iamtrustworthy

Hi johnnylikely,

I'm sorry, but I'm not qualified to give advice on non-USA insurance plans.

Steve Dasseos

On 9/7/2023 at 7:21 AM, rbslos18 said:

Would the following situation be covered?
 

During a cruise, a new cruise is booked and the deposit paid to the cruise line. The booking is then transferred to a travel agent. Insurance is purchased immediately.
 

After final payment the cruise company goes bankrupt. Would the travel insurance cover the lost funds?

Hi rbslos,

It's not a simple answer. It depenids on a plan's definition of Supplier Frinancial Default, if it has a "Time Sensitive" purchase deadline and its waiting period.

Some plans require the travel supplier to cease operation, some only require filing a bankruptcy petition, some plans won't pay if the supplier offers travel credits (i.e. - Vantage Travel's new owner).

Do you have a specific example?

Steve Dasseos

On 9/7/2023 at 10:53 AM, dougp1122 said:

I am primarily interested in a plan that provides trip cancelation coverage. I typically buy medical coverage from GeoBlue when I travel internationally. Does such a plan exist. My next cruise is in June 24. I pay the full amount next February. Up to that pint I can cancel for $100/person. 

Hi dougp1122,

> I am primarily interested in a plan that provides trip cancelation coverage. Does such a plan exist?

Yes, there are a lot of trip cancelation plans.

Steve Dasseos

On 5/31/2023 at 9:24 AM, PrincessArlena'sDad said:

For preexisting conditions to be covered, you have to purchase the insurance within a certain number of days of booking the cruise.  The number of days depends upon the insurance company. I've seen as little as 7 and as many as 21 days. 

 

I found really good rates with extensive coverage with:

travelinsured.com (they partner with my credit union)

covermore.com (they partner with our TA)

 

Hi PrincessArlena'sDad,

Make sure your credit union will advocate for and help you if you have claim since they earned a commission on the sale of your policy.

Steve Dasseos

18 hours ago, rbslos18 said:

Some cruise ,lines give a discount for an ACH payments eg Viking. If the cruise is purchased from a travel company, would IMG insurance cover the cancellation if a travel agent is the middle man?

Hi rbslos18,

If you have prepaid and non-refundable trip costs, those trip costs can be insured whether or not you are using a travel agent.

Steve Dasseos

9 hours ago, Mary229 said:

@iamtrustworthy  This often discussed topic needs an expert's opinion.  If I carry an annual travel policy will they reimburse to a cruise line gift card?  Thank you.  

 

 

Hi Mary229,

I don't know. I haven't found an Annual Trip Cancellation plan that is good enough for me to sell due to their plan limitations with what's needed to cover the changes in travel since Covid started.

Steve Dasseos

5 hours ago, Nancy&Frank said:

@rbslos18 I have been using Steve for years.  He is undoubtedly the best in the business.  So glad you will be able to recoup some of your $$$.

Hi Nancy & Frank,

Thank you for your kind words.

Steve Dasseos

6 hours ago, rbslos18 said:

I have read every post regarding trip insurance and every of Steve Dasseos' posts. The bottom line for me is the importance of using an experienced insurance agent such as Steve when buying trip insurance. When I read this board I am still humbled by the complexity of this product and the need for guidance. Two examples will suffice.

 

We have been cruising since 1998. Around 13 years ago before I even knew there were agents that sell this product, we bought a policy from the cruise line. One of our adult children was injured playing a sport. He ended up needing to come home for surgery.  There was no one to help us navigate the rough waters of trip cancellation insurance. We were on our own and lost all of the money we spent on the trip.

 

During a trip in the Summer of 2022 we came down with COVID in Prague. We had a policy from Trip Insurance Store and filed a claim. The medical was paid.  Coming home we missed three flights and ended up being put up in a hotel. The airline never paid for the voucher they gave us for a hotel they sent us to. Assuming I would be paid, I never filed insurance for the hotel. I never dreamed an airline would stiff me! A year passed. The airline never reimbursed us and the credit card would not remove the charge as the hotel did provide a room and it was not their fault the airline did not pay for the voucher. I was annoyed. I finally mentioned being out the money to Steve who advised me to reopen the claim. It never dawned on me this could be done. We received a notice our claim was accepted and will be paid.

