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Regent reassurance and Travel Insurance


jhenry1
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So I have been pondering over this. The way I see things is if I have a cruise booked in May of 2021 and there is not a vaccine available before May we will not be cruising but if the cruise is a go we can cancel 15 days prior to the sail date and receive a FFC or apply the funds to a cruise that we have booked for Dec of 2021. There are no restrictions on the reassurance program regarding canceling. So I am thinking that my final payment for the May cruise is at the end of Dec. I will make the final payment and hope we will get a vaccine and if not just take a FCC. I am not going to take out any Travel Insurance unless I am sure we will be cruising . Are others doing this. Hope I am making sense. If I take out the travel insurance which is going to be a large amount and I cancel and take the FCC I will loose that money and unless I am cruising I won't need it.

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9 minutes ago, jhenry1 said:

So I have been pondering over this. The way I see things is if I have a cruise booked in May of 2021 and there is not a vaccine available before May we will not be cruising but if the cruise is a go we can cancel 15 days prior to the sail date and receive a FFC or apply the funds to a cruise that we have booked for Dec of 2021. There are no restrictions on the reassurance program regarding canceling. So I am thinking that my final payment for the May cruise is at the end of Dec. I will make the final payment and hope we will get a vaccine and if not just take a FCC. I am not going to take out any Travel Insurance unless I am sure we will be cruising . Are others doing this. Hope I am making sense. If I take out the travel insurance which is going to be a large amount and I cancel and take the FCC I will loose that money and unless I am cruising I won't need it.

Your logic makes perfect sense.  My only consideration is whether or not the cruise line is solvent in May.  Regent has a very aggressive final payment deadline.  For this reason we cancelled a killer deal on the Splendor for March 2021.  All the FCC in the world is no good if they go under.  It broke my heart but it is a risk that must be considered.  

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That is true but I do have some insurance offered on my Visa car but certainly not enough to cover the entire cruise. The other problem it would be necessary to take out insurance that includes cancel for any reason and that is very costly. I guess I am thinking positive that there will be a vaccine and Regent will stay solvent. 

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@jhenry1, I think the cancel for any reason coverage on many/most/(all?) policies must be purchased within a short time (maybe 2 or 3 weeks, or less) of making your original deposit on a trip.  If you are planning on getting it later, it would be a good idea to do some research first and see if you can find a company that will issue it.

Edited by SusieQft
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I read the Regent Reassurance guidelines and the FCC can be used on an already booked cruise.  Also I have never bought travel insurance that included the cancel for any reason as it is way to expensive.  Since the Sapphire Visa card covers up to $10,000 per person if it was charged on the card I then wait until right before the final payment and take out more travel insurance to cover the balance.   

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Most travel insurance companies require the policy be purchased within 15 days of the deposit date. The policy would cover the initial deposit amount and be priced accordingly. When final payment is made you can increase the policy amount to cover the cruise and then air or hotels. 

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Cool Cruiser

 

Are you saying you can purchase a travel policy 15 days after initial deposit and just cover the deposit amount  not the full price of the cruise and because you purchased 15 days after purchase you will be covered for pre existing conditions and then prior to or after final payment add the remaining balance to the existing policy?  Will you then be covered for pec for the entire amount or just the deposit amount. I did not know that you can add monies to an existing travel policy. Please explain more.

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19 minutes ago, jhenry1 said:

Cool Cruiser

 

Are you saying you can purchase a travel policy 15 days after initial deposit and just cover the deposit amount  not the full price of the cruise and because you purchased 15 days after purchase you will be covered for pre existing conditions and then prior to or after final payment add the remaining balance to the existing policy?  Will you then be covered for pec for the entire amount or just the deposit amount. I did not know that you can add monies to an existing travel policy. Please explain more.

