Third Party Cruise Insurance

[offtopic]

Hello all. We are a couple in our 20's going on our first Celebrity cruise this month and something that slipped our minds was cruise insurance. We are very healthy, but obviously trip insurance seems important for everyone. Is there any good companies you would recommend? Also we both put our half of the cruise on our mastercards so were thinking we may get some coverage there? Should we call and register the trip with them? Thanks for any and all advice!

[ghstudio]

There are a couple of wonderful travel insurance web sites that will help you with the options on insurance and help you decide what fits your needs...everyone is different. I'd suggest going to squaremouth.com or insuremytrip.com, entering the information on you and your cruise and see what they offer.

 

Many of us find it advantageous to buy third party insurance rather than buying a policy through celebrity or our Travel Agents. There is also a forum here on CC focused on travel insurance.

Edited March 12, 2016 by ghstudio

[BBsails]

You can check your credit card travel benefits on line, no need to phone. Just google your credit card name. Be sure to read the fine print very very carefully to be sure you understand every provision. Some cards require you to pay for your entire trip using the card, others don't.

 

Bon voyage

[az_tchr]

There is a complete section devoted to nothing but discussing trip insurance with hundreds of posts. Go back to the main page and it is toward the bottom. Many credit cards including Chase Sapphire have trip insurance up to about $10K. The problem with all of them is in the fine print details.

 

DW and I are close to 70 and in relatively (not perfect health) and we just use our credit card named above for coverage. Am guessing this wil be closed and moved shortly to the proper forum.

[cruzzzinma]

We use travel guard - http://www.travelguard.com

 

We didn't get insurance on our first two cruises. On our second cruise, one of our travel companions almost had to be medivaced from Costa Rica. We've gotten insurance since then!

[SeaHunt]

If you haven't seen it yet, there is also a "Cruise/Trip Insurance" forum with lots of good info :)

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=635

[offtopic]

I will check out the proper forum, I didn't even know it existed (no wonder my search here in the celebrity forum didn't turn up many results). Thank you all!

[Spf12]

Travel Insured International.

[prim8keeper]

I would also highly recommend TravelGuard as a previous poster did. We have filed two claims with them and had no problem (one for work and another medical related). They are the only travel insurance we could find that includes a cancel for work benefit as part of the policy if you buy the gold policy or higher. Most charge an additional fee on top of the base policy. We are also younger (early 30's) so having the ability to cancel for work reasons has proved very useful. We use it in conjunction with our travel credit card travel insurance benefits to cover all our bases should something go wrong.

[Karynanne]

Read your credit card benefits closely. It might say, Travel Assist help. The coverage that one may really need is Medical Evacuation Ins. If needed, I the cost could possibly be well over $50,000.

[dkjretired]

Just as a reminder, check your Health Insurance carrier and make sure they cover out of country, many do not.

[DrivesLikeMario]

We trust and use Allianz. Just check that the insurance company covers your state. Recently, there were huge changes in coverage in the US and many states have to have separate policies with different premiums.

[Spf12]

Read your credit card benefits closely. It might say, Travel Assist help. The coverage that one may really need is Medical Evacuation Ins. If needed, I the cost could possibly be well over $50,000.

An air ambulance could set you back $400,000.Make sure the insurance covers this.Travel Insured International covers up to $1,000,000 in emergency evacuation.

[Jade13]

Our medical insurance (which we can use anywhere in the world), does not have medivac. That is the main reason we purchase third party travel insurance. In some parts of the world medivac could run upwards of $100,000.00

[faeriedust101]

Your credit card probably doesn't cover medical evacuation. I know my Chase Sapphire Preferred does not. I've used travel guard before and it's been fine, but I have never had to make a claim with them either. For my current cruise I just bought the Celebrity insurance. The price was about the same as if I bought it independently and it was easier to just go that route.

[MarKay525]

Welcome to Cruise Critic,

 

We've used TripInsuranceStore in the past. Steve and his employees are highly regarded by many people on Cruise Critic.

 

https://tripinsurancestore.com/

 

Have a wonderful first cruise on Celebrity.

Edited March 12, 2016 by MarKay525

[ghstudio]

Check the limits on benefits closely....that's where you find many of the gotcha's. The insurance celebrity sells has, if I remember correctly $25k of evacuation insurance. That's great...it covers the cost of getting from the ship to the nearest hospital and covers Celebrity...but if you need a medevac to another hospital or home, that can be $100k...which isn't covered. Ditto on medical costs if you don't have other coverage.

