Buying platinum coverage before final payment

[satxdiver]

Since before final payment, Princess will cancel the cruise and return all funds paid up until that time.  So no risk if one has to cancel before final payment.  If the OP wants to pay some funds before final payment, then simply put it against the final payment.  Insurance does not start until final payment including insurance is paid.  Maybe I am missing something here but all payments made before final payment will decrease the final payment and the funds will be returned if the pax has to cancel due to a medical emergency or any other reason. 

[cherylandtk]

1 hour ago, voljeep said:

if you make a designated payment for insurance, do you get that money back if you cancel prior to final payment?

 

No, because your insurance coverage starts at payment.  Since you are already using it, it will not be refunded if you cancel.

[cherylandtk]

23 minutes ago, satxdiver said:

Since before final payment, Princess will cancel the cruise and return all funds paid up until that time.  So no risk if one has to cancel before final payment.  If the OP wants to pay some funds before final payment, then simply put it against the final payment.  Insurance does not start until final payment including insurance is paid.  Maybe I am missing something here but all payments made before final payment will decrease the final payment and the funds will be returned if the pax has to cancel due to a medical emergency or any other reason. 

What you might be missing is that a medical problem which occurs after final might be traced back to a routine doctor appointment that occurred prior to final payment and would thus be excluded from insurance coverage. If you have to cancel under those circumstances, you lose with almost all third party insurances. (Princess does have CFAR credit).

 

And I will also repeat my post above, insurance coverage starts when you pay for it.  The medical reason for cancellation part is why you do this. The travel part is still the dates of travel.  

Edited May 25, 2019 by cherylandtk

[Coral]

2 hours ago, cherylandtk said:

 

And I will also repeat my post above, insurance coverage starts when you pay for it.  The medical reason for cancellation part is why you do this. The travel part is still the dates of travel.  

Exactly.

 

Insurance can be complicated.

[LoriPhil]

Private trip insurance might not refund but If booking Princess platinum you will get full refund if you cancel prior to final payment.  At least that has been our experience on two occasions.  Rules might be impacted if you have nonrefundable deposit (we don’t have experience with those).   Recommend calling Princess directly to verify, but maybe talk to someone other than your PCC if they seem uncertain about the rules.

Edited May 25, 2019 by LoriPhil

[happy cruzer]

Princess Plat has the Cancel for any reason which is a cruise credit, not refund.  But what many want is medical coverage during a trip for a condition that was stable for 60 days that is why they are looking at paying the insurance early.

 

Read the details in the policies.  Every case is different, don't assume.

 

We like Geo Blue for medical and our credit card for trip insurance.  But everyone is different.

Edited May 26, 2019 by happy cruzer

[Coral]

14 hours ago, LoriPhil said:

Private trip insurance might not refund but If booking Princess platinum you will get full refund if you cancel prior to final payment.  At least that has been our experience on two occasions.  Rules might be impacted if you have nonrefundable deposit (we don’t have experience with those).   Recommend calling Princess directly to verify, but maybe talk to someone other than your PCC if they seem uncertain about the rules.

My current agent sells a policy that I can buy at final payment so it has been awhile since I have had to deal with this. Previously, when we had to buy insurance within 14 days and if we cancelled the trip before final payment, a lot of the 3rd party policies allowed me to move our money towards the policy to another trip's insurance policy. I assume this is still true as I have read others have done the same thing recently.

Edited May 26, 2019 by Coral

[peanutter]

OP here - back with a little update.

 

I waited until after the holiday to call Princess.  Today, I talked with 'Samantha' all of 5 minutes and in a nutshell, my vacation protection has now been purchased.  She could not convert or recode the $200 I already paid from the "general fund" to specifically pay for the insurance.  However, I allowed them to charge my card for the specific $155.04 that covers the insurance cost.  My reservation now says our vacation protection has been purchased.

 

Lesson learned - I should have called them in the first place and talked with a real person to have them process things correctly on their side.  I also need to work with a different PCC!  

 

Thank you all so much for the helpful information.  I will look into other insurance options in the future.  I have checked out different companies in the past but found them much more expensive than Princess.  We are 55 (me) and 64 (DH) and have just a few health issues - nothing terribly daunting but we would be considered at a higher risk than, say, a couple of 25 year olds on their honeymoon.  Anyway, a lot to think about for future cruises (especially anything 1/2 way around the world instead of this NY to FL trip).

