My Travel Insurance is Useless!

[Cruising-along]

16 minutes ago, Coral said:

Wow. Through all this, for me, they were the easiest company to deal with. If you have a TA and purchased through them, I would have them advocate for you.

It's in the hands of our credit card company now. 

[Coral]

2 hours ago, Cruising-along said:

It's in the hands of our credit card company now. 

Another way to resolve the issue 🙂

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, Coral said:

Wow. Through all this, for me, they were the easiest company to deal with. If you have a TA and purchased through them, I would have them advocate for you.

Different state with different laws and different company, but when we cancelled our cruise (before the cruise line did), we let the TA submit the paperwork. We only had a refundable deposit (which we are still waiting for), but the insurance company refunded their charge which was actually more than the deposit. It only took a matter of a few weeks from the submission to the credit showing up on my credit card.

 

There is no reason  not to let your TA work for you (unless of course you do not use one.)

[Shmoo here]

5 hours ago, KirkNC said:

So you do a rant post BEFORE you even contacted them.  I don’t understand.....

That's the way we do things here on the boards, don't 'cha know?

[SilvertoGold]

All this is very instructive.  Our cruise was cancelled by HAL after 4 pm on a Friday.  We had to give our insurance company notice that we wanted to cancel the travel medical insurance before the effective date, the Saturday.  Of course they were closed all weekend.  When we phoned Monday morning, thinking it a long shot that we could get a refund, no problems and we had the credit on our CC by noon on Tuesday.  

How these insurance companies work is beyond me.  Good service, atrocious service: it really makes a difference.

 

By the way, we purchase basic policies that have $1M medevac, $1M medical insurance and no deductible.

Edited May 15, 2020 by SilvertoGold

[wyobean]

32 minutes ago, SilvertoGold said:

 

By the way, we purchase basic policies that have $1M medevac, $1M medical insurance and no deductible.

Can I ask what company do you use?

[SilvertoGold]

3 hours ago, wyobean said:

Can I ask what company do you use?

 

A Canadian company, so not what you would be able to deal with. Sorry!

[Gigi1977]

7 hours ago, Hlitner said:

And yes, we do buy an annual travel medical plan that gives us up to $250,000 or medical and $500,000 of evacuation.  While we are willing to gamble (self insure) on cancellation we will not take chances on medical where our potential liability is unlimited. 

 

Curious.  What company do you use for annual? 

[Hlitner]

9 hours ago, Gigi1977 said:

Curious.  What company do you use for annual? 

GeoBlue.

 

Hank

[puppycanducruise]

14 hours ago, SilvertoGold said:

 

 

By the way, we purchase basic policies that have $1M medevac, $1M medical insurance and no deductible.

Another Canadian here.  Curious, what company do you use?  We have some insurance with hubby's work, but would like to make sure we are covered.

[billet]

I think you need to change the title to something positive since you now have money back. 

[Turtles06]

45 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

GeoBlue.

 

Hank

 

Have you ever had to file a claim with them?  If so, were things handled promptly and well?

[Krazy Kruizers]

Glad it worked out to your satisfaction. 

 

I would not buy insurance from that company -- I have heard too many complaints about them. 

[boards]

We recently had need to make claims for health insurance and for travel cost insurance and both insurance company's used Allianx for their service.  The claims were settled to our satisfaction we are happy to say.  However with our age and the experience we have no plans to cruise again.  We will now just enjoy the memories and friendships we have.

[PROCRUISE]

20 hours ago, Gigi1977 said:

I have been burned by Allianz twice.   Never again.   I know some people think that HAL Platinum is ‘not enough’ but I’ve never been burned by them AND they have refunded my premium paid when they didn’t sail.  1. Cuba 2. Japan 3. Alaska.   Will continue to use HAL Platinum.  Just my two cents worth.   Have a great day!   
 

Ready to sail again!  

You can add us to the never again with Allianz and our TA too.

Purchased insurance with them for a cruise. Cancelled that cruise but switch to another cruise line with same identical dates, same length and departure/return ports. Our TA contacted Allianz to simply switch the coverage to the new cruise. NO - they would only allow a change if it was the same cruise line and NO they would NOT refund our paid fee. Don't use Allianz! They also lost our TA's business who said she had never run into this situation with any insurance company before and would certainly never them again.

[HokiePoq]

25 minutes ago, PROCRUISE said:

You can add us to the never again with Allianz and our TA too.

Purchased insurance with them for a cruise. Cancelled that cruise but switch to another cruise line with same identical dates, same length and departure/return ports. Our TA contacted Allianz to simply switch the coverage to the new cruise. NO - they would only allow a change if it was the same cruise line and NO they would NOT refund our paid fee. Don't use Allianz! They also lost our TA's business who said she had never run into this situation with any insurance company before and would certainly never them again.

Wow!  Thanks for sharing this.   I purchase insurance through our TA and it has been rolled over to a different trip several times.  For our recently cancelled trip we received a full refund without requesting it.

