Double Minus One - HELP

[Shifra]

I hope you experienced travellers can help me. We are sailing in Nov with some friends & relatives. 2 of our friends are sharing a cabin and one of them has to cancel the cruise. Will the one remaining who wants to go on the cruise be charged extra for a single rate? She has already paid at the dble rate.

 

I have asked my TA and called the insurance co and I am still confused. Both people have separate insurance plans.

 

Please help if you can I would like to be able to tell my friend she can still go and it will not cost her more money. Thanks for any help you can give.:)

[cherylandtk]

Your remaining friend should be OK, but let's clarify a few points. First, who is the insurance through? What is the reason for the other person cancelling? Final payment should have been made already, but you are in the 60-30 day window, right? And did both people pay for their fare separately?

[calikak]

I'm going to just think out loud here for a minute here...if you've already made final payment, then Princess has gotten whatever money it is owed...so, that means that Princess wouldn't be asking for any more money than they've already gotten. Usually the price per cabin is either the same or a bit lower for a single to go instead of two people, so I don't see them asking for any more money. So, what would happen next would be that the person who can't go would need to be reimbursed for her costs from her travel insurance pursuant to her insurance policy...and I don't see how that would affect the other person in the cabin. So, I think the remaining friend would be OK--but, I'm really just guessing. Hopefully someone with more experience with travel insurance could give you a better answer than me!

[cherylandtk]

Beth, the full answer depends on some more factors. Within 30 days the cancelling passenger still gets a refund of 50% of the fare paid, insurance will cover the rest for that pax if canx was for a covered reason. The remaining pax then has to "come up" with the difference between what Princess has received and the single with supplement fare; this is covered by most insurance if the cancellation was for a covered reason. IF the cancellation was NOT for a covered reason, the remaining passenger may have to come up with the difference. If the insurance was through Princess, the "cancel for any reason" clause also has an impact.

[Shifra]

Thank you for the response so far. Yes it can be very confusing and definately making me crazy. Okay, here is a bit more information for you to chew on. #1 pax will cancel for illness which should be covered by her insurance. As of now she would get 50% from Princess/50% from ins. What concerns me is whether Princess will want #2 pax to pay back the 50% portion Princess loses.

 

Another thought is if pax #1 cancels a few days before cruise day than there would be know refund from Princess. #1 would collect 100% from insurance.

 

Am I making this more complicated then I need to???:eek: btw the insurance is not through princess

[Lynda90]

Probably would be best to call Princess and ask. Too many viariables for us to guess. Please let us know how it turns out; I'm sure we all want to know.

[Bubble-Ont.]

A few years ago I ran into a similar situation with a friend. Two women travelling together. One's husband passsed away one week prior to holiday and was forced to cancel. Insurance company reimbursed her the money. If the second women wanted to continue with the trip the tour company was asking for an extra $700.00, which she could not afford to pay. In a situation where she was being forced t cancel, our TA pointed out to insurance company it would cheaper to pay the extra $700.00 for the women than to have to cover the full cost of the trip if she cancelled. The thought this a better deal and went for it. We had a great time.

[cherylandtk]

Shifra,

Princess will not ask pax #2 to pay the full 50% amount refunded to pax #1. They will ask for whatever the going single fare is (1 1/2 OR 2 times the regular fare but less one set of port fees; % depends on category of cabin booked). This single fare may already be covered by the 150% Princess has, or pax # 2 may have to pay a little extra to cover, which is then eligible for refund by most insurance policies.

 

What category cabin and what ship and itinerary is this?

 

Since pax #1 will have to provide medical records to obtain their refund it is probably unwise to wait to actually cancel the trip. Their insurance could deny part of the claim if the illness occured now, but the pax waited 30 days to cancel and thus incurred a higher loss.

 

Your TA should be able to advise you; I am assuming they helped you to select this particular insurance.

[laginog]

This happened to us a few years ago on our Alaska cruise. My Mom's friend became ill and could not cruise. They both had purchased separate insurance. Her friend's insurance covered her portion of the trip because she was ill. Mom's insurance covered her Single Supplement and she got the cabin all to herself and still went with my husband and I. So...it sounds like almost the same situation to me and everything should be fine. I can't remember what Travel Insurance we used back then though but I would think they all work pretty much the same.

[laginog]

I just remembered. I think it was Travel Guard.

[DMorris]

I had an almost similar situation last year. My cabin mate almost had to cancel. Our TA told us to wait till right before sailing for her to cancel. That way Princess didn't lose their money, I didn't have to pay anymore and she would have gotten her money back from the insurance company.

[Shifra]

Thank you all. It sounds like this may not turn out so bad. I think what we all decided to do is go ahead and cancel pax #1 now and cross our fingers and hope the pax #2 has the same experience as some of you.

 

Cherylandtk we all have booked veranda cabins on Star Princess, western carib. I don't think this should make any difference though.

 

Again thanks to all and I will let you know how this thing turns out. If you have any other ideas I am still open for suggestions.

 

You Guys Are Great!

[cherylandtk]

Shifra, the reason I asked was to look up the port fees and which single passenger rate is applicable to your situation. The single passenger rate for a balcony cabin is twice the rate charged each person in a double booking; in other words, same price for one or two people. Except that the Port fees are not charged twice, only once. Port fees on this itinerary are about $140.

 

Do have your TA call Princess to change the booking and help you to handle this, and that includes the insurance claim processing as well.