 

Thanks again and happy sailing!

[LoriPhil]

Thank you for sharing resolution of this!  Hope you never need to use it, but it’s one less thing to sweat now.

[BoopTennis]

What happens if I pay for my Princess insurance prior to final payment (in order to start the 60 day look back period) but then later refare the cabin price to take advantage of a better Princess price or promotion? Still all before final payment. But will such a refare mess up my Princess insurance? Lose it or change the date for lookback period? I have booked directly with Princess, not through a TA. 

[Coral]

39 minutes ago, BoopTennis said:

What happens if I pay for my Princess insurance prior to final payment (in order to start the 60 day look back period) but then later refare the cabin price to take advantage of a better Princess price or promotion? Still all before final payment. But will such a refare mess up my Princess insurance? Lose it or change the date for lookback period? I have booked directly with Princess, not through a TA. 

I can tell you that I paid for my cruise a week before final payment with insurance. My cruise fare went down on the real final payment date. My TA did re-fare my cruise (I lost a lot of OBC but it was worth it) and my Princess insurance went down in price. Princess refunded my credit card for the difference in price of the insurance (plus the cruise cost).

[Coral]

2 hours ago, peanutter said:

OP here - back with a little update.

 

I waited until after the holiday to call Princess.  Today, I talked with 'Samantha' all of 5 minutes and in a nutshell, my vacation protection has now been purchased.  She could not convert or recode the $200 I already paid from the "general fund" to specifically pay for the insurance.  However, I allowed them to charge my card for the specific $155.04 that covers the insurance cost.  My reservation now says our vacation protection has been purchased.

 

Lesson learned - I should have called them in the first place and talked with a real person to have them process things correctly on their side.  I also need to work with a different PCC!  

 

Thank you all so much for the helpful information.  I will look into other insurance options in the future.  I have checked out different companies in the past but found them much more expensive than Princess.  We are 55 (me) and 64 (DH) and have just a few health issues - nothing terribly daunting but we would be considered at a higher risk than, say, a couple of 25 year olds on their honeymoon.  Anyway, a lot to think about for future cruises (especially anything 1/2 way around the world instead of this NY to FL trip).

 

Thanks again and happy sailing!

Thank you for the update. This is what I was expecting. I agree - I am more concerned about insurance when in Europe, etc... compared to a Canada NE or Alaska cruise. Glad you didn't have to ask for a supervisor and glad you got your look back period going.

Edited May 28, 2019 by Coral

[BoopTennis]

12 hours ago, Coral said:

I can tell you that I paid for my cruise a week before final payment with insurance. My cruise fare went down on the real final payment date. My TA did re-fare my cruise (I lost a lot of OBC but it was worth it) and my Princess insurance went down in price. Princess refunded my credit card for the difference in price of the insurance (plus the cruise cost).

Thx- did the start date or “purchase date” for your insurance change?

[Coral]

1 hour ago, BoopTennis said:

Thx- did the start date or “purchase date” for your insurance change?

I honestly do not know. I double insured that trip so I had Allianz insurance also that would have covered my pre-existing conditions.

 

I assume it went off the day I purchased the insurance which would have been the week before when I made final payment. I then received a refund as opposed to having to pay more.

[peanutter]

Well, I have yet another update on my Princess communications regarding insurance.  I couldn't help myself and ended up emailing my original PCC to let her know what I experienced with their "call-in" customer service. . . . .that the phone rep allowed me to buy the insurance ahead of final payment and told me my record showed the insurance as being purchased.  The PCC doubled down on her stance - in an extremely nice way - and promised the pre-existing condition look-back will be from final payment regardless of how much I have paid before hand.  The following is part of her email to me:

 

You can always prepay your vacation protection ahead of time but you are not covered for preexisting medical conditions. Your vacation protection will not take effect until the policy starts at final payment. You are not locked into any preexisting for 60 days.  

 

I am sorry that you got mis leading information but I would suggest you call Aon Affinity directly and get the information directly from them. They are very good at explaining it.

 

I spoke to Aon Affinity for a long time this morning regarding this and they said you would be covered for medical on August 2^nd when final payment is due, not before.

 

FWIW, I did not call Aon myself to confirm.  I'm just not as concerned with this trip as I would be on a more extended or distant local.  However, I will do as advised and research more on our insurance board here and may look at outside trip insurance for future cruises.   