 

[Hlitner]

6 hours ago, Turtles06 said:

 

Have you ever had to file a claim with them?  If so, were things handled promptly and well?

Yes, a very complex claim for which we posted the tale in the Cruise Insurance Blog.  DW injured her leg (severely) in Vietnam and I managed to get her back to the Golden Princess where she received several days of treatment from the ship's able physician.  But he was unable to deal with the severity and arranged an emergency appointment at a major teaching hospital in Osaka, Japan where DW spent nearly 8 hours being treated and receiving outpatient surgery.  The back to the ship for a few more days and ultimately she had to be medically evacuated from Yokohama (Tokyo) back to the USA.  GeoBlue paid her $10,000 evacuation cost (Delta One Suite) and covered and reimbursed us all the medical expenses.  Once I filed the complicated paper claim (with over 50 pages of backup documents) we were reimbursed within 3 weeks.  The evacuation cost was actually paid directly by GeoBlue as they arranged to book the flights (a 3 party call between us on the ship, our GeoBlue Case Manager, and their own travel agent.

 

One nice touch is that several days after we were home I received a call from the GeoBlue nurse/case manager inquiring into DW's condition.   It ultimately took 2 more trips to the OR and nearly 3 months until she recovered.  Our physicians here in the US credited the initial care on the ship and world-class treatment at Osaka General Medical Center with saving DW's leg.

 

As to the insurance, I actually telephoned them from the hospital in Osaka while my wife was being treated in the nearby procedure room.  From that point there were many more phone calls involving us, the ship's physician and the GeoBlue nurse case Manager.  I had spent a life time in the Medical Insurance (government) industry and did understand that complex claims were best handled by getting the insurance company involved at the earliest possible stage.  

 

One interesting facet of that incident was the fear, by both GeoBlue and myself that Delta Airlines would refuse to fly DW back to the USA.  Since this involved a 10 hour non-stop flight over the North Pacific, pilots tend to be careful about taking a medical case.  Fortunately, the pilot had no objections although he did pay us a very subtle visit prior to takeoff (where we assume he carefully appraised the situation).  If Delta had refused the transport, DW would have likely needed a medical evac aircraft from Japan to the USA. which would have likely cost more than $50,000.

 

Hank

[Turtles06]

44 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

Yes, a very complex claim for which we posted the tale in the Cruise Insurance Blog. 

 

Hank, thanks for the detailed reply.   I'm glad all the insurance stuff worked out well, and, even more important, that your wife received excellent care and recovered from her injuries.

 

We have MedJet, which of course is only evac coverage, and we get travel insurance with medical coverage for each trip, but I've seen the GeoBlue name and have intended to look into it, so I appreciate your reply.    

[rkacruiser]

For reasons different that the OP, I have become no fan of Allianz.  I won't be patronizing them again, either.

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, Hlitner said:

Yes, a very complex claim for which we posted the tale in the Cruise Insurance Blog.  DW injured her leg (severely) in Vietnam and I managed to get her back to the Golden Princess where she received several days of treatment from the ship's able physician.  But he was unable to deal with the severity and arranged an emergency appointment at a major teaching hospital in Osaka, Japan where DW spent nearly 8 hours being treated and receiving outpatient surgery.  The back to the ship for a few more days and ultimately she had to be medically evacuated from Yokohama (Tokyo) back to the USA.  GeoBlue paid her $10,000 evacuation cost (Delta One Suite) and covered and reimbursed us all the medical expenses.  Once I filed the complicated paper claim (with over 50 pages of backup documents) we were reimbursed within 3 weeks.  The evacuation cost was actually paid directly by GeoBlue as they arranged to book the flights (a 3 party call between us on the ship, our GeoBlue Case Manager, and their own travel agent.

 

One nice touch is that several days after we were home I received a call from the GeoBlue nurse/case manager inquiring into DW's condition.   It ultimately took 2 more trips to the OR and nearly 3 months until she recovered.  Our physicians here in the US credited the initial care on the ship and world-class treatment at Osaka General Medical Center with saving DW's leg.

 

As to the insurance, I actually telephoned them from the hospital in Osaka while my wife was being treated in the nearby procedure room.  From that point there were many more phone calls involving us, the ship's physician and the GeoBlue nurse case Manager.  I had spent a life time in the Medical Insurance (government) industry and did understand that complex claims were best handled by getting the insurance company involved at the earliest possible stage.  

 

One interesting facet of that incident was the fear, by both GeoBlue and myself that Delta Airlines would refuse to fly DW back to the USA.  Since this involved a 10 hour non-stop flight over the North Pacific, pilots tend to be careful about taking a medical case.  Fortunately, the pilot had no objections although he did pay us a very subtle visit prior to takeoff (where we assume he carefully appraised the situation).  If Delta had refused the transport, DW would have likely needed a medical evac aircraft from Japan to the USA. which would have likely cost more than $50,000.

 

Hank

Very glad this worked out for you and especially for your DW.

 

It should remind everyone how important medical insurance is for a cruise.