Buy Travel Insurance At Booking or Wait?

[Doctor G]

I always purchase insurance as soon as I book a trip. I have some issues that could possibly end up as a pre-existing condition, so that waiver is important to me. I have personally done the following:

 

1. Purchased insurance for a trip booked about a year and a half in the future. I bought insurance only for the deposit; then when I paid more costs (such as airfare) I increased the value of the policy. Thus I did not pay a large premium until I made final payment on the trip. In one case I increased the value of the policy about 3 or 4 times.

 

2. I bought insurance for one set of 4 cruises for 2014. I later changed these cruises to a different 4 in 2015 and was able to change the policies I had already purchased to cover these trips. Again, I had only paid the premium for the deposit.

 

This is with a major US company.

 

Carolyn

[Happy2cruise]

If you wanted to buy celebrity insurance, you can add coverage so that you are covered for the entire trip.

Yes, but the insurance we get has higher amounts of coverage for medical, med vac, etc.

Edited April 29, 2014 by Happy2cruise

[ghstudio]

Yes, but the insurance we get has higher amounts of coverage for medical, med vac, etc.

 

I was only tying to correct erroneous information, not suggesting that one buy celebrity's insurance. But if they choose to do so, they can increase the coverage to include the total costs.

[Holly2]

Didn't realize until recently that CC has an entire board devoted to trip insurance. Some good info there as there has been in this thread. Topic quite complicated when you get into it.

[PartyAllDaTyme]

BTW, if you have a relative in a hospice or with an illness that is reasonably expected could lead to passing away during your cruise and they pass away during the trip, that will not covered under any insurance policy, waived pre-existing condition or not.

 

While there may be policies or companies for which this is true, it is not true for all of them.

 

For the company I work for, there is no exclusion from coverage (other than suicide) if a family member passes away, whether or not they were in hospice, even whether or not the insured had the pre-ex waiver. Pre-ex concerns itself with sickness or injury, not death. For example, without the pre-ex waiver, they could not cancel or interrupt the trip because they were told their loved one is about to die, but if they actually pass away, that's a different situation. While it is more likely that someone who is given two weeks to live will not live longer than two weeks, it's not a certainty.

[Michidoeme]

I haven't been able to find an annual policy in the US....give me a hint :)

 

The excellent annual travel insurance we have is European. I think AXA and also Allianz offer such covers in USA as well. I know from US friends that similar covers exist in US. I just don't know which company they use, understood it was a USA company. Try googling USA multi trip or annual travel insurance.

Edited April 30, 2014 by Michidoeme

[PartyAllDaTyme]

Yes you can and should insure your deposit (in the U.S.). In fact, it's easy to understand what is insurable and what isn't. Here's how it works for Travel Guard (and I suspect other carriers, but folks should confirm with their own carrier): what you insure is any amount that you pay that would NOT be refunded to you if you had to cancel your trip at the beginning of your departure date, before you left home. At that point, of course, your deposit would not be refundable, so that is an insurable payment.

 

If you booked and paid for a Celebrity shore excursion to take place say four days into your cruise, you WOULD have that payment refunded by Celebrity if you canceled your cruise on the day of departure, so that is not an amount you should insure. (Put another way, the insurance company is not going to reimburse you for money that has been refunded to you by a travel provider or anyone else to whom you paid it.)

 

Pre-existing condition exclusions often apply not only to the people traveling, but also to family members NOT traveling with you whose illness (or worse) could cause you to cancel or interrupt your trip for what would otherwise be a covered reason if the exclusion did not apply. I suspect that many of us don't know all of the specifics of the medical status of everyone in our families, including who has seen a doctor when and for what in the last however many days. I just don't take a chance on being tripped up (no pun intended) by pre-existing conditions; I buy the insurance when I book, so that pre-existing conditions are waived. As I said above, it's not that expensive at that point to insure the deposit amount.

 

Very well stated, and I sell travel insurance for a living. One minor correction-- that shore excursion may be considered to be a prepaid nonrefundable trip cost. If you had to cancel a shorex with less than 24 hours notice, you might not get it back. My experience is that cruise lines rarely enforce it, even if you cancel the morning of the shorex, but they might be sticklers if it's an expensive or popular tour.

