Why trip insurance is so important

[TravelingLadyOhio]

In Feb. '13 we booked a Seine river cruise for July '14. At the time of booking, we also purchased "cancel for any reason' insurance. Expensive? Yes. Worth it? Absolutely. The wife of the couple we were to travel with fell last week and fractured her femur. After surgery and a hospital stay, she is in rehab for several weeks. Our TA has started the paperwork for them to get a full refund including air. When you are spending 10-12K for a trip, insurance is well worth the peace of mind. I have learned so much from these boards, and I hope this is helpful to the 'newbies' when making a decision.

[annabell.4006]

We booked in July 2013 for a cruise that departs 30 June 2014. Sadly one of our party passed away last week, 52 year old he was taking long service leave to go on the trip. Everyone needs travel insurance.

 

 

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[pbnjrockette]

My mother got very ill before our trip to China and we were able to cancel our trip and get a full refund. My husband got ill while we were in Africa and needed special care....trip insurance covered doctor payments and extra nights in the hotel. Wouldn't travel without it!!

[amd1234]

We always purchase travel insurance and collected twice. We had to cancel a few years ago when my son became ill. Last year we were staying in Aix Provence post cruise for three days. Air France had a dispute with air traffic controllers canceling our flight. We had to stay an additional day (not to difficult) our travel insurance paid our hotel and meals. We of course had to have all our receipts it was a little bit of hassle emails from Air France proof of Hotel stay etc..it was worth it.. Don't leave home without insurance..

[Familygoboston]

I do hope your wife is better soon!

You have have taken the sting out after paying off an 800 dollar cancel for any reason policy on our Sept river cruise this week! ;) But a broken leg would likely be covered even under a regular policy. I usually insure, largely for the medical evacuation, I want no questions asked or waiting around if I want out in a hurry for medical reasons! :D

[coolerchick]

Thanks.

 

I'll actually be doing that once the cruise is paid in full (apparently I have to wait until paid before I can insure).

 

I did not want to insure but I will be doing only "medical evacuation" as I've been advised by this board.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

We always buy it ..

[Go-Bucks!]

My very healthy friend and I arrived in Miami for a cruise a few months ago. Everything was fine until we were checking in at the ship and she suddenly felt nauseous and began getting very severe abdominal pain. I took her down to the ship's doctor and he correctly diagnosed her with pancreatitis. They called the Miami EMS and she was taken off the ship and spent a week in a hospital in Miami.

 

Sad news was that she did not have travel insurance! Medicare paid for the hospital, but she owes over $700 for the 2 hours in the ship's medical center. She was very blessed, though, because Celebrity agreed to give her a full credit for her cruise fee since it was a medical emergency after we boarded. They gave her a year to use it so we're going on another Celebrity cruise in November.

 

But she learned a BIG lesson! She'll never travel without insurance again. I've always bought insurance and thought she did too. So, no matter how healthy you are, the cost of insurance is very little compared to the bills you might have to pay without it. ;)

[cb222]

We have used it twice - once for me, once for Hubby.

 

We got "cancel for any reason"whcih pays 80%. But if the reason is medical, it pays 100%.

 

cb

[YoungDubFan]

I'll actually be doing that once the cruise is paid in full (apparently I have to wait until paid before I can insure).

 

I'm not sure where you were told that you can only insure once the cruise is paid in full. It is actually better to insure your trip as soon as you put the initial deposit down. For most policies sold in the US, if you purchase your trip insurance within 14-21 days of the initial deposit, the pre-existing condition clause is waived. This could be very important if you need to file a claim for a nontravelling family member, or if any of the insured parties have any chronic conditions.

[Hoyaheel]

I'm not sure where you were told that you can only insure once the cruise is paid in full. It is actually better to insure your trip as soon as you put the initial deposit down. For most policies sold in the US, if you purchase your trip insurance within 14-21 days of the initial deposit, the pre-existing condition clause is waived. This could be very important if you need to file a claim for a nontravelling family member, or if any of the insured parties have any chronic conditions.

 

Ditto all of this. And if/when you buy additional (non-refundable) pieces of your trip, you can add to your policy. We just bought our airfare so I've contacted our insurer to add that cost to our policy.

[iuki]

Like all insurance policies, there are exclusions. What exclusions are there, in "cancel for any reason" policies?

 

Thanks.

[marazul]

Before you buy trip insurance from the cruise line, check this website:

http://www.insuremytrip.com

It compares the policies of different carriers and has detailed comparisons of all the policy prices, features, options and exclusions. You can definitely find better choices than what the cruise line offers.

Edited June 3, 2014 by marazul

[Hoyaheel]

What exclusions are there, in "cancel for any reason" policies?

 

You have to read the specifics of any policies you are looking at, because they're not going to be the same.

Edited June 3, 2014 by Hoyaheel

[Hydrokitty]

I'm not sure where you were told that you can only insure once the cruise is paid in full. It is actually better to insure your trip as soon as you put the initial deposit down. For most policies sold in the US, if you purchase your trip insurance within 14-21 days of the initial deposit, the pre-existing condition clause is waived. This could be very important if you need to file a claim for a nontravelling family member, or if any of the insured parties have any chronic conditions.

 

Usually the cancel for any reason provision is available when you pay your down payment for the trip. I usually buy it from Vantage when I book the trip and I've used it once for non-medical; once for medical and once for luggage replacement...each time I had NO trouble collecting from the insurer and usually within 30 days of making the claim. It appears that the closer to departure you buy the insurance the less it covers.....but as a senior citizen, I would not leave the US without trip insurance because Medicare won't pay anything and there are some countries where I would really not want to have to rely on medical care. True trip insurance is quite pricey and based on the cost of the trip, which doesn't seem fair, but after you check out the cost of medical evacuation and repatriation, it's pretty reasonable.

