Is the insurance worth it?

[drowelf]

We normally do not buy the trip insurance but this time we are going on a Mediterranean cruise and with so many countries is the Platinum travel insurance a good choice?

 

I generally go third party for the insurance. You can get some better deals than HAL offers. Take a look at 'www.insuremytrip.com' or 'www.thetripinsurancestore.com" they give you a wide range of policies to choose from. The big things for us are

 

Trip Cancellation

Medical Evacuation

Primary Insurance

 

The Primary Insurance is important to us, as for most US insurance, your going to be out of network so your costs are higher if you need it. Some policies are Secondary Insurance, which means you have to run it through your Insurance first and then theirs kicks in.

 

I look at Trip Insurance as just another part of the whole vacation cost. We have not had to use it, but I know a few people who have had to use it and some who wished they did have it after the fact.

[arzz]

If you ever have need to collect on trip insurance it can be very worthwhile unless you are personally willing to take the financial risk. We have needed to do so in the past and we very happy we had paid for the policy.

 

For extended, expensive trips we definitely buy a good policy that covers cancellation, trip interruption, and medical costs. We do not require medical evacuation insurance as we have a long term policy with Med Jet Assist - they cover evacuation from where you are to where you want to be - not just the closest facility that can, on paper, handle your emergency.

 

For shorter less expensive trips we depend upon the insurance provided by our credit card which is not generous enough to cover the big trips, but more than ample for the smaller ones. It, however, has evacuation but no medical coverage. If going out of the country we add a third party policy that covers medical expenses - by taking a large deductible (like $5000 per person) a significant sized policy with primary medical coverage becomes very inexpensive - a fraction of the cost of those offered through our TA or HAL - and we can leave town feeling secure.

 

If we did incur medical expensesa over seas the deductible could be claimed (if we chose to do so) through our Medicare supplement policy that covers up to $50,000 overseas medical expenses in our lifetime.

[iancal]

The only insurance that we buy is medical/evac.

 

We have insurance on our credit cards and/or we self insure for other eventualities.

 

Our cruises are typically 21 days or less in duration. So far we have always self insured. It might be different if we were booking a world cruise. Most of our cruises are purchased inside the final payment window which serves to reduce our risk.

 

If we we to cancel the next cruise, even without credit card coverage, we would still be ahead given the amount of cancellation insurance costs that we have avoided over many years of travel. There must be good margin in at at the agency level because we have never booked with a TA on not had them try to sell it to us.

[MMDown Under]

I only buy insurance policies when I travel overseas and wouldn't travel without it. In Antarctica, I bought a policy which had high coverage for medical evacuation, etc., as the policy conditions had to be shown on boarding.

 

Unfortunately, our insurance policies don't cover you for "cancel for any reason". In addition, it is important to study the fine print, as our travel insurance policies have more exceptions than they used to have. Contents in hire vehicles are a good example. Now many don't cover you for contents left in a vehicle, even though locked in a boot.

 

Like iancal, I now only buy cruises after final payment, which lessons the risk.

[Dunelm]

Definitely pay for insurance. Because of illness had to cancel a transatlantic trip. Our insurance kicked in, and we were not out of pocket for anything. We bought insurance through our travel agent.

[IslandThyme]

I want to thank you all for the specific and detailed recommendations. I've always had insurance, but for this 89 day upcoming cruise with ports in many places where I don't have a lot of confidence about the quality of care, knowing about all of these options is very helpful to me.

[alwaysfrantic]

I booked onboard and did not remember to buy a policy myself as soon as I got home. Remembered it well past the pre-existing condition waiver time frame and now new diagnosises wouldn’t be covered. I will have to take the HAL policy. I can just elect it at final payment , yes?

[KroozNut]

We decided to "self-insure" the cost of the cruise and the flights on our upcoming cruise, but we bought medical through insuremytrip. It was really reasonable.

 

My brother-in-law and his wife, her parents, and my in-laws were doing a southbound Alaska on HAL a couple of years ago. They did not buy insurance. Her dad became very ill and was hospitalized in Ketchikan for three weeks. Then, when he was stable enough, my brother-in-law had to pay for the medical evacuation flight to their home state. It was VERY COSTLY. Lesson learned for us. We will ALWAYS buy a medical policy even if we don't buy cancellation.

