Do you purchase trip insurance?

[rcaruso]

5 hours ago, Squawkman said:

This statement is incorrect. Not all Advantage programs are “free” and many include international coverage.

When health benefits are part of a retirement package, Medicare Advantage plans are usually used. Mine includes international coverage as that of 2 friends - all different employers and retirement benefits.

My husband's cousin and wife have a Medicare Plan that includes international coverage.  Quite a laugh when the wife ends up in hospital in Passau for 5 days.  The total cost was around $2500 which is cheap compared to US.  We had travel ins but he had to file his Medicare Plan first and it took over 6 months and much telephoning to get them either to pay or deny as travel ins was secondary.

 

Now we take travel ins where the travel insurance is primary to any health ins so we don't have to go through any of that.  Their plan just stalled them from day one---excuse after excuse, one of final was needed to be translated (labs all same, so nothing there needed translation) terrible experience.

 

But the travel insurance was great, even paid one day they lost on cruise due to sickness as well as hotel stay and transportation in Passau.

[Woofbite]

I keep an Allianz annual plan booked online since I make frequent trips plus it covers domestic travel as well.  (Just collected for DFW hotel bill due to a flight cancellation and airline refusal to cover). 

 

My Medicare Advantage plan with Clover provides worldwide coverage for emergency, urgent care and ambulance service up to $25,000 pery year for $25 to $120 copay.

 

I never used to bother with trip insurance except to exotic places - Antarctica, Nepal, Uzbekistan, etc. but as I have aged and gotten more decrepit I figure it makes sense and on an annual basis is cheaper than covering individual trips.

 

[NavyCruiser]

We have been very fortunate that we've haven't had an medical issues for our numerous travels in the past 30 yrs.  But now that we're in our mid 50's, we're seriously looking into it.  We're fairly healthy so, not looking for medical ins yet, but just Medi-Vac services to fly us back to the U.S. when traveling overseas.

We've paid $150/yr before for both of us for Emergence Assistance Plus, which covers air ambulance / Medical Evac, don't remember what cost limits were.

Now we're paying $20/yr for each of us for Veterans Advantage's MedEvac Travel Protection, which covers up to $50,000 in air ambulance services back to the US.

Just looked at Medjet's quote & it's $399/yr for medical transfers only.

So still comparing which plans vs purchasing insurance thru the cruise lines per each trip...

 

[gnome12]

13 minutes ago, NavyCruiser said:

We have been very fortunate that we've haven't had an medical issues for our numerous travels in the past 30 yrs.  But now that we're in our mid 50's, we're seriously looking into it.  We're fairly healthy so, not looking for medical ins yet, but just Medi-Vac services to fly us back to the U.S. when traveling overseas.

We've paid $150/yr before for both of us for Emergence Assistance Plus, which covers air ambulance / Medical Evac, don't remember what cost limits were.

Now we're paying $20/yr for each of us for Veterans Advantage's MedEvac Travel Protection, which covers up to $50,000 in air ambulance services back to the US.

Just looked at Medjet's quote & it's $399/yr for medical transfers only.

So still comparing which plans vs purchasing insurance thru the cruise lines per each trip...

 

I'd be worried about that $50,000 limit.

[NavyCruiser]

9 minutes ago, gnome12 said:

I'd be worried about that $50,000 limit.

Yes, we're worried about that limit too.

Maybe they're sending military transport plane to cut costs...

[Host Jazzbeau]

35 minutes ago, NavyCruiser said:

We have been very fortunate that we've haven't had an medical issues for our numerous travels in the past 30 yrs.  But now that we're in our mid 50's, we're seriously looking into it.  We're fairly healthy so, not looking for medical ins yet, but just Medi-Vac services to fly us back to the U.S. when traveling overseas.

We've paid $150/yr before for both of us for Emergence Assistance Plus, which covers air ambulance / Medical Evac, don't remember what cost limits were.

Now we're paying $20/yr for each of us for Veterans Advantage's MedEvac Travel Protection, which covers up to $50,000 in air ambulance services back to the US.

Just looked at Medjet's quote & it's $399/yr for medical transfers only.

So still comparing which plans vs purchasing insurance thru the cruise lines per each trip...

 

MedJet gives a nice discount to AARP members, and their plans are cheaper pp for couples and for multiple years.  Just checked, and the 5 year AARP Family rate is $1,499, which works out to $149 per person per year.  You have to start on the AARP website and link from there to MedJet.

[gnome12]

23 minutes ago, NavyCruiser said:

Yes, we're worried about that limit too.

Maybe they're sending military transport plane to cut costs...

If you need to be medically evacuated it can be a chartered plane and a medical crew. You won't get that for $50,000.

