Cruise insurance payout

[drsel]

1. Has anyone ever received any substantial payout from any Cruise insurance company?

 

2. Have you received a payout under the heading "cancellation for any reason whatsoever"?

[mtwingcpa]

I have received a future cruise CREDIT under a CFAR clause, but not a cash refund (if that's what you're asking).

[Flatbush Flyer]

$20k+ (100% refund) paid by insurer for cruise we had to cancel a few years ago due to non-PEC medical/surgical issue. No CFAR coverage involved. We provided detailed MD letter. 

 

Recently (February/March) collected small $250 for missed port due to weather. It was a replacement port for itinerary modified as Covid during a cruise itinerary modified due to Covid concerns elsewhere. We provided Oceania letter clearly identifying "weather" so there would be no question about Covid relationship.

[cruizergal70]

Tip: if you need to cancel, don't mention Covid. 

[drsel]

I have received a future cruise CREDIT under a CFAR clause, but not a cash refund (if that's what you're asking).

I was talking about cash payment from an insurance company

[drsel]

The question was asked to see if insurance companies are just milking the public OR
actually paying out a lot of money

[Hlitner]

I am going to have a little fun with the OP's question.  Although we cruise and travel a lot (over 6 months in most years) we do not ever buy cancellation insurance!  However, we do always carry a decent travel medical insurance policy (with coverage in excess of $100,000 and $500,000 of evacuation coverage).  We have $10,000 also posted that because of our more then 40 years of extensive cruising we have saved far more then $100,000 by NOT buying (and paying for) cancellation insurance.

 

A few short years ago we had to interrupt a month long cruise trip in Asia when DW severely injured her leg in Viet Nam.  This caused a chain of events including extensive medical care on the Golden Princess and urgent outpatient surgery in Osaka, Japan.  Keeping in mind that we had not paid a penny for cancellation insurance we eventually received a $10,000 trip interruption payment from Chase because our credit card includes (at no extra cost) both cancellation and interruption insurance.  Our excellent medical/evacuation policy also paid 100% of our medical expenses (from the Golden Princess and the surgery in Osaka).  In addition, our medical policy paid out more then $10,000 to evacuate DW home from Japan.

 

The reason I mention this is because there are ways to reasonably protect one's self by carefully assessing your needs and obtaining the appropriate insurance.   This does not always mean that folks need to shell out 7-10% of trip costs for a trip policy!  

 

Getting to the current COVID situation we have had 3 cruises cancelled (this year) by the cruise lines and we have voluntarily rescheduled another cruise.  None of these cruises had any trip cancellation insurance.  Our out of pocket loses from the 3 cancellations (and the changed reservation) is ZERO.  When HAL cancelled our April cruise (for which we had about $17,000 paid for cruise and air) our money was refunded by HAL within 3 days!  Our two subsequent Princess cruises (16 days and 28 days) were cancelled prior to final payment and the small deposits quickly restored to our Princess account (where we always keep a few Future Cruise Credits).  The cruise we changed was an MSC cruise where MSC quickly refunded our small deposit (and we made a similar deposit to secure a similar cruise next year).   We also had 11 days of hotel reservations in Japan (for the HAL) cruise and since we do not make non-refundable hotel reservations there was zero loss.  

 

Yes, it does seem easier (and also more expensive) to purchase all kinds of trip insurance for every trip.  For many folks this is the best way to go, but for others it is not necessary.    One very nice thing about all this COVID stuff and 4 cancelled cruises is that we have not had to deal with a single insurance company :).

 

Hank

[GeezerCouple]

10 minutes ago, drsel said:

 

 

1. Has anyone ever received any substantial payout from any Cruise insurance company?

 

2. Have you received a payout under the heading "cancellation for any reason whatsoever"?

 

 

 

We've had several travel insurance payouts, and all but two included a cruise. 

 

Two of the claims were quite large, including full payment of cruise (suite level), which was the biggest single part of the claim.  But there were also some non-cancellable hotel reservations, fees for changing air flights, and some other pre-paid non-cancellable costs.  

 

With the proper documentation, there was no problem collecting.  We do also get "cancel for any reason" (CFAR) but never used that, yet.

 

Many of the complaints - not all - about travel insurance "not paying" involve "not reading the fine print", and either making a claim for some non-covered cost, or not submitting the appropriate documentation.  The latter includes times when someone has a medical reason, but doesn't have the proper medical-professional receipts and diagnoses.

In some cases, we've had to submit a lot of documentation, because our payments had been spread out over many months and also several different charge cards.  In one case, we had trouble getting the right translation of some physician receipts, but finally got those.

 

At this point, we are again "ahead", having collected more in insurance payments than we paid for the policies, and this includes that significant extra charge for the CFAR coverage.

We sort of started out "ahead", UNfortunately, having read here about travel insurance *just* before DH's first cruise.  And he had a medical emergency less than 2 weeks before our planned departure date, so we were in 100% penalty.

 

Kudos to Steve and the others at Trip Insurance Store (TIS), for helping us quickly to figure out what type of policy would be best for us, and which insurer to use.   That was Travel Insured, and because of their good service that first time, we've insured with them every other time, with one exception.  (That exception was for a trip we didn't expect to make, but made a reservation anyway.  So we missed TI's deadline for the CFAR coverage.  We insured, including CFAR, with a different insurer recommended by TIS, but didn't have a claim.)  The payouts for that first trip, plus one other big $ cancellation and several "medium" sized claims, have totaled more that all of the premiums, including for policies for which there weren't claims.

