Trip insurance - thoughts so far

[longterm]

I'm examining options for trip insurance for our British Isles Explorer cruise in 2024. Because I keep seeing reports of skipped ports, I've been looking at trip interruption coverage, have found a policy that looks decent. 

 

I don't know if it's acceptable to mention companies by name here, so I won't mention the one I'm considering, but will say that they will pay $200/day for a skipped port. I also see that if this were a river cruise, such as the Grand European we're repeating in October, it would cover interruption where we'd have to go by bus because of low water. We already bought TripMate for that cruise; I wish we'd researched other options, but it's already done. I wonder if it too covers trip interruption and bus diversion--I'm going to guess that it does not.

 

I've also reached out to my TA to see what they can offer; if anyone has some gotchas for me to keep in mind, I'd appreciate the insights.

 

Bob

[longterm]

Another question comes to mind:

 

I've been reading that skipped ports on the British Isles Explorer cruise are a frequent occurrence; questions:

 

1. How often does a port get skipped on the British Isles Explorer?

2. Does this happen very often in summer months (we're going in July 2024)?

[CDNPolar]

I don't believe that there is any violation in mentioning insurance companies, as many companies have been mentioned in other threads... 

 

Would be very interested in a company that offers insurance for missed ports or bus because of low water on a River Cruise.

 

Please name...

[longterm]

40 minutes ago, CDNPolar said:

I don't believe that there is any violation in mentioning insurance companies, as many companies have been mentioned in other threads... 

 

Would be very interested in a company that offers insurance for missed ports or bus because of low water on a River Cruise.

 

Please name...

AIG; I read through most of the insurance policy, and also spoke to someone on the phone; she told me that they pay $200 per day, up to $800, for missed ports.

 

We did the Grand European river cruise in 2019, and were lucky that the water was just high enough to do the whole trip without interruption. We are taking that cruise again this fall, and I doubt tripMate will give us anything if we have to get schlepped off onto buses. 

[longterm]

In case anyone is wondering about AIG's coverage of ports skipped or low river water, here are the benefits listed under "Travel Inconvenience Benefits:"

 

1. (f)  Cruise Diversion – the Insured’s cruise does not stop at a scheduled port of call due to Inclement Weather, a Terrorist Incident, a medical incident involving another passenger on the ship, or a Natural Disaster;

2. (g)  River Cruise Diversion – the Insured’s river cruise is unable to sail due to insufficient or excess water levels, and the Travel Supplier provides only land-based alternative accommodations;

 

Now that I've read section G again, it sounds like they cover the entire cruise if they are unable to sail; this doesn't sound like it would cover a day or two if they shlep the passengers onto a bus for a day, then put them back on another ship upriver.

 

Edited March 1, 2023 by longterm

[Peregrina651]

Isn't there a difference between trip interruption and missed ports?

[longterm]

12 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

Isn't there a difference between trip interruption and missed ports?

Yes, but that's not the section that I'm referring to; here is what the policy says: 

 

Cruise Diversion – the Insured’s cruise does not stop at a scheduled port of call due to Inclement Weather, a Terrorist Incident, a medical incident involving another passenger on the ship, or a Natural Disaster;

[longterm]

I did find this under "Trip Interruption," which means that this policy isn't going to pay out if one is on a river cruise, the water is too low to navigate, and they switch to buses for a day or more:

 

interruption of the Insured’s scheduled cruise by the Travel Supplier, due to insufficient or excessive water levels in the body of water where the cruise is scheduled to sail. If the Travel Supplier provides an alternate mode of transportation rather than interrupting the cruise, this benefit does not apply;

 

 

[hersheyhughes]

I just purchased a policy through Steve at The Insurance Store and they were very knowledgeable in helping me pick a policy. It was not a river cruise so I cannot speak to that subject. Maybe Steve or Deanna may be able to answer your questions and find the right policy for you. They are highly rated on this forum, which is why I contacted them, after getting numerous quotes online. Good luck!.

[longterm]

8 minutes ago, hersheyhughes said:

I just purchased a policy through Steve at The Insurance Store and they were very knowledgeable in helping me pick a policy. It was not a river cruise so I cannot speak to that subject. Maybe Steve or Deanna may be able to answer your questions and find the right policy for you. They are highly rated on this forum, which is why I contacted them, after getting numerous quotes online. Good luck!.

Thanks; I went ahead with the AIG policy.

[CurlerRob]

3 hours ago, longterm said:

Thanks; I went ahead with the AIG policy.

 

Congratulations on being among the minority of pax who actually read the insurer's policy carefully (and then read it again - which often results in a change of interpretation such as you described 😈)!

