Insurance confusion

[cusematt4]

Hi,

 

RCL insurance seems more expensive and covers less than third party insurance.

 

Is there any reasonably priced travel insurance that would cover

-flight and travel a day or two prior and after a cruise

-medical expenses and sufficient evacuation coverage

-Refund or credit not just if someone tests positive 72 hours prior to or upon arrival for a covid test but if someone on the same reservation is in a different cabin and doesn’t want to sail or feel comfortable sailing and leaving behind a family member in a separate cabin who may test positive prior to or upon arrival at the pier

 

Is there anything that Royal Caribbean would cover regardless of insurance?  To my understanding it seems they would cover the cabin only for a credit or refund and hotel expenses if negative 72 hours prior.

 

Would rcl or insurance cover the cabin or traveling party if someone tests positive 72 hours prior to traveling to avoid them from having to travel positive and show up at the pier positive just to get a credit or refund?

 

I used to purchase travel guard or traveled and wondering if these are still good policies.  thank you very much. 

[tallnthensome]

Try the insurance forum.

[klfrodo]

-flight and travel a day or two prior and after a cruise

This would be covered under Trip Delay and/or Trip Cancellation.

However, unless you purchased "refundable" tickets, don't plan on getting any money back from anyone. The airline is going to issue you a voucher or a credit to be used on a future flight. All travel insurance policies consider this to be paid back to you.    So, since 3rd party Travel Insurance is based on the total cost of your trip minus all refundable costs,,, don't include the price of airfare.

The dates of travel should be the date you walk out your front door and the date you walk back into your front door.

 

-medical expenses and sufficient evacuation coverage

Many 3rd Party travel insurance companies have $100K per person medical and $250K evac.

It's also good to note that most of these are "Primary". IOW, you don't have to submit to Medicare or whomever your stateside healthcare insurance provider is first.

 

ALSO NOTE: When you are outside the country, you will be expected to pay upfront with a credit card. Then file for reimbursement when you return.

 

Refund or credit not just if someone tests positive 72 hours prior to or upon arrival for a covid test but if someone on the same reservation is in a different cabin and doesn’t want to sail or feel comfortable sailing and leaving behind a family member in a separate cabin who may test positive prior to or upon arrival at the pier

 

I would think a CFAR (Cancel For Any Reason) would be a good start. Can't answer with full knowledge on multiple various scenarios. You best bet would be to talk with a broker such as Steve at www.tripinsurancestore.com

[SRF]

Covering the cruise cost and cancel for any reason will drive up the insurance cost.

 

RCI insurance does not cover as well as third party, but for older people, it may be MUCH cheaper.

 

Right now, RCI covers people for cancelling if they are not happy with the protocols.

 

Personally, I do not cover the whole cruise and flights.  I have paid for them, they are budgeted and while I would not be happy, I would not suffer financially.

 

But medical and med evac can rapidly get into the 10s of thousands or even 100s of thousands.

 

I can cover for those things for $35 per trip.  For about $50, I can cover about $500 of the vacation costs.

[Joseph2017China]

Most "extra" insurance is designed to take your money, and not pay out.  It is mostly based on fear.  Sometimes when you buy it 10 times, you could have saved enough to self insure.  But for some people, the medical part is important and understandable.  You can buy annual policies for much cheaper.

[Bo1953]

6 hours ago, Joseph2017China said:

Most "extra" insurance is designed to take your money, and not pay out.  It is mostly based on fear.  Sometimes when you buy it 10 times, you could have saved enough to self insure.  But for some people, the medical part is important and understandable.  You can buy annual policies for much cheaper.

A very true statement provided one saved the premiums in a travel account in case they do have an emergency while traveling.

 

If no portion of the aforementioned 'premiums' have been save separately over the "10 times", then it is a moot point about saving enough to self insure, still out of pocket one way or another at a time when one may be least able to afford a catastrophic event outside of the U.S..

 

In health and bon voyage

[SRF]

Maybe to cover the cost of the cruise.

 

But medical and medevac can run into a LOT of money.

 

When my mother had an issue in Halifax, the medevac flight to get her back to the DC area was quoted at $29,000.   And that did not include ambulance at each end, just the flight.

 

But as I said, you can cover the medical and medevac, without covering the cruise cost for a quite small fee.  For me, it has been running $35 per trip (I do for any personal international travel).

