Viking Insurance

[Babr]

If I may -

 

The Risk Free Guarantee Voucher was a temporary amendment to the Viking cancellation policy separate from the Viking sponsored insurance policy. That offer has expired for new bookings.

 

Just about all the cruise lines offered similar programs to encourage guests to return to cruising with some assurance that COVID would not put them at financial risk.

 

The the cruise-line branded policy sold by Viking is insurance underwritten by Generali and administered by TripMate. The insurance policy reimburses in cash for covered reasons.

 

The policy also includes a CFAR provision with FCC from Viking if the cancellation is rejected by the insurance portion of the policy because it was not for a covered reason. 
 

You are exactly correct to call it an incentive by the cruise line. They sell the policy with their name on it and include CFAR at little cost to them because it offers another source of profit. They don’t even have to underwrite the cost or process the claims.  All cruise-line insurance offering CFAR (except HAL) works this way. If you want CFAR with cash reimbursement, you have to buy a third-party policy within a defined period after your initial cruise payment and pay an additional premium.

 

Otherwise, the standard cancellation penalties apply.

[Heidi13]

22 hours ago, zalusky said:

Just to reiterate.I don’t like vouchers and will avoid if at all possible.  Money is always better in my hand.  I have no idea what my situation will be like and being tied to a use or lose it window is not acceptable.  We may have other events that pop up whether they are medical or family/friend related that can make things dicey.

 

Also vouchers are not splittable so if you want to go on something smaller you lose the excess.

 

Lastly itineraries and friends can drive choices of the next cruise meaning they might be with a different cruise line.  So money always wins where possible.

 

For large vouchers, Viking are willing to split the total into multiple vouchers. When we cancelled the World Cruise, they would have provided multiple vouchers of $10K.

[zalusky]

50 minutes ago, Heidi13 said:

 

For large vouchers, Viking are willing to split the total into multiple vouchers. When we cancelled the World Cruise, they would have provided multiple vouchers of $10K.

World cruises would not surprise me.  They’re pretty much at the top and I don’t think they want to annoy that customer base.   I wonder what their parameter are?

[Steerpike58]

On 10/23/2022 at 3:06 PM, Steerpike58 said:

We recently took our first cruise on Viking and insured with the Tripmate.  On the day of travel, instead of going to the airport, my partner broke her tooth and had to have emergency oral surgery to remove the tooth, causing us to miss the flight. However, we were able to get a flight the next day (through Viking), and still join the ship in Venice as it was there for 2 days (so we just missed 1 day of the cruise). 

 

The flights cost us an extra $1500 each, as they were absolutely last-minute.  I'm in the process now of filing a claim with TripMate, and there doesn't seem to be an obvious category for our situation. The choices are: Trip Cancellation, Trip Interruption, Trip Delay, Missed Connection. I first tried 'Trip Interruption', but the reason codes didn't seem to match our situation (though 'Post-Departure - Sickness' may apply), and the 'claims' section only allowed for 'medical expense' and various baggage issues.   I ended up choosing 'Trip Delay', but the 'claims' section still only allowed for 'medical expense' and the various baggage issues; no mention of airfares. So I have no clue how this claim is going to proceed - nowhere to enter the new flight details, the cost, etc. I'll be working on this over the next few days and will report on progress.  

...

 

We finally submitted our claim to TripMate this week, complete with a Doctor's report, and several other pieces of supporting evidence.  We submitted it as 'Trip Interruption', as advised in this thread (thanks, everyone).  We claimed for the extra airfare (circa $1500 each) and for one lost day of the cruise (circa $600 each). We shall see how long it takes and whether they harass us for more information!  

 

On 10/30/2022 at 2:43 PM, Babr said:

If I may -

 

The Risk Free Guarantee Voucher was a temporary amendment to the Viking cancellation policy separate from the Viking sponsored insurance policy. That offer has expired for new bookings.

 

Just about all the cruise lines offered similar programs to encourage guests to return to cruising with some assurance that COVID would not put them at financial risk.

 

The the cruise-line branded policy sold by Viking is insurance underwritten by Generali and administered by TripMate. The insurance policy reimburses in cash for covered reasons.

 

The policy also includes a CFAR provision with FCC from Viking if the cancellation is rejected by the insurance portion of the policy because it was not for a covered reason. 
 

You are exactly correct to call it an incentive by the cruise line. They sell the policy with their name on it and include CFAR at little cost to them because it offers another source of profit. They don’t even have to underwrite the cost or process the claims.  All cruise-line insurance offering CFAR (except HAL) works this way. If you want CFAR with cash reimbursement, you have to buy a third-party policy within a defined period after your initial cruise payment and pay an additional premium.

 

Otherwise, the standard cancellation penalties apply.