And MANY thanks to many of those here on CC who also helped us learn about some of the details and choices for travel insurance, and so much more!

 

NOTE:  We are older, and have some pre-existing conditions, so that may be different from someone younger and healthier, although "anything can happen", etc.  (In retrospect, we would have gotten travel insurance when we were younger, had we known about it.  We didn't learn about it until joining CC!). And we had a *very* elderly MIL we were always worried about.  More than a year ago, we did need to cancel a major trip (our largest claim to date) due to her medical emergency.

Unfortunately, she passed about 2 weeks ago, approximately 5 weeks short of her 100th birthday...

 

GS

[drsel]

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/index.php?/topic/2760954-Claims-stalled-with-Travel-Insured-International-

[klfrodo]

Yes. My wedding band was lost, stolen, or misplaced on a cruise.

I followed the instructions provided, filed the claim, sent in the requested documentation, and received full reimbursement up to the limitations set by the policy in about 14 days.

[klfrodo]

58 minutes ago, drsel said:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/index.php?/topic/2760954-Claims-stalled-with-Travel-Insured-International-

GeezerCouple provide a great suggestion to this individual.

[navybankerteacher]

3 hours ago, drsel said:

 

1. Has anyone ever received any substantial payout from any Cruise insurance company?

 

2. Have you received a payout under the heading "cancellation for any reason whatsoever"?

 

1. Yes - we cancelled a January 2018 cruse because my wife became ill just a few days before embarkation.  We received full refund at about the same time as we would have returned had we sailed.  No problems or hassle.

 

2. No - because we do not think “cancel for any reason” coverage is good value.

[maryandmarge]

1 hour ago, drsel said:

3 hours ago, mtwingcpa said:

I have received a future cruise CREDIT under a CFAR clause, but not a cash refund (if that's what you're asking).

I was talking about cash payment from an insurance company

We had cruise planned on Disney Magic for February this year (before Covid).    We were ready to head to airport the day before and Grand daughter (8 years old) woke  up with 105 Temp.     We called and cancelled everything.     Parents took her to ER and they diagnosed her with Flu B and she was sick for a full week .    Insurance with Disney refunded all money paid for the 8 of us.   Spirit was nice enough to give us credit to fly in future.     Pre hotel cancelled with no problem.   Only money we did not receive back was the $18 ea for the shuttle from hotel to port because we didn't cancel prior to 48 hours.    We did have to provide copies of her Medical evaluation from the ER in order to get our money back.   We were very pleased with the results.  And so happy that she got sick before we left the house.   

[Flatbush Flyer]

With the exception of any legal requirement (e.g., motor vehicles), the "bottom line" of any insurance is that "you don't need it until you need it."

 

Add to that the issue's subjective and objective components - all overlayed with "risk" - and it's easy to see why there's such opposing views about the value of insurance for cruise vacations.

 

FWIW, we are very very fortunate to have CalPERS (California Public Employees Retirement System) health benefits. While our age requires us to have a Medicare supplement version (we use PERS Care), its flexibility converts the coverage to regular PERS Care the minute you step out of the U.S., and that translates pretty much to a premier version of Geo Blue. Like most medical insurance, Its shortcomings include some copays and no Medevac (which BTW should never be confused with govt. authority "field rescues" from ships or emergency ambulance services).

 

Our preferred credit cards do provide some trip cancellation/interruption benefits for travel purchased with those CCs. But, as is the case with most credit cards, there is no waiver when a PEC is the basis for a travel claim. And the cancel/interrupt claim limits of most CCs fall far short when you consider trip costs for an intercontinental premium/luxury cruise and related travel exceeding a month's duration.

 

In an ideal world, if you do what many folks would consider "big ticket" cruises (e.g., $15k-20k per person - before adding bizclass airfare), it would be great to be able to find high limit/low deductible trip insurance disaggregated from travel medical coverage. But, such policies (particularly if you desire that PEC waiver) don't come along everyday. And insurers are smart by offering comprehensive (travel and medical) polices that bundle the travel in for a very minimal cost differential.

 

In any case, we assess each planned trip in determining whether or not to purchase a comprehensive policy. For "short" Pacific coast  cruises (Mexico, Alaska), we usually "self insure." But, for "long" expensive intercontinental cruises (particularly with ports "off the beaten path"), and given our formidable regular medical insurance, we usually purchase PEC-waiving comprehensive policies with good trip coverage but minimal medical and medevac coverage. Note that doing the math will find the cost of a MedJet Assist medevac membership (which we have) is usually cheaper than the premium increase for good Medevac coverage in a comprehensive policy.

 

In OUR case, for the long "big ticket/distant corners of the earth" trips, we are, in essence, tending to do a bit of necessary overkill on the medical coverage. But, we always leave the house with complete "peace of mind" about our minimal risk.

 

So, yea or nay on insurance really is a choice best based on your circumstances. But, as I always suggest with cruise pricing analysis, DO THE RESEARCH in order to make an informed decision.