 

The price of the policy is the same whether or not an agent is involved.  yet I have found that having a knowledgeable and experienced agent to turn to can be the difference between being paid and losing money.

Hi rbslos18,

Thank you for your kind words. I was happy to help you with that claim.

Steve Dasseos

11 hours ago, frodo1 said:

My wife and I are from Australia and are almost 6-months into a 7-month RTW trip. We commenced with our Black Credit Card Insurance with Allianz but the maximum for that is 180 days and it expires just before we commence a Celebrity Millennium month-long cruise from Vancouver to Tokyo. Long-time travellers, we have never claimed against an insurance policy!

Can we get a one-month policy to cover the one-way cruise, the overnight stay in Tokyo and the flight back to MEL via SGN.

Hi frodo1,

You should easily be able to get a travel medical plan from an Australian company to cover the remainder of your trip.

Steve Dasseos

On 8/31/2023 at 11:02 AM, GeezerCouple said:

Hi Steve,

 

Could you please clarify if there is a difference for travel insurance purposes between having hotel reservations:

1) Prepaid and non-refundable;

and

2) Guaranteed and also non-refundable.

In the second case, the hotel WILL charge the credit card when you arrive... or if you fail to arrive.

 

My understanding, and this could obviously vary with specific insurer and policy, is that if the reservation is "guaranteed and NON-refundable", that even though the traveler will forfeit the money, that because it wasn't actually "paid" (even if the charge card had a "hold" that would end up charged on arrival or failure to arrive), then that loss would not be covered.

 

We often try to get hotel reservations that are not paid and are fully refundable (meaning, no obligation, nothing will be charged, etc.) until we are ready to make the actual non-refundable payment.  And when we actually pay the non-refundable hotel charge, then we up the insurance as needed.

 

That is, because of travel insurance, we've been skipping the "guaranteed but not yet paid" step for our insured trips.

 

Is this correct?

 

Thanks.

 

GC

Hi GC,

This "non-refundable trip cost" requirement is another of the many complicated parts of a Trip Cancellation plan whether or not someone wants pre-existing conditions coverage.

First, most Trip Cancellation plans only let you require you to insure your non-refundable trip costs that are prepaid to have the pre-existing medical conditions and Cancel For Any Reason coverages. Though there are a few plans that don't require the full trip costs to be insured.

Next, most Trip Cancellation plans require your non-refundable trip costs be Prepaid prior to leaving home. See these Blog posts:

https://tripinsurancestore.com/blog/do-prepaid-trip-costs-have-to-be-paid-before-you-leave-on-your-trip/
https://tripinsurancestore.com/blog/what-does-prepaid-mean/

> My understanding, and this could obviously vary with specific insurer and policy, is that if the reservation is "guaranteed and NON-refundable", that even though the traveler will forfeit the money, that because it wasn't actually "paid" (even if the charge card had a "hold" that would end up charged on arrival or failure to arrive), then that loss would not be covered.

The potential ability to insure "Guaranteed and also non-refundable" expenses is a conundrum because prepaid means, well, "prepaid". Yet, just a very few companies tell they don't require the trip costs to be prepaid prior to a covered event occuring as long as the trip costs are subject to penalties that are charged to you if you don't arrive. But I don't see that their policy wording supports that advice.

That's why I don't advise people to insure their non-prepaid expenses. I'd make a lot more money if I did.

I hope this makes sense.

Steve Dasseos

On 9/1/2023 at 11:40 AM, Jersey42 said:

Would you mind elaborating on this.

_________________________________________

I have looked at a dozen annual comprehensive plans from six different companies and I have yet to find a plan that would work for us.  But once I find a limitation that I can not live with, I tend not to scrutinize the rest of the policy.  I have a feeling there may be more limitations than the ones I have noticed.

 

PS - We do carry an annual GeoBlue Trekker medical and evacuation policy that we purchase through TIS. This is an excellent plan for us. GeoBlue's medical and evac coverage is much better (for us) than the medical and evac coverage of any of the annual comprehensive travel plans I have seen.

Hi Jersey42,

The Annual Trip Cancellation plans are what they say: "Trip Cancellation plans" and the trip cancellation, trip interruption benefits are their main focus and not the other coverages.

