Advantage to taking PG insurance?

[Familygoboston]

So my TA has a hold on Oct 6 2012. We will have to pay for insurance at booking, and I was wondering if there is any advantage to taking PGs insurance( which seems a bit high) over going with "insure my trip" or some other insurance. I plan to price it out over the weekend, but I want to compare apples to apples( or maybe pineapples to pineapples;)

If any of you more experienced PG cruisers have advice- I'd live to hear your thoughts! Btw, we are taking their air package.

Thanks!

[patseacruiser]

You have to compare the benefit limits as listed below which are Paul Gauguins and then see what the Insuremytrip costs are for the same benefits

 

Trip Cancellation Trip Cost

Trip Interruption Trip Cost

Missed Connection $750

Travel Delay (Up to $150 Per Day) $750

Accidental Death & Dismemberment (air flight) $25K

Medical Expense/Emergency Assistance

Accident & Sickness Medical Expenses $50K

Emergency Evacuation and Repatriation $100K

One Call 24-Hour Assistance Service Included

Baggage and Personal Effects $1,500

Baggage Delay (Up to $250 Per Day) $500

*Cancel for Any Reason Benefit up to 100% of non-refundable but this is an added cost to the insurance

CANCEL FOR ANY REASON BENEFIT

* Cancel for any reason benefit requires: 1) payment for this plan be received by Paul Gauguin

Cruises within 14 days of Your initial deposit / payment for Your Trip; and 2) You cancel Your

Trip two (2) days or more before Your Scheduled Trip Departure Date.

 

 

Trip Cost Premium Rate

Up to $1,000......................................................................................................................$99.00

$1,001 to $1,500........................................................................................................$149.00

$1,501 to $2,000........................................................................................................$219.00

$2,001 to $2,500........................................................................................................$279.00

$2,501 to $3,000.................................................................................................$329.00

$3,001 to $4,000................................................................................................$399.00

$4,001 to $5,000...............................................................................................$489.00

$5,001 to $6,000...............................................................................................$579.00

$6,001 to $7,000................................................................................................$669.00

$7,001 to $8,000........................................................................................................$769.00

$8,001 to $9,000........................................................................................................$859.00

$9,001 to $10,000.....................................................................................................$949.00

$10,000 and over..................................................................................................10% of Paid trip cost

[Familygoboston]

Thanks for posting this...just the pineapples I needed:D

[Wendy The Wanderer]

I try to avoid insuring with a cruiseline itself, because of bankruptcy fears. Not sure this is an issue, but I tend to be paranoid.

[Familygoboston]

I try to avoid insuring with a cruiseline itself, because of bankruptcy fears. Not sure this is an issue, but I tend to be paranoid.

 

Wendy -this is exactly why I looked into this! I checked the PG policy and it clearly says it does not provide coverage in the event that " PG fails to deliver" the product. I have read that in general it is not a good idea to buy insurance from the same entity with whom you are traveling because the copmany could default. I have additional concerns about this cruise line because the ship is leased from a guy who just had a big judgement against him. I don't know anything about the law, but what if he terminates PB's lease and there is no " product" to sail on? I think I'm pretty much out of luck unless the policy I pick independently specifically addresses that.

I looked on IMT and found several policys that were competitively priced. The PG policy is a good deal for the " cancel for any reason" rider, which added significantly to the the premium, but financial default of the carrier was standard inmost of the policies I looked at on IMT.

 

Anyway, my TA had a very good policy for us when we went to Africa last year. I think I may ask her to price that for us.

[MotuIslander]

Every sailing, we look at the PGC insurance and always end up with a third-party (Travelguard for the last couple of years). The price is better, sometimes the coverage is better, and yes...it avoids all your eggs in one basket.

 

But, you don't necessarily need to buy it when you book. Look at the cost of trip cancellation at certain dates and you will see that the insurance costs more than you are risking until you are a few months from sailing. However, you MIGHT get a waiver for pre-existing conditions if you buy the insurance at the same time you book the cruise (usually within a couple of weeks).

 

You might need to do a little homework and run the numbers.

 

Good luck!

[Familygoboston]

I always like to post a follow up for people who may be searching the boards in the future...

 

I went with a TravelGuard Policy that covers "finacial default of the tour operator", but does not have the cancel for any reason clause. We did not feel we needed the "any reason" clause because the policy we chose covers all illness, death, and business reasons that would make it likely for us to cancel. Had I added the "cancel for any reason" benefit, it would have been more than the PG policy and would have only covered about 50-75% of the nonrefundable costs, while PG covers 100% (depending on which premium is selected).

 

As it was the cost of my policy with TG was about the same price as the PG policy, I bought it through my TA and was able to just insure my deposit for now, and I can insure the rest when I pay the final ( not that it really mattered much to us, but some may wish to spread out their expenses.) My searches on IMT showed premiums that ran from $400-$600+ depending on what coverages you select, so really the PG policy is competitively priced. It all becomes a matter of what coverages are most important to you. As the early posters note, we really did have to run the numbers to find the right policy for us.:)

[FlightMedic555]

PG charges about 10% of their cruise far for the insurance. The high cost is primarily for cancellation insurance, not the lost baggage, flight delay, medical component. I have priced this out and for less than $200 for a $7,000 cruise I can easily get better insurance include medical evacuation included if I exclude the cancellation component.

 

Up until 91 days from departure you can cancel with a 10% penalty so in theory if you are pretty confident that you would never cancel within the 90 day window the cancellation component is not important. Obvisoulsy if you get sick at home and can't travel you are out of luck. My primary concern would be the approximately $150,000 expense to be flown back to the states via an air ambulance if bad things happened. That is covered in alternate policies.

 

I am booked for the January Australia-Tahiti cruise and I am thus far challenged to spend close to $2,000 for the insurance for the two of us.