DO NOT Buy Trip Insurance offered through Viking !

[TERRIER1]

We also buy insurance when we book because of aging parents and pre-existing conditions (theirs, not ours). However, we cover only the deposit that we have paid, that is $500pp. If we buy our own flights, we then raise the coverage to cover that amount as well. When we make our final payment, we raise the amount to cover the entire cost of the trip.

 

+1. This is also how I do it now. Taking the insurance out within 15 days of booking covers pre-existing medical conditions but you don't have to take insurance out on the full amount of the the trip - only the deposit. You increase the insurance as you add non-refundable costs. I was advised NEVER to take insurance out with carrier but to do it insure independently or through your TA.

[WAVTAM]

We use the Chase Sapphire for trip cancellation, car rentals, and no transaction fees for purchases.

Our multi trip policy is thru GeoBlue, but as noted above is limited to any one single trip of 30 days length. Price for 2 ,in mid 60's was $320 annually.

[BruinBuckeye]

My husband & I made the $1K deposit last week on a Viking Iconic Mediterranean cruise next July. We are super excited to go! We're within the 15 day window & can still do the "cancel for any reason" or "pre-existing conditions" inclusions on insurance. Each of us has an elderly parent, so would it be prudent to buy this type of coverage? We would like to do the phased approach as outlined in some previous messages on this thread.

 

So if we need to cancel due to parental health issues or other valid reason at some point after full cruise payment made, it would potentially cover everything including cruise fare, flights, hotels, etc.? I realize it depends on the inclusions of individual policies. We don't want to pay Viking's prices, and so are working with insuremytrip.com

 

My husband was also asking me about the concept of transferring the insurance to another future cruise. How does that work? Would you lose any money paid toward the cruise you had to cancel? Sorry to be obtuse but we are kind of newbies to this - we previously purchased insurance through cruise carrier or went without... Not a great idea! Any advice would be greatly appreciated. :-)

 

Thanks,

Leslie

[stretchcruz]

Insuremytrip is very helpful and should be able to answer your questions. I've insured over 20 trips with them. I would definitely do the payment within 15 days to get the preexisting coverage. It's your own choice as far as cancel for any reason..from personal experience I can tell you that whenever I've canceled a cruise because I've changed my mind, it has been before the final payment penalty and they have transferred my insurance over to the new cruise. Make sure that you talk to them before you buy to make sure that your coverage is transferable. Since Viking has a nonrefundable $100 deposit you would lose that but could still transfer coverage to your next cruise. The one time I had to cancel a cruise because of emergency surgery I got everything back, including nonrefundable Priceline hotels, etc. Good luck, be sure to talk to insuremytrip before you choose your insurance coverage.

[Saxon830]

My husband & I made the $1K deposit last week on a Viking Iconic Mediterranean cruise next July. We are super excited to go! We're within the 15 day window & can still do the "cancel for any reason" or "pre-existing conditions" inclusions on insurance. Each of us has an elderly parent, so would it be prudent to buy this type of coverage? We would like to do the phased approach as outlined in some previous messages on this thread.

 

So if we need to cancel due to parental health issues or other valid reason at some point after full cruise payment made, it would potentially cover everything including cruise fare, flights, hotels, etc.? I realize it depends on the inclusions of individual policies. We don't want to pay Viking's prices, and so are working with insuremytrip.com

 

My husband was also asking me about the concept of transferring the insurance to another future cruise. How does that work? Would you lose any money paid toward the cruise you had to cancel? Sorry to be obtuse but we are kind of newbies to this - we previously purchased insurance through cruise carrier or went without... Not a great idea! Any advice would be greatly appreciated. :-)

 

Thanks,

Leslie

 

 

 

Last fall my MOL died during the period we would have been on our cruise. We bought the insurance when we booked the cruise. We were told, just days before leaving that my MOL wouldn’t last until our return. We canceled and submitted a claim, by email. In about two weeks,all our funds had been returned to us. We booked the same cruise this fall, lost nothing. No question, we would do it again.