 

But see the section on insurance. I and many others have covered what you should look for....and everyone is different. Understand what coverage you do have already....you health plan, your credit card (make sure you use the credit card that you think is covering you for ALL payments or they may not cover you. Consider pre-existing conditions if you have any...if not, then don't worry about it, but if you do, then make sure it isn't something the insurance company can claim to not pay.h

 

Lots to learn....go to that thread.

[az_tchr]

Your credit card probably doesn't cover medical evacuation. I know my Chase Sapphire Preferred does not. I've used travel guard before and it's been fine, but I have never had to make a claim with them either. For my current cruise I just bought the Celebrity insurance. The price was about the same as if I bought it independently and it was easier to just go that route.

 

Read the fine print. Trip insurance is different to me from medical coverage overseas. Chase covers everything including PRIMARY auto coverage up to 10K. No credit card to my knowledge covers anything medical. As to medical evacuation and coverage overseas - read the fine print. One of the policies from the Insurance store would not pay if you were treated for the condition before your cruise (simplified version of explaining). Thus if my wife had issues with any condition for which she had seen a doctor in the prior YEAR - no coverage.

 

DW and I are fortunate to have international coverage from our HMO. The max copay to me is $5000 with 50/50 coverage on the first 10K. I can handle that. Also medical evacuation costs are really not over about $25K for most locations. Falkland Islands evac to UK was only $14K for friends last year off their cruise. Can't get much more remote than that.

[PartyAllDaTyme]

I recently retired from Travel Guard, so naturally I'm going to recommend them. Other posters have done a good job of providing an overview of reasons to get third party insurance. There are way too many topics to address here, but I'll hit some of what I consider to be the highlights. Some this may be more applicable to others browsing this thread. This information will pertain specifically to TG plans, but may be applicable to other companies' plans as well. These are general statements and may not necessarily be relevant in your case.

 

Be aware that there can be differences in plans depending on your state-- for example, prim8keeper mentioned being able to cancel for work reasons. Not available in NY, is available with an optional upgrade in WA (also depends on when you made your first payment whether the option is available). You're from FL, so no worries there, but sometimes there can be such variations. Read the description of coverage, or at least skim it so you have some idea what you're buying.

 

You may not think you may need protection for pre-existing medical conditions, since you said you're both very healthy, but what if you had a parent or grandparent that became seriously ill? The pre-ex exclusion does not just apply for the travelers, but family members as well. (If someone passes away, the pre-ex exclusion does not apply.) The My Travel Guard (MTG) plan can still get you the pre-ex waiver that takes out all the nasty language about pre-ex conditions, though an upgrade is needed and is only available if you haven't made your final payment. Made it already? With the cruise line, yes, if you're leaving in a month, but if there's something else you can pay for before you leave-- shore excursion, specialty dining, hire a car to take you to the cruise port, get a Gray Line tour of Ft. Lauderdale-- you have not yet actually made your final payment and so could still qualify. I could write a small book about pre-ex.

 

TG policies have a minimum of $100,000 medevac benefit. If you really want to be safe, MTG has an upgrade to $1,000,000 that then also designates this as Hospital of Choice. Without HOC, the language in the policy is to the nearest available adequate medical facility, but as a practice, Travel Guard would normally evacuate you to your home hospital, anyway, as long as there was money to do so. For where you're going, medevac shouldn't be more than $100,000 anyway, but on the other hand, it's usually only a few dollars more for someone in their 20's to get that upgrade. Note that evac must be warranted, not just because you fell ill in St. Kitts and would rather go home to be treated by your family doctor. Not everything rises to the level of needing medical evacuation.

 

MTG is a flexible plan, starts out at basic levels, so you don't have to pay more for benefits you probably don't need, but you can tweak it to increase benefits that are important to you. It's also more factor-based than other plans, so since you're leaving in a month and the risk for trip cancellation is much lower than if you booked 18 months ago, it's probably dirt cheap. In fact, if you're not concerned about losing the trip cost or if that's covered by MasterCard, you can list a trip cost of $0 and the premium would really drop, should be less than $50 for the both of you. If you insure the cost of the trip, it would be about $100 (without any of the optional upgrades).

 

If you have homeowners or renters insurance, that may possibly cover lost luggage for you, so you may not need anything additional there, if MasterCard doesn't cover it. Be aware that simply filing a claim may affect your rates in the future, though.

 

If you're flying, avoid the extra flight insurance that pays an accidental death or dismemberment benefit-- it is ridiculously overpriced, IMHO, but some people insist on getting it. A lottery ticket is probably a better investment.

