BEWARE: Travel Insured International Claim

Thanks, GC

Oops - I had a mis-type above.

Yes, it *should* cost the same! :o

It "shouldn't" cost *more*!

Sorry about that!

(I guess I'm so used to answering, "No, it shouldn't cost more...!")

GC

Thanks GC-- was last day to cancel TA purchased policy form TI -- got a refund -- then purchased TI policy from TIS -- extremely better coverage -- and also less money. I am very happy to have learned so much from this forum -- and especially you ! My experience with TIS was everything you said it would be. Hopefully we will not need to file a claim, but TIS advice is spot on!

Did anyone who cancelled a cruise get their taxes and port fees refunded, even though the base cruise fare was not refunded?

Just cancelled an NCL transatlantic cruise 10 days before departure. NCL’s Cancellation Confirmation showed that NCL will refund ALL our taxes, port fees, and the Service Fees for the Promo Dining and Beverage package, about $1300. Total cost for the cruise was $5800, and we’d a purchased trip cancelation insurance from C&F/TravelInsured based on our total paid for cruise, self-booked air, hotels, rental cars, etc. so we expect to recover all of our non-cancellable/llost costs. Still... as a frequent cruiser, refunding the non-cruise fare costs we’d prepaid impressed us.

(FYI - Our deposit was paid with a $250 NCL CruiseNext credit and that was not refunded by NCL, but insurance should cover this.)

I am wondering if other cruise lines refund unused taxes and fees (even though the ‘fare’ is not refunded)? If yes, I will alter how I select my policy limits.

FYI : TravelInsured has been very easy to work with, clear directions, easy forms. So far, all is good.

On May 6, 2018, we were scheduled to return home from Ft. Lauderdale after our cruise on the Conquest. Once at the airport we were told that our flight from Ft. Lauderdale to Charlotte, NC was delayed. We boarded a flight 4 hours later then expected to Charlotte which in turn caused us to miss our connection to Jacksonville, NC. Once in Charlotte we were told that we couldn't fly out to Jacksonville that night so we could spend the night in a hotel and hope for a flight the next day or hop on a flight from Charlotte to New Bern, NC which was about 40 minutes from home. We opted to fly out that

 

afternoon to New Bern even though our car was in Jacksonville. Knowing that I had insurance we opted to fly to New Bern.

 

Long story short, our daughter drove 40 miles to pick us up at the airport and brought us 45 miles home. The next day we drove our other vehicle to Jacksonville to pick up our car. I then filed a claim showing the changes with original reservations and our boarding passes indicating we were re-routed to New Bern instead of Jacksonville, NC. due to the cancellation of our first flight. I submitted a claim requesting mileage for my daughters travel to pick us up and take us home, mileage for our travel to pick up our car, an extra nights parking fee and 1 meal.

 

My claim was DENIED because I did not have receipts for my car nor my daughters travel expenses.

 

I was further told by the claims adjuster that had we stayed in a hotel in Charlotte, and or used a taxi or an uber for transportation we would have been reimbursed. I requested milage fee based on the government's reimbursement schedule of $0.52 cents a mile.

 

 

 

So.....since I didn't incur the expenses of a hotel, meals, and public transportation and used my personal resources to get home we were not entitled to reimbursement. This is entirely unfair. We actually saved the company money doing it the way we did and instead were penalized. Our insurance was supposed to cover missed or delayed flights. Documents clearly showed our flight was changed and we went to a different airport. The transportation FAIRY didn't get us home from the airport or back to the original airport to pick up our vehicle. It was clearly documented.

 

 

 

With this said, my advise to you is to be sure to use a hotel, public transportation, or anything else where you can get receipts otherwise you will not be reimbursed.

 

It's really the principle of the matter. I paid for insurance, a insured issue occurred. We utilized the most ineffective means of expenses incurred and still got the shaft.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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My question: did you call Travel Insured and let them know? Ask what you needed to document? Read your policy and see what was required? I put the TI policy in my Dropbox along with other docs and can pull it up and read (I’m not dragging a 30 pg document around).

Just curious. With most insurances you haven’t let them know ahead and follow their procedures. This really shouldn’t have been a BEWARE post. It’s more a FYI post. TI did nothing wrong.

 

I am wondering if other cruise lines refund unused taxes and fees (even though the ‘fare’ is not refunded)? If yes, I will alter how I select my policy limits.

 

FYI : TravelInsured has been very easy to work with, clear directions, easy forms. So far, all is good.

My understanding is that the main line cruise lines generally all refund taxes and port fees as well as the onboard service charges (aka gratuities) if you must cancel a cruise after final payment and you are from the US. Those costs are only imposed if you actually sail on the cruise. The taxes and port fees are remitted to the various ports, and the service charges are remitted to the crew, so if you don’t sail, they have no one to remit them for.

