Viking trip insurance - recommendations on purchasing Viking trip insurance or purchasing separately?

[Janie1229]

Hi, we have never taken a Viking trip and are looking at the Viking Rhine Getaway trip. What are everyone's thoughts on purchase the trip insurance offered through Viking or getting trip insurance on your own? Thanks!

[shadowlover]

It's usually significantly cheaper to buy on your own.  If you want cancel for any reason however I believe viking will be the way to go.  I use Steve from the trip insurance store as he is a wealth of knowledge.

[Frenchberet]

I don’t agree that buying insurance in your own is usually cheaper.  We always purchase our own insurance.  My travel partner is 10 years older than me so his insurance is several hundred dollars more than mine.  
 

For our next Viking cruise (Antarctic expedition), we purchased insurance through Viking.  It is a percentage of the total trip costs so we both paid the same amount.  His cost is a bit cheaper than the policy we usually buy, mine is a bit more.  The total cost for Viking is a little cheaper than our regular company, same coverage.  

 

With Covid still looming over our heads, we felt there might be an advantage to booking everything through Viking.

[rbslos18]

1 hour ago, shadowlover said:

It's usually significantly cheaper to buy on your own.  If you want cancel for any reason however I believe viking will be the way to go.  I use Steve from the trip insurance store as he is a wealth of knowledge.

I don’t believe it is always less expensive to purchase on one’s own. I do agree,  especially during the pandemic, using a knowledgeable agent is crucial. I also use Steve at tripinsuancestore.com. It pays to have a trusted intermediary in the event of a claim. I would suggest you read the Cruise Critic Insurance Board. 

[Peregrina651]

When it comes to insurance, it isn't just about price; it's about what you get for that price. Read the contracts carefully so that you understand what you are buying -- and what you aren't buying.

 

One thing to understand about getting the Viking insurance is that your refund is in the form of a voucher towards another cruise on Viking. If you buy your own insurance, you get cash. 

 

Personally, I don't want a voucher, I want cash if i have to cancel.

 

 

[molymoo]

9 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

When it comes to insurance, it isn't just about price; it's about what you get for that price. Read the contracts carefully so that you understand what you are buying -- and what you aren't buying.

 

One thing to understand about getting the Viking insurance is that your refund is in the form of a voucher towards another cruise on Viking. If you buy your own insurance, you get cash. 

 

Personally, I don't want a voucher, I want cash if i have to cancel.

 

 

We have always used the Viking insurance (actually Trip Mate ... they work with Viking they are not owned by Viking) will refund cash if the reason for cancelling is medical.  We cancelled our first VO cruise in 2015 for medical reasons and we received a full refund ... 50% from Viking which was credited back to our checking account within two weeks of our email request and the rest (minus what we paid for the insurance of course) within a month of our initial contact with Viking.  The cruise vouchers come with the "cancel for any reason" waiver and I believe is offered by Viking for those that insure with Trip Mate.  

[Sunflower & The Scientist]

11 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

When it comes to insurance, it isn't just about price; it's about what you get for that price. Read the contracts carefully so that you understand what you are buying -- and what you aren't buying.

 

One thing to understand about getting the Viking insurance is that your refund is in the form of a voucher towards another cruise on Viking. If you buy your own insurance, you get cash. 

 

Personally, I don't want a voucher, I want cash if i have to cancel.

 

 

I second this information.  Read, read, read....then ask a lot of questions especially with COVID related issues.  Refunds verses vouchers is important but also look at what is offered for medical and all the incidentals.  

[longterm]

I did a Google search for highest-rated travel insurance carriers, and it came up with Nationwide as the highest-rated; does anyone have experience with them? Any recommendations for others?

[Heidi13]

20 hours ago, Janie1229 said:

Hi, we have never taken a Viking trip and are looking at the Viking Rhine Getaway trip. What are everyone's thoughts on purchase the trip insurance offered through Viking or getting trip insurance on your own? Thanks!

 

Insurance is one of the things that shouldn't be purchased based on price, as I find with insurance you really do get what you pay for.

 

Personally, until our Viking 2019/20 World Cruise, we never purchased cruise line insurance, as based on our age, the cruise line insurance was more expensive for less coverage. However, for the 19/20 WC, no local or online broker would accept the risk, so we were stuck with the Viking Tripmate.

