Am I the only one that is shocked by Travel Insurance???

[LHP]

Here is the scenerio:

 

Everyone knows that Carnival's Fantasy was hit by a barge a little over a week ago.

 

Carnival did nothing wrong. Fantasy was just minding it's own business and a rice barge captain lost his load of 6 barges...hitting the river bank before hitting the Fantasy.

 

Since it happened literally hours before the next cruise was to begin...no way to stop folks from flying in etc etc etc. The gash caused the cruise to be cancelled. (A full ship from what I understand)

 

This is what I don't understand....a CCer who had Travel Guard Insurance filed a claim for her "expenses" (taxi, airfare, airport transfers etc) and had the claim denied by Travel Guard. They said it was Carnival's responsibility since Carnival will no doubt be suing the barge company for damages.

 

If the CCer had not had Travel Insurance...then I would not have had any sympathy because she just assumed the risk. However, since she did have Travel Insurance...I am SHOCKED that Travel Guard would put her in the middle of what could be a lengthy embattled insurance fight.

 

The CCer did nothing wrong....Carnival did nothing wrong...and they are the 2 people left with all the expenses. Is it fair that Carnival get stuck with processing 1,000s of "claims" ?

 

What am I missing here????

 

I would have expected Travel Guard to pay the claim and then go to the barge insurance company to recoup their losses.

[jerseyjk]

Unfortunately, the AIG Travelguard program does not appear to cover the events described. If you check their DOC here there is nothing about cancellation due to damage to the vessel. Closest thing is being involved in or delayed due to a traffic accident. That got me thinking and I checked a couple of the other carriers as well. None of them seem to cover the type of event like the barge collision.

[Smitty24]

I'd still argue long and loud. Cancellation due to vessel damage may not be listed, but it's also not listed under the excluded things. Who can foresee something like that??

[thoneycu]

Does anyone buy their cruise insurance with any other travel insurance company? The prices I have looked up online are so much cheaper and the cruise lines are expensive. Is it worth it to go with someone else?

[LHP]

I am hoping that others who were involved in this cruise that was cancelled and had other travel insurance coverage (other than Travel Guard) will let us know what their experiences were.

 

We don't buy travel insurance for our cruises unless we are flying. We basically accept the risk. But now if Travel Insurance is not going to pay for something that was clearly an accident out of the control of the traveler...why buy it?

 

I guess I have taken for granted that "covered" means covered" and now it appears that is not the case.

 

For example, if Travel Guard wants Carnival to be responsible ...do they also want the airline to be responsible for any reason that you miss the cruise due to them. Where does Travel Guard have any liability?

 

If you have to be a Philadelphia lawyer to understand the language and if they are constantly "shifting" the responsibility to different entities...why buy insurance?

[Creeks]

Hasn't Carnival already said they will repay the cruise,

and give a 25% off on a next cruise?

 

Seems that the insurance should then pay the incidentals,

such as air, taxis, etc.

[San Diego Ellie]

This is in answer to thoneycu's question about alternate insurers. Instead of Princess insurance, which is pricey, we have insured Princess cruises with Mercury Ins. Company. Ask you TA about it. We had to cancel a cruise on the Crown Princess this January due to a spinal compression fracture, and they paid the claim with two of three weeks of receiving the necessary medical and other documentation.

[LHP]

Hasn't Carnival already said they will repay the cruise,

and give a 25% off on a next cruise?

 

Seems that the insurance should then pay the incidentals,

such as air, taxis, etc.

 

Carnival did indeed refund the price of the cancelled cruise completely. And gave OBC on future cruises for rebookings. Plus $200.00 per person (I believe) to handle air flights to be changed.

 

 

But people had flown in from as far away as New York basically for nothing. And then there were taxis, meals, a hotel stay. Some people are requesting as much as $1,800.00 on top of having their cruise refunded. So the "incidentals" can mount up. Air, taxis etc are what Travel Guard is refusing to pay.

[Annieeee]

Think back to April 2005, the Grandeur collided with the pier in Costa Maya. The cruise ship was stuck there for a couple of extra days and those of us at the waiting end had to pay for two nights hotel, food etec etec. The travel insurance paid lots of folks I know. I had travel insurance as did most of my traveling friends, but Royal Caribbean reimbursed me for my expenses, so I did not submit to the insurance company. The ship finally came into New Orleans two days late and many of us were happy to finally board. Is it possible that the OP misunderstood the post she read where the insurance refused to pay on this latest incidence. Plus how did the person file their claim and get a reply so quickly??

 

Annieeee

[firefly333]

I was engages to someone whose parent died and we had paid over $1000 each for the week at an all expenses paid resort. The insurance said I was not entitled to any reminbursement because the funeral was not someone I was related to (we were only engaged not married). I lost over $1000 and had bought insurance. After that I just dont buy it any more.

[BostonBud]

We typically don't buy travel insurance however on our recent honeymoon to Spain for some reason or other we decided to get the insurance. We bought TravelEx I believe.

 

The second day of the trip my husband woke up at 3 am with incredible pains, we had to go to the emergency room. He ended up having a kidney stone but they took X-rays, gave him medication & IV. We weren't sure how much this was going to cost. Luckily we have credit cards so we paid the balance. When we got home we submitted the bills to the insurance company and it was paid in full. I think from now on we will always get insurance. When you're paying thousands of dollars that you could lose I think it's worth it.

 

On a side note, I believe a lot of insurance companies deny almost every claim automatically. If you feel that your claim is valid I would persue it a second time.