 

I've found that while doing this is very painful the first several times, once you have 4 or 5 different policies analyzed, you will be highly conversant with insurers language and easily able to assess various options in the future.

 

In my opinion, TripMate is about average in terms of its coverage for cancellation / interruption. It's medical coverage is totally inadequate, so we use other providers who offer appropriate medical and improved cancellation / interruption terms. 🍺🥌

[CDNPolar]

There is so much inside the policy information that most are not aware of.  Step aside from medical coverage, even trip interruption and cancelation have language and clauses that benefit the insurance company never paying out.

 

Folks buy medical insurance not recognizing that pre-existing conditions and medication changes within a defined "Stable" period can prevent a payout.  Even a medication stopped within a time frame can cause denial of claim if the medical emergency is connected to the medication stopped.

 

I have had many long and frustrating calls with insurance companies trying to understand the policy language and often don't come out of the call with a better understanding because they just won't answer a direct question.

 

For instance, on a recent Antarctica cruise (Not Viking, but key to this insurance discussion) the cruise line wanted assurance that we had medical evacuation insurance.  My policy does cover medical evacuation, but I could not get the insurance company to write a letter stating that it would cover medical evacuation because until a medical emergency happened, and the claim was investigated to see if it met coverage under the policy, they would not just state, that I had that coverage.  This is a work policy that covers me for work or personal travel.  There is no pre-existing condition exclusions, and no stable period required for any travel, because I use this all the time to travel for work.  Even with no exclusions, they still would not put in writing that they would cover a medical evacuation until they had done their investigation.

 

Insurance companies are slick.  Be careful and know what you are buying.

[longterm]

1 hour ago, CDNPolar said:

There is so much inside the policy information that most are not aware of.  Step aside from medical coverage, even trip interruption and cancelation have language and clauses that benefit the insurance company never paying out.

 

Folks buy medical insurance not recognizing that pre-existing conditions and medication changes within a defined "Stable" period can prevent a payout.  Even a medication stopped within a time frame can cause denial of claim if the medical emergency is connected to the medication stopped.

 

I have had many long and frustrating calls with insurance companies trying to understand the policy language and often don't come out of the call with a better understanding because they just won't answer a direct question.

 

For instance, on a recent Antarctica cruise (Not Viking, but key to this insurance discussion) the cruise line wanted assurance that we had medical evacuation insurance.  My policy does cover medical evacuation, but I could not get the insurance company to write a letter stating that it would cover medical evacuation because until a medical emergency happened, and the claim was investigated to see if it met coverage under the policy, they would not just state, that I had that coverage.  This is a work policy that covers me for work or personal travel.  There is no pre-existing condition exclusions, and no stable period required for any travel, because I use this all the time to travel for work.  Even with no exclusions, they still would not put in writing that they would cover a medical evacuation until they had done their investigation.

 

Insurance companies are slick.  Be careful and know what you are buying.

Yep. Insurance companies have entire staffs dedicated to denying claims.

I had health insurance through the Country Music Association in Nashville for many years; when my gall bladder needed to be yanked, I went in and had almost immediate surgery, confident that I had coverage.

 

They paid $2000 of the $16000 bill, telling me that my policy was old and shouldn't even have still been in force--this after I'd paid thousands over the years.

[mhb1757]

20 hours ago, longterm said:

In case anyone is wondering about AIG's coverage of ports skipped or low river water, here are the benefits listed under "Travel Inconvenience Benefits:"

 

1. (f)  Cruise Diversion – the Insured’s cruise does not stop at a scheduled port of call due to Inclement Weather, a Terrorist Incident, a medical incident involving another passenger on the ship, or a Natural Disaster;

2. (g)  River Cruise Diversion – the Insured’s river cruise is unable to sail due to insufficient or excess water levels, and the Travel Supplier provides only land-based alternative accommodations;

 

Now that I've read section G again, it sounds like they cover the entire cruise if they are unable to sail; this doesn't sound like it would cover a day or two if they shlep the passengers onto a bus for a day, then put them back on another ship upriver.

 

So my question about the missed port coverage is this….do they just pay you the $200 if a port is missed or do they reimburse you up to $200 for non refundable excursions you had booked independently in that port and you submit a claim for those expenses?

[Cienfuegos]

Good thread.  Lots of fine print to wade through.

[longterm]

46 minutes ago, mhb1757 said:

So my question about the missed port coverage is this….do they just pay you the $200 if a port is missed or do they reimburse you up to $200 for non refundable excursions you had booked independently in that port and you submit a claim for those expenses?

My understanding is that they pay $200 for a missed port due to ocean turbulence. If excursions are missed, I assume that Viking would give you an OBC for a paid excursion, but nothing for the freebies.