While the boards were down and we were all in the Floataway there was a big thread about insurance, which sent me down the rabbit hole for Medical Evacuation insurance.  I see several plans, for only a few dollars, that cover evacuation but they all seem to include language similar to "pre-approved and arranged by the company."   Perhaps its my youth, but I'm having trouble imaging needing to be medically evacuated from a ship when I'm still able to make phone calls and calmly arrange things with the insurance.  I'm picturing some horrific accident or me being unconscious and found by a stranger.  Are there any per-trip (not annual) plans that would cover evacuation to the nearest adequate hospital for this level of emergency without pre-authorization?  Or plans that automatically pre-authorize evacuation for very serious situations when the policy takes effect?

I've also seen conversation around whether or not the US Coast Guard or the equivalent in other countries will actually bill the evacuated person.  There were some strong comments about it not costing the patient anything and equally strong comments about it costing the patient hundreds of thousands and I have not been able to find anything concrete.  Unfortunately those floataway conversations appear to be gone now.  

So lets talk about the evacuation issue.  It is absolutely true, that if you need to be medically evacuated off a ship by any Coast Guard (or other military entity) you will not be charged.  This is per an international agreement (not sure its truly a treaty).  We are not aware of anyone who has ever had to pay for this type service (which is generally a helicopter evacuation) that gets the person to a land-based medical facility.

The stories you hear about huge evacuation bills happen once the person is ashore and that can be quite expensive.  Just getting my DW home from Japan (after having to evacuate from a ship) involved about $20,000 which was simply last minute commercial Business Class (DW required a lay flat seat for medical reasons).  It Delta had refused to transfer DW home the cost of a chartered medical aircraft would have likely cost 6 figures.

The decision on whether you must medically evacuate from a ship may not be your decision!  The ship's physician has full authority to kick you off the ship if he/she feels it is medically necessary.  In the recent case of DW, we worked closely with the ship physician and he was fine keeping DW on the ship until we reached a point (during the same cruise) where we would have been cruising between Northern Japan and Alaska and out of range of any evacuation for about 1 week.   Whether you have the luxury of some time (like we did) will depend on the circumstances, the itinerary, and the judgment of the ship's physician.  Bottom line is that they prefer to get rid of medical problems before they can become even bigger problems.  

I cannot comment on your insurance policy because I have not read the detailed policy language (including definitions).  Just keep in mind that if you do have a major medical emergency aboard, you will generally need to pay all the related medical bills (before discharge) and later seek reimbursement.  Having a credit card with a very high credit limit can be your best friend.

Hank

FGJones,,

You have 2 separate situations going on when you ask about Medical Evacuation.

Situation 1. Hank just spoke of. Getting evacuated off a ship due to medical emergency. I'm not aware of any private companies who are trained or have the equipment (other than Govt Coast Guard) to do a SAR/Evacuation mission.  US Coast Guard, Canadian Coast Guard do not bill for this service. Just like they don't bill for Mountain SAR/Evacuation missions.

Situation 2. You were evacuated from the ship to a land based "hospital" and placed as an "In-patient". "The words inside the quotes are very important". Or you were in the country (excursion or land vacation) and required medical care.  Your condition is stabilized and you need or want to get home for continued care. This is when your insurance company gets involved to work with the on site medical professionals to determine evacuation process and needs.

Policies vary on are you an "in-patient" or being seen as an "out-patient". Are you being treated in a "Hospital", or are you being treated in a "medical clinic or care facility".  Read, know, and understand your policy.

I have the annual Medjet Assist policy. It's good anytime I'm more than 150 miles from home. However, I MUST be an "In-Patient" in a "Hospital". Then I (or my wife) can request to be evacuated anywhere I want to go.

Just a comment about Medjet Assist.  I have often referred to it as the Cadillac of evac policies and many swear by the coverage.  But this past year we had our own medical evacuation situation while on the Golden Princess.  In our situation, the basic evac coverage we have as part of our GeoBlue policy paid to get us home from Japan.  But if we had tried to use Medjet Assist, they would have refused to cover us.  Why?  Because we were evacuated directly from the ship (while docked in Yokohama) to the airport (2 hours by car) from where we flew home.  Medjet Assist would have denied the evac because DW was technically not an impatient in a hospital.  In fact, she was not even an impatient in the ship's infirmary since I was able to care for her injury in our cabin...with daily visits to the medical center.  

Last year there was another poster who talked about a similar situation.  His wife was injured on an island where there was no real hospital.  The small medical facility on the island was able to treat his wife and stabilize her condition, but she needed to get to a hospital for further treatment.  The couple got to the mainland using the only available transportation (a public ferry) where they called their insurance company to request evacuation.  Their request was denied because the wife was not an impatient in a hospital!  And to make matters worse, apparently there was not a nearby hospital where the lady could have tried to get admitted.  