[karatemom2]

Just be aware if you are buying airfare through Princess EZ Air that you pay up front - it will not be covered by your Platinum Insurance if you have to cancel despite anything they tell you to the contrary. I will never buy air through Princess again - but if I did I would take out a separate policy to cover the air fare. In our case, we were told the Platinum Insurance would cover the entire cost, including airfare. We had to cancel prior to final payment and didn't even realize we hadn't been charged for the insurance and because of that we got our cruise deposit back, but lost our airfare. It was a costly lesson learned.

Edited June 3, 2019 by karatemom2

[Coral]

4 minutes ago, karatemom2 said:

Just be aware if you are buying airfare through Princess EZ Air that you pay up front - it will not be covered by your Platinum Insurance if you have to cancel despite anything they tell you to the contrary. I will never buy air through Princess again - but if I did I would take out a separate policy to cover the air fare. In our case, we were told the Platinum Insurance would cover the entire cost, including airfare. We had to cancel prior to final payment and didn't even realize we hadn't been charged for the insurance and because of that we got our cruise deposit back, but lost our airfare. It was a costly lesson learned.

I wonder if you pay for Princess insurance at deposit, if it would have been covered. Thinking out loud. Thanks for advance warning.

[Coral]

1 hour ago, peanutter said:

Well, I have yet another update on my Princess communications regarding insurance.  I couldn't help myself and ended up emailing my original PCC to let her know what I experienced with their "call-in" customer service. . . . .that the phone rep allowed me to buy the insurance ahead of final payment and told me my record showed the insurance as being purchased.  The PCC doubled down on her stance - in an extremely nice way - and promised the pre-existing condition look-back will be from final payment regardless of how much I have paid before hand.  The following is part of her email to me:

 

You can always prepay your vacation protection ahead of time but you are not covered for preexisting medical conditions. Your vacation protection will not take effect until the policy starts at final payment. You are not locked into any preexisting for 60 days.  

 

I am sorry that you got mis leading information but I would suggest you call Aon Affinity directly and get the information directly from them. They are very good at explaining it.

 

I spoke to Aon Affinity for a long time this morning regarding this and they said you would be covered for medical on August 2^nd when final payment is due, not before.

 

FWIW, I did not call Aon myself to confirm.  I'm just not as concerned with this trip as I would be on a more extended or distant local.  However, I will do as advised and research more on our insurance board here and may look at outside trip insurance for future cruises.   

I hate Princess's look back period and buy 3rd party because of it. Their wording is so confusing.

 

I think you understand the policy correctly. It is how Aon explained it to me. I agree - when it is really important, definitely investigate insurance options.

 

She is sort of mixing words. This is from the policy: 

 

When Coverage Begins

All coverages will take effect on the later of: 1) the date the plan payment has been received by Princess Cruises and/or Princess Tours; 2) the date and time you start your Covered Cruise Vacation; or 3) 12:01 A.M. Standard Time on the Scheduled Departure Date of your Covered Cruise Vacation.

[karatemom2]

4 minutes ago, Coral said:

I wonder if you pay for Princess insurance at deposit, if it would have been covered. Thinking out loud. Thanks for advance warning.

 

You would have thought so - I gave them my credit card with the expectation they would be charging us for the deposit and insurance. But they only charged the deposit. After the fact when we were going through the cancellation process and they told me they don't charge for the insurance until final payment. Which begs the question - why did you tell me our airfare booked through you would be covered? They were never able to answer that - but boy did they stick to their guns about not covering our air fare! We did get a lovely letter of apology and future cruise credit. It took me a long while to forgive Princess but overall I love their product which is why we are back cruising with them - but it still upsets me the entire way it was handled.

[Coral]

9 minutes ago, karatemom2 said:

 

You would have thought so - I gave them my credit card with the expectation they would be charging us for the deposit and insurance. But they only charged the deposit. After the fact when we were going through the cancellation process and they told me they don't charge for the insurance until final payment. Which begs the question - why did you tell me our airfare booked through you would be covered? They were never able to answer that - but boy did they stick to their guns about not covering our air fare! We did get a lovely letter of apology and future cruise credit. It took me a long while to forgive Princess but overall I love their product which is why we are back cruising with them - but it still upsets me the entire way it was handled.

You can pay for insurance up front but you do have to specify as such. After saying that, I don't know if it would cover your air. I assume it will but would want to double check.