[cunn9004]

On 10/5/2021 at 10:21 AM, SRF said:

Maybe to cover the cost of the cruise.

 

But medical and medevac can run into a LOT of money.

 

When my mother had an issue in Halifax, the medevac flight to get her back to the DC area was quoted at $29,000.   And that did not include ambulance at each end, just the flight.

 

But as I said, you can cover the medical and medevac, without covering the cruise cost for a quite small fee.  For me, it has been running $35 per trip (I do for any personal international travel).

May I ask where you are getting the medical and medieval at?    Thank you.

[GeezerCouple]

On 10/4/2021 at 8:19 AM, Joseph2017China said:

Most "extra" insurance is designed to take your money, and not pay out.  It is mostly based on fear.  Sometimes when you buy it 10 times, you could have saved enough to self insure.  But for some people, the medical part is important and understandable.  You can buy annual policies for much cheaper.

 

It all depends upon the individual's experiences, and that may well also depend partly upon luck and partly upon medical history.

We learned about travel insurance here on CC.

For our first cruise, we took out the insurance.  We could have "afforded" the lost payment, but we were splurging (including overseas business class tix) and preferred not to risk it.

 

Less than 2 weeks before we were to leave home, DH had a medical emergency.  For the next several weeks, the only "traveling" we were doing was back and forth to various medical appointments around town.

Fortunately, he recovered nicely.

However, during those "traveling around town" local medical visits, we *frequently* would mumble something about how GLAD we were that we had gotten that insurance:  "At least we won't need to pay a *second* time to take this trip!"

 

We've always insured any major cruise or air international trip since then.  And we have had several other claims, including two large ones.  We have always paid extra for the Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR) coverage, especially because of a very elderly MIL (who passed recently 5 weeks short of her 100th).  We would have wanted to stay home IF she had mentioned not feeling right, given that she never, ever complained about her health, so relying upon a medical letter wasn't necessarily going to be helpful.

 

Less than $1k of all of the claims were for our direct medical costs.  It was almost all for costs of cancelled trips or major changes to itinerary due to illness.
Despite our high policy costs (CFAR does add quite a bit, but it gives US the peace of mind we prefer), we are quite a big "ahead" in terms of money paid for premiums and money collected in claims.

For those who are younger and healthier, and less likely to need to cancel or interrupt travel due to illness, it's probably less of a risk than it is for us.

In any event, it's personal, and someone who is considering insuring shouldn't be talked out of it because "no one ever collects".  Insurance is a regulated industry, and that includes travel insurance.  (That means REAL insurance, not "trip guarantees" or such, which are not regulated.)

 

GC

[iuki]

On 10/3/2021 at 2:14 PM, tallnthensome said:

Try the insurance forum.

Isn't this the insurance forum?

 

[tallnthensome]

1 minute ago, iuki said:

Isn't this the insurance forum?

 

It is now, It wasn't when it was first originally posted October 3rd. The mods moved it here. 

[iuki]

On 10/5/2021 at 4:21 AM, SRF said:

Maybe to cover the cost of the cruise.

 

But medical and medevac can run into a LOT of money.

 

When my mother had an issue in Halifax, the medevac flight to get her back to the DC area was quoted at $29,000.   And that did not include ambulance at each end, just the flight.

 

But as I said, you can cover the medical and medevac, without covering the cruise cost for a quite small fee.  For me, it has been running $35 per trip (I do for any personal international travel).

We're only interested in medical and medevac.  So, where do I go for that coverage?

[Bo1953]

3 hours ago, iuki said:

We're only interested in medical and medevac.  So, where do I go for that coverage?

Your first stop to consider is tripinsurancestore.com, read a few of the blog posts or even give a call with questions and concerns.

 

There are a few others mentioned in posts on this forum...

 

In health and bon voyage

[klfrodo]

6 hours ago, iuki said:

We're only interested in medical and medevac.  So, where do I go for that coverage?

You go to www.tripinsurancestore.com but when it asks for "Trip Costs", only put in $500 per person.

This gives you the same medical and evac coverage but reduces the Trip cancellation, Trip Delay, etc.

Or, from that web page you can just call the 1-800# and talk to Steve or one of his reps.

 

For me, I do just as stated above and my cost is about $72 for both of us. I believe that gives me $100K medical Primary and $250K evacuation. Since I live in Washington State, I still receive the waiver for pre-existing conditions. Each State regulates insurance in it's own way.