 

~Robin

 

Lesson there is buy the full coverage at time of booking.

[IslandThyme]

I've been looking into the MedJet Assist product. Those of you who have it, have you ever used it? How did it go?

[Haboob]

Two thoughts...

• On average, they're making a profit on each policy or they wouldn't be in business.

• I'll give them that profit rather than risk having to pay a $150,000 medevac bill.

[iancal]

Cannot imagine leaving home without medical and evac insurance. We have the medical component once for a hospital stay and were thankful that we had it.

[djett]

I booked onboard and did not remember to buy a policy myself as soon as I got home. Remembered it well past the pre-existing condition waiver time frame and now new diagnosises wouldn’t be covered. I will have to take the HAL policy. I can just elect it at final payment , yes?

 

CSA allows you to buy either CSA Freestyle policy no later than 24 hours after your final trip payment and insure your full prepaid trip cost to cover pre-existing medical conditions. You also have to be medically able to travel at the time the coverage is purchased. CSA defines the Final Payment as the last pre-paid payment (prior to departure) of the most expensive part of the trip, unless the main air arrangements are added last. “Main air arrangements” refer to air to/from the main destination vs. tickets for a side trip during the vacation. Visit Trip Insurance Store web site https://tripinsurancestore.com to compare policies and a lot of great information. I always purchase my insurance thru them as there is no extra cost involved and their service is excellent.

[Stratheden]

Yes it is definitely worth it. We have had to cancel our cruise today - we were to leave in mid-June but DH has not been cleared to fly yet and it will be another 6 months before he can. We had business class air tickets, non-refundable cruise deposit, and deposits for two land based Coach tours. We are covered for all of these expenses.

[Skipper's Mom]

I've been looking into the MedJet Assist product. Those of you who have it, have you ever used it? How did it go?

We're going to purchase this medical evacuation policy for our upcoming TA and next year's South Pacific cruise, both 28 days. We can cover both trips with one annual payment since they fall within one year. I also get a discount because I belong to MD VIP.

 

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[whogo]

We normally do not buy the trip insurance but this time we are going on a Mediterranean cruise and with so many countries is the Platinum travel insurance a good choice?

Probably not. Unless things have changed, the Platinum Protection Plan (they don't call it insurance) offers only a paltry $10,000 in medical coverage and $50,000 to transport you to a medical facility. I would want more medical coverage and an evacuation plan that brings me to the USA, at least.

[alwaysfrantic]

Chase Sapphire Reserve in particular offers extensive insurance coverage, including medical, evacuation, cancellation for a medical reason.

Most credit cards offer some type of trip insurance.

 

I love my Chase Sapphire cards. They did pay out on a recent trip I had to miss. But they won't cover pre-existing conditions so that is a major consideration, I think.

 

Other thing on them, they only cover spouse and children under 21 for trip delay. My 22 year old was flying home at Christmas and got stuck in ATL. Chase did not cover it as they would if he had been 21, or me or my spouse.

[drowelf]

I only buy insurance policies when I travel overseas and wouldn't travel without it. In Antarctica, I bought a policy which had high coverage for medical evacuation, etc., as the policy conditions had to be shown on boarding.

 

We did the same thing for our Antarctica trip. Bought a policy with an insanely high Medical Evacuation coverage ($1,000,000), as I did not want to have to worry about getting back from the tip of South America, if anything did happen.

 

Fortunately we did not need to use it, but it was nice knowing it was there.

 

Cheers,

[dogo88]

We normally do not buy the trip insurance but this time we are going on a Mediterranean cruise and with so many countries is the Platinum travel insurance a good choice?

 

HALs Platinum insurance is probably convenient if you need to cancel before you go. It's medical and evacuation coverage are almost useless in any distant port.

 

Third party insurance policies cover more at a lower price. Some don't require payment until just before final payment is due. Cost for cancellation, medical and evacuation are around 6-8% of items you want covered. So for a $10,000 trip it will run you around $600-$800. For cancel for any reason the rates go up.