 

 

 

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[Saxon830]

Last fall my MOL died during the period we would have been on our cruise. We bought the insurance when we booked the cruise. We were told, just days before leaving that my MOL wouldn’t last until our return. We canceled and submitted a claim, by email. In about two weeks,all our funds had been returned to us. We booked the same cruise this fall, lost nothing. No question, we would do it again.

 

 

 

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This was through Viking, FYI.

 

 

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[lackcreativity]

This was through Viking, FYI.

 

 

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Thanks for your story, and the clarification that it was through Viking. I really do understand the many reasons why it is advantageous to book through an outside company, but we have used the Viking affiliated company (Trip Mate) mainly for convenience. Our trips are always in the ten to fifteen day range, and we book Veranda cabins, so our costs are at the lower end.

 

We have used Trip Mate on our five plus land tours with Globus, and did have to use them on our first trip to Europe, which was interrupted by food poisoning in Venice. They were excellent to deal with both during the trip and when seeking the reimbursements.

 

Working with Trip Mate, our tour guide arranged for a doctor to come to the hotel room, along with an interpreter. The interpreter remained with my husband to take him through the streets of Venice on a Sunday to find the pharmacy that was open. My husband learned more about daily life for the locals from that experience than we learned during our tour of the city with our local guide. The interpreter made sure we were clear on how to locate the train station and get tickets so that we could rejoin the tour the next day. All in all, while I hope to never repeat that experience, we greatly appreciated the service we received.

[Marykatesmom]

Be sure to check with the agent that the policy is transferable. I moved a cruise more than a year before the final deposit and the insurance company was giving us a hard time about transferring the date, they eventually did but I was surprised because I had done it in the past without issue. I know to now ask insure my trip if the policy is transferable. I can vary depending on the company.

[WAVTAM]

Be sure to check with the agent that the policy is transferable. I moved a cruise more than a year before the final deposit and the insurance company was giving us a hard time about transferring the date, they eventually did but I was surprised because I had done it in the past without issue. I know to now ask insure my trip if the policy is transferable. I can vary depending on the company.

 

 

Just another reason to buy an annual or multi trip policy.

[Marykatesmom]

Just another reason to buy an annual or multi trip policy.

 

I had never heard of an annual policy. Could you direct me to where I can purchase one? I usually get "Cancel for Any Reason" so I doubt there is one available that would include that but I can check it out.

[RDC1]

We purchase trip insurance with a commercial company that does a lot of travel insurance (I don't believe board policy allows me to identify the company), and we purchase it within 15 days of booking the trip, even two years in advance. We do this because we have very elderly parents, and should we need to cancel because of their health, we don't want any argument about an exclusion for pre-existing conditions.

 

I assume that if we cancelled the trip for any reason that was not covered, the insurance company would not refund our premium. I doubt that Viking is doing anything that you could get around with any other insurance company.

 

You can identify and discuss travel insurance companies, you cannot identify or discuss travel agents.

[RDC1]

This is something you may not be aware of this past December we were on a Princess South American 21 day cruise I had to be taken off the ship in Lima Peru as I was having shortness of breath the ship doctor said I needed to see a Cardiologist make a long story short ended up having a heart stint I had no health coverage (I thought) well not true if you have a Medicare supplement through AARP it has $50k coverage for medical emergencies out of the country it paid my $22K at 80% and my credit card paid $5K for trip interruption

 

 

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How was the hospital in Lima?

[Marykatesmom]

Regarding annual plans, it looks like they are limited to medical and medical evacuation.

 

Answer:

 

If you wanted trip protection such as trip cancellation coverage, you would need to purchase a separate policy for each trip. If you were interested in travel medical coverage on an annual basis, we can offer a multi-trip medical plan that provides both medical and medical evacuation when traveling outside of your home country.

[goldenrod]

How was the hospital in Lima?

 

 

 

The hospital in Lima was technically well equipped with all modern up to date equipment the worst part was very few of the staff spoke any English including the doctors if it weren’t for the translation app in my iPhone it would have been a nightmare.

