremouth, Tin Leg has an overall customer rating of 4.6 out of 5.
In our analysis of the best travel insurance companies, Tin Leg’s top-scoring Gold and Adventure plans tie with 4 stars out of 5.
Tin Leg travel insurance plans
Tin Leg travel insurance offers nine travel insurance plans:
Tin Leg Basic
Tin Leg Basic is a good travel insurance plan for low-risk trips. The plan covers trip cancellation, delay and interruption as well as missed connections after a 12-hour delay.
The Basic plan includes $50,000 per person in secondary emergency medical coverage, $200,000 per person in medical evacuation as well as coverage for pre-existing conditions if the plan is purchased within 15 days of your first trip deposit and you insure the total cost of your trip.
Lost and delayed luggage coverage is also covered, up to policy limits.
You can not add “cancel for any reason” (CFAR) coverage to this basic plan.
Tin Leg Economy
This plan covers 100% of prepaid and nonrefundable trip costs for trip cancellation and interruption if you experience unforeseen problems such as bad weather and medical issues.
The Economy plan includes up to $20,000 for secondary emergency medical coverage and $100,000 for medical evacuation.
Pre-existing conditions present 180 days before your trip or sooner won’t be covered in most cases.
After 24 hours, the plan covers $200 per person for baggage delay. The plan covers $100 per item for baggage loss, up to $500 per person.
The economy plan does not include coverage for missed connections and CFAR coverage is not available.
Tin Leg Standard
The plan covers trip cancellation, delay and interruption, but does not cover missed connections.
The Standard plan includes up to $30,000 for secondary emergency medical coverage and $200,000 for medical evacuation. It also offers a pre-existing conditions waiver as long as you purchase the plan within 15 days of making your first trip deposit.
Unlike the Basic and Economy plans, the Standard plan includes coverage for terrorism. It also covers the financial default of your travel supplier after a 14-day wait if purchased within 15 days of your first trip deposit. The plan covers employment layoff if you were employed for at least one continuous year.
Tin Leg Luxury
Like the cheaper plans, the Luxury plan covers trip cancellation, delay and interruption, but the Luxury plan provides primary — not secondary — medical coverage. The plan includes $100,000 in primary emergency medical coverage as well as $250,000 in emergency evacuation coverage.
It also covers trip cancellation because of an unforeseen work reason as long as the plan was purchased within 15 days of your first trip deposit. The luxury plan offers the ability to purchase a “cancel for any reason” (CFAR) coverage upgrade.
What truly sets this plan apart from the others is that it is the only plan that allows policyholders to purchase additional rental car damage coverage.
Tin Leg Adventure
We named Tin Leg’s Adventure plan one of the best travel insurance plans, giving it a rating of 4 stars out of 5.
The Adventure plan was designed for active and adventurous travelers. It includes comprehensive coverage for adventurous activities, $100,000 in primary emergency medical coverage, medical evacuation coverage of up to $1,000,000, and extra coverage for delayed sports equipment.
It is also one of only two plans that offer accidental death and dismemberment coverage. CFAR coverage is available as an upgrade to this plan.
Tin Leg Silver
Tin Leg Silver provides comprehensive cancellation coverage, increases the secondary medical coverage to $250,000 and includes higher reimbursement limits for travel delays, baggage delays and baggage loss. It includes financial default of supplier coverage after a 14-day waiting period, as long as the plan was purchased within 14 days of your first trip deposit.
It also includes $1,000,000 million per person in medical evacuation coverage. There’s no coverage available for employment layoff, but the plan does offer a CFAR upgrade.
Tin Leg Gold
We named Tin Leg’s Gold plan one of the best travel insurance plans, giving it a rating of 4 stars out of 5.
The plan kicks up your primary medical coverage to $500,000. It also includes financial default of supplier coverage, with a 14-day waiting period, as long as you bought the plan within 14 days of your initial trip deposit.
The Gold plan includes employment layoff coverage if you were employed for three continuous years.
Unlike the Silver plan, Tin Leg Gold includes coverage for a missed connection, but decreases the coverage limits in medical evacuation, baggage loss and travel delay.
As with the Adventure plan, this plan offers coverage for accidental death and dismemberment insurance. You can also pay extra to add “cancel-for-any-reason” coverage.
Tin Leg USA Only
As the name indicates, the USA Only plan is limited to travel within the United States.
This plan offers basic travel insurance including trip cancellation, trip interruption, baggage loss and $10,000 per person in secondary medical coverage.
Trip cancellation reasons such as terrorism, cancellation for work reasons, unexpected job loss and financial default of your travel supplier are not covered.
Tin Leg Platinum
The Platinum plan is similar to the Gold plan with a few exceptions. It has the same trip interruption, trip cancellation, medical evacuation, travel delay and baggage loss coverage.
However, the Platinum plan offers less medical coverage and a smaller payout for a missed connection than the Gold plan.
While it does offer coverage for death or dismemberment during a flight, Tin Leg Platinum does not offer the ability to purchase additional CFAR coverage.
Additional travel insurance coverage available
Some Tin Leg travel insurance plans give you the option to add on coverage.
“Cancel for any reason”
“Cancel for any reason” (CFAR) coverage allows you to cancel your trip for any reason up to 48 hours before your scheduled departure.
Opting to add CFAR coverage typically increases the cost of your travel insurance by about 50%.
If you decide to cancel your trip with CFAR, you’ll be able to get up to 50% of your prepaid, forfeited, nonrefundable trip expenses reimbursed.
CFAR coverage is available with the Tin Leg Luxury, Adventure, Silver, and Gold policies, as long as you buy it within 14 to 15 days of your first trip deposit, depending on which plan you go with.
