Trip Interruption Paid Reimbursement for Cruise But Not Return Home

My husband and I were on a 12-day cruise in March when his brother was killed in a collision caused by another driver. We were on day 3 when we got the news, and left the boat the next day in Antigua. The only plane tickets available to return home were Business class, but as we had to get home, we purchased them. When I filed the insurance, we found that we were insured for up to 100% of the cruise costs. We received an 8-day reimbursement of cruise costs and tips, and a small portion towards the air fare, up to the 100% cost of the cruise.

Is there any way to insure in future that we get reimbursed for the cruise PLUS the expenses to return home? We both have elderly parents, and this situation could happen again. Is there a different type of insurance other than trip cancellation/trip interruption that we should buy? I know it'll probably be expensive, but so was covering the almost $1000 in un-reimbursed expenses to get home!

I've found the information I've gotten from other cruises to be very helpful, and i'm again requesting your advice!

My husband and I were on a 12-day cruise in March when his brother was killed in a collision caused by another driver. We were on day 3 when we got the news, and left the boat the next day in Antigua. The only plane tickets available to return home were Business class, but as we had to get home, we purchased them. When I filed the insurance, we found that we were insured for up to 100% of the cruise costs. We received an 8-day reimbursement of cruise costs and tips, and a small portion towards the air fare, up to the 100% cost of the cruise.

 

Is there any way to insure in future that we get reimbursed for the cruise PLUS the expenses to return home? We both have elderly parents, and this situation could happen again. Is there a different type of insurance other than trip cancellation/trip interruption that we should buy? I know it'll probably be expensive, but so was covering the almost $1000 in un-reimbursed expenses to get home!

 

I've found the information I've gotten from other cruises to be very helpful, and i'm again requesting your advice!

This is exactly one of the concerns we had when we first started looking into travel insurance (thanks to readings here on CC, starting a bit before our plans for DH's first cruise).

We took someone's (we'll be forever grateful to that CC member, but don't remember who they were, unfortunately) advice and contacted Steve at www.TripInsuranceStore.com

As I've mentioned, he was incredibly patient with our questions of, "Well, what if X happens? What if Y happens?" And he asked us some pointed questions that led us to realize other potential troublesome circumstances.

Anyway, our policies pay up to 175% of the insured cost for trip INTERRUPTION, whereas only 100% for trip cancellation ... precisely for this type of reason. One might need reimbursement for the remaining trip costs, and "getting home" could cost a lot more, just as you experienced.

One tricky part for us is that because we tend to us airline awards points for the air travel, the real cost of the air (in dollar terms) isn't included in the insured amount. But this still allows a buffer if we had to pay for one way expensive airfare home.

I do keep thinking of new "what if's" from questions raised here, and I keep calling Steve or his associates to ask, "Uh oh, IF X happened, would we really be covered?" and thus far, they've always been able to explain how we would indeed be covered.

Interestingly, there is a new feature to our insurance policies, which includes "Trip Interrruption for Any Reason". That's a nice feature. That one pays the regular 75% of the total insured cost, not more, for obvious reasons.

We've purchased policies from Travel Insured, in case that helps (but they have several different types of policies, I think, so ask about the 175% coverage for Interruption if you want that in the future).

So sorry for your loss.

What a dreadful way to interrupt a vacation.

GC

I just went to www.tripinsurancestore.com and crunched some bogus numbers.

Each policy that appeared for comparison purposes offered "Trip Interruption" coverage at 150% of cruise cost per person.

Just saw geezers post.

One of the differences that we may be seeing is because of the State (WA.) that I live in. As apposed to State of confusion.

I just went to www.tripinsurancestore.com and crunched some bogus numbers.

Each policy that appeared for comparison purposes offered "Trip Interruption" coverage at 150% of cruise cost per person.

Please see our post above, about getting 175% coverage for Trip Interruption with our policies.

This is why we do NOT rely upon the website to choose the policy.

We ask them to help us select one, and also to compare the coverage and costs of various options.

There are just too many different policies, and - importantly - too much "fine print". :(

ETA: And just saw klfrodo's added comment. Right. I didn't think about state insurance commission requirements/approvals. That could certainly account for it.

