Travel Insurance: Don’t cruise without it!

[Coral]

I'm having difficulty finding medical AND medical evacuation insurance that meets our needs for several reasons. It is definitely not a "no brainer".

 

My concern regarding enhanced medical and medical evacuation comes into play when traveling to more "exotic" and far distant destinations.

 

First of all, our cruise vacations always include independent time on land. Secondly, our next trip is longer than 30 days.

 

Every company I find either has good evacuation coverage but no/little medical, doesn't cover long trips or age is a consideration (we will be 69 and 74 for trip #1 and 70 and 75 for trip #2. All these factors are making it very difficult to find what we need.

 

I'll keep looking and if anyone has a suggestion, it is most appreciated.

 

Is your medical evacuation ok to the nearest medical facility or do you need to go home? This is tricky as most will just take you to a nearby hospital.

 

Look at MedJet assist. No medical questions until age 75:

 

https://medjetassist.com/medjetassist

 

This will take you your home hospital if you are medically able to. I personally find the need to buy 2 seperate policies. I buy Allianz for medical and Medjet Assist for evacuation. Allianz will get me to a nearby facility and Medjet will get my to my home hospital.

 

If you have AARP, you can get a discount so make sure to mention that. My Mom was always cheaper then I was due to this discount. Age 75 is tricky so I would call them about that.

 

I buy Allianz from my agent and her policy is different than what you see on their website.

[princess09]

Is your medical evacuation ok to the nearest medical facility or do you need to go home? This is tricky as most will just take you to a nearby hospital.

 

Look at MedJet assist. No medical questions until age 75:

 

https://medjetassist.com/medjetassist

 

This will take you your home hospital if you are medically able to. I personally find the need to buy 2 seperate policies. I buy Allianz for medical and Medjet Assist for evacuation. Allianz will get me to a nearby facility and Medjet will get my to my home hospital.

 

If you have AARP, you can get a discount so make sure to mention that. My Mom was always cheaper then I was due to this discount. Age 75 is tricky so I would call them about that.

 

I buy Allianz from my agent and her policy is different than what you see on their website.

 

Thanks, Coral. I looked at medjetassist and discounted it because it didn't include medical. I'll check with my agent (who is also your agent!) about the Allianz policy.

[chisoxfan]

OTOH, looking at my Chase Sapphire Reserve coverage book, "Trip Delay Reimbursement" would apply but that is limited to $500. It covers meals, lodging, and personal use items with all that preceded by "including but not limited to" so presumably would also cover transportation to catch up with the ship. "Covered Hazards" includes equipment failure so should cover any non-weather related airline cancellation. But it does require a minimum six hour delay so if you were scheduled to arrive four hours before cruise departure, you'd probably be out of luck. Note that this covers reimbursement of expenses. It will not refund you for a lost day or two of the cruise.

 

Unfortunately, in the insurance world, words don't always mean what we think they mean. As I understand it:

Trip Cancellation: refunds your non-refundable expenses if you have to cancel the trip entirely for a covered reason prior to departure

 

Trip Interruption: refunds your non-refundable or non-cancellable expenses for a portion of the trip you have to miss for a covered reason

Trip Delay: reimburses you for your expenses due to being delayed but does not refund other pre-paid expenses

 

Putting that together, if, for instance, weather shuts down an airport and as a result, you spend a night in an unexpected city and then catch up with the cruise a day late, trip interruption would reimburse you for the lost cruise night while trip delay would reimburse you for the expenses of the unexpected night.

 

Yes, on board with you. The key point seeming to be that trip interruption and cancellation (the poster was complaining about a trip interruption) only recognize flight cancellation by weather or strike. Trip delay is another 'category' that the poster may have been eligible. The trip delay clauses that I have seen usually assign hours of delay before a claim can be made.

 

Thankfully we have only once been close to using insurance. We were on a Jan cruise and as is typical fly the night before. A sudden blizzard came up and the airport was closed. I learned a middle of the night flight was scheduled to Tampa (we had checked into a Marriott with some points) and I elected to take it and then fly from Tampa to FLL the morning of our cruise. Everything worked OK I just burned some Marriott points (MDW and Tampa). Based on my actions I am not sure there was an insurance event. If I had waited for a next day flight to FLL I could have claimed trip delay to pay for hotel but we felt better not chancing a morning flight. That said I really don't know what the limits (if any) that would be imposed on the delayed hotel charge ie. if you book a Ritz Carlton by the airport vs a Hotel 8 would it be covered? Anyway more questions seem to come up as travel insurance is scrutinized.