 

Having read the policy document thoroughly, it does have some pros & cons. Since we are now over 60 and have pre-existing conditions, the pre-existing condition waiver is definitely a saving, especially if you ever had to make a major claim. The cost model, which is based on a percentage of the fare rather than age/health risk assessment, for us is now cheaper, for comparable coverage. Another cost benefit is that the insurance cost is not based on any vouchers used.

 

The biggest con for us is the very poor level of medical coverage. Therefore, when we purchase the Viking insurance, we also purchase a local medical coverage policy, as we won't travel without at least $5M, over what our Provincial Health will pay for out of Province coverage.

 

I note the Viking insurance provides a cash refund when you cancel for a covered reason. If you cancel with the CFAR, it only provides FCV's, which are only valid for 1-yr.

 

Best thing you can do is download a copy of the Tripmate policy document and compare it to insurance available from a local or online broker.

[deec]

Oneof the problem we encounter is if we book our next cruise while onboard we are often not home soon enough to purchase coverage for pre-existing conditions.  We USAA and you must but the insurance soon after your initial payment.  Fortunately we have never had to use the insurance!

[GregoryPaul]

Uh oh. Looks like we need to cancel our cruise due to my father in law’s cancer diagnosis. 

 

We purchased TripMate insurance through Viking at the time we paid for the cruise -approx 240 days out. The very first paragraph on the policy (GR425V) reads, “This plan may only be purchased up to 120 days (180 days for voyages of 35 days or longer) prior to your Viking Cruises scheduled departure date.”

 

If that is true, how can Viking even sell it to us? Hardly seems “fair.”

 

BTW, I know that my answer will come from Viking or TripMate and not from “the internet” but I also know that a lot of folks on this forum have an awful lot of experience in these things, so I thought I’d ask while I’m waiting to hear back from Viking/TripMate.

…. Or should we go the voucher route? We are currently 90 days out and have about $48K invested in our trip alone (not counting in-laws). We did buy during the Viking “Risk Free Guarantee Period.

 

I really do appreciate any advice offered.

 

 

[Peregrina651]

 

 

We are all sorry to hear that you must cancel a long anticipated adventure and wish your father-in-law a speedy return to good health.

 

You have the insurance, right? So that is all that matters.

 

You should receive a combination of cash and vouchers as determined by the cancellation matrix stated in the Booking Terms & Conditions and repeated on the your Viking invoice. If you bought your air through Viking and it has been ticketed, you may also have to pay a cancellation fee for that: "For all air-inclusive packages cancelled after issuance of an airline ticket, the air portion of the refund, if any, will be subject to a US$350.00 fee per passenger with an issued airline ticket, in addition to the cancellation fees detailed below in tables A and B"

 

So, a portion will come back to you as cash, the portion that Viking is not retaining as the cancellation fee. The amount that Viking keeps is covered by the insurance and will be reimbursed to you under the terms of the insurance contract. I believe that the terms of the insurance you have says that you will receive reimbursement in the form of a voucher.

 

If you have any paid optional shore excursions, they will also be refunded during the cancellation process. They should come back to you as cash as you are cancelling them more that 48 hours ahead of their scheduled departure.

 

It will take Viking a few weeks to process your cancellation (lots of accounting steps involved).

 

 

[LindaS272]

48 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

 

We are all sorry to hear that you must cancel a long anticipated adventure and wish your father-in-law a speedy return to good health.

 

You have the insurance, right? So that is all that matters.

 

You should receive a combination of cash and vouchers as determined by the cancellation matrix stated in the Booking Terms & Conditions and repeated on the your Viking invoice. If you bought your air through Viking and it has been ticketed, you may also have to pay a cancellation fee for that: "For all air-inclusive packages cancelled after issuance of an airline ticket, the air portion of the refund, if any, will be subject to a US$350.00 fee per passenger with an issued airline ticket, in addition to the cancellation fees detailed below in tables A and B"

 

So, a portion will come back to you as cash, the portion that Viking is not retaining as the cancellation fee. The amount that Viking keeps is covered by the insurance and will be reimbursed to you under the terms of the insurance contract. I believe that the terms of the insurance you have says that you will receive reimbursement in the form of a voucher.

 

If you have any paid optional shore excursions, they will also be refunded during the cancellation process. They should come back to you as cash as you are cancelling them more that 48 hours ahead of their scheduled departure.

 

It will take Viking a few weeks to process your cancellation (lots of accounting steps involved).