The pandemic, and its after-effects, changed the travel experience. The biggest change I've seen is the number of Trip Delay and Baggage Delay claims. Some delays are related to the flight crew and air traffic controller staffing problems. Others are directly from (or domino effects) of strikes, bad weather and natural disasters. In addition, doctor-ordered Covid quarantines are covered under the Trip Delay benefit.

Prior to the pandemic, there weren't that many Trip Delay and Baggage Delay claims. When we'd ask people who wanted an Annual Trip Cancellation plan if they were concerned about delay, medical, baggage or missed connection coverages, hardly anyone wanted those.

Now, when we ask about those other benefits, nearly everyone wants good delay coverage plus some of the others. So that's why I say "I haven't found an Annual Trip Cancellation plan that is good enough for me to sell due to their plan limitations with what's needed to cover the changes in travel since Covid started."

Steve Dasseos

On 8/29/2023 at 10:45 PM, redwave said:

Cruising with five Married siblings and their families. 
 

Each family is paying for their own cruise but we need all the policies to be linked to insure for these eventualities:

 

a. If one of the fams kids comes down with something that’s covered to cancel in the event that the other siblings/rooms want to postpone as well for full reimbursement for everyone, even other rooms?

 

(Do we pay individually for the policies and link them after or do we buy all the policies in one batch on one cc? We live in different states…)

 

b. If someone cancels for a covered reason and the rest of us still want to travel, Will there be a partial reimbursement?

HI redwave,

You'd get a policy for each family group. Technically, there's no "linking" of policies because you are all Travel Companions (Here more info about this: https://tripinsurancestore.com/your-family-member-or-traveling-companion/). We note people traveling together, but it's not required.

Steve Dasseos

 

On 8/29/2023 at 7:17 PM, caligirl49 said:

What plan do you suggest for each trip?  We have international medical coverage through our past employer so we are more interested in trip cancellation and delays coverage

Hi caligirl49,

Neither Cruise Critic nor myself want you to put private information on a public forum, so if you don't mind, would you either email me your trip details ato steve@tripinsurancestore.com or fill out this form at https://tripinsurancestore.com/travel-insurance-email-contact-form/ ?

Steve Dasseos

On 8/28/2023 at 2:34 PM, caligirl49 said:

We are taking about 8 cruises between this year and next year.  Is it more economical to do an annual policy?  Also does Celebrity's insurer offer this option?

 

Hi caligirl49,

I haven't found an Annual Trip Cancellation plan that is good enough for me to sell due to their plan limitations with what's needed to cover the changes in travel since Covid started.
 

Steve Dasseos

21 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

We already contacted Travel Guard and were sent a form by e-mail. We are waiting to see how much our other insurance reimburses us for an obviously out of network physician as the Travel Guard form asks what we will be reimbursed.

Which Travel Guard plan do you have?

On 8/24/2023 at 10:29 AM, chfenton said:

Will be taking a cruise out of Port Canaveral in February (booked today).  I am trying to insure that I purchase the right insurance policy as circumstances are such that we can't fly into Orlando until the morning of the cruise. Flight due to arrive at MCO at 8:15 am so plenty of time if all goes well.  Do all policies reimburse me for the cruise fare in case there is an airline/airport/FAA melt down and we end up stranded and don't get to MCO in time to get over to the cruise?  I read about coverages and can't really find it in the trip cancellation section of some of the policies I just looked at.  Confirmation or advice on what coverage I'm looking for would be appreciated.

Hi Chfenton,

> Do all policies reimburse me for the cruise fare in case there is an airline/airport/FAA melt down and we end up stranded and don't get to MCO in time to get over to the cruise?

No. Many policies don't cover governmental actions, so be sure to check for this in the Exclusions.

Steve Dasseos

11 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

So, DW went to medical and when I went to file a claim, I see our Travel Guard policy wants information on our other insurance. The other insurance will probably pay most if not all of the claim. And that is fine, but not that long after we got home we discovered her condition was much worse, in fact she is in the hospital now as I type this. The visit to the medical center onboard was on a sea day going from Norway to Iceland, and I cannot even imagine the expense if she had needed emergency transportation back to the USA. I am sure this would not be covered by our primary insurance, and is in fact the reason we buy travel insurance.

 

So my question is would Travel Guard immediately help out on this, or would we have to hope maxing out our credit cards would be enough to pay for it before we would be able to be reimbursed?

Hi ontheweb,

You need to call Travel Guard's 24 hour assistance department at (715) 345-0505 (Call collect outside the USA).