[Coral]

Thanks, Coral. I looked at medjetassist and discounted it because it didn't include medical. I'll check with my agent (who is also your agent!) about the Allianz policy.

 

Due to my Mom's unusual situation, I had to research insurance quite a bit. Her Allianz policy is amazing. The evacuation is always tricky though as it may just take you to the best local hospital. I think it may ultimately evacuate you back home if need be for long term care but that wasn't good enough to me. I needed to know I could get my Mom back home. For me, it was a small price to pay for peace of mind. Insurance is always tricky, as this thread as shown.

 

I often was triple insured as I had to take into account my Mom's Seeing Eye dog and the fact that she may not have been able to travel. Eventually Allianz changed their policy to cover if Service dogs couldn't travel, then we could cancel. Confusing!

[princess09]

Due to my Mom's unusual situation, I had to research insurance quite a bit. Her Allianz policy is amazing. The evacuation is always tricky though as it may just take you to the best local hospital. I think it may ultimately evacuate you back home if need be for long term care but that wasn't good enough to me. I needed to know I could get my Mom back home. For me, it was a small price to pay for peace of mind. Insurance is always tricky, as this thread as shown.

 

I often was triple insured as I had to take into account my Mom's Seeing Eye dog and the fact that she may not have been able to travel. Eventually Allianz changed their policy to cover if Service dogs couldn't travel, then we could cancel. Confusing!

 

I agree that insurance is worth peace of mind. That's definitely part of why we buy any insurance.

Will "Our" agent know the Allianz policy you refer to or does it have a name?

Thanks again, Coral.

[Coral]

I agree that insurance is worth peace of mind. That's definitely part of why we buy any insurance.

Will "Our" agent know the Allianz policy you refer to or does it have a name?

Thanks again, Coral.

 

It is her standard Allianz policy that she sells. I like it also since it covers pre-existing conditions when bought at final payment. For me, it also covers job issues in case I can't go due to job situation.

[esper10]

OTOH, looking at my Chase Sapphire Reserve coverage book, "Trip Delay Reimbursement" would apply but that is limited to $500. It covers meals, lodging, and personal use items with all that preceded by "including but not limited to" so presumably would also cover transportation to catch up with the ship. "Covered Hazards" includes equipment failure so should cover any non-weather related airline cancellation. But it does require a minimum six hour delay so if you were scheduled to arrive four hours before cruise departure, you'd probably be out of luck. Note that this covers reimbursement of expenses. It will not refund you for a lost day or two of the cruise.

 

Unfortunately, in the insurance world, words don't always mean what we think they mean. As I understand it:

Trip Cancellation: refunds your non-refundable expenses if you have to cancel the trip entirely for a covered reason prior to departure

 

Trip Interruption: refunds your non-refundable or non-cancellable expenses for a portion of the trip you have to miss for a covered reason

Trip Delay: reimburses you for your expenses due to being delayed but does not refund other pre-paid expenses

 

Putting that together, if, for instance, weather shuts down an airport and as a result, you spend a night in an unexpected city and then catch up with the cruise a day late, trip interruption would reimburse you for the lost cruise night while trip delay would reimburse you for the expenses of the unexpected night.

 

I’m also one of those people who have hard time finding the insurance that will give me the evaluation interspersed package. I also have the chase sapphire reserve I wonder if the insurance company that they deal with have this kind of coverage that we can buy? Any one tried calling them? I will after the new year. I read all these many threads regarding the insurance yet I have hard time finding the one that is not very expensive and that will come through in time of need. I’m 60 and my mom who I cruise with is 84

[Judyl]

I hate Nationwide. I had my mortgage with them and also pet insurance with them. I hated dealing with them.

 

I agree - read the fine print. I had some unusual situations that I had to insure vacations for so I read a lot of fine print. Though - it is impossible to predict every future incident to insurance against. Best we can do is try to insure against most situations.

 

Sorry about your experience. I would have thought that would have been covered also.

 

Have you found a policy that would cover a canc lied flight? I would be interested in finding a policy that covers that

[Judyl]

WOW - I would have thought that would be covered - your flight was canceled - not like you missed it - you never had a chance!

