American Express travel insurance

[jerseygirl3]

I'm trying to find reasonably priced travel insurance for my parent's upcoming Noordam cruise. They are 80 and 76 years of age, so insurance gets a bit pricey. They're not interested in HAL's policy, but I've been checking insuremytrip.com and am a bit undecided. We normally select Travelex Travel Lite. They are wonderful to deal with. However, I see on the insuremytrip.com website that there is an American Express policy (I don't think it has anything to do with whether or not you have an AMEX card, it's just offered through AMEX). Anyway, although the payouts are lower, it doesn't look like a bad policy and the price difference is $70 less pp. I'm wondering if anybody has any experience with this policy? I see the medical isn't primary, and it's less than what Travelex offers, but I'm thinking $25,000 pp should be enough medical coverage and their major concern is cancellation. Amex also has a pre-existing waiver if purchased within 7 days and they would need that.

 

Any thoughts?

[Beachgator]

I can't speak to the specifics claims with American Express Travel Insurance, but we recently had an experience that I'll pass on. My wife and I had purchased AX Travel insurance on a cruise to the Baltics. We booked about a year out, and purchased insurance at the time we made our deposit. About 5 months before the cruise we had to cancel our booking and American Express refused to refund the travel insurance. They said they could apply the insurance to another cruise if we booked before the sailing date of our original cruise in the Baltics.

[vmom]

I can't speak to the specifics claims with American Express Travel Insurance, but we recently had an experience that I'll pass on. My wife and I had purchased AX Travel insurance on a cruise to the Baltics. We booked about a year out, and purchased insurance at the time we made our deposit. About 5 months before the cruise we had to cancel our booking and American Express refused to refund the travel insurance. They said they could apply the insurance to another cruise if we booked before the sailing date of our original cruise in the Baltics.

 

That is typical with many travel insurance companies. They give you a certain time period to review the policy, usually 10 - 14 days and after that time the policy becomes non-refundable even if you cancel your plans.

 

That's why many people wait to buy insurance to make sure they will not be canceling the cruise.

[smeyer418]

most non cruise company insurance is experience rated and age is a factor, while cruise companies insurance isn't. So as you age the cruise companies insurance may be less expensive.

 

 

You of course can wait but then the pre-exiting condition waiver may not be available.

 

(note I once was lobbying on a health care issue and some elderly person was complaining that health insurance shouldn't be based on age- I said you are right and it shouldn't apply to car insurance either....)

[ddschur]

We have used and found "Access America (www.accessamerica.com)" at 800-284-8300 to be both competitive and comprehensive.

 

You might want to give them a call.

[jerseygirl3]

Thanks for the suggestions. We decided to go with the Amex policy. It was $70 cheaper than Travelex and it looks to be sufficient for them. We purchased it today to ensure that pre-existing conditions will be covered. Given their ages (80 and 76), $266 total for a 10 day cruise wasn't a bad price.

[PennyAgain]

One thing you need to consider for elder folk is insurance to cover medical evacuation if an emergency comes on the trip. Such can cost upwards of $50,000 from Europe to get home!

 

Also Medicare doesn't cover medical expenses while on that cruise, so you need to have primary coverage for that.

 

We have a great deal of experience traveling with elder folk in the family and are getting up in years ourselves. Some elder folk that Medicare will cover them on ships so far from home. Not true!

[jerseygirl3]

One thing you need to consider for elder folk is insurance to cover medical evacuation if an emergency comes on the trip. Such can cost upwards of $50,000 from Europe to get home!

 

Also Medicare doesn't cover medical expenses while on that cruise, so you need to have primary coverage for that.

 

We have a great deal of experience traveling with elder folk in the family and are getting up in years ourselves. Some elder folk that Medicare will cover them on ships so far from home. Not true!

 

The AMEX policy covers $25,000 for med evac, and since they'll be cruising the Caribbean, I think they'll be okay with that. I told my parents Medicare doesn't cover them outside the U.S., but I don't think they have to have primary coverage for medical expenses. My understanding is that they would have to submit to Medicare first and when denied, then submit to Amex. Of course, that's the worst case situation. We're praying they both stay medically healthy on this cruise and have no need for the insurance!

 

Thanks for the help.

 

Jo-Ann

[cruiseco]

I can't speak to the specifics claims with American Express Travel Insurance, but we recently had an experience that I'll pass on. My wife and I had purchased AX Travel insurance on a cruise to the Baltics. We booked about a year out, and purchased insurance at the time we made our deposit. About 5 months before the cruise we had to cancel our booking and American Express refused to refund the travel insurance. They said they could apply the insurance to another cruise if we booked before the sailing date of our original cruise in the Baltics.

 

That's typical. The reason is that for those policies that include financial default coverage their risk of loss starts immediately. Say you put down $500 for a cruise next year and a few weeks later the the cruise line goes out of business. Even though you are not yet in a cancellation penalty situation you're not getting your money back so the insurance has to pay for your loss. The insurers feel that any time they have a risk exposure the premium is fully earned. But as you found out, almost all will transfer the policy to a replacement trip.

[PennyAgain]

The AMEX policy covers $25,000 for med evac, and since they'll be cruising the Caribbean, I think they'll be okay with that. I told my parents Medicare doesn't cover them outside the U.S., but I don't think they have to have primary coverage for medical expenses. My understanding is that they would have to submit to Medicare first and when denied, then submit to Amex. Of course, that's the worst case situation. We're praying they both stay medically healthy on this cruise and have no need for the insurance!

 

Thanks for the help.

 

Jo-Ann

 

The Am Ex policy will take them to the closest point of the US and not home! There are plenty of postings on CruiseCritic by people who found out what that means. Also the person has to be in the hospital to have the evac coverage kick in at all. There are many situations in which the cruise line's doc makes the decision to put the person off the ship at the next port for that person to make his or her own way home, but without the person going into a local hospital.

 

If you want really good information of this and the SEARCH function is not working, check on the Disabled Cruise Travel topic.