Steve Dasseos

13 hours ago, lubedobedo said:

Hi, I bought travel insurance on 7/10/22 for cruise in 11/16/23. Cruise was canceled by cruise line. I asked if I could save insurance for later booking a trip and the dates were moved to 11/2025 (have to use by). I rebooked a cruise for 9/14/24 so had dates changed for that policy for the new cruise. They sent me confirmation for new dates so everything looks ok, but, email states,  "Please note that travel dates cannot be extended past a departure more than 2 years on from the original purchase date." So, do I have coverage or not since my new dates are past 2 years of originally purchasing the insurance? I want to make sure we are covered! So confusing! iTravelinsured Travel SE  Thanks, Luana

Hi lubedobedo,

Until Thursday August 24, 2023, IMG would let you buy a policy for a trip departing more than 2 years from the purchase date, but they wouldn't move it to a departure date more than 2 years from purchase date.

Now someone can't buy an IMG policy for a trip departing more than 2 years from the purchase date.

I don't know who you are, but if you bought your IMG policy from us, will you email me at steve@tripinsurancestore.com with the change you need. I'll take it to IMG.

If you bought it from someone else, contact them for their help.

Steve Dasseos

On 8/25/2023 at 10:50 AM, Indiansbaseball said:

Hi Steve, 

The cruise is paid for. But I still have hotels to book. Does this make a difference ? 

WIll your hotels be prepaid prior to leaving and non-refundable on your departure date from home?

On 8/23/2023 at 10:23 AM, Indiansbaseball said:

We booked our cruise back in October 2022. It sails November 23.

Hi Indiansbaseball,

I forgot to ask you if your trip is paid in full. Do you have any payments to make for prepaid non-refundable trip costs?

Steve Dasseos

On 8/23/2023 at 10:23 AM, Indiansbaseball said:

We booked our cruise back in October 2022. It sails November 23.

Hi Indiansbaseball,

I don't know any plans that will cover you.

Steve Dasseos

5 hours ago, Daniel A said:

I live in New York and the insurance company I have travel insurance through does not offer a CFAR option.  I thought I had read that NYS doesn't consider CFAR to be an 'insurance' product but permits entities to sell CFAR contracts separate and apart from the insurance policy.  In NY, CFAR cannot be added to a policy as a rider.  My question is:  Are there any companies that offer a CFAR as a standalone without purchasing an insurance policy for the same sailing?

Hi Daniel A,

No, CFAR as a standalone isn't available because it's part of the Trip Cancellation coverage.

Steve Dasseos

On 8/21/2023 at 10:10 AM, toolworker said:

So if we cancel the cruise, but keep and use our own arranged air from home to the debark port, CFAR will not pay, correct?

Hi toolworker,

CFAR requires you to cancel all your travel arrangents which means you aren't taking any part of your trip.

Steve Dasseos

On 8/20/2023 at 6:32 PM, Drazil65 said:

iamtrustworthy:  Thank you for your additional input on the subject.  It has been our experience that many people we know (and relatives) do not have medical coverage outside the country and they always get at least a travel medical policy, 

 

Many people do not obtain travel insurance and they are sometimes naïve to the requirements of other countries such as money advanced for admittance.  Although we are not old enough to have Medicare, we do have immediate family that have it and I think my MIL said something in the past about her not being covered outside the country.  Any way you look at it some type of travel insurance should be on everyone's checklist when traveling.  

Hi Drazil65,

You're welcome.

> many people we know (and relatives) do not have medical coverage outside the country

Unless they have Medicaid, some Medicare Advantage plans or a non ACA-compliant plan, they should at least have some limited medical coverage outside the USA. They probably won't have any Medical Transportation coverage.

I agree that it's good to have at least some travel medical insurance when traveling out of the plan's network area. Or, when someone has a high-deductible health plan.

I wrote this a few days ago on my Blog that you might find helpful:

https://tripinsurancestore.com/blog/is-it-worth-paying-more-to-have-500000-medical-coverage/

Steve Dasseos

9 hours ago, Indiansbaseball said:

So what should one do if they are having a medical procedure a month before sailing ? 
Thanks 😊 

Hi Indiansbaseball,

When did / will you pay the first payment toward any travel arrangements on your trip?

Steve Dasseos