Car rental damage
Tin Leg’s Luxury plan is the only plan that allows policyholders to purchase optional rental car damage coverage.
With the Luxury plan, if your rental vehicle is stolen or damaged due to collision, vandalism, windstorm, fire, hail, or flood, your plan will pay for either the cost of repairs and rental charges or the actual cash value of the vehicle whichever is cheaper.
How much does Tin Leg travel insurance cost?
The price of Tin Leg travel insurance will vary depending on which plan you choose. Your rates will also depend on factors such as the length of your trip, the age of the travelers in your party, the number of travelers, your destination and the total cost of your trip.
As an example, we requested quotes for Tin Leg travel insurance to cover two 45-year-old women traveling to Paris, France for seven days with a trip cost of $10,000. See these quotes below.
Tin Leg travel insurance for a sample Paris trip
The average cost of travel insurance is 5% to 6% of your total trip cost, but as you can see, the plan you select impacts how much you pay. The Tin Leg Basic plan quote we received is only 2.5% of our $10,000 Paris trip.
What doesn't Tin Leg travel insurance cover?
Tin Leg travel insurance does not cover:
- Normal pregnancy or childbirth.
- Mental, nervous or psychological disorder.
- Self-inflicted injuries.
- Injuries due to participation in professional athletic events.
- Injuries sustained under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
- Any trip taken against the advice of a physician.
Each Tin Leg travel insurance plan has limitations, so it is important to read the fine print for what is covered. Tin Leg’s “free-look” period gives you 14 days to look over your policy and cancel for a full refund if it doesn’t suit your needs.
Do I need travel insurance?
Travel insurance is a smart investment to cover any unexpected expense you may experience during your trip. In addition to covering medical expenses not covered by your domestic health care plan when traveling abroad, travel insurance can cover trip delays, trip interruptions, lost baggage, emergency medical evacuation and more.
Methodology
Our insurance experts reviewed 42 aspects of 53 policies to find the best travel insurance plans. We used data provided by Squaremouth, a travel insurance comparison provider. For travel insurance companies offering more than one travel insurance plan, we shared information about the highest-scoring plan (or two, in case of a tie).
The factors we scored out of a possible 100 points include the following.
Cost: 30 points. We scored the average cost for each travel insurance policy for a variety of trips and traveler profiles.
Medical expenses: 15 points. We scored travel medical insurance by the coverage amount available. Travel insurance policies with travel medical expense benefits of $250,000 or more per person were given the highest score of 15 points.
Medical evacuation: 15 points. We scored each plan’s emergency medical evacuation coverage by coverage amount. Travel insurance policies with medical evacuation expense benefits of $500,000 or more per person were given the highest score of 15 points.
“Cancel for any reason” upgrade: 5 points. We gave travel insurance plans with the option of a “cancel for any reason” upgrade 5 points.
Trip interruption travel insurance: 5 points. We gave 5 points to travel insurance plans that offer trip interruption reimbursement of 150% or more.
Travel delay required waiting time: 5 points. We gave 5 points to travel insurance policies with travel delay benefits that kick in at 6 hours or less.
Baggage delay required waiting time: 5 points. We gave 5 points to travel insurance policies with baggage delay benefits that kick in at 12 hours or less.
Pre-existing medical condition exclusion waiver: 5 points. We gave policies that cover pre-existing medical conditions if purchased within a required timeline 5 points.
Non-medical evacuation: 5 points. If a policy provides coverage for non-medical evacuation, such as for political or security reasons, we gave it 5 points.
Cancel for work reasons: 5 points. If a plan allows you to cancel your trip for work reasons, such as your boss requiring you to stay and work, we gave it 5 points.
Employment layoff: 5 points. Travel insurance policies that allow you to cancel your trip because of layoff at a company where you have worked for one continuous year were scored 5 points. If a plan requires that you had the job for more than a year to qualify, no points were given.
Some travel insurance companies may offer plans with additional benefits or lower prices than the plans which scored the highest, so make sure to compare travel insurance quotes to see your full range of options.
Why some companies didn’t make the cut
Travel insurance companies selling policies at above-average cost when compared to competitor plans may not have scored enough points to make the cut. Plans with low limits for medical expenses and medical evacuation were also less likely to receive top scores.
Yes, Tin Leg is a legitimate travel insurance company. We gave the company’s Gold and Adventure plans 4 stars in our best travel insurance companies rating. For the amount of coverage you get, these two Tin Leg plans are a great value.
Based on 3,197 Tin Leg travel insurance reviews on the travel comparison website Squaremouth, Tin Leg has an overall customer rating of 4.6.
The travel insurance comparison website Squaremouth founded Tin Leg in 2014. Squaremouth designed policies to offer comprehensive trip cancellation and trip interruption benefits to meet the most common needs of travelers.
Four of Tin Leg’s travel insurance plans offer the option to purchase additional “cancel for any reason” (CFAR) coverage: Luxury, Adventure, Gold and Silver.
If you upgrade your travel insurance plan to include CFAR coverage, you can be reimbursed up to 50% of your prepaid and nonrefundable trip expenses if you cancel your trip at least 48 hours prior to your scheduled departure.
CFAR insurance is a good idea if you have several prepaid, nonrefundable activities on your itinerary, but it can add 50% to the total cost of your travel insurance.
Blueprint is an independent publisher and comparison service, not an investment advisor. The information provided is for educational purposes only and we encourage you to seek personalized advice from qualified professionals regarding specific financial decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Blueprint has an advertiser disclosure policy. The opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the Blueprint editorial staff alone. Blueprint adheres to strict editorial integrity standards. The information is accurate as of the publish date, but always check the provider’s website for the most current information.
