can't I insure the amount I want?

[249A]

I was told by a travel insurance agent that I can insure my trip for what ever I want. for example: my total cruise only pp would be $1200.00. My flight is $350. Most insurance premiums goes up after the $1000 mark.

so I usually just purchase insurance up to $1000 and I would just eat the $200 if I needed to make a claim for cancellation. Plus, the agent said they would just reimburse me for just the $75 airfare change fee if I needed to cancel flights not the total airfare. So I either don't include my airfare or just include $75 on my insurance quote. I like to have the insurance for medical emergencies at ports.

Does anyone else do this? Or am I missing something?

[cruiseco]

I was told by a travel insurance agent that I can insure my trip for what ever I want. for example: my total cruise only pp would be $1200.00. My flight is $350. Most insurance premiums goes up after the $1000 mark.

so I usually just purchase insurance up to $1000 and I would just eat the $200 if I needed to make a claim for cancellation. Plus, the agent said they would just reimburse me for just the $75 airfare change fee if I needed to cancel flights not the total airfare. So I either don't include my airfare or just include $75 on my insurance quote. I like to have the insurance for medical emergencies at ports.

Does anyone else do this? Or am I missing something?

 

It all depends on the insurerance plan and your particular situation. See here:

 

http://www.travelinsurancebasics.com/howmuch.php

[249A]

okay thanks... very informative.

[sirwired]

Whether or not you are paid just the change fee or the total fare depends on your stated intentions. If you tell the insurance company you are not going to re-use the remaining fare, they will reimburse you for the whole thing, and you must sign a contract stating you will let the airfare credit expire. If you re-schedule, you get just the change fee.

[6rugrats]

Whether or not you are paid just the change fee or the total fare depends on your stated intentions. If you tell the insurance company you are not going to re-use the remaining fare, they will reimburse you for the whole thing, and you must sign a contract stating you will let the airfare credit expire. If you re-schedule, you get just the change fee.

This seems to vary by insurance company. I was told by an agent at Travelguard that they won't take your remaining credit and they don't care what you do with it. They will reimburse you the total amount of your airfare. Whether this was correct or not, I have no idea.

[sail7seas]

Do you cruise often?

Do you insure them all for cancellation/interruption?

At what point do you think it might be to your benefit to 'self-insure' for what is not a huge amount. If you could afford to lose the $1,000, how much would you save in premiums you are paying, cruise after cruise after cruise..... IF you are cruising a lot?

 

Unless you suspect you might have to cancel, be sure you have coverage for medical outside the country and emergency evacuation/repatriation and don't insure the cost of the trip.

 

Run the numbers....... :)

[249A]

Thanks for all the input.

I received my official answer when I called and purchased my travel insurance a few days ago. The agent said if I want to get the pre existing waiver, I must include EVERYTHING that would be nonrefundable during the duration of my trip. My claim could be null and void if I did not include my nonrefundable part of hotel , excursions, etc.. anything that was prebooked. How they would find everything?? Don't know, but why take the chance.

Also, if flight arrangements or hotels etc, aren't made at time of purchase, when made,they must be called in within 10 days to travel insurance.

So, in conclusion... before leaving on trip, tally the nonrefundables and call the travel insurance company to make sure everything is okay.

Or, another conclusion is that the travel agent was trying to scare me into buying more than I needed.

[Lou33]

Another bit of advice, don't include the port charges and taxes as part of your cost basis, (if that would bump you into a higher premium). If you should cancel, the port charges and taxes are refunded directly by the cruiseline. Your travel insurance will never reimburse you for taxes and port charges, even if you include that in your cost basis. So why insure something that you can never collect on?

 

We normally don't include the cost of airline tickets in our cost basis. We would hope that the airline would give us credit for a future flight after paying a change fee. As far as preexisting conditions, that is not an issue because we don't have any. Travel insurance normally has a lookback period of about six months, and if you don't have any new conditions, or if you are currently treated for an ongoing condition (like high blood pressure), and your condition is stable, and your meds have not been adjusted in the last six months, then you don't have a preexisting condition.

[cruiseco]

Another bit of advice, don't include the port charges and taxes as part of your cost basis, (if that would bump you into a higher premium). If you should cancel, the port charges and taxes are refunded directly by the cruise line. Your travel insurance will never reimburse you for taxes and port charges, even if you include that in your cost basis. So why insure something that you can never collect on?

 

The problem with this is:

 

As noted previously, there are many (perhaps most) insurers that you require you to insure the full non-refundable trip cost in order to get coverage for pre-existing conditions.

 

I think if you check with some cruise lines that if you are a no-show your taxes will not be refunded to you (just got off the phone with Princess to verify). True, being a no-show is an unusual circumstance but it does happen.

 

The insurers know that however unusual a no-show is, the sometimes-non-refundable status of the taxes/fees with some cruise lines means you have to insure them if you want the pre-ex waiver. Other insurers such as CSA don't care how much or how little of your trip cost you insure and will still give you the waiver.

 

When you file your claim you will have to provide a copy of the confirmation/invoice for the cruise along with your proof of payment and if those two don't agree you might have raised a red flag. The claims person, in the case of a cancellation due to a pre-ex condition, is trained to spot discrepancies and figure out why the numbers don't match. Those missing dollars you can't provide a cancelled check or credit card payment for is going to stand out like a sore thumb. Will they figure this out? Maybe/probably not, but they can easily make the same phone call I just did. The insurers probably know way more about what's refundable and what isn't than the average TA.

 

So before you choose to not insure the taxes/fees be sure to get something in writing that they are ALWAYS refunded, even if you're a no-show. Otherwise you might get a bad shock to your wallet.

[Lou33]

The problem with this is:

 

As noted previously, there are many (perhaps most) insurers that you require you to insure the full non-refundable trip cost in order to get coverage for pre-existing conditions.

 

I think if you check with some cruise lines that if you are a no-show your taxes will not be refunded to you

 

We don't have pre-existing conditions, and if we buy insurance at all, we wait until just before final payment.

 

It might be true that a no-show may not get the taxes refunded. But if they don't show up for their cruise without notifying the cruiseline, then they probably have bigger issues to deal with anyway.

 

I doubt that a travel insurace company would deny benefits if somebody didn't insure the taxes because it's pretty clear that taxes are "generally" refundable. But I suppose if somebody is worried about that, they should check with their cruiseline

[erinmarie424]

I'd suggest getting a policy that covers airfare - I am glad we did since we needed to change flights which totaled over $1000 and we received reimbursement from our insurance company for it.