Didn't get to Cruise Review: Travel Insurance

[cjb-nc]

I would love to be telling you about how great my cruise was on the first week of September. Unfortunately life didn't work out that way. Instead, let me offer a review of our travel insurance for the trip.

 

History: My wife has been an oral cancer patient since her diagnosis in Dec 2004. She is under 40 years old. She went through 2 months of chemo/radiation in Feb and Mar. By the end of May her test results were mostly clear, so we planned a "getting back to enjoy life after cancer" cruise for Sep 3-10 on HAL. The cruise was purchased on June 21st from an online travel agent who offered us insurance with iTravelInsured. Given the uncertainty of cancer, we took it.

 

On July 25, the oncologist confirmed that the cancer in her neck was growing again. He would have to schedule surgery to remove the tumors, and that surgery could not be scheduled until late August (Aug 25 as it turned out). In his opinion, there was no way she'd be up for travel 10 days after surgery.

 

Cancelling the cruise: This took about 3 days back and forth with the support person from the travel agent. I called first, and ewas told that they needed to have a written statement that we were cancelling the cruise and why. Email would do. So I emailled a statement to him. Waited a day. Got a letter back with the refund amount, about 40% of the cruise fee would be refunded by HAL by the time we had cancelled. He needed another statement from me agreeing to this amount. I emailled him back, and waited another day for a response. He finally sent me a confirmation that out cruise was cancelled, and told me to look for a refund from HAL directly. He told me that I would have to file with ITI myself to get the remaining amount back.

 

The travel agent cancelled our cruise on July 28. HAL paid back the 40%-ish refund on Aug 6, directly to our credit card.

 

All told, a little annoying to wait a day between communications with the travel agent, but otherwise everything was handled fairly promptly on that end.

 

Filing the claim: I attempted to call ITI to start my claim on Aug 1st. After waiting in voice-mail-purgatory for 20 minutes, I gave up and wrote them a letter instead. The letter was mailed on Aug 2. I heard nothing back from them, AT ALL, for 3 weeks. I called them on Aug 22. I was told that my letter had been received, and that the claim forms had been mailed to me. Those forms arrived on Aug 26th.

 

Not being in any great hurry to do paperwork while my wife spent 6 days in the hospital, I didn't get around to returning the claim forms right away. On Sep 7th, I returned the forms that I could fill out: mostly an official statement of why the cruise was cancelled and how much we were owed. On that day we also gave the medical request forms to my wife's oncologist. Since this was a medical cancellation, they required a statement from the doctor and copies of the relevant medical records.

 

Around Sep 24th, we received another letter from ITI. They told us they had received the claim form from me, but not the medical records that they needed to complete the claim. They included another copy of those forms. Since the doctor already had the forms and should have sent them in two weeks earlier, we just quietly waited for things to settle out.

 

On Oct 1, I received the settlement check from ITI. They had approved our claim and paid the reamining balance that we had lost for cancelling our cruise.

 

Overall, a very slow experience. I guess it's just not in their interests to settle things quickly. Even so, they did cover our claim with no hassles beyond the waiting.

 

We were concerned about their no preexisting conditions clause. The paperwork said they would not cover any illness that developed within 60 days before booking the cruise. My wife's first round of cancer treatment had ended about 90 days before we booked. Apparently that was far enough out not to be a problem.

 

My wife's surgery was a success, and she is just now getting back to work again for the first time since last Dec. We would be happy to book with this travel agent, and use ITI for insurance again, the next time we have a change to go out and cruise.

[4merlurker]

My thoughts and prayers are with your wife for a full recovery!!! I am so relieved that the insurance came through for you. I love a happy ending!

 

Here's to you and your wifes next cruise!!!!

 

~Connie

[yankedog]

A special prayer for you and your wife! I questioned getting insurance and just signed up for it... may you get around to rescheduling your "back to life" cruise soon! ;)

[49holding]

Firstly, I hope your wife is feeling better and that I do hope you and her take that cruise real soon. I remember how my parents had to cancell an Hawaiin cruise almost 20yrs ago due to recurrent hosp admissions for obstructions post colon ca surgery . Since then they have been on at least 30 cruises. I know how you feel about the insurance co. dragging their feet...last year my friends husb passed away 3 days before her cruise...it was pretty cut and dry...a death certificate was mailed in with the claim form , no further documentation asked for and she waited 8 weeks for that check.. That was ins thru RCL...

[CaribbeanBound]

Glad to hear you had a good insurance experience. I wish your spouse a full and quick recovery.

 

Your personal experience underscores the need to be very informed about travel insurance before you buy.

 

Here are 14 IMPORTANT tips to consider when purchasing travel insurance:

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