 

Many people don't realize that (at least with our company) prepaid, nonrefundable trip costs are related to the pre-ex waiver-- you usually are required to fully insure these costs as one of the conditions. The other two are purchasing it within a certain time frame of incurring those costs (and subsequent costs are included within the same time frame of being incurred), and all people covered on the policy (the "insureds") must be healthy enough to travel at the time the insurance is purchased.

 

But what is a nonrefundable prepaid trip cost? The deposit is refundable, so it doesn't have to be insured right away, right? Wrong. After final payment, it will become a nonrefundable cost, and must be covered within the time frame (7, 15 or 21 days, typically, depending on the plan) of when it's first paid. Did you pay for that shorex before you left? It will possibly (though not certainly, see first paragraph) similarly become nonrefundable at some point. There's a chance it might never be seen as nonrefundable, but since you can't predict ahead of time if the cruise line will insist on keeping your money or not, you're taking a chance if you don't include it. Go to the shorex desk while on the cruise to book something at the last minute? Don't worry about it; it's not a prepaid cost, even if it becomes nonrefundable because you have to cancel at the last minute. You won't get your money back if you didn't have the foresight to include this in your total trip cost, but you're not obligated to in order to qualify for the pre-ex waiver.

 

Airfare and hotels are special headaches. It's not necessary to include nonrefundable airfare, just the cost of a change fee, since that's potentially all you'd be out if you had to cancel and reschedule. Of course, if you don't reschedule, you won't be able to claim for the full cost of the airfare, but it's not necessary to include the full amount for the purpose of qualifying for pre-ex. If a hotel is booked with a credit card to hold the reservation, it's not a prepaid cost and so doesn't have to be included. If you cancel at the last minute and end up getting charged, though, you're out that money if you didn't include it. If you have several nights of a pre-cruise or post-cruise hotel stay and have paid in advance but they have a 24-hour cancellation policy, you only need to insure the amount you'd ultimately lose, probably only one night's stay.

 

Your last paragraph-- see my post above relating to pre-ex in the "or worse" scenario-- if someone dies, we do not look at pre-existing conditions. Also, by definition in New York State, family members not traveling with the insured are not included in the defintion of pre-existing conditions-- therefore, they cannot have pre-existing conditions in the first place, regardless of the state of their health.

 

This is as it applies for my company, and I do not identify it because I don't want to be seen as drumming up business, much as identifying specific TAs is verboten here. YMMV with others.

[PartyAllDaTyme]

I haven't been able to find an annual policy in the US....give me a hint :)

 

Our company offers a couple of annual plans, but very limited trip cancellation/interruption coverage so I seldom recommend them. They're great for someone who takes many short, inexpensive trips a year and can afford to eat the cost of having to cancel any one individual trip.

[daisymay1960]

Bear in mind, the poster is in the USA. In the UK always book the insurance as early as possible as you start having a risk of loss from Day One

 

 

I hadnt realised there was a difference when it came to what country you are from and was puzzled why no one said from when you book

 

Its one of the reasons why we always have an annual policy , tho this thread had prompted me to check if we have cruise cover

[monicajay]

Any Canadians out there?

 

There are a few credit cards in Canada that include a good annual plan for unlimited trips up to a specific number of days. Ours is a Caisse Populaire Odyssey Gold card. Annual fee is high at $110 for primary card holder and $30 for second card. But, with the included insurance it is a really good deal as we take multiple trips each year (only one cruise but we like other travel too). It includes medical insurance outside Canada too. All payments, deposit, air, final must be on the card for the insurance to be active.

 

We did have to make a claim in 2007 and they did pay.

[ghstudio]

Our company offers a couple of annual plans, but very limited trip cancellation/interruption coverage so I seldom recommend them. They're great for someone who takes many short, inexpensive trips a year and can afford to eat the cost of having to cancel any one individual trip.

 

So what do they cover annually...medical costs, lost baggage, ???

