Including Airfare in Trip Cost

[heffa72]

So I've read so far that some people say don't bother including your air fare costs when trying to get a quote on coverage (other than the non-refundable change fee you might incur if you have to change dates/cancel). My question is, what if your flight is the cause of the delay in getting you to the ship? If you're not including the full cost of your airfare, can they deny coverage if you miss your boat due to a cancelled flight? Or if you're trip is delayed or luggage is lost, I'm guessing you won't be eligible for trip delay/luggage delay coverage right?

[cruiseco]

So I've read so far that some people say don't bother including your air fare costs when trying to get a quote on coverage (other than the non-refundable change fee you might incur if you have to change dates/cancel). My question is, what if your flight is the cause of the delay in getting you to the ship? If you're not including the full cost of your airfare, can they deny coverage if you miss your boat due to a cancelled flight? Or if you're trip is delayed or luggage is lost, I'm guessing you won't be eligible for trip delay/luggage delay coverage right?

 

It depends on the plan, but usually no. In fact, most plans are broken down into two components -- one component related to the amount of your trip cost you insure, and the other completely independent of the insured trip cost.

 

For example, take a look at the TravelSafe Classic plan. You can actually insure $0.00 of your trip cost if you'd like. This would mean that you get no trip cancellation coverage and since the trip interruption coverage is 150% of the trip cancellation coverage you don't get that either.

 

But you would still get the medical, the emergency evacuation, travel delay, baggage delay, 24-hour emergency assistance, and several other benefits. You would even get the $2500 Missed Connection benefit which provides the following:

 

"Missed Connection: If You miss Your cruise or tour departure because Your arrival at Your Trip destination is delayed for 3 or more hours, benefits will be paid, on a one-time basis, up to the Maximum Benefit Amount, for a) the Additional Transportation Cost to join the Trip and b) the unused portion of the prepaid expenses for land or water Travel Arrangements, due to: a) any delay of a Common Carrier (the delay must be certified by the Common Carrier); b) a documented weather condition preventing You from getting to the point of departure; c) quarantine, hijacking, Strike, natural disaster, terrorism or riot."

 

All of those other benefits are included regardless of the amount of trip cost you choose to insure or whether you elect to not insure your air tickets at all.

 

The big problem with not insuring the full cost of your air tickets is if you need coverage for pre-existing medical conditions. Here's from a different plan:

 

"The Pre-Existing Conditions exclusion is waived if You enroll in the Policy at the time You pay the deposit required for their Trip or within 14 days of the initial deposit and You purchase the Policy for the full cost of their Trip."

 

As far as including the air ticket change fee in the insured trip cost, just be aware that many insurers won't reimburse you for this. Since they only cover "pre-paid, non-refundable expenses" and the change fee fails the "pre-paid" requirement they won't help you with that. Some will, some won't. But don't throw that cost into your trip total and pay insurance on it unless you know for sure the insurer will cover it.

[heffa72]

Thanks. That makes sense to me. I've been booking insurance for the last 5 trips and never realized it broke down like that.

[Lou33]

So I've read so far that some people say don't bother including your air fare costs when trying to get a quote on coverage (other than the non-refundable change fee you might incur if you have to change dates/cancel). My question is, what if your flight is the cause of the delay in getting you to the ship? If you're not including the full cost of your airfare, can they deny coverage if you miss your boat due to a cancelled flight? Or if you're trip is delayed or luggage is lost, I'm guessing you won't be eligible for trip delay/luggage delay coverage right?

 

This is exactly what happened to us on our last cruise. And yes, we were covered for a trip delay. We used TruTravel Super Saver which was the lowest cost insurance that we could find. We paid only $67 total for two people on a 12-day Med cruise.

 

We insured only the non-refundable part of our cruise, not the taxes or port charges, and nothing else. We did not insure the airfare. If we had to cancel the whole cruise, then I had hoped that the airline would at least give us vouchers for a future flight, after paying a change fee. But there was no need to cancel the cruise.

 

Our flight was delayed 24 hours for mechanical reasons. We did not miss the sailing, since we planned to stay in Barcelona for three nights pre cruise. But we did have about $120 in expenses for meals and transportation, and they had no problem paying our claim. We specified that our trip started the day that our flight was scheduled to depart.

 

There can be issues where they may not cover pre-existing conditions unless you insure the full *non-refundable* portion of your cruise including airfare. But we didn't have any pre-existing conditions, so no problem for us. We also bought our insurance months after our deposit, so if we did have pre-existing conditions, we wouldn't have been covered for that anyway.

 

I thought it was interesting that they covered us for a mechanical problem on the airline, when we didn't even insure that part of the trip.

[heffa72]

Thanks for sharing your story. Its good to know how this stuff works. No one really explains this stuff on the insurance websites.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

When flying with 1500$ plane tickets we take ins