Cancel for any reason credit feature - NY State Residents

[cruiseny4life]

On 9/3/2023 at 11:49 AM, EMM2024 said:

Hi! Have any NYers been able to figure this out? I don't want BookSafe, as I will be getting my own travel insurance, but I DO want the NY version that is offered for CFAR (the non-insuramce workaround). Please & thanks! 

Does it have to be purchased at the time of booking (which is what Princess does ... theirs is right on their website though & you don't have to call to get it). 

Thanks!! 

I'm a New Yorker. There is definitely no CFAR offered by any insurance company. The best you may be able to come up with (and that I have personal experience with) is using AON's insurance, booked through NCL. AON is more expensive than other (probably better) insurance plans, like AXA, AIG, and John Hancock, but if you CFAR, AON will deny your claim, then NCL will provide you a 75% or 90% future cruise credit.

 

Last August we were planning to cruise to Bermuda, booked and all. Three weeks before the cruise, we canceled, because we found an almost the same price/twice as long cruise in a better suite than we were booked. We canceled, lost about $1,000, but received 90% of the non-refundable fare back from NCL after AON finally denied our claim in February!! It took extraordinarily long (and I think they finally denied, because I filed a complaint with the AG). Anyway, in March, NCL issued us our 90% future cruise credit vouchers - one for my husband, one for me. 

 

That's the only workaround I've found. We are purchasing, probably AXA, for our November cruise as we have no intention of canceling it so CFAR isn't necessary and obviously wouldn't work for us lovely "protected by the government" NY'ers. 

[Travelling2Some]

Since I am the one who originally kicked this hornet's nest, I will chime in.  Everyone I called was completely clueless as to how exactly to get NCL's promised benefit without buying their insurance .  It was an exercise in frustration.  I ran out of time (and patience) and never did get an answer!

[ontheweb]

9 hours ago, Travelling2Some said:

Since I am the one who originally kicked this hornet's nest, I will chime in.  Everyone I called was completely clueless as to how exactly to get NCL's promised benefit without buying their insurance .  It was an exercise in frustration.  I ran out of time (and patience) and never did get an answer!

Did you ask in the insurance forum? Steve from Insuremytrip is usually pretty knowledgeable.

[Travelling2Some]

2 hours ago, ontheweb said:

Did you ask in the insurance forum? Steve from Insuremytrip is usually pretty knowledgeable.

Yes.  I double posted it in NCL and the insurance forum.  Love insuremytrip and always buy our travel insurance from them.  I did run it by them but they were not familiar since it is not a policy they sell.

[Babr]

Steve has answered a similar question. There are no stand-alone CFAR policies.

 

Holland America comes as close as it gets. They have two policies. The standard plan is for cancellation only with no other coverage of any kind. All cancellations are treated the same with no questions asked. All cancellations are refunded in cash at 80%. 
 

I suppose that is how they get around the CFAR issue since it  is available to everyone except UK citizens.

 

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, Travelling2Some said:

Yes.  I double posted it in NCL and the insurance forum.  Love insuremytrip and always buy our travel insurance from them.  I did run it by them but they were not familiar since it is not a policy they sell.

He is very helpful in general, though he could not believe it when I posted I received my Travel Guard insurance premium back in 2020 when we cancelled a Princess cruise before they did as we saw that Covid would force it to be cancelled and did not want to wait for final payment. The same thought process that went into NY State not allowing CFAR insurance also made the insurance company return the premium as there was no risk involved. I asked him if any other states did the same thing, and he replied first that he would try to find out. And then later said he was not really getting responses form state insurance commissioners in other states.Our TA, who was the one who told us with our refundable deposit we would also as NY state residents be able to get out insurance premium back if we cancelled, did know the answer. No other state (at least at that time) had that rule of the insurance premium being refundable.