klfrodo

When I was trying to do some research regarding my BCBS Healthcare policy thru my employer that did cover international travel, I called and asked some very specific questions. One of those questions being repatriation of remains. The answer was an emphatic No. That was one of the many reasons that a separate travel insurance policy worked better for my needs.

Here's the problem with "reviews" from my personal experience. I have never written a review when things go well or have met my expectation. I have written reviews those few times whenever someone exceeded my expectations. However, if I'm emotionally invested and something has gone horribly wrong in "my" perceived expectation,, I'm blasting away. I admit that when I say "my" expectations, it's very possible that my expectations were unrealistic. The same goes with travel insurance. I would wager that most of the bad reviews regarding travel insurance is when someone files a claim and it is rejected, it's because that event was never a covered reason to begin with. Even though your thought process is the same, the travel insurance thought process is vastly different. Ergo, a review that is flaming hot. Allianz is not a bad travel insurance provider. That's not to say any provider is eager to pay out on losses, but they will pay if you do your due diligence and retain all documentation required.

I don't disagree with the concept. however, that breed is dying out and being replaced with the new breed

Sorry for your loss, first of all. Second, I caution against no credit cards, especially when traveling. If something happens while you are out of country and require medical, you will be required to pay for the service upfront. (Travel Insurance is reimbursement only in 99.99999% of cases) I doubt that you'll be carrying $10K+ in cash with you. Also, many parts of the world and growing here in the States, businesses are going cashless. But, hey, you do you. 3rd To your question. Yes, your idea would work well but I would start with $100 rather than just $50

Yep, new technology is just horrible. Back in the day, when taking orders on paper, I remember when the dang pencil broke, or the pen ran out of ink, or the paper got wet somehow and my order was wrong. Why couldn't these people just memorize my order like back in the day. Technology and progress has got to go!

opps, duplicate thread.

I'm not on your side with this one. Tech is a necessary part of life these days. It's like a runaway train. If you're not on board, you'll get left behind. Kind of like when my grandfather refused to get a phone in his house, indoor plumbing, or electricity. He was happy living that way. I know many people don't believe in giving their kids phones or tablets, or laptops. That's okay, if that's how they feel. However, you're just hurting the kid. By the time you do decide it's time to give them one, they are so far technologically behind, they'll never catch up.

Well,,, with all being said, it sounds like your logic is more correct than the insurance companies logic. Okay, I can kind of understand the taxi issue, but the hotels, meals, etc should have paid out max benefits. Please come back and let us all know how it works out. Maybe you can save the next person from this scenerio For future reference only, this is an example of why most of us here champion Steve and his people at tripinsurancestore. Whenever I'm in a position to file a claim, Steve helps answer questions about wording in the claim and has gotten involved himself. It's good to have an advocate on your side.

I'm going to play devils advocate only for clarification purposes. Does the policy state they will pay $125 per person per day? Or does it state it will pay UP TO $125 per person per day? The reason I ask if because my policies state that Trip Delay will pay up to a max amount of 150% of Trip Cost. Then, of course, the final question of how much was the total receipt for your losses? And if you still feel you are being screwed over, I would file a complaint with you State Insurance Commissioner. They regulate the laws of your State as to who and what can be sold in your State. For residents of Texas, that would be here at this link. Texas Department of Insurance

Too late to be asking now. Should have asked questions before booking. Did you even look at the post above this that explains how Cruise Air works?

Many hotels will do this. They just don't advertise it. Dayuse is a great website but it does not capture anywhere close the number of hotels that offer this service. It is a great tool though to have in your travel tool bag. I called a hotel in FLL and asked about this. (A hotel chain I'm an elite member of) They said Yes they offer this service but you cannot make reservations. First come first serve. So, at least call your favorite hotel directly and ask about the service

If you flight is late afternoon or evening, many hotels offer “Day Rates”. They don’t advertise these, you have to call and ask. Take bags to your room, go to the pool, catch a quick work out in the gym, take a nap, grab a shower, or whatever until it’s time to head to the airport.

I was hoping someone else would come and try to help you better understand what you are asking. However, it may be that your question(s) are too wide open and there is no 1 answer to your question. I'll just share what I think some of the answers might be. 1. Missing the ship and catching up at the next port is a thing of the past I believe. There are just too many regulations and paperwork involved that I believe the cruise lines have stopped allowing this. 2. Your question about "These benefit(s) will not duplicate any other benefits payable under the policy or any coverage(s) attached to the policy." is basically legalize telling you that you cannot double dip for any losses incurred. An example that I can think of is when a flight is cancelled and the airline offers you credits towards a future flight, you cannot then claim a loss and receive compensation for the cancelled flight. 3. Your example of In case my flight is delayed, I missed the cruise, have to purchase another flight ticket to catch it from the next port, can I file flight ticket under "missed connection", hotel under "trip delay", unused cruise day under "trip interruption"? The answer will depend on a myriad of factors that I cannot answer. In some cases Yes, in some cases No. Why was your flight delayed? Weather? Mechanical? What will the airline put in writing? Did you put in a good faith effort to get to the ship? What will the cruise line put in writing to help you explain?

All cruise line airline tickets are consolidator tickets. They negotiate these tickets a couple of years in advance. These tickets are then put into buckets. These buckets may have 50 Premium, 200 economy. As people are issued tickets, the buckets empty until they run out. Then,, that's it. If it's down to 2 left in Premium, but someone wants 3, it will show as no availability. More can be learned about how cruise line air works from this thread in the Cruise Air section of this board.

