Insurance for a family of 4

[sikkim]

Hi,

 

We are in our mid 30s with 2 kids less than 5 years old. We are doing a 7 day cruise from San Juan. I have read through some forums and seems like the things we need to be worried about are -

 

1. Medical Evacuation - Do you know what limit I should be looking for this?

2. Trip Cancellation/Trip Interruption - I am assuming this will take care if we miss cruise due to flight delay/cancellation. Also due to hurricane season cancellations.

3. Travel Delay

4. I bought my airfare using miles. So I am assuming that is not covered. Should the trip cost than just be the cost of the cruise?

 

We called our Medical Insurance and they did confirm that they cover internationally. We might have to go to Emergency and pay $100 but that is it.

 

Do I need to worry about anything else from an insurance perspective? We do not have any pre-existing conditions.

Although, this might be an issue but we are more than 14 days out since we bought our cruise. Today is the 16th day.

 

As you might have noticed, we are first time cruisers. Any help/suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks

[cherylandtk]

Since you have medical coverage and no PEC's, you should be in pretty good shape for everything except an emergency evacuation. You probably should look at something around $500,000 for that, given your itinerary. You can use insuremytrip, but I like tripinsurancestore.com myself because it has good explanations and only uses a few of the better, more reliable policies.

 

As for your other questions, Trip Delay is what usually covers flight delays and flight cancellations. (Trip Cancellation refers to cruise/trip cancellation due to a covered reason, not flight cancellation). Most Trip Delay coverage is quite limited, $500-$1000, so you may want to seek a policy that specifically covers you for as much as possible and pay attention to the number of hours before coverage kicks in. Most are 5-6 hours, so if you miss your connection because the originating flight was two hours late, you are not covered.

 

Hurricane cancellation by the cruiseline usually results in a refunded fare (or partial refund if the cruise is shortened) by the cruiseline directly. This becomes a tricky area if you cannot reach the ship due to weather and it still goes on the cruise. You must attempt to get to the cruise at a subsequent port, you cannot just go home and file a claim.

 

Lastly, you are correct that the flight value is $0 using points, but you can include any re-deposit fee in your total cost. Also include any pre-paid NR hotel costs, or pre-paid

NR tours.

[sikkim]

Hi Cherylandtk,

 

Thanks for the details and the quick response.

I have a direct flight from origin to the port. So if it gets delayed more than 5 hours and I am missing the cruise then i guess the trip delay will kick in.

How do you include the redeposit fee? Do I just add to the trip cost? Anything else I need to add to the trip cost apart from cruise fare, redeposit fee, shore excursions, hotel stay at the departure port?

I used squaremouth.com and see two reasonable ones - Travel Insured and Travelex? The feedback in forums for both has been decent.

 

The Travel Insured mentions secondary for Med and Dental whereas Travelex says it is primary. Do I need to worry about that?

I will take the $500K for Med Evac.

 

Thanks again

[cruiseco]

 

Lastly, you are correct that the flight value is $0 using points, but you can include any re-deposit fee in your total cost.

 

Before you do that, just be sure the plan you're using offers that type of coverage -- not all do. If you add that to your insured trip cost when there's no way of collecting you're just wasting your money.

[cherylandtk]

Hi Cherylandtk,

 

Thanks for the details and the quick response.

I have a direct flight from origin to the port. So if it gets delayed more than 5 hours and I am missing the cruise then i guess the trip delay will kick in.

How do you include the redeposit fee? Do I just add to the trip cost? Anything else I need to add to the trip cost apart from cruise fare, redeposit fee, shore excursions, hotel stay at the departure port?

I used squaremouth.com and see two reasonable ones - Travel Insured and Travelex? The feedback in forums for both has been decent.

 

The Travel Insured mentions secondary for Med and Dental whereas Travelex says it is primary. Do I need to worry about that?

I will take the $500K for Med Evac.

 

Thanks again

Just include the miles re-deposit fee amount in your total, the price points are usually every $500, so it may not even affect your total cost. You listed the usual pre-paid non-refundable trip costs, unless you have some other trip cost, that sounds like all of it.

 

Both of those policy brands are good ones and I assume you are looking at the TG Gold policy, and squaremouth is a good site. Since you have separate international health coverage, it should not truly matter whether you choose primary or secondary coverage insurance. That just means that you would have to file with your own health coverage and get the EOB from that before you can file with a secondary insurer. Which you would probably do in any case.

 

There are some small differences in the Trip Delay and Missed Connection coverages between the two policies. Be sure to read them over in the comparison links to see if one or the other meets your needs better.