Travel Insurance Family Dispute

[Mylisa]

I am booked on the Silver Galapogos cruise with my husband and my sister and her husband.

 

My husband and I always get travel insurance thru Travelguard.

 

However, my sister says it's a waste of money because she thinks that if one of us gets sick prior to travel and after the refund time frame that SS will simply give us credit towards another cruise and we won't lose our money.

 

She also thinks the chances of needing any of the other parts of the insurance such as medevac, and dentist, is very rare.

 

Any thoughts or experiences appreciated.

[Azulann]

I am booked on the Silver Galapogos cruise with my husband and my sister and her husband.

 

My husband and I always get travel insurance thru Travelguard.

 

However, my sister says it's a waste of money because she thinks that if one of us gets sick prior to travel and after the refund time frame that SS will simply give us credit towards another cruise and we won't lose our money.

 

She also thinks the chances of needing any of the other parts of the insurance such as medevac, and dentist, is very rare.

 

Any thoughts or experiences appreciated.

My friend , DH,and her brother and SIl went to Galapogos a number of year ago.All four were in their forties, very active, outdoor type. The SIL broke her leg on the island. She stepped in a crack, tripped and fell. They had to get her to a small boat to get off island, not the chartered ship they came on. Only a dentist in the group. He had some pain pills. Once on land they got to a hotel.

Leg was set but she wanted to get to a US hospital ASAP. They had dfficulty in getting an air flight to US for two days. Once back in the US they had spent over 50,000. dollars and they had never thought they needed insurance up until that trip. :eek:

Edited May 31, 2015 by Azulann

[duct tape]

We never insured our trips when we were younger, but... A recent string of circumstances made it a wise move. I have been hospitalized twice in foreign countries, neither predictable. I have also been evacuated via air ambulance from a foreign country. That will definitely put a dent in your bank account. Parents, children become ill and you need to go home. SS is not in the habit of just brushing your difficulty away. It is a business. You lose under certain conditions, etc. I have multiple tales of people losing money if you want to listen. I am not a front/shill for Travel Insurance nor the cruise line. I have become a consumer and it has only been to our benefit! Think about it. What is the trip worth? Do you mind losing thousands of dollars for transport, hotels, meals, etc while the ship sails without you and your stuff is still on it?!?

Edited May 31, 2015 by duct tape

[Mylisa]

I agree. Better safe than sorry, but my sister has made me feel like we are wasting our money by buying the issuance for something that is unlikely to happen and she feels that SS will give us credit for a future cruise if one of us gets sick and can't go on this trip.

 

I told her that if that were true then why do they sell trip insurance.

[Bmore careful]

I totally agree with your sister

 

 

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[DaKa2002]

We have always traveled with insurance, selecting a policy based upon where we were going. "Cruising" around the U.S. and Canada in our motor home, we have a MedJet Assist policy; cruising the oceans of the world requires an additional type of policy, in our opinion. Our stateside insurance is insufficient for a major problem far away from home.

[oregon50]

However, my sister says it's a waste of money because she thinks that if one of us gets sick prior to travel and after the refund time frame that SS will simply give us credit towards another cruise and we won't lose our money.

 

She also thinks the chances of needing any of the other parts of the insurance such as medevac, and dentist, is very rare.

 

I wouldn't bet too much on SS issuing credit for a future cruise if you can't make it to the ship. Be prepared to take the loss. Emergency medical coverage is a different story. Missing the cruise, you know your cost and whether you can absorb the hit. Not so true for medical and it can be quite ugly.

 

Can't imagine someone that always buys insurance becoming comfortable without it. Can't imagine someone that does not believe in it being too happy about paying for it.

[Mylisa]

I wouldn't bet too much on SS issuing credit for a future cruise if you can't make it to the ship. Be prepared to take the loss. Emergency medical coverage is a different story. Missing the cruise, you know your cost and whether you can absorb the hit. Not so true for medical and it can be quite ugly.

 

Can't imagine someone that always buys insurance becoming comfortable without it. Can't imagine someone that does not believe in it being too happy about paying for it.

 

Good point!

 

I don't know why this time she made me question what I normally do.

 

I guess she made me feel stupid for "wasting" the money on insurance. I always think that maybe she knows better. I guess I hope that I waste the money when all is said and done as I don't want anything to happen on the trip.