 

I can tell you that the philosophy of Travel Guard was to pay a claim, even looking for a basis to pay that the insured may not have thought of. Having said that, there are some claims that are simply outside the language of the plan (the woman who said she had to cancel because her horoscope said she should not travel comes to mind), but TG felt it was a better business decision to keep customers happy and coming back rather than look for ways to deny a claim.

 

Lastly, travel insurance is about peace of mind-- you can relax and enjoy the cruise without having in the back of your mind, "What if this or that happens?" In the long run, you'll likely pay more for premiums than you'll otherwise lose due to a medical emergency or trip cancellation, but it's that one time you need it that you'll wish you had it. I'd suggest if you want more information, call TG at 800-826-1300. Note that I no longer work there, so have no vested interest in recommending them.

[ghstudio]

Travel Guard, like every other insurance company, will stand behind every word in their contracts. If something is excluded, they will not pay. If something is included, they will pay. It is absolutely essential that you read the fine print....which is unfortunate since you don't know what to look for before it happens.

 

Let me give an example. We were on a cruise ship that broke down, cruise was cancelled after the first night. Celebrity refunded our cruise fare, offered a credit towards the next cruise plus around $200 towards changing return tickets home. We had trip insurance with a major company. We also had an unusual problem....we were doing back to back cruises and the second cruise would have taken us back to Florida...so we had no return ticket to exchange....we had to buy a return ticket ($1800 per person). Celebrity: sorry...good luck. Travel insurance: breakdown of your ship is not a covered reason for trip interruption so we can't help you.

 

An unusual situation..yes...but it happened.

 

Another example...and this is a serious one. Most (I think all, but I hate to be absolute) travel insurance companies require both the travel insurance company and the doctor at the remote hospital to agree that the hospital you are in can't treat your condition before they will evacuate you home. Some remote hospitals like the money, some are proud and think they can treat anything and many believe that their way of treating an illness/injury is fine (even though in your country there are far better treatments)...so they won't agree that you need to be moved. Problem is...you could get better, more effective, more modern treatment back home...but you are now "trapped" in that remote hospital because the doctors are telling the insurance company that they can treat you.

 

Both of the above are true stories...actually documented somewhere in the annals of Cruise Critic on the Celebrity board.

 

The first situation can be avoided if you know to look for what's covered and what isn't covered in the fine print....and who could anticipate that you have to see if a breakdown of the vessel is covered (Gosh...I wonder if Travel Guard covers that).

 

The second situation requires some additional insurance knowledge.....and explains why companies like MedJet Assist exist....I won't go into depth here because it's the wrong forum..it is explained in the travel insurance section...but the big big difference is that with MedJet Assist..it is YOU that request to be evacuated and the only agreement you need from the remote site doctor is that you are medically stable enough to fly....not that you have to fly or they can't treat you. That's a very big difference.

 

enough....read the travel insurance thread...

Edited March 13, 2016 by ghstudio

[PartyAllDaTyme]

First situation-- correct, not a listed reason. These are called "named peril" plans, and the situation ghstudio described would not have been a listed reason. Underwriters look at such potential hazards, determine how much more the premium would be to insure that hazard, and a business decision is made as to whether the higher premium would result in fewer customers. Personally, I would have thought this situation comes up infrequently enough not to affect the premium that much, but the number crunchers say otherwise.

 

Second situation-- the description of coverage (DOC) will state that evac must be warranted by the physician on the scene, but in practice the Medical Assistance Center would override the physician if there was doubt the insured would receive adequate care. Travel Guard would often go beyond the terms of the policy. Does this guarantee a person will be evacuated? No, because often an insured would prefer to be evacuated, concerned that any foreign hospital would not be up to US standards, but in reality they were fine where they were. I agree that if you want to make absolutely sure you're evacuated no matter what, something like MedJet Assist is the way to go.

[ghstudio]

Personally, I don't want some insurance staff person deciding whether to spend $25k+ or not to fly you to a home hospital with a doctor on the plane with you...I want to be in control. I have never met an insurance claim person who is focused on my side...be it an auto claim or travel insurance. If they can find any gray area, you are going to lose. Do you want the travel insurance company to decide if the treatment you are getting is adequate or ok...I certainly don't.. I want the best treatment, not adequate treatment.

 

We have carried medjet assist for years as do many frequent travelers. I believe National geographic uses them for all remote personnel.

 

 

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Edited March 13, 2016 by ghstudio