Travel insurance....

[cnjoy26]

I aready booked but is there a way to purchase travel insurance later? After I have paid in full?

[marci22]

If you book after final payment is due, you must purchase your insurance within 24 hours of your payment.

 

Otherwise, you have until final payment is due to get a policy. If you are purchasing non-refundable airfare you may want to purchase it when that payment is made.

 

See insuremytrip.com

[cnjoy26]

Now I am confused haha. I can pay for insurance for my flight and that will cover the cruise too? I am sorry I have never been on a cruise and I havr never bought travel insurance before!

[marci22]

Now I am confused haha. I can pay for insurance for my flight and that will cover the cruise too? I am sorry I have never been on a cruise and I havr never bought travel insurance before!

 

No. When you get an estimate for your insurance online you have to enter the total of your nonrefundable travel expenses. Since your cruise is refundable (in U.S.) up to final payment date, you do not have to purchase your insurance until then. But if you purchase non-refundable airfare, you would need to purchase insurance at that time.

[mom4mom]

You figure in the total costs, including the cruise, airfare and any pre-paid items. The only caveat to booking insurance closer to your cruise is that you may not get pre-existing conditions covered. There is usally a look-back period. You can compare different insurance options at insuremytrip dot com

[marci22]

Some policies cover pre-existing conditions as long as you pay within 24 hours of final payment.

 

Always read through your policy thoroughly before purchasing. All the information you need is available on the insuremytrip.com website.

[xxoocruiser]

Some policies cover pre-existing conditions as long as you pay within 24 hours of final payment.

 

Always read through your policy thoroughly before purchasing. All the information you need is available on the insuremytrip.com website.

 

Though some policies may cover pre-existing conditions if purchased within 24hours after final payment MOST policies require that the insurance be purchased within a specific time frame from the initial booking to have a pre-existing wavier included......usually within 10-14 days from the initial booking date.

[cnjoy26]

Thank you thank thank you!!! What are preexisting conditions?

[Life is Good Cruising]

Pre-existing would be a condition in which the patient had received medical advise or treatment prior to being enrolled in an insurance plan. You may have a pre x condition and not even be aware of it at the time of treatment or taking out an insurance plan.

An example would be a heart attack. The insurance company would say that would be considered pre x even though you have never had any heart problems before. You could have had a clog artery for years and never realized it until you had the heart attack. Most of the time, not all, it is usually something that happens internal as oppose to being external.

[irismike]

Anybody ever use RCL insurance? TravelGuard has raised their rates. Any tips on which insurance to use would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Ken076]

The cruiseline insurance is pretty pricey compared to so-called 3rd party policies; it DOES include "cancel for Any Reason" albeit a 75% future cruise CREDIT - it DOES NOT include or offer a "waiver of pre-existing conditions" and the Medical coverage is IMO inadequate and the MedEvac coverage is IMO marginal. If you're USAA member you can choose several TravelInsured Policies that include some increased coverages, at a slightly reduced premium. CSA has IMO good policies.

 

Especially if you're younger, the 3rd party policies generally offer lower rates and higher coverages than the cruiseline policy.

 

kEN

 

ken

[sippican]

We always buy insurance, and we never buy it from the cruise lines. No, it'a not too late. Visit a website such as squaremouth or insuremytrip. Compare policies and purchase only what you want for coverage. You can insure your trip for the entire aount if you want - cruise, hotels, flight.

[Ken076]

I aready booked but is there a way to purchase travel insurance later? After I have paid in full?

 

If you're already booked and you're past the Final Payment date, RCI may or may not sell you their Policy (their Policy is worded to the effect that they "may" sell you a policy) - you'd have to contact your booking agent to see what they can/will do. .

 

You should be able to purchase most any of the so-called 3rd party policies up to the week/day of sailing, but you generally won't be able to get "waiver of pre-existing conditions" or be able to purchase optional, added premium "cancel for any reason" .

