How does cruise insurance work?

[bUU]

Can someone who has canceled a cruise due to a last minute illness please relay the steps generally necessary to get a refund through insurance? Of course, each policy will be different, but I'm wondering if there are typically any deadlines for notification. We're about two months away from the trip, and one of my party has come under some concern of his doctor... he's going in for testing, but we won't know the results for a few weeks.

[Keith1010]

Hopefully you have purchased your cruise insurance already. Assuming you did, I highly recommend that you contact the insurance provider as you are correct all of this varies by insurance company. You should also have documentation but if in doubt just call them.

 

Keith

[bUU]

We purchased the cruise insurance back when we put in our deposit, long before final payment (which has already passed).

 

That's just it... the documentation I have doesn't have procedures and work instructions attached. I've left a message for my travel agent.

[Keith1010]

That's great that you purchased it when you did. I would either wait on the TA or just call the insurance company yourself this morning.

 

Keith

[JerseyGem]

We are currently dealing with this issue. DH & I had to cancel our cruise (within 30 days of sailing) and DD & SO had to cancel their's (32 days) because DD injured her arm & will need surgery. (Surgery is scheduled for when we would have been on the ship). The cruiselines will give you varying amounts back- based on their policies and how close the cruise is-- keep an eye on these dates! We received 50% back from RCL; they received everything except the deposit (NCL). We are preparing to file the claims soon.

 

Two different trip insurance companies are involved- each has it's own forms, etc. Each has it's own doctor's forms, which you should try to get now- and take with you to doctor's visits- as soon as the doc says "no travel" whip out the forms and get him to complete them then and there! You'll also need written statements from the cruiseline (or through your TA) showing how much you paid for the cruise (and when), how much was refunded, and how much you "lost" by canceling. Plus the standard claim's forms, medical release forms, etc. If you bought the trip insurance through your TA, the trip insurance company may not want to deal with you directly (just through the TA). (Similar for dealing with the cruiselines.)

 

Good luck! We'll post again when (and if!) our claims are resolved.

[bUU]

Thanks! Great info.

 

The policy we have is for 100% of trip cost, so we should be okay there. We did go through the travel agent so hopefully the travel agent will be able to get us the forms we need, just in case.

[RichardK]

That being said, since your travelling companion will not know, for a few weeks, for sure what his travel status is there is really nothing that you can do to prepare beforehand, and nothing expected of you by your insurance company.

 

However, assuming in a few weeks it is found out that he cannot go then the burden is upon you to cancel the cruise immediately --- say for example that you can still get a portion of the refund back by doing so immediately rather than waiting a few days/weeks. That would be mitigating the damages to the insurance company for your claim.

 

Insurance companies don't have the expectation (or the right) to expect you to act on a hunch, or a possible worst case scenario. They do however expect you to act immediately upon knowledge that will impact both your trip and your resulting claim.

 

Bottom line>>>You should sit tight for now.

[eandj]

If you purchased your insurance thru the travel agent, initially they should be handling everything for you including getting forms, detailed directions, calls etc. They generally get a commision for selling insurance to their customers and should know and be willing to take all the steps to help you.

[cruiseco]

If you purchased your insurance thru the travel agent, initially they should be handling everything for you including getting forms, detailed directions, calls etc. They generally get a commision for selling insurance to their customers and should know and be willing to take all the steps to help you.

 

 

Not necessarily. In many cases it's easier for the client to call the insurer directly. That way most of the pertinent information can be collected over the phone, the insurer can be sure that the proper type of claim is being filed, and that the proper forms are sent out. Many times a TA really doesn't know the difference between, for example, a trip delay and a trip interruption so things might get seriously delayed by the confusion.

 

Also, if you call directly the claims agent will let you know what sort of ducumentation to round up while you're waiting for the forms to arrive (credit card statements, invoices, etc) so you're ready to go when the forms arrive.

 

Yes, the TA can do all of this for you but it greatly increases the chances of delays and mis-communications.

[jerseygirl3]

First of all, I would wait until you know for sure what your traveling companion's situation is. And hopefully you have a policy that covers you if you have to cancel in the event of an illness of a traveling companion. Assuming yours does, you usually have to put into writing a letter to your TA that he/she will then relay to the cruiseline. Or you may have to go through the cruiseline itself, but your TA will inform you of that. When we had to cancel due to my husband's illness, we notified the TA (by written letter). We then contacted the insurance company that we had cancelled. The insurance company (Travelex) then sent us the appropriate forms to complete. They were actually quite simple. We had a section to fill out and the physician had a section. Once they were completed, we simply returned them to the insurance company, and we received a check for a full refund (air, prepaid shore excursions, cruise fare, etc.) within 2 weeks.

[cherylandtk]

RichardK's advice is right on target--but I also think you should be contacting your insurance company for an actual copy of the policy (not just the summary flyer that one usually get upon purchase). I always get or download one for each cruise and hope that I don't need it.