My point to this post is that many strange things can happen with medical and trauma issues and not every policy will work for every situation.  Even in our case we had issues.  DW needed to fly home in a lay flat Bus Class seat in order to keep her leg elevated.  Our medical evacuation quickly agreed to pay for her seat (about $10,000) but they would only pay for Economy for me.  There was no way I was leaving DW by herself in Business for 11 hours so I had to pay the Business Class cost myself!  Even the insurance company agreed with my decision (and wondered if the airline would deny DW her seat unless I was with her) but they would not pay Business for me.  Their decision was correct in terms of the policy language.  Ironically, we could have probably insisted that she be accompanied by a nurse and then the insurance would have likely paid the cost of the nurse plus his/her Business Class seat :).

Hank

Thank you both. I think I understand the intricacies better now.  It sounds like I have a lot of policy reading in my future. GeoBlue was one of the companies that was (hypothetically) quoting $16 for coverage, MedJet was $99.  GeoBlue won't quote my actual trip until it is within six months but that was for a same-length and destination trip with made up dates..  Would I be better off paying the balance of the trip in full before or after I purchase insurance or does it not matter?  I will call and ask a lot of questions, hopefully I am able to enter $0 or $1 for the cost of trip as my Chase card covers some trip cancellation and I'm willing to assume that risk. 

1 hour ago, FGJones said:

  I will call and ask a lot of questions, hopefully I am able to enter $0 or $1 for the cost of trip as my Chase card covers some trip cancellation and I'm willing to assume that risk. 

 I just did the same thing for an upcoming international land vacation my wife and I are taking.

What I found was, the price quoted for the insurance didn't change whether the cost of my trip was $0 or $500. (The price did rise dramatically if I priced the cost at $501).

So Yes, I also decided to assume some risk and self insure for Trip Cancellation, Trip Delay, etc,,, however, by listing the price of the trip at $500,, there is a very small amount of shared risk in those infrequent events that are covered at 100% of trip costs.

Thank you for the tip, I will play around with the numbers to find that sweet spot when I settle on a plan.  

On 10/17/2018 at 5:47 PM, Hlitner said:

In the recent case of DW, we worked closely with the ship physician and he was fine keeping DW on the ship until we reached a point (during the same cruise) where we would have been cruising between Northern Japan and Alaska and out of range of any evacuation for about 1 week. 

This something that I've never really thought about. What does happen if one is on a cruise very distant from land. I'm thinking about the 8 sea days between Tahiti and LA on one of the South Pacific runs. I'm sure there are longer itineraries but this is first to come to my mind to use as an example. 

If the insured has a heart attack, or develops an abdominal blockage or has a stroke or any one of a gazillion other things. With no land in sight and a clearly critical situation at hand, what are the ships doctors to do?

5 hours ago, Ep010835 said:

This something that I've never really thought about. What does happen if one is on a cruise very distant from land. I'm thinking about the 8 sea days between Tahiti and LA on one of the South Pacific runs. I'm sure there are longer itineraries but this is first to come to my mind to use as an example. 

If the insured has a heart attack, or develops an abdominal blockage or has a stroke or any one of a gazillion other things. With no land in sight and a clearly critical situation at hand, what are the ships doctors to do?

We think about this a lot.

All the insurance and medevac coverage won't help until you are within reach of "help".

We've been very impressed with a ship's medical team the one time we had a real emergency.  They did everything right, and all ended well.  (Later, our specialists at a major teaching hospital said that if we had shown up in their ER, they would have done the exact same things.  That was certainly encouraging.)

But even on land, at home or at work, there are going to be medical emergencies that are, well, not going to end well.  That doesn't mean we pitch a tent outside the ER and spend our lives there! 

So yes, it's worrisome...

In a serious medical emergency, I assume a ship/Captain would try to get to the closest place where perhaps a helo-evacuation could be done, but as you point out, that might not be right nearby...

There are some on CC who have more experience (as wither ill passenger or with the rescue side of the effort) who can share examples or protocols about what happens, and also how it is decided.

GC

Sailed on an expedition trip to Antarctica in January, and had to consider this possibility due to the extreme remoteness of the location. First off, the expedition ships make you provide documentation that you have evacuation insurance in place for the trip. Should an emergency occur that necessitates you leaving the ship they handle it in different ways depending on the emergency:

- they may sail you to nearest inhabited island with airstrip, such as King George Island. Or sail you back to Ushuaia Argentina, if this is an option, although you are probably 1.5-2 days sail away

- they may deliver you to a research station with medical facilities to get you stabilized, and try to fly a small plane in to airlift you out

- they may try to call for a larger ship, such as a military vessel in the surrounding area, that has a more advanced medical bay and try to get you back to main land

All depends on where you are and what the possibilities are. We've only ever witnessed one real medical emergency at sea, it was in the Tahitian Islands, and a small boat came to the cruise ship and the passenger and companion were offloaded onto the small boat. We heard they were taken to the nearby small island, transferred to a larger boat and taken to Papeete Tahiti to a hospital. Some sort of heart condition. 

