Cruise Insurance...to buy or not to buy

[pizzalady1]

For JimInBuffalo:

Do you know why Allianz is treating this as a missed connection? By their own definition, this appears to be a trip interruption. I got this explanation for trip interruption off of the Allianz explanation on InsureMyTrip (I am assuming the flight was cancelled due to weather, although you did not say):

 

"Canceled services

 

Your airline, cruise line, or tour operator or travel supplier stops offering all services for at least 24 consecutive hours where you’re departing, arriving or making a connection because of:

• a natural disaster

• severe weather

• a strike

 

Specific requirements (all must apply)

• Your travel supplier doesn’t offer you a substitute itinerary.

• The striking workers aren’t employed by the supplier you purchased your plan or travel services from, or an affiliate of that supplier."

[JimInBuffalo]

This is a learning experience no one wants! It's so hard to read the details of a policy and understand what coverage applies when. I hope you're able to recover more than you expect.

 

I filed a claim for my parents who had to cancel a cruise for medical reasons. It took months to get paid, but I wasn't surprised as doctors had to fill out information requests. Before we ever heard that they were paying, my mother received a check reimbursing all cruise fare and airfare.

 

This next trip, #1 I hope I don't have to use any insurance and #2 I got insurance through the trip insurance store where they vet the companies and policies ahead of time.

 

We booked through our online TA "Vacations to Go" which has been very good to us. Our TA Brenda, is excellent. They always offer to sell us the insurance however, we have always used Allianz Global Assistance since we purchase through our AAA (auto club) office where we have our AAA membership. The rates always were lower than those offered by VTG and since we never had to use it, we felt secure with Allianz.

 

The thing that should have given us a foreshadowing of what was to come when we filed the claim is that when our flight was canceled, we called the rep at AAA and they would not talk to us and referred us to Allianz.

 

If Allianz Global Assistance does not honor our claim I will pay a visit in person to the AAA office and get some answers.

 

4 degrees in Buffalo today with - 25 wind chill. (but it is sunny)

 

-jim

[BullDawg91]

 

4 degrees in Buffalo today with - 25 wind chill. (but it is sunny)

 

-jim

 

 

Lovely! We're in Georgia and getting snow! If we're lucky, we'll get 6 inches or so! It'll be gone tomorrow afternoon and in the 50s by Sunday.

[klfrodo]

I beg to disagree. I know our insurance though the companies we work for covers emergencies outside of the US. In fact I've never had insurance that didn't cover emergency care out of the United States. We currently have Blue Cross Blue Shield (me) and United Healthcare (DH) both through employers, and emergencies outside of the US are covered.

 

I read the fine print of any coverage I ever have and have NEVER had a policy that didn't cover emergencies outside of the good ole USA.

 

I'll respectfully disagree with you.

I also have or had Bc/BS and United Healthcare.

I also have international coverage.

 

I called and asked very specific questions about my coverage.

 

1. If medical services are required, will you pay directly to international provider?

Answer: No, when you return, you file for reimbursement. You will only be reimbursed at Out Of Network costs.

2. If required to pay up front before services are rendered, will you pay or at least provided a letter of ability to pay?

Answer: No

3. If I need to be evacuated from the ship, will you pay?

Answer: yes

4. After I'm stabilized, will you pay for me to be evacuated back to the States for continued care?

Answer: No

5. If I pass, will you pay to repatriate my remains back home?

Answer: No

 

For these reasons, I still purchase travel insurance

[BullDawg91]

I'll respectfully disagree with you.

 

I also have or had Bc/BS and United Healthcare.

 

I also have international coverage.

 

 

 

I called and asked very specific questions about my coverage.

 

 

 

1. If medical services are required, will you pay directly to international provider?

 

Answer: No, when you return, you file for reimbursement. You will only be reimbursed at Out Of Network costs.

 

2. If required to pay up front before services are rendered, will you pay or at least provided a letter of ability to pay?