 

My thoughts exactly.

[Judyl]

I am sorry for your bad experience and what appears to be poor customer service but damming the insurance company and the broker out of hand without more facts seems unwarranted. I reviewed the terms of the Chase travel interruption coverage and it states that cancelled airline flight would only be covered because of weather (no doubt comment regarding airport being shut down) or because of strike.

I am thinking that this language would not be atypical in trip coverage.

With this in mind I am assuming that you left yourself with no real options outside of this one flight to get to the cruise port on time .

Many posters have suggested to arrive the night before departure along with checking alternative travel later in the day or early the following day as a 'back up' plan.

Blaming this situation completely on a reputable insurance company and broker based upon 'what you thought' was covered and not examining your planning may be an unfair shot. JMHO

 

Therefore my admonition to read the fine print and not just assume something is covered as I, and I'm willing to bet, many others like me have done.

We could not fly into San Juan a day early, as there were few to no hotel rooms available. We always book the first flight of the day in case a situation like this arises. This was a 6am flight, but unfortunately, it was the only flight.

We offered to drive as far as Atlanta to get a flight out, but no availability was found. I guess flying during the holidays is iffy. There were not many flights going to San Juan, as it doesn't have a lot of tourism while recovering from the hurricane.

I do appreciate your suggestions as to what I could have done differently.

Just sharing an unfortunate situation.

[stevenr597]

Two weeks before our Trans-Atlantic on MS Royal Princess, my wife developed a retinal eye tear. Needless to say, we had to cancel our trip at the last minute (I am sure somebody was upgraded to a fantastic cabin). We did have trip insurance which reimbursed us for the entire amount. Will never travel without it.

[ebeluga]

Just enrolled in Medicare so we lost international coverage.We are doing 2 Princess cruises next year with a total insurance cost of approximately $700.We are purchasing an annual Blue Cross-Blue Shield(Geo-Blu plan)for $220pp for $250,000 of medical and $500,000 of evacuation.We also have some international coverage on our Plan F Medicare supplements.We do not care about losing the cruise cost,luggage or trip interruption as that is something we self insure.After over 50 cruises that cost would have been enormous.We carry higher deductibles on all of our other insurance.I have been selling insurance since since 1975 and feel I understand the risks.JMHO!

 

Hello,

Sorry to resurrect an old thread and with yet another insurance question. Just looked up insuremytripdotcom and found three flavors of Geo-Blue, voyager essential, trekker essential and trekker choice, with the last two being multi-trip coverage and 70 day max per trip. Are these two the annual policy that you spoke of? I have Blue Cross HMO commercial plan (employer sponsored) that offers emergency medical as primary but I would have to call a global assistance number first in the event of an emergency. The Geo-Blues are secondary and direct pay/billing. Does it mean no reimbursement is involved?

 

Thanks very much in advance for any clarification and sharing your experience.

[johnmik1]

Hello,

Sorry to resurrect an old thread and with yet another insurance question. Just looked up insuremytripdotcom and found three flavors of Geo-Blue, voyager essential, trekker essential and trekker choice, with the last two being multi-trip coverage and 70 day max per trip. Are these two the annual policy that you spoke of? I have Blue Cross HMO commercial plan (employer sponsored) that offers emergency medical as primary but I would have to call a global assistance number first in the event of an emergency. The Geo-Blues are secondary and direct pay/billing. Does it mean no reimbursement is involved?

 

Thanks very much in advance for any clarification and sharing your experience.

The Voyager plans are single trip plans and the Trekker plans are annual plans that cover all your trips with the Essential covering up to $250,000 Med and $500,000 of evacuation and the Choice covering $50,000 of Med and $250,000 of evacuation.These plans are throughly explained on my business website that should be in my signature.Our actual cost was $390 per year for the higher plan.I can’t advise you how the coverage dovetails with an HMO without reviewing your specific plan.I have been an insurance broker for 43 years but things change so often Ithat I can’t give you a specific answer.Good Luck,John

[ebeluga]

The Voyager plans are single trip plans and the Trekker plans are annual plans that cover all your trips with the Essential covering up to $250,000 Med and $500,000 of evacuation and the Choice covering $50,000 of Med and $250,000 of evacuation.These plans are throughly explained on my business website that should be in my signature.Our actual cost was $390 per year for the higher plan.I can’t advise you how the coverage dovetails with an HMO without reviewing your specific plan.I have been an insurance broker for 43 years but things change so often Ithat I can’t give you a specific answer.Good Luck,John

 

Thank you for your quick response. I'm much more comfortable now with the information and understand the Essential and Choice coverage difference after visiting the geoblue web site and your explanation.

