Princess CFAR Insurance For Canadians

[lx200gps]

Canadian/Quebec resident here, starting to plan for another round of cruise bookings for next year. I logged on to the Princess site as I've done many times before, and made a mock booking up to the point where I can select Transfers and Insurance. We have always chosen the Platinum Vacation Protection (we're both Platinum) due to the great 100% cruise credit they offer under the Cancel For Any Reason section. The available option has changed from what I remember from the last time I did a booking, and I am now presented with something called called the "At-Ease Waiver Program" at almost $500 for the two of us for a one week cruise. It states it only covers Cancellation fee waiver and baggage protection, no medical or any other coverage. I then select this lower coverage, it adds the cost to the total and can move on to the payment page.

 

 

The problem is that when I look at the description for this waiver program, it very clearly states "The At-Ease Waiver is available to international markets including Puerto Rico, excluding the following: Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom." IOW I am being offered insurance by the Princess site that I cannot buy Yes, I clearly stated that we were from Canada when I filled in the data for the mock booking.

 

 

Before I call Princess and get four different answers from three different CSRs, have any fellow Canadians noticed anything amiss, and are you still able to buy the Platinum CFAR insurance with the same coverage it's been for a long time?

 

 

Thanks in advance.

[lx200gps]

Looks like I have to bump up my own thread. Have any Canadians been able to find any insurance that matches Princess's 100% credit back for Cancel For Any Reason? A Princess rep at a local TA meet told me yesterday that as of sometime last year, Princess's old plan can no longer be sold in Canada, and my TA's available insurance, through a huge Canadian insurer, only covers 75%. Not only that, but you have to cancel a week in advance, or they cap the coverage even more. With Princess's old plan you could CFAR any time up to the time of departure. CFAR insurance is quite important for us, due to my 92 year old father, and going from full refund down to only 75% could mean a loss of thousands on a canceled trip. You'd think Princess would want to work with a Canadian insurer to offer an equivalent policy.

[CruisinFinsUp]

Looks like I have to bump up my own thread. Have any Canadians been able to find any insurance that matches Princess's 100% credit back for Cancel For Any Reason? A Princess rep at a local TA meet told me yesterday that as of sometime last year, Princess's old plan can no longer be sold in Canada, .

 

You might want to check again. We have Princess Platinum insurance on our upcoming July 2018 cruise. Our TA didn't suggest at all that this was ending - we added it to the booking during 2018. We are in Ontario.

 

We booked thru a TA, not the website.

[lx200gps]

You might want to check again. We have Princess Platinum insurance on our upcoming July 2018 cruise. Our TA didn't suggest at all that this was ending - we added it to the booking during 2018. We are in Ontario.

 

We booked thru a TA, not the website.

 

Exactly when did you book the trip and the insurance? Last June we booked three trips with our big TA, the last one being April of 2019. At that time, the old Princess insurance WAS sellable to us Canadians and we bought it for all three trips. The change in law banning this type of insurance to us started sometime after that, as confirmed to me yesterday in person by a Princess rep, and now, she says any new bookings can't have the insurance. In fact, I just did a mock booking on the Princess site, and the fine print on the new "EZ Waiver" insurance specifically denies coverage to Canadians. It says" The At-Ease Waiver is available to international markets including Puerto Rico, excluding the following: Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom" If you were able to add the same Princess 100% CFAR coverage AFTER the program was canceled, how did your TA manage it? Is it possible that your TA has alternative coverage that exactly matches the old Princess plan but through a third party?

[CruisinFinsUp]

Wow. She added it end of March 2018 when we did final payment for our July 2018 cruise. As far as I can tell from my paperwork, its Princess platinum insurance.

 

I'll have to ask her next time I talk to her!

[lx200gps]

Wow. She added it end of March 2018 when we did final payment for our July 2018 cruise. As far as I can tell from my paperwork, its Princess platinum insurance.

 

I'll have to ask her next time I talk to her!

 

It would be greatly appreciated if you could ask her, thanks very much. While the Princess site is very clear that this insurance is not available to CANADA, it may be that they are mis-speaking and actually mean that it's only not available to us residents of the Democratic People's Republic of Quebec. We have some very stupid laws on, among many other things, insurance, and the government routinely bans the sale of some insurance products that the rest of the country have, leaving us out in the cold (and wishing we lived in Ontario, right next door.)