 

Today, your cancellation fee is only the deposit amount, but starting at 56 days prior (Dec. 12) it goes up to 50%. You likely won't know if you need to cancel until approaching the 75% penalty at 28 days, so do be aware of the time limits and take steps to mitigate losses if you must cancel.

 

If you purchased the cruiseline policy managed through Berkely Care, you can get claim forms online at:

https://www.travelclaim.com/claims/claims.jsp

[iamtrustworthy]

Can someone who has canceled a cruise due to a last minute illness please relay the steps generally necessary to get a refund through insurance? Of course, each policy will be different, but I'm wondering if there are typically any deadlines for notification. We're about two months away from the trip, and one of my party has come under some concern of his doctor... he's going in for testing, but we won't know the results for a few weeks.

 

Hi bicker,

 

Since you are 2 months away from your trip, it's a good idea to see if your plan has any wording along the lines of "any illness or injury occuring within 30 days of your departure date..."

 

We come across a few plans occasionally that contain wording like this. You didn't say which plan you got from your TA, but some companies have more restrictive wording than you might expect.

 

I hope this helps you.

[iamtrustworthy]

We are currently dealing with this issue. DH & I had to cancel our cruise (within 30 days of sailing) and DD & SO had to cancel their's (32 days) because DD injured her arm & will need surgery. (Surgery is scheduled for when we would have been on the ship). The cruiselines will give you varying amounts back- based on their policies and how close the cruise is-- keep an eye on these dates! We received 50% back from RCL; they received everything except the deposit (NCL). We are preparing to file the claims soon.

 

Two different trip insurance companies are involved- each has it's own forms, etc. Each has it's own doctor's forms, which you should try to get now- and take with you to doctor's visits- as soon as the doc says "no travel" whip out the forms and get him to complete them then and there! You'll also need written statements from the cruiseline (or through your TA) showing how much you paid for the cruise (and when), how much was refunded, and how much you "lost" by canceling. Plus the standard claim's forms, medical release forms, etc. If you bought the trip insurance through your TA, the trip insurance company may not want to deal with you directly (just through the TA). (Similar for dealing with the cruiselines.)

 

Good luck! We'll post again when (and if!) our claims are resolved.

 

Hi JerseyGem,

 

I'm curious, how was it you ended up with 2 different trip insurance companies? And which 2 plans did you get?

 

There are good reasons to use 2 different trip insurance companies, though imo, it's usually not the best idea.

 

Of course I may have completely misunderstood your post. If so, sorry about that.

[JerseyGem]

Trustworthy- I wan't too clear in my post (sorry!), DH & I were booked on a different cruise than DD and BF. We should have left this AM (ARGH!) for San Juan (an RCL cruise booked last Spring). DD & BF were booked on a NYE cruise (NCL). Bookings were done at different times, as was purchasing trip insurance. We each used insuremytrip.com, and since we're different ages, with different trip costs, different companies popped up (Trip Mate, Inc for DD/BF and AIG Travel Guard for DH & me). This is the first I'd heard of Trip Mate, so I hope they're legit! Of course, when you buy the insurance, you don't really think you'll need it, so you get the cheapest policy! We were all more concerned with missing flights, losing luggage, etc. Didn't even think that DD would be injured!

 

We'll post back when it's resolved- hopefully with good news! DH & I have already decided to rebook our airline tickets (with a $200 change fee!) rather than submit the tickets to the trip insurance company for refund. (On our policy, AIG Travel Guard will not cover change fees- you must relinquish all claim to the tickets for them to reimburse you- that sounded wasteful!)

[cruiseco]

This is the first I'd heard of Trip Mate, so I hope they're legit!

 

Trip Mate has been around forever but the reason you probably haven't heard of them is that their business focus is a little different from some other insurers. The vast majority of their business comes from:

 

#1 Administering the claims for other insurers. For example, if you purchase a TravelSafe plan and end up having a claim you'll deal with Trip Mate for that.

 

#2 They do for many tour operators what BerkleyCare does for cruise lines -- they develop and administer the insurance plan. Globus and Collette Tours both use Trip Mate for their plans. Several years ago I booked a Sandals trip through Air Jamaica Vacations and the plan they offered was from Trip Mate.

 

And once in a while they have a plan which they market themselves. For example, they used to handle the claims administration for M. H. Ross's Global Alert plan. When M. H. Ross switched ubnderwriters to Old Republic they were also getting Old Republic's claims department so Trip Mate lost that business. But Trip Mate decided to keep the Global Alert plan alive, I believe mostly to keep a retail presence on sites such as imsuremytrip.

[JerseyGem]

Thanks for the interesting info- I feel a little better! Now all I have to do is convince DD's online TA (VTG) to actually refund the money they say they're gong to refund. They either don't respond to phone calls or when they do, they come up with some excuse! And we need to show that we have received the refund before we can file the claim! (Since DD should only lose her deposit!)

 

Right now, I'm telling my family that in the future, we'll only book through a cruiseline (no more online TA's!) and we'll always take the cruiseline's insurance- even if it is so much more! This is such a hassle (on top of dealing with DD's injury!)