Travel Insurance Question

[djandnic]

We always get the travel insurance for our cruises, mainly for the added medical protection, but on our upcoming cruise, the question has come up about covering our airfare too.

 

DW and I are somewhat split on this, so I'm asking this esteemed group what their thoughts are to help us break the tie!

 

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and feedback.

[mom4mom]

I use insuremytrip.com and put in both the rate with and without the airfare to see what the difference is in price. Then I weigh the added cost and decide if it is worth spending the extra money. Sometimes it is just a small increase.

[nat9511]

I always add extra to cover airfare. I also add an extra day or two before and after the cruise date just in case I change my travel plans.

[cruisenfever]

When I book our air on-line, I always take out 3rd party insurance to cover the air portion.

[cruiseguy1016]

We always insure our airfare when we cruise. Depending on where you're flying from/to, the airfare could be as much as the cruise fare. Price it both ways and then decide if it's worth it?

[pterp]

We have only attempted to take a cruise once before (we are booked for Alaska in two months...way too long still). We used Global Alert travel (globalalerttravel.com) to insure the first one we had booked in 2012. We booked the cruise and airfare to get to the embarkation port, but not the airfare for the trip we made to visit friends a couple days before. We could not get to our cruise due to hurricane Katrina, and used the insurance. We got all our money for the cruise and air tickets we insured, but not the return fare to get back home because I did not actually cover the beginning of the trip. The customer service was excellent, and they answered all our questions. They will be very thorough so keep all documents, receipts and info you get regarding your cancellations because the insurance will require it. It took about 3-4 weeks to get our money in hand, which I can't complain about considering they must have been swamped at that time. I like nat9511's suggestion of adding a day to each end of the trip just to be safe.

[xxoocruiser]

It's important to note that if using rewards or points for airfare, Travel Insurance will not cover that.

[chermilo]

We have only attempted to take a cruise once before (we are booked for Alaska in two months...way too long still). We used Global Alert travel (globalalerttravel.com) to insure the first one we had booked in 2012. We booked the cruise and airfare to get to the embarkation port, but not the airfare for the trip we made to visit friends a couple days before. We could not get to our cruise due to hurricane Katrina, and used the insurance. We got all our money for the cruise and air tickets we insured, but not the return fare to get back home because I did not actually cover the beginning of the trip. The customer service was excellent, and they answered all our questions. They will be very thorough so keep all documents, receipts and info you get regarding your cancellations because the insurance will require it. It took about 3-4 weeks to get our money in hand, which I can't complain about considering they must have been swamped at that time. I like nat9511's suggestion of adding a day to each end of the trip just to be safe.

 

I just did a quick look comparing Global Alert Travel vs Cruisecare for a cruise that I have booked and seems to me like it is cheaper going Global Alert Travel (Preferred) vs Cruisecare and you have more coverage.

 

Thanks for the info!

Edited July 17, 2015 by chermilo
added info

[robin13]

I always use insuremytrip.com and never use the cruise line as it is much cheaper. And I always include my RT airfare in my price. Thankfully I haven't had to use insurance but my Mother used it last winter when her ship was late in arriving in New York and she had tickets to a Broadway play. Since she included that in the price of the cruise they covered every penny since she had paid for the tickets ahead of time.

[Starry Eyes]

We have only attempted to take a cruise once before (we are booked for Alaska in two months...way too long still). We used Global Alert travel (globalalerttravel.com) to insure the first one we had booked in 2012. We booked the cruise and airfare to get to the embarkation port, but not the airfare for the trip we made to visit friends a couple days before. We could not get to our cruise due to hurricane Katrina, and used the insurance. We got all our money for the cruise and air tickets we insured, but not the return fare to get back home because I did not actually cover the beginning of the trip. The customer service was excellent, and they answered all our questions. They will be very thorough so keep all documents, receipts and info you get regarding your cancellations because the insurance will require it. It took about 3-4 weeks to get our money in hand, which I can't complain about considering they must have been swamped at that time. I like nat9511's suggestion of adding a day to each end of the trip just to be safe.

 

Is here a typo in your post about your previous planned trip? Hurricane Katrina occurred in 2005.

[cruisenfever]

We have only attempted to take a cruise once before (we are booked for Alaska in two months...way too long still). We used Global Alert travel (globalalerttravel.com) to insure the first one we had booked in 2012. We booked the cruise and airfare to get to the embarkation port, but not the airfare for the trip we made to visit friends a couple days before. We could not get to our cruise due to hurricane Katrina, and used the insurance. We got all our money for the cruise and air tickets we insured, but not the return fare to get back home because I did not actually cover the beginning of the trip. The customer service was excellent, and they answered all our questions. They will be very thorough so keep all documents, receipts and info you get regarding your cancellations because the insurance will require it. It took about 3-4 weeks to get our money in hand, which I can't complain about considering they must have been swamped at that time. I like nat9511's suggestion of adding a day to each end of the trip just to be safe.

2012 was when Hurricane Sandy hit the east coast not Katrina.

Edited July 17, 2015 by cruisenfever

[RocketMan275]

I get my insurance from USAA. They price their policies in $500 increments. IOW, you can insure $2999 for the same price as $2501. These prices are Per Person. Depending upon how much airfare you're covering, you can see significant price increases or maybe none at all.

[chermilo]

I get my insurance from USAA. They price their policies in $500 increments. IOW, you can insure $2999 for the same price as $2501. These prices are Per Person. Depending upon how much airfare you're covering, you can see significant price increases or maybe none at all.

 

This even looks better! I have all my insurance and banking there (I'm a former employee) and feel bad that I forgot to check with them!

[Lou33]

We usually don't insure the air portion. If you need to cancel your flight for medical reasons, many times the airline will give you vouchers for a future flight or let you change to a future flight after paying a change fee.