 

Most policies state that they do not cover pre-existing conditions; most 3rd party policies then go on to state that if you purchased the policy within 14-21 days (depending on which insurer) of booking, they will "waive" this "pre-existing condition" exclusion. The cruiseline policy does not include/offer this waiver and has a lookback window of 60 days for a pre-existing condition (from time of purchase of the Policy).

 

A pre-existing condition is a condition that newly occurred during the Policy's lookback window (which usually varies from 60 to 180 days prior to Policy purchase, depending on which Insurer). If an existing medical condition was under treatment with no change of treatment, no new Rx for the condition, no doctor/Hospital visits to treat the condition, then it is NOT a pre-existing condition and is covered; if a condition occurs for the first time during that lookback window, then it's a pre-existing condition and isn't covered. You can read this definition in any of the Policies. Having "waiver of pre-existing condition" included in your policy should also cutdown your claim processing/time as the insurer won't be spending time and requesting documents so as to try to exclude your claim as being due to a pre-existing condition.

 

The pre-esisting condition exclusion generally does not apply to MedEvac coverage.

 

Ken

[maggieq]

We always buy insurance, and we never buy it from the cruise lines. No, it'a not too late. Visit a website such as squaremouth or insuremytrip. Compare policies and purchase only what you want for coverage. You can insure your trip for the entire aount if you want - cruise, hotels, flight.

 

We do the same and sometimes a few days before the cruise.

[Luluwa]

Square mouth is good

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[cnjoy26]

Thank you everyone! You're a lifesaver!

[donaldsc]

If you book after final payment is due, you must purchase your insurance within 24 hours of your payment.

 

Otherwise, you have until final payment is due to get a policy. If you are purchasing non-refundable airfare you may want to purchase it when that payment is made.

 

See insuremytrip.com

 

Wrong!! If you just want medical (not including pre-existing conditions) and evacuation which is really in my opinion all that you really need, you can buy it at any time before departure.

 

DON

[irismike]

We always buy travel insurance from Travel Guard but as of 5-1 bookings there prices are over $550 with airfare and cruise. RCL charges $88.

[Ken076]

RCI's cruiseline insurance includes coverage for independently booked airfare (3rd party policies you have to add airfare to the amount you're covering) and their premiums are not based on age (3rd party policies incorporate age into their premium calculation).

 

The break even point for AGE for cruiseline versus 3rd party policies is upper 60's-lower 70's -- so unless you are in mid 70's and/or have some very expensive flights to insure, I'd be double checking those very disparate premiums!

 

ken

[irismike]

thanks Ken: We are looking at RCL for travel insurance. Iris

[sippican]

Consumer Reports advises against buying from cruise lines and tour operators:

 

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2012/06/do-you-need-travel-insurance/index.htm

 

Be sure to look carefully at the policies and coverages, not just the cost.

[irismike]

thank you for sharing the article. I heard that you shouldn't buy travel insurance from the cruise line but RCL's insurance is backed by Berkley insurance. I still have time so I will check around. There is a big difference between RCL insurance and TraVEL gUARD. Thanks.

[sippican]

thank you for sharing the article. I heard that you shouldn't buy travel insurance from the cruise line but RCL's insurance is backed by Berkley insurance. I still have time so I will check around. There is a big difference between RCL insurance and TraVEL gUARD. Thanks.

 

We always compare policies through the squaremouth and insuremytrip websites, then choose the coverage we want at the lowest price we can find. We also find the ratings on those sites helpful in seeing which companies have good reputations for claim settlement.

As of yet, the cruise lines have not come out on top (at our stage of life, coverage for emergency evacuation and trip cancellation are key).

[dominichunter]

Just booked CCL for Sept '14

We always purchase Travel Guard Ins.

This time not so sure. CCL trip ins is $109, TG basic is $125,silver $145, gold $186.

Never remember cruise lines less than TG, also CCL has a new cancel for any reason.

Maybe because of age (70) ?

[irismike]

We always buy travel guard but now their prices have gone up very high they factor in age, days on the cruise, where you are going and if you want pre-existing condition, you have to buy it 21 days after you book trip and we are past that date.

 

RCL uses Berkley and so we are thinking of going with them. If we buy our air through RCL, that is included in the same price.