GC

I'm grateful for all the comments & tips here. We didn't realize about buying extra insurance within 2 weeks of booking (we're about 6.5 weeks after booking, for a trip in May), so we're looking at the ones that will let us buy before final payment ( 2 weeks from today). Unfortunately, we have one member of our party with 2 pre-existing conditions, either of which could cause trip cancellation or interruption (epilepsy, currently well controlled, & Crohn's, currently having a "flare-up", with all kinds of GI problems). We will try GeezerCouple's lead & try TripInsuranceStore.

I'm grateful for all the comments & tips here. We didn't realize about buying extra insurance within 2 weeks of booking (we're about 6.5 weeks after booking, for a trip in May), so we're looking at the ones that will let us buy before final payment ( 2 weeks from today). Unfortunately, we have one member of our party with 2 pre-existing conditions, either of which could cause trip cancellation or interruption (epilepsy, currently well controlled, & Crohn's, currently having a "flare-up", with all kinds of GI problems). We will try GeezerCouple's lead & try TripInsuranceStore.

Good.

There is at least one insurer they use that will be okay with pre-existing conditions, as long as the insurance is started within 24 hours of the final payment (defined narrowly, of course). There are somewhat lower limits, etc.

And of course, as already demonstrated above, there might be state-specific limitations, so what "we" can get may be different from what "you" can get.

(I hadn't realized how very different it can be, from state to state.)

But by all means, call them and ask. They have some weekend hours.

Good luck!

GC

Another good site to check is insuremytrip.com.

I just looked at the policy for our next cruise and trip interruption is 150% trip cancellation

We use Allianz

Crohn's, currently having a "flare-up", with all kinds of GI problems). .

This could cause problems.

An insured person MUST be in a condition that they are able to travel on the day the insurance is purchased.

Your previous statement could void the coverage. Ask before you buy.

This could cause problems.

An insured person MUST be in a condition that they are able to travel on the day the insurance is purchased.

 

Your previous statement could void the coverage. Ask before you buy.

OOOPS, good catch, klfrodo!!

And that reminds me that Steve, of TripInsuranceStore.com, caught exactly this error that we were about to make, a few years ago.

Our first ever travel insurance (thanks to CruiseCritic, very much!) was for a major BD/pre-retirement celebration for DH. We splurged (first time; we've since gotten hooked on splurging ;) ).

And less than 2 weeks before our departure, DH had a medical emergency.

Big claim, and paid by Travel Insured without any nonsense.

The only traveling we did was back and forth for medical tests/appointments/etc., seemingly non-stop.

When things calmed down a bit, I started planning a replacement trip, albeit a different one.

I had even made deposits, fully refundable at that point, thank goodness.

So I called Steve back, to start the insurance for the new trip.

Steve: "How is <DH> doing? Is he all recovered?"

Me: "Thank goodness, he'll be fine, as it turns out. We're still spending too much time with the doctors" [or words to that effect].

Steve: "He needs to be 'able to travel *today* if you are starting the insurance today....<more explanation>"

Me: "Oh no! I didn't realize that! Uh oh. Well, I can get our deposits back, at least. Explain that to me again, please!??"

So... it all got cancelled, and we got our deposits back.

About a month or two later, when DH was indeed "able to travel", I started all over again.

AND... "just in case", I got a letter from DH's physician stating something like "effective <date> <DH> is able to travel without any medical restrictions."

Ordinarily, one wouldn't need a blanket "authorization" like that, but given that the insurer had just paid out for what was obviously needing a lengthy recovery, and given the "able to travel" caveats, it just seemed prudent to have that signed and dated as soon as DH had the A-OK.

Anyway, in our book, Steve gets tremendous credit for helping us with that.

Obviously, if I had goofed, it would have been "on me", but he really does try to get the best fit insurance, so he does ask good questions.

As do we, and he's given good answers, too.

This is an example of why NOT to purchase travel insurance "on line", with just reading the online summaries, etc.

And Travel Insured has paid two large claims now, plus some smaller, so we want to stick with them, too!

(Obviously, others may have specific insurance needs that are better met by some other company, but TripInsuranceStore sell policies from several vetter insurers.)

Thanks for that reminder to everyone, klfrodo!

GC