 

Remember that if you insure your flight, and you make a claim for that flight, you must surrender your airline vouchers to the insurance company. You can't double dip.

 

On the other hand, if adding the cost of your airline tickets doesn't bump you into the next higher cost bracket, then you have nothing to lose by insuring your flights.

Edited July 17, 2015 by Lou33

[Shak]

We usually don't insure the air portion. If you need to cancel your flight for medical reasons, many times the airline will give you vouchers for a future flight or let you change to a future flight after paying a change fee.

 

Remember that if you insure your flight, and you make a claim for that flight, you must surrender your airline vouchers to the insurance company. You can't double dip.

 

On the other hand, if adding the cost of your airline tickets doesn't bump you into the next higher cost bracket, then you have nothing to lose by insuring your flights.

 

Does the air portion of travel insurance only cover the cost of a ticket? Change fee can be pretty pricy so how much does it save not to include air coverage in your travel insurance policy?

 

Shak

[FLACRUISER99]

It's important to note that if using rewards or points for airfare, Travel Insurance will not cover that.

 

 

There are many policy's than can be purchased that will cover FF rewards..

[Ren1216]

I also check to see if adding the airfare will bump me into the next pricing level.

In my current situation, the added cost was $44 to insure my $500 airfare. I insured it.

[Lou33]

Does the air portion of travel insurance only cover the cost of a ticket? Change fee can be pretty pricy so how much does it save not to include air coverage in your travel insurance policy?

 

Shak

 

Let's say two airline tickets are $1,500 total. And if you need to cancel, your airline will charge $400 total to change to a future date. But it would cost $150 extra to insure your airfare. So you would be paying $150 extra for the insurance, and the maximum "extra" benefit that you can receive from making a claim is $400, not $1,500. I don't consider that to be a good deal.

 

If you don't take the insurance, there is a small chance that you will lose $400. If you do take the insurance, then you are 100% sure to lose that $150 insurance premium

 

Of course this is a hypothetical example, but I think that the numbers that I used are reasonable.

[Markanddonna]

I imagine that my cancellation would happen one month before the cruise and then consider what I can't cancel without penalty. The car rentals and hotels can usually be cancelled so that leaves just the cruise and airfare. I use insuremytrip.

[Shak]

Let's say two airline tickets are $1,500 total. And if you need to cancel, your airline will charge $400 total to change to a future date. But it would cost $150 extra to insure your airfare. So you would be paying $150 extra for the insurance, and the maximum "extra" benefit that you can receive from making a claim is $400, not $1,500. I don't consider that to be a good deal.

 

If you don't take the insurance, there is a small chance that you will lose $400. If you do take the insurance, then you are 100% sure to lose that $150 insurance premium

 

Of course this is a hypothetical example, but I think that the numbers that I used are reasonable.

 

If I have trip insurance that covers my trip including air are you saying that the air portion of my policy cost $150?

 

Shak

[Lou33]

Shak,

 

I don't know the cost of your airfare, or how much the insurance would cost. But the numbers that I posted could be a reasonable example. Yes I was talking about the airfare portion of the travel insurance premium. Not the cost of the entire insurance premium.

Edited July 18, 2015 by Lou33

[pterp]

Correction: I don't know why I said Katrina, I meant Sandy... Thanks to those who corrected my error :).

 

Chermillo- I think a 3rd party insurance is going to give you much better coverage. The one advantage Cruise Care gives is they have a slightly better cancel for any reason option. I think you can cancel up until the day of the cruise instead of the 48 hours before which most policies offer.

 

Shak- The handling of airfare is probably different between insurance companies, but for Global Alert you get two options. If you do need to change your flight or cancel and decide to take the credit the airline offers, then the insurance will cover whatever the change/cancel fee is. The other option is, you can receive the amount of the airfare paid to you. The insurance will give you a waiver to sign which states you will not accept/use any credit from the airline which is directly related to the tickets you are getting payment back from. In our situation in 2012, we got a full refund and signed the waiver to not use the credit the airline would provide (this also goes for Southwest where you would not have any change fee).

 

I hope this helps :)

[Dosido]

I've used AIG travel guard each time we've cruised, and added airfare coverage for no additional cost each time (purchasing the air a few mouths after the initial cruise insurance purchase.)

A couple of notes: most 3rd party is cheaper if you are younger, as they are age based, whereas RCI is one price fits all, which is a better deal (price wise) for older cruisers.

The AIG policy covers kids for free, which RCI does not, so it's a great deal for families with children.

Enjoy your cruise!

[Shak]

This has been enlighting thread. Thanks for those that have answered some of my questions but I think I will continue to insure my air.

 

I get insurance because in the event of an unknow reason. If I purchase Lou33 example of $1500 in air and I have to cancel without insurance and pay the $400 change fee and I have a year to use it. The reason I am going on this trip is for a cruise and I may not be able to cruise within that year for a number of reasons including scheduling, pricing, health, ect. If that happens I would have to make a trip with no real purpose and to me that would be a waste.

 

Shak

[pcur]

Don't forget to check the benefits provided by the credit card you use to pay for the airfare. My Chase Sapphire Visa has $10,000 coverage for prepaid, non-refundable travel expenses for covered reasons. It's basically your standard travel insurance coverage:

 

https://www.chase.com/index.jsp?pg_name=ccpmapp/shared/marketing/page/ultimate-rewards-sapphire-preferred-vs-annoucement

 

Cancel for any reason coverage would be what we shop for now.

 

Also, be sure to double-check your health insurance policy. We have Kaiser Senior Advantage, which is integrated with Medicare, and it covers us (pay first, then get reimbursed) anywhere in the world.