Great summary! Thanks. 

 

We are now in the process of booking our next cruise. We will need to decide whether to buy TM insurance, or go with 3rd party.  If we go with 3rd party, we will lose the 'free' CFAR option, but other than that, are other policies typically competitive?  Would a call to 'Steve' at the Trip Insurance Store (TripInsuranceStore.com) be a good next step in evaluating this? 

 

If we are booking well in advance (~ 1 year), can we defer any decision or do we have to decide at the point of initial deposit (or very soon thereafter)? 

 

Thanks again to everyone for their very helpful input! 

Edited November 5, 2022 by Steerpike58

[Babr]

There are any number of policies that offer coverage equal to or better than the Viking policy. If there is a difference in cost it will be because third-party policies consider age, amount insured, length of trip, and levels of coverage; however, insurance is regulated by the states so the price of the third-party policy will be the same wherever you buy it.

 

A call to Steve is a good idea. It is always better to consult a professional. Have a list of your questions and concerns. He may ask additional questions of his own to help find the right policy. You can weigh the information before deciding.

 

A second advantage of buying from TIS is that they can advise you if you have questions or difficulty with filing a claim. They work with a limited number of companies with whom they have long-standing association so they are quite familiar with policies and procedures.

 

If you book well in advance, there are companies that will allow you to insure the deposit and add coverage as you pay additional costs. That way you can lock in time-sensitive elements like CFAR, pre-existing conditions waiver, or financial default coverage. There are also policies that allow a pre-existing waiver if purchased at final payment, but CFAR is available only if purchased at initial deposit (within 14-21 days, depending on policy.)  Many people like to wait to buy insurance until they have nonrefundable money at risk because the policy itself is nonrefundable. Most companies will extend the dates of coverage so that you can apply it to another trip; but if you don’t use it, the policy will expire.

 

[molymoo]

On 10/23/2022 at 1:59 PM, Insanityx4 said:

We just booked a cruise on the Polaris and about $16,000 of the cost was paid for in FCC vouchers. Viking Insurance WILL NOT cover the vouchers even though they were for a cancelled by Viking, paid in full cruise, just the additional amount to be paid for the trip, in our case about $9,000. We were able to get full coverage for the entire cost of the cruise through Travel Insured International for about the same price as Viking would charge if we had not used vouchers. It is very disappointing that Viking insurance will only cover the additional monies paid. If we had not purchased the additional insurance through TII our $16,000 would not be covered. Terrible customer service by Viking.

Please remember that Viking does not own the insurance company and has little to do with their policies which are spelled out quite clearly if you take the time to read the small print.  The fact that Viking canceled the original cruise is irrelevant as you chose the vouchers over a refund.  Please don’t blame your disappointment with your choices on “terrible customer service by Viking “.

[Babr]

1 hour ago, molymoo said:

Please remember that Viking does not own the insurance company and has little to do with their policies which are spelled out quite clearly if you take the time to read the small print.  The fact that Viking canceled the original cruise is irrelevant as you chose the vouchers over a refund.  Please don’t blame your disappointment with your choices on “terrible customer service by Viking “.

While I agree that the current situation is not the result of poor customer service - they are merely following established guidelines - I do think Viking has a hand in the design of the plan.  They contract with Generali and can negotiate the terms they want included in the policy. It is intentional that FCC is not insurable.

 

That is not necessarily a criticism of Viking. It costs more, and it was only after COVID that some insurers changed their policies to recognize FCC’s, vouchers, or gift cards as forms of payment. The stipulation is that the policyholder must have paid cash for them. Bonus FCC or credit is not covered.

[Steerpike58]

On 11/5/2022 at 12:02 PM, Steerpike58 said:

 

We finally submitted our claim to TripMate this week, complete with a Doctor's report, and several other pieces of supporting evidence.  We submitted it as 'Trip Interruption', as advised in this thread (thanks, everyone).  We claimed for the extra airfare (circa $1500 each) and for one lost day of the cruise (circa $600 each). We shall see how long it takes and whether they harass us for more information!  

...

 

Update - we submitted our claim to TripMate on November 5, 2022, as mentioned above. Other than an automated acknowledgement, we didn't hear another word until December 16, 2022 when we received a check by email (an 'e-check') for the full amount we asked for (so they covered the air fare, and the lost day of the cruise).  

I was fully expecting a war of attrition where they would constantly nit-pick every aspect of the claim, but no - they just paid up in full after 6 weeks, so I'd have to say we are happy!  This was my first ever use of any travel insurance ever.  I would note that I was meticulous in complying with every single instruction they gave.  I already had a letter from the oral surgeon stating the facts, but I still went back to the oral surgeon and had her fill out the form required by TripMate.