[CanadianKate]

My daughter is trying to get pregnant. SS requires payment in full before I know if she will be pregnant. A few years ago, we bought travel insurance that included me being able to come home if there was a problem with my daughter's pregnancy.

 

Seven days before leaving, I ended up in the hospital with pancreatitis due to gall stones. Got a refund on everything I had insured (didn't insure the airfare because the penalty was only $200 if we cancelled.)

 

It was a much shorter cruise for us, one I normally would have self-insured but I was glad I didn't that time!

[frantic36]

I would always get insurance even though I hope not to use it. But you can never tell.

 

Last year friends of ours were taken of their cruise around Australia halfway through as he had an unexplained fit. A CAT scan revealed a brain tumour, luckily benign, so they had to wait here in Perth till a Paramedic could come from the States to escort them home.

 

Could you imagine the cost of hospital time, investigations, flight transfers from the small town they were disembarked to Perth, hotels and business flight seats for them and the Paramedic to return to the States?!!! Very Pricey. Insurance covered it all.

 

It was something no one would expect. Some things I always insure - my house, my car and my family when we travel.........because life sometimes throws you curve balls.

 

Julie

[Colin B]

I quite happily travel around Australia without insurance because my R.A.C membership and Hospital insurance will take care of most problems. For expensive overseas trips I would definitely have travel insurance for two main reasons.

 

1) I am past the age where I can take continued good health for granted.

 

2) If anything happens to me overseas, especially in a third world country, I want the option of a rapid medivac back to Australia.

[Missymo]

I always factor in the cost of travel insurance as part of the cruise fare. Even thought I have never had to use it , I get peace of mind when I travel. My last cruise to the Amazon saw multiple people have unexpected accidents while out on cruise sponsored tours. Two of them had to fly home.. Travel insurance may not work for you if you feel you can afford the "unexpected expenses". Safe travels..

[RachelG]

We don't buy travel insurance, but we do have Medjet assist. In the hundreds of trips we have taken, we have never had to cancel because of medical issues. But I understand the gamble. And at this point, I would probably have spent in excess of $50,000 on unused insurance. So I am ok with that.

[CruisinPashmina]

Traveling the world is expensive. Life is unpredictable. Buying travel insurance and Med Jet evacuation is sensible. Just my experienced opinion.

[Tothesunset]

We have an annual policy covering trips up to 31 days but no limit to the number of trips in a year. For trips over 31 days an extra one-off premium is paid for that trip. Covers cancellation, medical, repatriation on death etc with a dedicated ''hotline'' where an agent takes care of things (eg liaising with local health facility, aeromed etc.)

 

Is this sort of policy not available in the US? It seems to be quite common here in the UK with regular travellers.

 

Travelling without adequate insurance, especially long-distance, strikes me as a form of madness or the reserve of the super-rich!

[Silver Spectre]

Silversea's attitude will be similar to that when they cancelled the first part of a back to back cruise we were taking. The loss/cost of flight and hotel changes were our responsibility and they couldn't give a monkeys about the problems they caused us.

 

To travel outside one's country of residence without adequate travel insurance is not only madness but financial stupidity.

[ISLABONITA]

Does your sister play Bingo? buys lotto tickets? gamble at a casino? the horses? etc.

 

I would say that one who does that is wasting their money.

 

What are the chances of you winning at Bingo or the lotto? but you have spent $$ for it right?

 

I too in my previous traveling days did not buy insurance and felt that my credit card purchase covered it, such as car rentals.

 

Now I invest less than $150 for travel insurance and have peace of mind.

 

You can't control what she wants to do.. just be happy with your decision.

[brimary]

We believe in full insurance cover for all our SS cruises.Over the years have seen so many examples of pre cruise personal arrangements resulting in missed cruises with no recompense from SS (it is not SS responsibility unless travel arrangements are made through SS).We all hope for no medical problems but as posters have already mentioned these things happen,better be safe than sorry!On a SS cruise many years ago a passenger became ill and the airlift to obtain emergency treatment was in excess of £30,000 before the medical costs kicked in.Not worth the risk of not or under insuring.