[AZ Karaoke Girl]

I have mixed- feelings. I've bought many insurance policies for cruises and I've only used it once. I was hit by a bicyclist in Ft Lauderdale the night before a cruise. Trip to ER, stitches in my head, CT scan, staph infection that required surgery after the cruise. All in all, the insurance covered only $1200 of my out of pocket $1800 or so of expenses that my health insurance would not cover. I'm glad I had it for this trip but the insurance only covered the one week of my cruise. If I had selected the start date as the boarding the ship date, I would have been SOL but I started for the day I traveled to Ft Lauderdale. It also did not cover the one year worth of after care I received treating my head wound. I still went on my cruise but it was a little hairy as I was very dizzy, head still bleeding, infirmary visit to stop the bleeding etc. Not a good thing. However, with over 20 cruises in my history that is a lot of money paid in insurance and probably spent more than the $1200 I collected from insurance on my claim. The hoops I had to jump through to prove my expenses was ridiculous and hardly worth it.

[cr8tiv1]

I have mixed- feelings. I've bought many insurance policies for cruises and I've only used it once. I was hit by a bicyclist in Ft Lauderdale the night before a cruise. Trip to ER, stitches in my head, CT scan, staph infection that required surgery after the cruise. All in all, the insurance covered only $1200 of my out of pocket $1800 or so of expenses that my health insurance would not cover. I'm glad I had it for this trip but the insurance only covered the one week of my cruise. If I had selected the start date as the boarding the ship date, I would have been SOL but I started for the day I traveled to Ft Lauderdale. It also did not cover the one year worth of after care I received treating my head wound. I still went on my cruise but it was a little hairy as I was very dizzy, head still bleeding, infirmary visit to stop the bleeding etc. Not a good thing. However, with over 20 cruises in my history that is a lot of money paid in insurance and probably spent more than the $1200 I collected from insurance on my claim. The hoops I had to jump through to prove my expenses was ridiculous and hardly worth it.

 

I hope you are doing well and have recovered. Just curious how come the bicyclist was not faulted and made to pay your medical bills? Just out of curiosity...was he on the sidewalk?

[AZ Karaoke Girl]

I hope you are doing well and have recovered. Just curious how come the bicyclist was not faulted and made to pay your medical bills? Just out of curiosity...was he on the sidewalk?

I'm ok now other than a really nasty scar that my hairdresser sees. The bicyclist was cited but not held accountable for the claim because he was a foreigner. :mad: I had no way to go after him for my bills. No address. Cop said he fingerprinted him. So what. Made me so mad that I had to pay for this. I was walking on the sidewalk across the 17th street bridge. He was riding his bike on the sidewalk not the bike lane that is on the other side of the concrete wall where he should have been. He was using a rented bike and he said he didn't have any brakes so he couldn't slow down and he was weaving in between pedestrians. By the time I saw him, it was too late. Knocked me off my feet and I landed straight on my back on the sidewalk. He stuck around and he felt bad but he was the last of my concerns at that point. I thought I was going to die. He hit me at about 35mph and I flew backwards. Those bikes I believe you are supposed to back pedal to slow down - no hand brakes and apparently he wasn't educated on how to use them.

[nini]

AZ Karaoke Girl-

We just completed an East Coast/ Canada cruise on Princess. The Captain regretfully

woke us early because we needed to stop in the Atlantic so someone could be medevaced

off of the ship and taken to receive more care than the ship could provided. This was very involved and the passenger was fortunate as the Canadian Coast Guard was able to do this. It was windy and raining. This is not a cheap process.

When we did the Panama Canal full transit, we were delayed a couple of times, due to passengers needing medical care. One was transported to a helicopter to be flown to Mexico City. We were currently in port in Central America. This delayed us about 3 hours from leaving the port.

After reading stories like this, we always purchase Travel Insurance even though we have a maximum of 50K International coverage through our Medicare Supplement (that is a lifetime max.)