[coolerchick]

Like all insurance policies, there are exclusions. What exclusions are there, in "cancel for any reason" policies?

 

Thanks.

 

 

I found this on here:

 

Cancel for any reason. As the phrase suggests, you can cancel your trip for any reason (perhaps you changed your mind and are no longer interested in the cruise itinerary) and are still covered -- a luxury normal insurance policies won't allow. However, read the description of coverage to find out what percentage of your trip deposits are reimbursed under this type of "cancel for any reason" terminology. (Sometimes a policy includes 100 percent reimbursement, and sometimes it's as little as 50 percent.) However, these policies are very expensive and may only make sense in certain circumstances -- say, a very costly itinerary or world cruise.

 

 

Here's the link: http://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=274

[coolerchick]

I'm not sure where you were told that you can only insure once the cruise is paid in full. It is actually better to insure your trip as soon as you put the initial deposit down. For most policies sold in the US, if you purchase your trip insurance within 14-21 days of the initial deposit, the pre-existing condition clause is waived. This could be very important if you need to file a claim for a nontravelling family member, or if any of the insured parties have any chronic conditions.

 

Actually I'm not sure either - I booked it last year and I remember trying to get quotes for insurance and was told that I had to wait until closer to the cruise.

 

Luckily we have no pre-existing but I will look into insuremytrip and book that today.

 

Thanks.

[YoungDubFan]

Coolerchik - unfortunately you were given misinformation. Try insuremytrip.com. They have lots of choices of policies. As mentioned, it is always best to purchase insurance when you make the first initial deposit. You can insure for the cost of the trip that you know for sure. Then as you add flights, excursions, other optionals, etc., you increase the amount of your coverage and the premium is adjusted. Just make sure that the amount of insurance is more than the total cost of the trip. I know a horror story where someone's claim was denied because the total cost of the trip that they were requesting to be reimbursed for was around $25 more than the amount of the coverage. The entire claim was denied. I know they were working on an appeal, but I don't know what eventually happened, if they got any money back.

[Hoyaheel]

I'm not sure if Coolerchick is from CAnada or CAlifornia or somewhere else, but when we give advice & anecdotes here, it's useful to remember that laws & insurance vary by country, so always check what is specific to your own location and your own situation.

[nana541]

I'm not sure if Coolerchick is from CAnada or CAlifornia or somewhere else, but when we give advice & anecdotes here, it's useful to remember that laws & insurance vary by country, so always check what is specific to your own location and your own situation.

 

 

Good advice....Coolerchick is from California according to her profile (unless for some reason CA means Canada?) the lack of CC members at least giving some indication of their location is a pet peeve of mine. It is very hard to offer assistance or valid advice unless other members can know if the member is from USA, West Coast/East Coast or even state is helpful, Canada, etc. any advice for some one from the UK would not or may not apply to someone from Washington State.

 

Please use this as a reminder to log into your profile and give it a tweak or an update! :)

 

Ok climbing down off my soap box ;)

 

 

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[marazul]

Before you buy trip insurance from the cruise line, check this website:

http://www.insuremytrip.com

It compares the policies of different carriers and has detailed comparisons of all the policy prices, features, options and exclusions. You can definitely find better choices than what the cruise line offers.

 

A follow up to my previous post. I just got the new issue of Consumer Reports and they recommend checking out trip insurance policies in insuremytrip.com.

[franski]

Never travel without insurance... only one claim - and it was for a stolen wallet (and tickets inside....). But continue to purchase anyway.

 

A lovely older woman (ie: 90 years old) fell and broke her hip on the 2nd day (1st full day) of our trip from Bucharest to Budapest last year. She ended up in the hospital in Bulgaria. She had enough insurance to cover her medical air transport back to Canada.

 

The family were quoted a price of over $25K if they had to pay for the transport themselves. (Only know this as - by a weird coincidence - I know the woman's niece!!!)

 

We are a bit luckier with travel insurance here in Canada. I purchase a yearly package - trip interruption and medical - that covers us for any number of trips/year - up to 16 days on each trip. We get $1500 pp insurance (trip interruption, lost luggage, theft etc) - and unlimited medical while away. We bump up the trip portion to cover any pricier trips (ie: the river cruise!!) as desired.

 

Fran

[Hydrokitty]

Never travel without insurance... only one claim - and it was for a stolen wallet (and tickets inside....). But continue to purchase anyway.

 

A lovely older woman (ie: 90 years old) fell and broke her hip on the 2nd day (1st full day) of our trip from Bucharest to Budapest last year. She ended up in the hospital in Bulgaria. She had enough insurance to cover her medical air transport back to Canada.

 

The family were quoted a price of over $25K if they had to pay for the transport themselves. (Only know this as - by a weird coincidence - I know the woman's niece!!!)

 

We are a bit luckier with travel insurance here in Canada. I purchase a yearly package - trip interruption and medical - that covers us for any number of trips/year - up to 16 days on each trip. We get $1500 pp insurance (trip interruption, lost luggage, theft etc) - and unlimited medical while away. We bump up the trip portion to cover any pricier trips (ie: the river cruise!!) as desired.

 

Fran

 

Hi Fran...they don't market to the US do they?

[Hoyaheel]

Hi Fran...they don't market to the US do they?

 

Who? I believe there are companies from whom you can buy annual policies in the US, if that is the question you are asking.

[nana541]

Med Jet for medical evac is the only one that comes to mind right away. They sell Annual policies as well as trip by trip policies.

 

 

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