[drron29]

We don't buy travel insurance, but we do have Medjet assist. In the hundreds of trips we have taken, we have never had to cancel because of medical issues. But I understand the gamble. And at this point, I would probably have spent in excess of $50,000 on unused insurance. So I am ok with that.

 

Boy insurance in the USA must be expensive.I have an annual travel insurance policy which covers my wife and myself for most events-it would cover evacuation from the Antarctic when we went.Until this year the most it has cost me is $A400.Age means it is now going up.

[CanadianKate]

There's a difference between out of country medical insurance and trip insurance. The first covers medical problems. If you get sick on a cruise (or on the way to a cruise) it will handle the expenses for care and getting you home. I don't think most off the shelf packages cover on-board medical expenses but I'm not sure.

 

Trip insurance covers the other stuff - getting you home (and refunding the unused part of travel) when there's a reason for you to get home fast (i.e. sick child at home) or out of a dangerous area (i.e. unrest or earthquake.) It covers missed travel connections, replacing lost luggage contents and other incidentals. Or in my case, it covered the cost of the travel we didn't take because I was hospitalized before we left on the trip.

 

One needs the former but it isn't expensive. The latter is the expensive bit. My annual out-of-country package for unlimited trips of up to 31 days (with additional days available) is $272 for both of us. The trip insurance for our last trip (insuring about C$30K was C$1100.)

 

Premium Credit cards have some trip insurance on them for trips paid for with the card but there are limits so most luxury travel doesn't qualify. Still, it is only my cruises that I insure with trip insurance. Our summer vacation will not be insured, mostly because the losses if we can't take it are so low they'll be covered under the insurance or I don't mind self-insuring.

Edited June 1, 2015 by CanadianKate

[RVRoadie]

Remember, Medicare has no coverage outside the U.S. Some supplements and advantage plans may have some limited coverage. Medivac policies are relative cheap, and well worth it. We use Insure-and-go.

[RachelG]

Boy insurance in the USA must be expensive.I have an annual travel insurance policy which covers my wife and myself for most events-it would cover evacuation from the Antarctic when we went.Until this year the most it has cost me is $A400.Age means it is now going up.

 

Last time I priced trip insurance for 1 cruise on Regent, it was going to be over $1000. And that was several years ago. 3-4 cruises per year over the past 15 years--a lot of money.

 

Not on Medicare yet. We did have to go to the ER once in Canada. I paid with a credit card and submitted it to our insurance later. Of course, it all went to the deductible anyway, but if the amount had been more than the deductible, it would have been at least partially covered.

Edited June 1, 2015 by RachelG

[Mylisa]

Right all.

 

The cost for DH and me is $1305 together. It covers lost or delayed baggage, canceled trip for business or medical reasons, emergency evacuation, missed connections, trip delay or cancellation, lost passport, identity theft, accident and sickness medical.

 

We have purchased this plan before when we were traveling with our adult children and their girlfriends (now daughter-in-laws). One of the girls was in the military (doctor) and was deployed to Iraq a week or so before we departed on our river cruise. We received every dime back including the airfare without any delay.

 

I guess with that in mind it's silly of me to let my sister get me upset over this. She just makes me doubt myself and my decision here.

 

That's why I come to this board to hear all opinions. You guys help me stay sane sometimes!

[duct tape]

Be your own person. Of course I can say that, I have no siblings!

[Seafairer]

Glad this post helped put things back into perspective for you, Mylisa.

 

For those who are newer to cruising, here's another point: what seems to make sense for a land trip often bears no resemblance to what we have to consider at sea. If you're booked for a week at a hotel and have an emergency a few days beforehand, you can usually just cancel the reservation. Not so on a cruise - it's fully prepaid months ahead of time and governed by a Terms and Conditions contract. It's not realistic to assume that a cruise line will 'understand' an emergency and issue a credit simply because we chose not to purchase insurance.

 

I agree with the comments stressing that unexpected things can and do happen, regardless of age or fitness. I also agree that most people will be totally fine, have a fabulous time and won't need to use the insurance. But you always want to ask (1) am I comfortable with losing the full cost of the cruise if I have to cancel? (2) am I comfortable relying on the availability, quality and cost of medical care in the various locales if I need serious treatment?

 

Good for you that you've made your decision. One less thing to worry about!

Edited June 5, 2015 by Seafairer