 

The only useful annual travel insurance I've found, and we buy is MedJet which covers evacuation and evacuation costs from foreign medical facility to wherever we want to be taken for further treatment (eg. the mayo clinic). It only covers part of travel insurance though, so we still buy insurance for trip cancellation/interruption/delay and evacuation from ship to shore costs just before we make final payment. I would love to find an annual policy to cover those (in the US)...we travel quite a bit.

Edited April 30, 2014 by ghstudio

[PartyAllDaTyme]

One offers baggage and personal effects loss, baggage delay, medical expense, emergency evacuation/repatriation of remains, and car rental collison (CDW). Another one, more tailored for business travelers, skips trip cancellation (but does still have a $2500 benefit for interruption) and the CDW but adds trip delay, missed connection, and security evacuation. The medevac benefit is not to the hospital of choice, though.

[TheMediaman]

I will always recommend travel insurance especially when visiting ports outside of your country. Which agent is a personal choice. Adding trip cancellation is also a matter of personal choice but should be considered the older you are or if in an unstable employment situation.

 

It does happen. My parents in their late 60s had a medical incident (broken wrist) while in Hawaii and insurance covered all costs. We are Canadian.

 

In their mid 70s my mom was suddenly scheduled for heart surgery which prevented a trip. The burden of proof was on them and it took weeks of paperwork. Even the doctor provided proof that it was not a pre-existing condition.

 

Denied.

 

Now they are late 70s and, minutes ago, my dad called me to say I had to cancel their portion of the family making memories cruise. He has an emergency heart procedure suddenly fast tracked for next month and the doctor has all but said to not go. They have trip cancellation insurance and we will see if it gets approved or denied.

 

It sucks because we are 17 days out from the trip and it wasn't so much about the trip itself but about going with my parents. They have fewer trips left in front of them and it is my dad who is most disappointed.

 

The moral of the insurance advice? It's up to you but if you have knowledge of you or anyone in your world, going on the trip or not, that has a pre-existing condition that was your reason for a claim then it could be more difficult. Knowledge of a pre-existing condition can be as simple as " oh yes...I thought I heard something about cousin Fred having some heart issues." Or "was that why the doctor put a bp cuff on me?"

 

Better to travel with though for me. It's the "what ifs" that you don't know about.

Edited May 2, 2014 by TheMediaman

[Lsimon]

We have usually purchased insurance at the time of final payment. I realize this has some implications for pre-existing conditions but for us and for relatives but that is what we have done.

 

We've always shopped around between different alternatives comparing both cost and coverage benefits. We consider cruise line insurance, insurance offered through our TA and those we find through the internet travel insurance web sites. Generally, the independent companies often have higher amounts of coverage than the cruise line offers for a similar cost. However Celebrity's insurance does provide a "cancel for any reason" benefit of 75% of the cruise fare. Because of that we've frequently purchased their insurance when we've been concerned about certain contingencies coming up what would not otherwise be insurable.

 

When shopping around it is very important to read the policy terms in addition to reading the short summaries of coverage's and comparing costs. I've seen so many cases discussed here on Cruise Critic where people talk about cruise insurance covering something that wouldn't be covered as they've never read a policy to see what is actually covered.

 

What my TA has told us. We live in Washington State. In our state you must book travel insurance within 7 days of deposit for the cruise. ...

 

Have you called or emailed one of the travel insurance companies to determine if this is accurate?

 

Never' date=' ever purchase insurance with the cruise line.

I always purchase directly with the travel insurance. This way ALL my travel expenses are covered. ;)[/quote']

See my notes above about reasons that the cruise line insurance has sometimes been the best option for us. Bottom line is that you should never ever say "never ever".

Edited May 2, 2014 by Lsimon

[ghstudio]

Larry....be cautious with Celebrity insurance....the last time I looked, it provides only $25K evacuation insurance and IMHO that may not be even close to enough, depending on where you are and if you need medical support on a flight back home. If you do take their insurance, consider adding a MedJet Assist policy.

 

As with most any policy, there are pluses and minuses....

Edited May 2, 2014 by ghstudio