I didn't see anything about independent excursions,  but will go through the policy again and see if I can find anything relevant--that's a good question.

[longterm]

I didn't find a specific clause that mentions coverage for an activity that you book on your own, but I"m guessing that it would be covered, to a maximum of $200, since it's part of the same cruise diversion.

 

In other words, if a port is skipped due to bad weather, and you had an independent excursion booked for that port of call, you'd get a total of $200 for that day--not $200 for the diversion plus more for the excursion. 

 

On another note, I saw this, which is another interesting bit of coverage; with all the dock strikes and other transport strikes that seem to happen in the UK, I thought this might come in handy:

 

Strike causing cancellation or delay of the Insured’s pre-arranged travel services;

 

If I read it correctly, it means that if there's a dock strike, and the ship can't dock, they'd cover that as well; I don't know if this would come into effect if there's a taxi strike in a port city--I'm thinking not.

 

 

[longterm]

OK, another interesting tidbit; here's an exclusion caveat. I re-read it and the leading clause makes all the difference:

 

1. This Policy does not cover any loss for, caused by or resulting from intoxication above the legal limit at the Insured’s location at the time of loss; 

 

At first I thought it meant that if a port's skipped, and you've had a bottle of wine on the ship, you could be declined... but no.

Edited March 2, 2023 by longterm

[rmalbers]

The insurance thing is so complicated that I leave it up to my TA.  The covid thing didn't help. 

[CDNPolar]

17 minutes ago, rmalbers said:

The insurance thing is so complicated that I leave it up to my TA.  The covid thing didn't help. 

 

No offence with this question, but if you leave this to your TA, and something happens that the insurance does not cover, then what?  You have left the vetting process to someone to make a decision for you and then you are blindsided?

[longterm]

1 hour ago, CDNPolar said:

 

No offence with this question, but if you leave this to your TA, and something happens that the insurance does not cover, then what?  You have left the vetting process to someone to make a decision for you and then you are blindsided?

Personally, I don't leave much to my TA; I want to have a say in my flight schedules, routing, and trip insurance. It's not that I don't have respect and confidence in him, but having had insurance issues in the past, I want to know what my coverage is, what my options are (if any), and where to turn if a situation should arise. 

 

The only thing I really use a TA for is to get some OBC; I'm more than capable of arranging our trips and insurance, and like to know what to expect every step of the way.

[zalusky]

The closest wording on our recent Travelguard policy for missed ports was "Natural Disasters".  So it's possible turbulence would fit under that but in our case it was biofouling which is IMHO not a natural disaster as it could have been prevented.

[Cienfuegos]

9 hours ago, longterm said:

OK, another interesting tidbit; here's an exclusion caveat. I re-read it and the leading clause makes all the difference:

 

1. This Policy does not cover any loss for, caused by or resulting from intoxication above the legal limit at the Insured’s location at the time of loss; 

 

At first I thought it meant that if a port's skipped, and you've had a bottle of wine on the ship, you could be declined... but no.

Perhaps this covers an excursion the traveler missed due to their stay in the local hoosegow as a result of a drunken mis-understanding.

 

"The legal limit at the insured's location" can be very low.  In the Czech Republic a driving while intoxicated charge starts with any level of alcohol in the blood

[Heidi13]

18 hours ago, rmalbers said:

The insurance thing is so complicated that I leave it up to my TA.  The covid thing didn't help. 

 

How does your TA know your risk tolerances, medical conditions, etc. Do you create and provide a detailed Statement of Requirements (SoR) to your TA, so they can determine what policy best meets your needs.

 

May I suggest that sitting down with a number of local insurance brokers, to discuss your requirements and receiving quotes from them would be a better option, especially if you had to submit a significant claim. Every insurance policy, even cheap ones are excellent, until you submit a claim. From experience, it pays to have completed your research and know what is covered and more specifically, what isn't covered.

 

I know our TA very well, having used her for a number of years, but she doesn't know enough about us to recommend an insurance policy.

[Baron Barracuda]

Came down with flu aboard ship 20 years ago.   Got stuck with $1k medical bill and haven't sailed without travel insurance since.  I personally focus only on large potential risks like evacuation and medical.  Have learned that even between similar appearing policies actual coverages can differ greatly.  There can be so many things to consider it will make your head spin.  Critical elements include whether policy is primary or secondary, who is in charge of medical decisions and if evacuated where will they take you.  Have found policy language difficult to interpret so rely on experts at The Travel Insurance Store and Squaremouth.  CC's Travel Insurance forum is also a great resource.  Would be suspicious that TA has self-interest in who he/she recommends.