[Love.II.Cruise]

On 2/1/2021 at 4:08 PM, Host Jazzbeau said:

The catch with all those policies' evacuation coverage is that the local doctor and the insurance company get to decide whether to evacuate you, and where.  Given doctors' rampant God complexes*, none ever want to admit they can't treat a patient; and given insurance companies' bottom-line focus, they will try to evacuate you to the nearest big hospital.  MetJet lets YOU decide to trigger evacuation and lets YOU decide which hospital to be sent to (and a traveling companion can accompany you) – so we would pick a big hospital near our home and not have to worry about that leg later.  [And MedJet applies even in the US as long as you are 150 miles away from home – so it covers our snow bird stays as well.]

 

* of course this doesn't apply to our resident front-line heroes here on River Cruising!

 

On 2/1/2021 at 8:55 PM, Host Jazzbeau said:

Travel Agents are able to see an Allianz policy that waives the 'pre-existing condition' clause even if you only buy at final payment.  And our two claims (one minor, one for the entire trip) were paid quickly and without fuss – so I'm a big Allianz fan.

 

And when cruises get cancelled – either by the cruise line or by us – they will transfer the payment to the next cruise so we don't lose anything.

 

Thank you Host Jazzbeau! - we trying to find a new travel insurance company for a cruise we have booked to Antartica this December with Atlas Ocean Voyages.  They cover emergency evacuation, but still require regular trip insurance - documented on our trip documents.  

 

Our Crystal cruise we had booked for last July (2020) was cancelled at the end of last April (2020).  Not only did our trip insurance NOT cover the loss of our airfare - they also would not transfer our trip insurance to another trip, nor reimburse us for the trip insurance (claiming they covered us until the date of the cancelled cruise).  

 

This was Aon Affinity Travel Insurance- Will NEVER use them again for trip insurance!  Will also never use Tap Portugal for airfare.  Believe it or not, Tap Portugal charged us ~$70 to do a reimbursement of our airfare (called it a processing fee), took our money and we got refunded NOTHING!  Our flights were not reimbursed and they kept the $70.  Our Credit Card claims went no where after fighting for several months.  

 

It also took 203 days to get our money back from Crystal Cruises- after they had cancelled our cruise and we filed claims with our Credit Card Company.  I know this is one of many stories- many other people went through this if you look on the Crystal Cruise line forum (they started a thread on it with a spreadsheet).  And yes, we are on the spreadsheet under Love.II.Cruise.  Look at Crystal Refund Roll Call:

 

 

 

Can you tell I'm still slightly peeved???  🤨   We would like to cruise again, but we are struggling on how to get travel insurance - especially if the State Department puts 80% of countries on level 4.  I'm not saying they shouldn't be on level 4; I'm just not sure what travel insurance companies are going to do.  And if any company you book travel with is in bankruptcy protection, good luck getting travel insurance for that company (same goes as before COVID).

 

We love to cruise - are willing to be vaccinated (will be in 3 weeks)- are willing to wear masks (note:  next cruise is Antartica, so figure we will be cold as hell and want to wear a mask + ski mask).  😄  That Antartica cruise will cause us automatically to be all in a "bubble" - we decide NO shore excursions - cruise line does so - and they book our airfare including a fully charted plane for all passengers from Orlando to Ushuaia (minus those that plan to deviate - which we won't).  We are hoping that Atlas will require everyone to be fully vaccinated + crew.  I would hate to pay this much money for a cruise, just to get isolated and stuck somewhere - unable to get home.

 

Oh my gosh!  After all this, I didn't realize this was even on a river board cruise.  But I think some of this applies.  😉  We really would like to do a Christmas River Cruise next year (2022) - Crystal has one (or had one) that looks enticing.  

Edited April 27, 2021 by Love.II.Cruise

[Host Jazzbeau]

You're welcome, @Love.II.Cruise  Wow, what a terrible story about your cancelled cruise.  We also had a lot of trouble getting our money back from TAP, but it did eventually reappear on the credit card.

 

I understand why you wouldn't want to use Aon Affinity for insurance again.  So I was surprised at the end to see that you do plan to use Crystal again.  I don't follow the Crystal forum very closely but the last time I checked it, there was talk that Crystal was expected to go bankrupt.  There are other river cruise lines that are considered top class, and you might check which seems to be in the best financial shape.  Also make sure that the line you choose is still covered by travel insurance supplier default coverage.

 

Here is a link to the Allianz Covered Suppliers list:

https://www.allianztravelinsurance.com/about/covered-suppliers.htm

As of April 22, 2021 Crystal is not on it.  Ama Waterways, Scenic, Tauck, and Uniworld are all on it.  I consider them the top four river cruise lines.