Positive experience claiming on travel insurance for missed ports on Iona cruise

[SomersetS]

If anyone needs to claim on their travel insurance for missed ports I thought it might be helpful to post my experience. The most important thing was to get a letter from the P&O reception desk whilst still onboard, detailing the ports missed and the reason (adverse weather in our case). They print out individual letters for each passenger.

 

We were on the 2-9 July Iona cruise to the Norwegian Fjords and did not stop at Hellesylt or Haugesund which were on our itinerary.

 

We had a Staysure travel insurance policy with extra cruise cover which included compensation for missed ports. It was a bit confusing trying to work out which claim form to use but I spoke to their customer service who said to use the one for "Travel Delay".

 

I was able to complete my claim online and upload copies of the letters from P&O. My claim was approved and processed the same day, with the money being paid into our bank account the following day. The amount paid per missed port was £75 per person per port. I don't know how that compares with other insurance providers.

 

It was very straightforward but it looks as if you can only claim if you were not compensated in any way by P&O. It was our first P&O cruise so maybe there was better compensation being offered onboard to anyone who complained but we didn't explore that possibility!

 

[Billish]

Good result  - nice to hear a positive insurance story for once. 

The amount you got back was far in excess of anything P&O would have given you !

[SarahHben]

We missed docking in Stavanger on our Iona cruise in May. Fortunately I’d read on here that you need a letter from reception to claim in the insurance so I got that sorted.

We were insured with AllClear and, although it took a fair bit of scanning documents to email the claims company, my husband and I were awarded £100 each for missed port with no excess fees. 
It took around 2/3 weeks to receive the money if I remember correctly.

 

Edited July 23, 2022 by SarahHben

[RaspberryCremeBrulee]

We claimed for missed port back in September through Staysure and told to use 'Travel Delay' form too, as they don't have form specific to missed port.  All went through quite promptly as I recall but, we had sent in the post rather than doing online.

 

Last month when we claimed for missed ports using same process, it took over a month to process.  We weren't aware they now use Davies Group to process Staysure claims.  Our request took some time to pass from Staysure address where they previously handled claims to Davies Group.  Initially they advised they hadn't received our communication so we had to resend to email address given and, were subsequently told they still didn't have our claim on their system.  Eventually they sorted things out to ensure our claim was with correct team.

Think it was just unfortunate that we'd submitted claim during their changeover period.

 

Going forward, if we have a need to claim we will try and complete the claim online as 'SomersetS' did in #1

[johnnylikely]

LV insurance - £150 per port

Needed letter of proof from cruisline (they delivered one to each cabin)
And proof of invoice/itinerary

[SomersetS]

I got the impression from the onboard Reception staff on Iona that they only printed out letters for passengers who specifically requested them. I wonder how easy/difficult it would have been to get one after disembarking?

 

It is interesting to see the range of compensation amounts paid out by different providers. I think the policy recommended by P&O includes payment for missed ports but only if a substitute port has not been arranged. I will definitely read the smallprint for each provider before our next cruise.

[Happy afloat]

Missed out on Grenada in 2018. Pre-printed letters were available from reception on request.  We got £100 each from insure&go.

[Ardennais]

How much dearer is cruise cover for missed ports? 

[SomersetS]

It was £25.90 to extra to add extra cruise cover (which covered missed ports and presumably other things) to our standard travel insurance (around £100) (which included basic cruise cover). This was for a 7-night cruise. I don't know whether this was a particularly competitive price but it turned out to be worth having for Iona because missed ports seem to have been a recurring problem in recent weeks.

[Son of Anarchy]

2 hours ago, Ardennais said:

How much dearer is cruise cover for missed ports? 

Off the top of my head, it was about £120 for the two of us on an annual policy with Staysure.  We got £150 for missing one port.  I think there is limit of £500 over the duration of the policy.

[bbtablet]

My question is this:

Do Staysure pay out only if the itinerary change port is not replaced with another port (that obviously we had not chosen when booking the cruise)?

Just returned from the Baltic cruise on the Aurora - St. Petersburg changed (after making final payment for the cruise) and Helsinki substituted.

Then on the actual cruise one port missed (strong winds) and another port substituted for it, so we had the same number of ports of call as the original itinerary, but not the same ones that we booked and paid for.

Do we have any likelihood of a successful claim on the "changed itinerary" extra cruise clause that we paid for?

 

[Jevsy]

After many cruises over many years I never even knew about additional cruise cover beyond the standard cover for repatriation, emergencies etc. When Covid hit I was drawn in by the 'isolation in cabin benefits' so paid the additional £40 premium for us both. We've now used it twice - unable to dock in Madeira last year, and in June cancellation of ports in the fjords on Iona (a frequent occurrence it seems?!) Yes I'm impressed with Nationwide insurance, the £600 I received notification today about is very welcome! 

[SomersetS]

I think you can only claim for ports which were on the itinerary when you set sail. I am not sure whether there is a way to claim for itinerary changes before you sail but after you have paid your final balance?

 

Do the cruise companies have any obligation to offer a full refund if your cruise itinerary changes significantly? Or do they cover themselves for this in the Ts&Cs? 

 

[RaspberryCremeBrulee]

bbtablet #11

You should be able to claim on Staysure for the missed port once onboard even though it was substituted with another port. As long as you got letter from P&O to confirm before you disembarked.

That happened on our Baltic where we couldn't go to 2 ports owing to weather.

We had numerous port changes advised after final payment, Staysure didn't allow anything for those changes to itinerary.

[Billish]

My understanding is that compensation only relates to ports missed once you have set sail.  

Not sure what you do if the itinerary is changed 24 hours in advance ! (Rhetorical question).

[bbtablet]

17 hours ago, RaspberryCremeBrulee said:

bbtablet #11

You should be able to claim on Staysure for the missed port once onboard even though it was substituted with another port. As long as you got letter from P&O to confirm before you disembarked.

That happened on our Baltic where we couldn't go to 2 ports owing to weather.

We had numerous port changes advised after final payment, Staysure didn't allow anything for those changes to itinerary.

Thanks for this. No-one on Aurora told us about the letter from Reception - very poor customer service - so I have had to email P&O for it today and it will no doubt take for ever.

My claim with Staysure will wait until I have this document.

Re St Petersberg cancellation, I will argue that as I had the insurance live, premium paid, and had paid for the cruise in full before any departure changes were made by P&O, the subsequent timing of future changes is not relevant, only that they took place. No doubt they will find some small print to counter this!

Edited July 25, 2022 by bbtablet

[Gettingwarmer]

38 minutes ago, bbtablet said:

No-one on Aurora told us about the letter from Reception - very poor customer service -

I’m afraid very  few people have this extra insurance. It’s up to you to know your terms and conditions, not the cruise company. 

[d@711]

We had a missed port on our Iona cruise in March, because they swapped Cadiz for Fuerteventura  didn’t think to get a letter from reception. Only realised could still claim when returned home, contacted them through messenger on the 08/04 letter emailed back on 15/04. Couldn’t fault P&O. Now the time it took the insurance company to pay out…….we’ll that’s a different matter !.