[CruisinFinsUp]

I looked at the Princess website. I think I found it. It looks like a Quebec thing as you suspected ....

 

https://www.princess.com/learn/faq_answer/pre_cruise/prepare.jsp#Princess_Vacation_Protection

 

Scroll down ...

Note that Princess Vacation Protection is not available to residents of Quebec or Puerto Rico.

 

My guess is that there is also a glitch on the Princess website

--> if the website knows it can't offer you PVP,

--> so EZ Waiver is for everyone who can't buy PVP,

--> but actually EZ waiver is also not for Quebec, maybe the website hit a programming glitch ....

 

But there does seem to be a change at Dec 1, 2017 - the link above refers to "before" and "after" - maybe the Insurance provider changed as well .... causing additional complications.

 

Good luck! If I were you I'd talk to a TA in Quebec who is familiar with what CAN be sold to you, rather than talking to someone at Princess who isn't familiar with Quebec laws.

[dbeckett]

UK has NEVER had Princess ' CFAR reason insurance so it comes as no surprise that the new insurance isn't available either.

[CruisinFinsUp]

https://www.insuremytrip.com/travel-insurance-plans-coverages/cancel-for-any-reason/

 

This might help -but I can't find anything that states Quebec or not ... most CFAR are 75% only it says.

[lx200gps]

Thanks all. I have spoken to my Quebec-based big-box TA and she confirmed the Quebec exclusion, so I guess we're SOL. Fortunately, one of our near-term goals as young-ish retirees, is to move into Canada from Quebec, so within the next few years, we won't have to worry about it.

[Cruise Junky]

Only in Quebec :(

[lx200gps]

Only in Quebec :(

 

Princess has actually amended their website in the last week or two trying to clarify the new policy. Unfortunately, they've just managed to confuse tings even more.

 

The description used to read "The At-Ease Waiver is available to international markets including Puerto Rico, excluding the following: Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom." which was incorrect, as it's ONLY Quebec that is excluded. They have just changed the wording to "The At-Ease Waiver is available to international markets including Puerto Rico, excluding the following: Canada (except Quebec), Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom.". Using the double negative means it can be argued they are saying that is NOT available to the rest of Canada, but IS available only in Quebec, which is not the case.

 

There is insurance available to us residents of the DPRQ, but the available CFAR coverage is more than Princess used to charge, for much less coverage.

[Superfragger]

We recently booked a Scandinavian cruise for next april, and were told by the Princess agent that travel insurance was not available for Quebec residents because of all the particularities with permiting and licensing to sell insurance in Quebec.Working in insurance myself (not travel insurance), I know that our legislation can be a headache and that many companies simply do not want to bother handling that.

 

However, the insurance was available for purchase back when we booked our November 2017 cruise. So this seems to be a relatively new thing.

[lx200gps]

We recently booked a Scandinavian cruise for next april, and were told by the Princess agent that travel insurance was not available for Quebec residents because of all the particularities with permiting and licensing to sell insurance in Quebec.Working in insurance myself (not travel insurance), I know that our legislation can be a headache and that many companies simply do not want to bother handling that.

 

However, the insurance was available for purchase back when we booked our November 2017 cruise. So this seems to be a relatively new thing.

 

Quite correct, I believe it's only a few months old. We booked two Princess trips in June of last year, one for this November and one for April of 2019. We purchased the Princess CFAR insurance with no problems. Starting a few months ago, planing for our next trips after those, I became aware that the original insurance is no longer available. When we booked our two latest trips, for November 2018 and April 2019, the Princess CFAR insurance was no longer available to us Quebecers.

 

 

We're going to take our chances as far as "...any reason..." goes, and will rely on my wife's retiree travel medical coverage, and our credit card's included travel coverage. I've spoken with the credit card's insurance people and they are very happy to sell us delta coverage to "top up" things like cancellation and interruption coverage at significantly less cost than buying full, but duplicating, coverage from a third party insurer.