Our Alaska trip next month is around $9000. Ins was a little under $700. It comes with medical preexisting condition waiver, $9000 cancellation coverage, $250,000 medical coverage and $1,000,000 medical evacuation for both of us. Plus the usual baggage and delay $.

 

Remember if you get sick or injured and cannot meet minimum travel conditions you could be stuck where you are.

[bigwally]

In another thread it talks about a HAL ship that was 10 hours late docking in Vancouver yesterday. Now if that'd been our ship on May 9th (and without insurance), we'd have been out close to $600 for the already purchased airfare home, plus whatever it would have cost to replace the tickets, plus maybe a hotel for the night. So if I ever wasn't convinced of the need for insurance before, I'm certainly getting there now.

[lakes15]

Yes,please take insurance, my son did not take ins.and he had a heart attack just as we were leaving cozumle our last stop, and had to leave him there he spent 3 weeks in a mex hospital, infection, pnem. he was finally med airlifed to fort lauderdale in to ICU they got him well and he finally is flying home this week.he could not eat yet or walk he is so weak he has tube ,in his stomach to get fluids. He is going to a Rehab hosp. I hate see the bills,he does have some insurance. Thank God. he is back on American soil.

[FlorenceItaly]

Yes,please take insurance, my son did not take ins.and he had a heart attack just as we were leaving cozumle our last stop, and had to leave him there he spent 3 weeks in a mex hospital, infection, pnem. he was finally med airlifed to fort lauderdale in to ICU they got him well and he finally is flying home this week.he could not eat yet or walk he is so weak he has tube ,in his stomach to get fluids. He is going to a Rehab hosp. I hate see the bills,he does have some insurance. Thank God. he is back on American soil.

 

How awful. I am so very sorry!

 

We mainly buy third party insurance(Steve and insurancestore dot com), but, for our upcoming cruise we purchased HAL's platinum plan for sake of ease with the cancel for any reason insurance. I agree, the medical is inadequate, but, since we are mainly in Alaksa(US) our insurance will cover some if needed.

[jonyboy]

We booked everything through HAL, air, hotel, transfers etc. and bought the platinum plan so if anything happens and we have to cancel everything is covered through one place

[Robin7]

In another thread it talks about a HAL ship that was 10 hours late docking in Vancouver yesterday. Now if that'd been our ship on May 9th (and without insurance), we'd have been out close to $600 for the already purchased airfare home, plus whatever it would have cost to replace the tickets, plus maybe a hotel for the night. So if I ever wasn't convinced of the need for insurance before, I'm certainly getting there now.

 

I thought I had just purchased medical coverage, but I went to print out my insurance documents (since this thread made me think of it), and I actually bought basic coverage. I remember debating about which one, and we finally decided to buy the whole coverage because it wasn't *that* much more than medical, especially considering this is a much longer trip than we usually take. I'm glad now! I'd hate for our ship to be that delayed.

 

~Robin

[bigwally]

I thought I had just purchased medical coverage, but I went to print out my insurance documents (since this thread made me think of it), and I actually bought basic coverage. I remember debating about which one, and we finally decided to buy the whole coverage because it wasn't *that* much more than medical, especially considering this is a much longer trip than we usually take. I'm glad now! I'd hate for our ship to be that delayed.

 

~Robin

 

I probably would just want to get home after being gone for almost 3 weeks. That said, the plan we purchased would cover us up to $2,500pp for a missed connection causing a delay of 3 hours or more. Plus we'd very likely get an extra night in the wonderful city of Vancouver! :D

[LMaxwell]

Look at a site like insuremytrip.com to compare coverages and prices. Yes, in my opinion, insurance is absolutely worth it. I am protecting my assets and family should something catastrophic happen in a foreign country. Yes, I can also reclaim trip expenses, but that money is spent and won't have a negative impact to not recover (though I would hate to lose it if I do not get the experience I paid for). But a major medical episode in a foreign country could give me a very significant 5 figure bill to contend with. I won't subject my family to that over saving a couple of hundred dollars on insurance.