How does Travel Insurance work

After a brief scare on my last cruise this month I want to consider having it for my next cruise.

The short of what happened. My dad had tipple bypass surgery 10 days before the cruise, which was enough for us to really put into perspective of how important insurance could be. My dads surgery went great and after talking to everyone we decided to go ahead with the cruise. But, the day we were supposed to leave my dad had complications and was taken to the hospital by ambulance. Everything turned out fine except we missed our initial flight and had to take a flight into Miami the next day purchasing new tickets, the day of the cruise.

1. Our next cruise is in 2 months. Can I get insurance when it's that close? Or do I have to book when I book the cruise.

2. How do I know who to use?

3. What does it cover. If my flight is delayed and I miss the ship is that covered?

4. Does it cover flight cancellations or just the cruise, and hotel fee's?

5. Are claims easy to file and be covered?

I am sure I will have more questions to come.

Thanks, Jeff

If it is after final payment date you can still get insurance that will reimburse you for medical expenses incurred during your cruise, and to get home if forced to leave your cruise early, but not for having to cancel your cruise. And the above will almost certainly exclude any pre-existing conditions that you have been treated for during a specified amount of time prior to the date the insurance is purchased. Policies that waive the pre-existing conditions exclusion generally have to be purchased at the time of booking or very shortly thereafter.

As for travel delays: insurance usually covers delays by the common carrier, not simply your missing the flight (other than under a limited set of circumstances beyond your control). There is usually a minimum amount of time your flight must be delayed before coverage kicks in: if your policy says three hours, but a two hour delay will cause you to miss your cruise then the insurance is basically useless unless you change to an earlier flight. And if your flight is cancelled you simply cannot turn around and go home expecting a full refund of your cruise (believe it or not this is a common misconception)--unless you have cancel for any reason coverage (which you will never find so close to sailaway) you are expected to make every Herculean effort to meet the ship at the next port; such expenses you can file for reimbursement of.

And just to add: based on the circumstances of your last cruise, if you had purchased insurance at the time of booking a medical emergency of an immediate family member would be ground for cancelling your cruise. But for changing your fights to the next day? Reimbursement for that would likely be a contentious battle; you would have to submit documentation from your father's physicians verifying the condition and that it did not meet the insurer's definition of pre-existing condition--which in your particular case may have been very difficult should the insurer learn that you had first decided not to cancel once the initial crisis passed but subsequently chose to delay your departure when it briefly became acute again (the textbook definition of a "pre existing condition").

As for your question about ease of filing: varies widely as to what you are filing for. Cancelling a cruise due to your (or an immediate family member's) illness is the most straightforward; just submit physician's proof, insurer verifies if there was any refund from the cruise line and sends you the balance (or all). Reimbursement for covered additional travel expenses or baggage loss/delay is the typical fill out the form and wait procedure. But for your own medical or emergency evacuation expenses you first have to prove that your own health insurance will not be covering it--essentially you have to first submit to them, wait for proof of denial of the claim, then submit the denial to the travel insurer.

Oh, and you can find lots of recommendations of insurance provider services that should be able to find you an appropriate policy even at this late date on the Cruise/Travel Insurance board: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=635

After a brief scare on my last cruise this month I want to consider having it for my next cruise.

The short of what happened. My dad had tipple bypass surgery 10 days before the cruise, which was enough for us to really put into perspective of how important insurance could be. My dads surgery went great and after talking to everyone we decided to go ahead with the cruise. But, the day we were supposed to leave my dad had complications and was taken to the hospital by ambulance. Everything turned out fine except we missed our initial flight and had to take a flight into Miami the next day purchasing new tickets, the day of the cruise.

 

1. Our next cruise is in 2 months. Can I get insurance when it's that close? Or do I have to book when I book the cruise.

 

2. How do I know who to use?

 

3. What does it cover. If my flight is delayed and I miss the ship is that covered?

 

4. Does it cover flight cancellations or just the cruise, and hotel fee's?

 

5. Are claims easy to file and be covered?

 

 

I am sure I will have more questions to come.

Thanks, Jeff

If your dad is also going and (with all but a small handful of companies) did not purchase the insurance within the required number of days of making the cruise deposit, in order to secure a "waiver of preexisting conditions," he is subject to the "look back" period of XX months. And, if his heart issues occurred or changed during that look back time, any claims later made, related to that issue (either travel or medical) will be denied.

As for yourself, check your existing insurance coverages, which may change significantly outside of the US. Also, what are the restrictions, if any, on emergency transport?

If you have a travel savvy credit card (e.g., United's Explorer Visa), it has quite a few decent travel interruption/cancellation coverages for items purchased with the card but subject to claim caps and NOTE that credit card's insurance offer no waivers of pre-existing conditions.

If for no other reason than comparison and an introduction to this complicated topic, check out the Travelex Select Traveler policy, which is about as comprehensive as one can get (and is a primary payer- I.e., pays before your own insurance is tapped).

IMO, not having comprehensive travel/medical insurance is "pennywise and pound foolish." As a general rule, figure about 10% of the cost of the cruise. Always insure a time span including days you depart and return home.

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Also check with your credit card company about any travel benefits it may offer automatically. I had to cancel a cruise last summer. I had travel insurance that refunded most of my cruise fare. My credit card company refunded the remainder. Southwest doesn't charge change fees, so I had a credit with the airline to use within a year. (And I did so with our tickets last month and next month.) I had booked a nonrefundable hotel room through Hotwire. My credit card company refunded that amount (after several months of waiting to see if Hotwire would make an exception--something the rep with whom I spoke initiated, not me).