 

Answer: No

 

3. If I need to be evacuated from the ship, will you pay?

 

Answer: yes

 

4. After I'm stabilized, will you pay for me to be evacuated back to the States for continued care?

 

Answer: No

 

5. If I pass, will you pay to repatriate my remains back home?

 

Answer: No

 

 

 

For these reasons, I still purchase travel insurance

 

 

I didn't ask these questions specifically, but I got the answer that our insurance (Aetna) would pay if we found someone who would accept it. Understanding a good bit about health insurance, that was enough for me to not count on it outside the country.

[klfrodo]

Even if leaving the immediate area of home on vacation, one should consider travel insurance.

My BIL was killed in a motorcycle accident. He was half way across the country.

Neither medical insurance nor motorcycle insurance would pay to repatriate his remains.

SIL had to have him cremated in the area of his death so she could afford to bring him home.

[YourCruiseGurl]

Lovely! We're in Georgia and getting snow! If we're lucky, we'll get 6 inches or so! It'll be gone tomorrow afternoon and in the 50s by Sunday.

 

 

 

Here in North Carolina. We're already melting though. Good thing because I cruise out of Charleston on Sunday!

Edited February 26, 2015 by YourCruiseGurl

[jenanderic]

I buy the insurance that can be primary when we travel and our normal insurance secondary. The deductible for our work insurance is awful!

[Kiran]

I didn't use to buy trip insurance just because I was young (so lower health risk odds) and too confused about what to buy and my trips were relatively inexpensive.

 

But last cruise was with my 83 year old Mom and I am past 50 myself now. So I researched for medical and evacuation insurance. Her insurance was $268 and mine and my daughter's insurance was $68 and only $40 more for full trip coverage of interrupted or missed etc. For $40 more I added it.

 

This winter has been one storm after another which is unusual for Cape Cod area and I was glad to have that additional coverage in case my flight was weather cancelled. I did get to go.

[JimInBuffalo]

Hmmm. I just went on that site and I entered the same parameters that I used for our last family cruise aboard the Enchantment of the Seas and I found comprehensive policies starting at $58 TOTAL for our family of 4. Once again, I know that several factors are taken into account, but I can usually find some affordable policies.

 

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We just booked a cruise leaving on May 17th for Bermuda on Celebrity. This time we booked the insurance through our travel agent. The policy for 2 people was $300. This amount is more than we would have paid through Allianz (the company I am still waiting to hear from about our claim) but we agree that you need to have the coverage.

 

-Jim

 

Up to 33 degrees (F) now in Buffalo and freezing rain. We are enjoying the "heat" even though the dance we were supposed to attend tonight has been canceled due to driving conditions.

[JimInBuffalo]

One reason for Allianz Global to call this a missed connection would be that under that designation, the amount of coverage is limited to only $800 per person per claim.

 

Of course this is much less than the amount that we paid for the 9-day cruise.

 

We would be satisfied to get that amount but we are still waiting for an answer from Allianz. They have had the claim since 1/20/15 and were supposed to give us an answer within 10 days. I have since received a request for more documentation which I sent immediately. Still no answer and their online info shows no update to the case status.

 

I also sent an e-mail to their "Help Desk" and got a automatic response saying: "Sorry to hear that you are having trouble, we're working on it."

 

This must have triggered a notice to the AAA office where we purchased the insurance and they told us to be patient since there are a lot of recent claims due to the bad weather across the county. My response to that is I expect the claims to be handled as first-in, first-out.

 

-Jim

Sunny and warm in Buffalo today. High temp will hit 32 (F) for the first time in over 35 days. Average temp for the month of Feb. was 10.9 degrees.

[BullDawg91]

Well, Jim, it was 76 here today, but it's back in the 30s tomorrow with sleet. That's the crazy weather we have. I'll certainly take it over an average in the teens!

[ReturnCruiser]

In January 2015, we returned from our Antarctica trip and were really glad we had travel insurance. As a recap, on the way to Chile, the zipper was pulled off one large duffel and we had to replace it on our one pre-cruise free day. On the way back, we had a two-day departure delay which pretty much messed up our remaining trip itinerary. As we arrived in San Francisco at the end of our trip, the new bag we purchased in Chile did not arrive on our American flight. It has been about five weeks since the baggage loss (American still believes it is a bag delay).