58 minutes ago, terry&mike said:

Sailed on an expedition trip to Antarctica in January, and had to consider this possibility due to the extreme remoteness of the location. First off, the expedition ships make you provide documentation that you have evacuation insurance in place for the trip. Should an emergency occur that necessitates you leaving the ship they handle it in different ways depending on the emergency:

- they may sail you to nearest inhabited island with airstrip, such as King George Island. Or sail you back to Ushuaia Argentina, if this is an option, although you are probably 1.5-2 days sail away

- they may deliver you to a research station with medical facilities to get you stabilized, and try to fly a small plane in to airlift you out

- they may try to call for a larger ship, such as a military vessel in the surrounding area, that has a more advanced medical bay and try to get you back to main land

All depends on where you are and what the possibilities are. We've only ever witnessed one real medical emergency at sea, it was in the Tahitian Islands, and a small boat came to the cruise ship and the passenger and companion were offloaded onto the small boat. We heard they were taken to the nearby small island, transferred to a larger boat and taken to Papeete Tahiti to a hospital. Some sort of heart condition. 

 

It's actually a possible cruise to Antarctica that has brought this to mind recently.

(The other similar "concern" is with air travel.  Just the other day, a flight from Beijing to Seattle [I think] made an emergency landing in a very remote island off, or part of, the Aleutian Islands.  That was for aircraft problems, not a health emergency.  But that air route tends to hug those coastal areas somewhat, similar to what a lot of Trans-Atlantic flights do.  However, when thinking about flying from, say, LA to Hawaii... where is the closest emergency landing, for air or cruise ships, although the time frame is different, of course.)

We'll see...

GC

15 hours ago, Ep010835 said:

This something that I've never really thought about. What does happen if one is on a cruise very distant from land. I'm thinking about the 8 sea days between Tahiti and LA on one of the South Pacific runs. I'm sure there are longer itineraries but this is first to come to my mind to use as an example. 

If the insured has a heart attack, or develops an abdominal blockage or has a stroke or any one of a gazillion other things. With no land in sight and a clearly critical situation at hand, what are the ships doctors to do?

Ship physicians do the best they can do given the circumstances.  If it is possible, they will evacuate or toss off the ship, cases that they feel can be better served by land-based facilities.  But there are times when they have no other option then to treat folks onboard until they get within evacuation range or to a port.  In our situation we were on the Golden Princess which has a relatively large medical center staffed by several well trained nurses and a physician (a 2nd physician is on the ship but primarily deals with crew).  In DW's case, we discovered that the onboard physician (South Africa trained) was very competent, easy to work with, and very open about our best options.  It was based on his strong recommendation that DW went to the hospital in Osaka for some outpatient surgery (we were back on the ship the same day).  Using a major teaching hospital gave us the benefit of a CT Scanner and several excellent Japanese surgeons.  We have little doubt that being referred to that hospital ultimately saved DW's leg.  

What happens if there are no land-based options?  The ship's medical staff does the best they can do and tries to stabilize the patient until they can get them to an appropriate land facility.  Sometimes their best will not be good enough and that is one risk cruisers take when they venture far from decent land-based medical facilities.   So if there is a MI (heart attack) they can utilize appropriate drug therapy but would not have the capability to perform various invasive procedures that can be used in a decent land-based hospital.  If you have a major situation like a rupturing aortic aneurism  or a severe stoke, your luck might run out.

Hank

This all very sobering.  

On ‎12‎/‎27‎/‎2018 at 6:44 PM, Ep010835 said:

This all very sobering.  

One must keep their sense of humor (even when sober).  A few years ago while cruising on HAL's Prinsendam, a Senior Officer (and friend) gave DW and me a comprehensive tour below decks...including the crew area.  At one point we visited the ship's small florist department which was one room (with one florist) kept at a low temperature to help preserve the flowers/plants.  As we left the Florist our friend pointed to the closed door of the adjacent compartment and explained that is was the morgue (all cruise ships have a morgue).  He then mentioned that their small morgue (it was a small ship) only had space for 3 bodies and if they exceeded that number, the Florist's shop was used for the overflow!  I guess you could call that gallows humor (humour for you Brits).

Hank

It's hard to remember the receipts with all the other hassle.  We had a similar issue where we had a flight cancelled, had to spend the night.  They handed us a form for reduced rate lodging.  We called and got a room with included airport shuttle.  We stayed the night, then returned the next morning.  We even ended up having to fly to another city, since all the nonstop were full.  I saved all the receipts, and the lodging form.  Sent them in, and got paid.

I take a 9x13 envelope w/ my travel insurance policy, and that's where all the receipts go if I need to file a claim.