Yes, once you purchase the policy say for the minimum of $1000, you simply increase the amount of the policy each time you are coming up to a penalty phase to cover the penalty.  When booking with Regent you really have no risk since the minimal penalty can be used to book another cruise so you buy at the policy minimum which is sometimes only $500 pp.  Then you increase the value as penalties arrize until you get to 100% penalty and you are then fully paid.  Kind of a pay as you go as penalties increase.  Most, if not all policies work this way.

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4 hours ago, jhenry1 said:

Cool Cruiser

 

Are you saying you can purchase a travel policy 15 days after initial deposit and just cover the deposit amount  not the full price of the cruise and because you purchased 15 days after purchase you will be covered for pre existing conditions and then prior to or after final payment add the remaining balance to the existing policy?  Will you then be covered for pec for the entire amount or just the deposit amount. I did not know that you can add monies to an existing travel policy. Please explain more.

rallydave provided a good explanation on incremental increases for coverage. However, you asked about pec coverage. Different subject that can be confusing. It was to me until I found the following website. Instead of posting the long explanation I listed the website. It’s not an endorsement or recommendation.  

https://tripinsurancestore.com/how-travel-insurance-pre-existing-medical-conditions-coverage-works/

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7 hours ago, jhenry1 said:

Cool Cruiser

 

Are you saying you can purchase a travel policy 15 days after initial deposit and just cover the deposit amount  not the full price of the cruise and because you purchased 15 days after purchase you will be covered for pre existing conditions and then prior to or after final payment add the remaining balance to the existing policy?  Will you then be covered for pec for the entire amount or just the deposit amount. I did not know that you can add monies to an existing travel policy. Please explain more.

Hi Cool Cruiser,

 

If you are doing what I call the "pay as you go", here's how it works:

 

"When your trip is farther in the future and you are paying it in stages, an option to consider is this:

 

You would not have to pay for the insurance in full immediately upon purchase in order to get the pre-existing conditions coverage. All our plans allow "pay as you go" which means you must insure your deposit now and as you prepay more trip costs, you must increase the insurance coverage any time (as long as nothing has happened where you would file a claim) before but not later than 14 days of adding any additional trip costs above what has been insured to keep the pre-existing conditions coverage. This does not result in any extra costs, just the incremental price increases. You do have to insure the deposits even if they are refundable.

 

The prices are locked in at your ages and the rates that were in effect when you bought it."

 

I hope this makes sense,

 

Steve Dasseos

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50 minutes ago, jhenry1 said:

Thanks to everyone as long as I have been cruising and buying insurance no one ever explained all this to me.  Thank you all so much for explaining.

I didn’t “discover” Cruise Critic until we had completed 5 or 6 cruises. This site is invaluable and I learn new things/tips all the time. 

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On 9/22/2020 at 6:35 PM, jhenry1 said:

So I have been pondering over this. The way I see things is if I have a cruise booked in May of 2021 and there is not a vaccine available before May we will not be cruising but if the cruise is a go we can cancel 15 days prior to the sail date and receive a FFC or apply the funds to a cruise that we have booked for Dec of 2021. There are no restrictions on the reassurance program regarding canceling. So I am thinking that my final payment for the May cruise is at the end of Dec. I will make the final payment and hope we will get a vaccine and if not just take a FCC. I am not going to take out any Travel Insurance unless I am sure we will be cruising . Are others doing this. Hope I am making sense. If I take out the travel insurance which is going to be a large amount and I cancel and take the FCC I will loose that money and unless I am cruising I won't need it.

I'm pondering the same thing. We are booked in February. Feel the same way you do about the vaccine. My question is I don't need the cancellation insurance but would like to have  medical/evacuation insurance. I know that trip cancellation along with medical has to be purchased at the time of full payment. I'm wondering if I want only medical can that be purchased at a closer time to sail date?