 

Our travel insurance paid claims within four weeks. American is still 'searching' for the missing bag. We're hopeful that the incident is turned over to AA Claims as our travel insurance lost luggage maximum was less the replacement value of the lost (delayed?) bag contents.

 

The messy details are described in my blog.

Edited March 5, 2015 by ReturnCruiser

[JimInBuffalo]

As I noted when I started this thread, we had missed our connection for our cruise when our flight was cancelled out of Buffalo on Jan. 9th, 2015.

 

We have been waiting for Allianz Global Assistance, our insurance carrier to respond to our claim since it was sent in on Jan 10th. We were very disturbed by the lack of communication and failure of their online system to show updates in a timely fashion (or at all).

 

I made a few phone calls and did not get anywhere with their 'Help Team". I am actually still waiting for a phone call from their customer assistance department. After sending another e-mail to the Help Team, I was notified today that the claim has been approved and the check is in the mail.

 

Bottom line, we are getting $1600 back from Allianz. This is the maximum amount that is covered under their best policy for a "Missed Connection". Obviously, this does not reimburse us for the total loss that we had for the 9-day Southern Caribbean Cruise on Royal Caribbean that we missed.

 

Please make sure that you review your policy and know ahead of time what the coverage is for your trip.

 

-Jim; 14 degrees (F) in Buffalo today. Hoping for a warm-up over the weekend.

[donaldsc]

Medical - yes. Evacuation - yes. Anything else - we self insure. Cover for the possible big losses and don't worry about the small stuff.

 

DON

[AngieD]

OK, Tapi and Warm Breezes, help me with this. Where are you getting insurance coverage for so little $$? For my cruise coming up the cost is just over $500 for two with a total coverage of $7000 through John Hancock. Every time someone posts insurance cost for so little, I ask about it but so far no one has ever responded!

 

CSA Travel Protection is $49 for a 7-day cruise for adults up to 70 years old. Covers medical, evacuation, dental, and all the standard travel and baggage issues.

[klfrodo]

CSA Travel Protection is $49 for a 7-day cruise for adults up to 70 years old. Covers medical, evacuation, dental, and all the standard travel and baggage issues.

 

Too generic of a statement.

This is the World Wide Web. That means more than just people from the USA visit this site.

The above statement has no truth for people outside of the US.

[Old and happy]

We had our insurance for a cruise round the Emirates. On return, our suitcase did not appear on the dock on disembarkation. 4 weeks later we have been told it has not been found. Our insurance company have told us they will not pay out. The reason being, we put our suitcase outside our cabin, as instructed, for collection to be taken to the dock. the insurance company have said that constitutes our luggage being left unattended therefore making the luggage part of the insurance null & void, and hence will not pay out. In future I will get a receipt from customer services before handing over my luggage, it has cost us over £2000.:mad:

[GeezerCouple]

I just spoke with Steve, of TripInsuranceStore.com because this alarmed us - there's not much way to avoid leaving the luggage at cruise terminals/etc., if we can't carry on/off the ship (and we aren't physically able to do that with "all" of the luggage).

 

He suggested that we check with Homeowner's insurance.

 

Well, for those in the states, please DO check about that.

 

I was quite surprised to find out that we do have reasonably good coverage if luggage/contents go missing/get damaged.

MUCH better coverage than I thought.

 

One important thing is to make sure that your insurance is written for "full replacement value".

That's probably a good idea anyway. Depreciated furniture isn't worth much, either. It's not just clothing that depreciates very quickly once "used".

 

GeezerCouple

[iamtrustworthy]

I buy the insurance that can be primary when we travel and our normal insurance secondary. The deductible for our work insurance is awful!

 

Hi jenanderic,

 

Primary (aka "First Payer") isn’t better than Secondary (aka "Excess") coverage, although it’s sold that way. The only difference is the order in which claims are paid.

 

If you are under age 65 and have large deductibles and / or copays you are better off with travel insurance that has secondary medical.

 

A claim with secondary medical will take longer, but if your deductibles and / or copays are large enough it's definitely worth it.

 

I hope this helps you.

 

Steve

[Jacqueline]

At the very least get medical travel insurance which is inexpensive.