 

 

We’ve only had Viking insurance once and didn’t have to use it. But I would think that if you cancel for a covered reason (which a medical diagnosis “unable to travel” would be) that you’ll get cash back—not a voucher. I think others have mentioned this on CC in recent months. If doing “cancel for any reason” then it’s a voucher for at least a portion of the fare/fees.

[Heidi13]

When cancelling a cruise, my understanding is you have a choice of the RFG, which provides 100% vouchers, or a partial cash refund, in accordance with the cancellation policy

 

With the Viking Insurance, if you opt for the refund, you will receive a partial cash refund from Viking with the percentage based on the number of days before departure. From 70 to 89 days, they retain 35% of the fare. For the funds retained by Viking, you can submit a claim to the insurance and provided you meet the criteria for a covered reason, the insurance should pay the cash that Viking's cancellation policy withheld.

 

Another point to consider - If you do not meet the insurance criteria for a cash refund, the Viking Insurance does provide vouchers, but they are only valid for 12-months. Therefore, you need to consider your probability of meeting the cash refund requirements (stated reason). If you have a low probability, it may be better requesting the 2-yr vouchers from the RFG, rather than the partial cash and 1-yr insurance vouchers.

 

This is all based on the fact that the cruise was booked with cash rather than an existing FCV. The insurance cost is not levied on the value of the FCV, only cash paid. If a FCV was used for partial payment, you would need to negotiate to have it re-instated.

[The Other Tom]

On 5/12/2022 at 2:03 PM, Janie1229 said:

Hi, we have never taken a Viking trip and are looking at the Viking Rhine Getaway trip. What are everyone's thoughts on purchase the trip insurance offered through Viking or getting trip insurance on your own? Thanks!

You can buy through Viking or on your own, but make sure you get what you want in a policy.  A good place to start is insuremytrip.com.  You can compare policies, prices, etc.

[zalusky]

I can't say this for sure but I think one of the advantages of private insurance is they cover the date ranges and your pre-estimated trip cost.  Tripmate as far as I understand only covers the trip from a Viking point of view.  If you choose to extend your vacation before or after to say wander around Italy as well as purchase your flights separately from Viking I don't think Tripmate covers that.

 

Somebody else can pipe in here and correct me if I am wrong.

 

 

[GregoryPaul]

Thank you all for both your kind words and your well-reasoned responses.

 

You guys know better than me that the answer you get on the phone may vary with the level of experience at the other end.

 

The agent I spoke with today knew her stuff and advised me that my particular “no risk” voucher (they have apparently somewhat morphed over the course of Covid) would provide me a fully transferable voucher that I could use for 24 months from date of issue. She stressed that I only needed to re-book and did not need to travel in that time frame. She said it would cover all the monies paid to Viking including what I paid for insurance since I am not yet ticketed by the airline. But’s it’s a one-use, use it or lose it deal,

 

She then recommended that I go the “standard claim and insurance route.” This one should get me 80% of my fees back in cash from Viking (less the cost of insurance) “if they receive and process” my claim before June 3 when it goes down to 65%.  Once I receive their settlement, I can make an insurance claim with  TripMate to get the balance of the monies I paid refunded in cash (again, less insurance costs). Viking’s claim process appears simple, just an email (names, booking numbers, reason, type of refund requested) although so far all I’ve received is an automated reply.

 

Trip Mate seemed to confirm this and also stated that my claim “should” qualify as father/father-in-law is clearly family. They did say we’ll need to provide “a note from his doctor” explaining why he can not travel. Apparently, we will need to fill out some forms on their website, print them off and mail signed hard copies along with our doctor’s note.

 

Yes, we are on our own to claw back monies paid to guides, private transfers and other hotels.

 

I’m somewhat addicted to this site so I’ll most likely post again and let you all know how this actually plays out.

 

I’m bummed but obviously nothing compared to what my father-in-law is going through. I know, I’ve already .been down that same road at the same cancer clinic (Moffitt in Tampa).

 

Meanwhile look for me on the dock toasting your adventures.

[GregoryPaul]

Viking already refunded their 80% share ($35K), it’s only been a week. Great job, Viking!

 

Insurance claim for the other 20% still in the works … a bit cumbersome.

[Heidi13]

2 hours ago, GregoryPaul said:

Viking already refunded their 80% share ($35K), it’s only been a week. Great job, Viking!

 

Insurance claim for the other 20% still in the works … a bit cumbersome.

 

Congratulations on making good progress to date. Good luck on getting the insurance portion paid promptly.