 

 

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[YWW]

I had never heard of an annual policy. Could you direct me to where I can purchase one? I usually get "Cancel for Any Reason" so I doubt there is one available that would include that but I can check it out.

 

You should check with your local TA but a number of insurers sell both a one time use to annual policy. We use Allianz annual policy but the coverage is not as "deluxe" as the one time use policy. We can't cancel with no reasons. Also the trip interruption or trip cancellation coverage is a fixed annual amount meaning that amount is fixed for the entire year and it cannot be revised to a higher amount.

[WAVTAM]

Regarding annual plans, it looks like they are limited to medical and medical evacuation.

 

Answer:

 

 

If you wanted trip protection such as trip cancellation coverage, you would need to purchase a separate policy for each trip. If you were interested in travel medical coverage on an annual basis, we can offer a multi-trip medical plan that provides both medical and medical evacuation when traveling outside of your home country.

 

Annual policy is for medial and evacuation....We use the Chase Reserve for cancellation at any time. Covers up to 10,000 dollars.

[CWB8]

Need to vent just a bit....

 

 

Six months ago (Jan 2018) I booked our 5th & 6th Ocean cruise with Viking. Iceland's Majestic & South American cruises. Bought trip insurance (1st time to purchase it) on both trips.

The South American cruise is Dec, 2019, currently a year and a half from when I write this.

 

 

After thinking about and discussing with wife we considered canceling the S.A. trip. (We got a child starting college....) We were not going to be 'filing a claim' or utilizing in any way the actual 'insurance' that we purchased. This was strictly a voluntary trip cancellation.

 

 

Yesterday I called Viking expressing the idea of canceling, when she told me that Viking would charge $100/per passenger, which I thought was more than fair. Then she told me our entire insurance premium of $1,838 is non-refundable. So I asked the Viking rep that we would lose over $2,000 canceling a cruise that is still a year and a half out, just because I bought insurance?

 

 

Her answer was "That's correct".

 

 

I will be the first to say this is all out of my area of expertise, and maybe I'm looking at this in a completely wrong way. But in my simple mind here is how I see an analogy. If I purchase a home and at the same time I also purchase insurance on this home. And the insurance I buy is a 24 month policy that I pay in one lump sum on day 1.

 

Six months later I sell this home.

 

Would I not be entitled to a return of principle (or a refund) on the remaining, unused 18 months of insurance considering that I'm no longer the owner of this asset?

 

 

This morning I've talked with 'TripMate' (the insurance company Viking uses for this) and the rep (who really didn't know the answer and had to put me on hold to 'ask a supervisor') and said that that is the case. I would lose the entire premium ($1,838) paid up front. It is not prorated.

 

 

We are still booked on the cruise and will not cancel because I'm not going to forfeit over $2,000 just for having a cruise booked for six months (and is still 18 months away)! Just trying to wrap my head around all this.

 

 

Thanks for letting me 'vent'.

We still LOVE Viking........BUT.........IMO, DON'T BUY TRIP INSURANCE THROUGH VIKING.

 

 

We bought our trip insurance via our credit card company/bank; we had to use it when my hubby had a trip to the hospital in Vienna (Romantic Danube river cruise). Research places to buy insurance but definitely get insurance. Our hospital adventure cost us ZERO but we had a ship doctor visit and a taxi to hospital and got reimbursed fully.

[NewLondonNed]

I practiced law representing insurance companies for many years - insurers resist claims and the pre-existing condition exclusion may be construed quite broadly if a medical claim arose and you required medevac - imagine the worry that you could be on the hook for a medevac costing tens of thousands - that pre-existing condition waiver is important!

 

 

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[trav25]

Well... I went on our trip early to Japan. We were visiting a temple when I fell 4 days before our Viking part of the trip began and broke bones in my ankle. I am currently at home with my leg elevated (24 days of elevation so far) after surgery. Submitted claim through Tripmate. I’ll let you know how it goes. 

[nini]

1. It is ok to mention the company.

2. The Trip Insurance Store is a wealth of information!

3. YES! There are annual travel policies!

4. AND- there is a Cruise Insurance Board that is a wealth of information