Insurance for Egypt

[jhenry1]

We are going on a cruise in May from Luxor Egypt to Rome and it includes several stops in Israel. I usually purchase CSA Insurance but when I put in Egypt as the destination the price on the insurance skyrockets.

 

I hate to not say Egypt but those of you who are seasonsed at this what should I do and what are my options.

 

The other ports are in Greece and Italy but our cruise begins in Luxor Egypt and we are in Jordan, 2ports in Egypt, Haifa Isreal, and Tel Aviv Israel and then 7 other ports such as Greece, turkey, Italy

 

Help Give me some ideas and especially those of you who have been to Egypt and Israel. Of course all of this is pending that things settle down in the area by May of next year.

 

Kandy

[cruiseco]

We are going on a cruise in May from Luxor Egypt to Rome and it includes several stops in Israel. I usually purchase CSA Insurance but when I put in Egypt as the destination the price on the insurance skyrockets.

Kandy

 

Several options for you:

 

1) you are apparently looking at CSA's Custom plans -- probably through insuremytrip.com. One downside to that is that with that plan only CSA takes destination into account when determining the premium. Their other plans (Freestyle and Freestyle Luxe) only take into account two factors -- trip cost and age. You will not get a premium boost associated with any stop in Egypt. These plans are almost identical to the Custom plans -- in fact in one respect they're better as you do not have to step up to the Luxe level of coverage if you need coverage for pre-existing medical situations. It is available with the base lever Freestyle plan. You can find the Freestyle plans at tripinsurancestore.com or travelinsurancecenter.com

 

2) If I was going to someplace like Egypt/Israel/Middle East I'd seriously think about a plan that includes non-medical emergency evacuation in case the country blows up while you're there and you need to get out fast. TravelSafe has this as part of their standard coverage:

 

"Non-Medical Emergency Evacuati on Benefits

 

All reasonable expenses incurred for Your transportation to the nearest place of safety, or to Your home, are covered, up to a maximum of $25,000, if You must leave Your Trip for a Covered Reason.

 

Evacuation must occur within 10 days of any covered event. Arrangements will be by the most appropriate and economical means available and consistent with Your health and safety. Benefits are only payable for arrangements made by One Call Worldwide Travel Services Network, Inc.

 

Covered Reasons: We will pay for the Non-Medical Emergency Evacuation Benefits listed above if, while on Your Trip, a formal recommendation from the appropriate local authorities, or the U.S. State Department, is issued for You to leave a country You are visiting on Your Trip due to: 1) a natural disaster; 2) civil, military or political unrest; or 3) Your being expelled or declared a persona non-grata by a country You are visiting on Your Trip."

[ncgolferette]

Just a side note. CSA's freestyle plans need to be purchased through your agent that booked the cruise and they must be an agent registered with the company. I called CSA last month to purchase a policy and the person at CSA said I needed to get it through my travel agent and that is what I did. I thought it was an excellent policy for the money.

[cruiseco]

Just a side note. CSA's freestyle plans need to be purchased through your agent that booked the cruise and they must be an agent registered with the company. I called CSA last month to purchase a policy and the person at CSA said I needed to get it through my travel agent and that is what I did. I thought it was an excellent policy for the money.

 

Unfortunately, you were misinformed. The Freestyle plans can be purchased through either of the sites I mentioned regardless of where the cruise was purchased. They sell those plans all day, every day to anyone who requests it or accesses the plan info through their web links.

[cruiseco]

Unfortunately, you were misinformed. The Freestyle plans can be purchased through either of the sites I mentioned regardless of where the cruise was purchased. They sell those plans all day, every day to anyone who requests it or accesses the plan info through their web links.

 

Just to expound a little more on this:

 

The Custom series of plans and the Freestyle series of plans have very different pricing methods and sales channels as the OP has found out.

 

The Custom plans -- the only plans you will be quoted if you call CSA directly or if you use most of the online comparison sited like insuremytip --take many factors into account when figuring your premium. Besides the basic age and trip cost factors they also figure in destination (the Middle East is more problematic than most other areas) and a trip to Antarctica will have a much higher emergency evac cost than a trip to Las Vegas. Your home area and traveling time of year -- departing from Minnesota in February is a higher risk of delays and/or cancellations. Length of the trip -- more chances to get sick on a two week vacation than a three-nighter. Number of days between date of policy purchase and trip departure, but this also means that if you buy your policy toady you might pay more than if you buy your policy next month. Etc, etc

 

Each seller of CSA plans has the option to choose to offer either the Custom or Freestyle plans. For a tech-savvy company like insuremytrip it's easy to use the Custom plans. But for a travel agency it's not. Travel agents like to hand out brochures and when you have only two factors in the pricing (age and trip cost) the premiums can be presented in a simple grid. And a TA can quote a premium today and know that the quote will still be good a month from now.

 

The problem arises with "adverse selection". The plans are almost identical so it pays for the client to make the buying decision based on cost. Sometimes it's the Custom plan, sometimes it's the Freestyle plan. But CSA never wants to be in the position of always selling the cheapest option. So CSA does not allow both plans to be offered through any one purchase channel. If you call CSA directly and ask about the Freestyle plans you will be referred back to your travel agent (as the poster) found out. The CSA phone reps assume you only heard about the Freestyle plans from your TA -- they don't keep track of other sources like tripinsurancestore or travelinsurancecenter. The only exception is if the person calling in has the "agency code" that's printed on the brochures the agency hands out. Then they're happy to take your money and give the commission back to the referring TA.

 

My recommendation has always been that if you're considering a CSA plan be sure to always check the pricing on both the Custom and Freestyle plans. You can never get both prices at one source so you have to do a little more work by checking two sources but it can result in quite a bit of savings, especially if you need the pre-existing condition coverage. As noted previously, if you only consider the Custom series of plans (directly from CSA or through insuremytrip) you'll have to step up to the much more expensive Custom Luxe plan to get that coverage -- it's not available with the basic Custom plan. But with the Freestyle plan (through your TA or the sites I mentioned) the pre-ex coverage is available with the lower cost standard Freestyle plan -- you don't have to step up to the Freestyle Luxe version to get it.