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On 9/25/2020 at 2:26 PM, iamtrustworthy said:

Hi Cool Cruiser,

 

If you are doing what I call the "pay as you go", here's how it works:

 

"When your trip is farther in the future and you are paying it in stages, an option to consider is this:

 

You would not have to pay for the insurance in full immediately upon purchase in order to get the pre-existing conditions coverage. All our plans allow "pay as you go" which means you must insure your deposit now and as you prepay more trip costs, you must increase the insurance coverage any time (as long as nothing has happened where you would file a claim) before but not later than 14 days of adding any additional trip costs above what has been insured to keep the pre-existing conditions coverage. This does not result in any extra costs, just the incremental price increases. You do have to insure the deposits even if they are refundable.

 

The prices are locked in at your ages and the rates that were in effect when you bought it."

 

I hope this makes sense,

 

Steve Dasseos

Steve, I would like to clarify your comment about initially buying enough insurance.  Please correct me if I am wrong but, since at least on Regent and many other cruise lines the deposit is much more than the amount of money at risk as at least in the US only $200 is at risk and other cruise lines nothing is at risk so isn't the smart thing to do is to only cover the non refundable amount or the insurance minimum whichever is higher??

 

Thanks Steve,

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1 hour ago, rallydave said:

Steve, I would like to clarify your comment about initially buying enough insurance.  Please correct me if I am wrong but, since at least on Regent and many other cruise lines the deposit is much more than the amount of money at risk as at least in the US only $200 is at risk and other cruise lines nothing is at risk so isn't the smart thing to do is to only cover the non refundable amount or the insurance minimum whichever is higher??

 

Thanks Steve,

Hi rallydave,

 

If someone wants to do the "pay as you go" and have the pre-existing conditions coverage, they have to insure the full amount of the deposit even if all or most of it is refundable.

 

Way back in 2003 I figured out that "pay as you go" was inadvertently allowed in the policy wording of some companies. So when I started selling policies in 2003 using this strategy, I was told by the companies that the only way it would work to preserve the pre-existing conditions coverage was to insure the deposits and subsequent payments, even if they are fully or partially refundable.

 

If someone doesn't require the pre-existing conditions coverage they may insure any trip cost.

 

I hope this makes better sense.

 

Steve Dasseos

Edited by iamtrustworthy
typo
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Steve,

If my Visa Sapphire card covers trip insurance for $10,000 per person and my trip  total cost is $30,000 for myself and my husband and visa covers $20,000 can I just take out the balance of $10,000 for the remainder of the coverage with some other company.

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1 hour ago, jhenry1 said:

Steve,

If my Visa Sapphire card covers trip insurance for $10,000 per person and my trip  total cost is $30,000 for myself and my husband and visa covers $20,000 can I just take out the balance of $10,000 for the remainder of the coverage with some other company.

Hi jhenry1,

 

Do either of you or your non-traveling family members, have any medical conditions, or had any medication changes for a medical condition, that could worsen and, in turn, cause you to cancel or interrupt your trip? Or that could cause you to seek treatment on your trip?

 

Steve

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On 9/28/2020 at 2:50 PM, jhenry1 said:

Steve,

If my Visa Sapphire card covers trip insurance for $10,000 per person and my trip  total cost is $30,000 for myself and my husband and visa covers $20,000 can I just take out the balance of $10,000 for the remainder of the coverage with some other company.

Not to confuse this whole topic even more, but just a heads up.  I had back to back cruises cancelled by Regent back in April.  Unfortunately I took a FCC instead of a refund. When I started to have some concerns about the financial viability of Regent I did some research.  I have a Sapphire Reserve Visa from Chase.  Since I took a FCC, I am not covered by their coverage.  Additionally, my travel insurance (Allianz) will not cover a FCC either. 

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Cool Cruiser,

 

That is good news to know as that is the exact card we have.  I did not take FCC but I cancelled our Africa cruise  which I had only made the deposit on this December and moved the deposit  to DEC 2021.  How did you find out this info as I need to do some checking.  We had not made the final payment on the Africa cruise so I would assume when I make that final payment this Dec for next year DEC using my chase card we should be insured for up to $10,000 per person  on that cruise as I had only made the deposit prior to moving it to 2021.  Let me know how you learned about this ruling.

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