Since this board is for "First Time Cruisers", I thought this would be a good place for some of us more experienced travelers to share some hard-earned lessons learned. I'll start with some of my ideas. 1. 3rd party hotel and car rental web sites. Yes, you can save some money by booking thru these sites. However, there is a downside. You are not the hotel or car rental agencies customer if you use these sites. You are the booking agents customer. The booking agency is the hotel or car rental companies customer. If there are any issues with the reservation, the hotel or car rental agents will just tell you to deal with whomever you booked with. You are last on the priority list when it comes to resolving issues. If the money you save is balanced against your expectation, then this can be okay. Example: You need a room for 5 but the website booking agency books you into a King room, the hotel when you arrive can't/won't/may not help you. They reserved the room that the booking agency sent to the hotel. It's not a You/hotel problem, it's a you/booking agent problem. My first time running into this was a business trip. I booked thru an online site. At the end of my stay, I needed a copy of the portfolio so I could expense the stay. They couldn't give me one since the booking company was their customer, not me. I had to call customer service of the booking site to get a copy of my portfolio. My advice - Book direct. It may cost a few dollars more but now you have status, and you are the proprietor's customer. They will now bend over backwards to help resolve any issues.

During a pandemic. Very few guests and prices very low. If you have to fly to the port, these prices a very low and the plane only half full.

Unless required for pre-existing medical waiver, there is no requirement to cover entire Trip Cost if all you want is the medical coverage on a single trip policy. Travel Insurance cost to you is based on the Trip Cost you set up front. 0 - $500, $501 - $1000, $1001 - $1500 are the thresholds where insurance companies set the pricing. So, if you still want the $250K medical but are not concerned about the cancellation or other stuff, you can indicate the Trip Cost at $500, You still receive the full medical, you just reduced the reimbursement for Trip Delay, Trip Interruption coverages to the percentage of trip costs. Myself? I claim a Trip Cost of $500. I still get the full medical. Washington State regulations allow me to still receive the pre-existing waiver, and I get Trip Delay and Trip Interruption up a max of 150% of my trip cost. All for $35 per person. I self-insure the rest. (Eat it if I need to cancel). A recent trip my flights were cancelled. I was rebooked for the next day. Trip Delay covered up to a max of $750 (150%) for hotel and meals. In todays climate it took about 4 months to be reimbursed but it all worked out.

and that's an okay feeling that you have. But it's not your world anymore. We have done our jobs. Now the world belongs to a new generation. I'm not going to sit here and think we left it better for them than when we were given responsibly for the world. The only thing constant in life is change.

The hardest travel lesson I ever learned was that by using a 3rd party such as Expedia, Hotelsdotcom, and even a travel agent is that you are no longer the airline or hotel or cruise line customer. You are Expedia's customer or the TA's customer and the airline, hotel, rental car company, or the cruise line will not deal with your issues. I've experienced it and seen it over and over again. Myself, all I wanted was a hotel billing statement for my expenses. Nope, your booking is with Expedia, you need to call them for a copy. I've seen customers arguing at car rental companies about a billing issue. The Hertz rep was like, that's not a Hertz issue. Your issue is with XXX. After experiencing this type of issue, I learned a valuable lesson regarding travel. Unless I'm saving considerable amounts of cash and balancing that with possible issues that may arise, I book directly with hotels, airlines, and rental car agencies. Even shore excursions, I balance costs when considering direct vs. consolidators like Viator and others.

That's a good question. In my experience, airlines almost always issue a travel voucher if things go bad. If the airline offers a voucher, insurance is going to consider that as fully reimbursed and not pay you. To directly answer your question, I have not found a reason to purchase fully refundable tickets. However, I also highly recommend that you reach out to Steve at https://tripinsurancestore.com for your travel insurance needs. That's who I and many others here use. He's also on the boards helping others also. His website does have a phone number that he can be reached at. They will be happy to answer any questions you may have and will probably answer questions you don't even know you have to ensure you find a policy that meets your needs.

Probably not. Those tickets were negotiated months if not years ago. If FTF no longer has any of those tickets in that bucket, then they are gone. FTF is probably negotiating tickets for 2024/2025 now. FTF is a consolidator. They don't just go to the airline today and say Hey, we need 2 tickets for May of next year.

Being a fellow Washington State resident, I can confirm that the TravelSafe for Washington residents' policy does not require that you cover all travel expenses for the pre-existing condition waiver. Having said that, what are you looking for with insurance when you ask about needing some protection if the flights go south? Just looking for an example of a concern you are/may be anticipating that you have. I'm think the most important part would be to ensure that you cover the entire travel time. From the moment you lock the front door until you walk back into the house. Not just the days you are onboard the ship. Not sure if you can do this by purchasing the cruise lines insurance policy.

As I understand it, Geo Blue does have a limited number of In Network facilities where they will direct pay. However, I also think that if you are treated at a facility that is out of their network, you pay and then Geo Blue will reimburse at the out of network costs. Having said all that, there are a number of posters on this forum with much more firsthand experience with GeoBlue who can provide more correct responses. I'm sure they will be along in just a couple of hours.

You mean 5 adults? The only limitation is if certain parties desire the drink package. All persons in a cabin over 21 must buy the package or none can buy the package.

The only flaw I see is that when you purchase insurance, you must be medically fit to travel on the day it is purchased. I don't know how that would fit into the CFAR rider of the insurance contract. I only say that because, as we all know, insurance companies love to seek reasons for denial. Would that fall under CFAR? I don't know. Theoretically, I can see where the answer would be No. The other question I would pose is, where do you live? There are some places in Canada and in the US where CFAR cannot be sold or be a part of the insurance policy.