In Covid isolation on the Nieuw Amsterdam

[REOVA]

4 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

There are homeowners policies for various natural events but I was questioning what a traveler would even need such insurance for? 

I was speaking of travel insurance and regarding the 2020 claims that many were denied. I would think a trip cancellation, change, sickness or damage (during excursion) would need specific language including volcano eruptions. 

[Mary229]

Just now, REOVA said:

I was speaking of travel insurance and regarding the 2020 claims that many were denied. I would think a trip cancellation, change, sickness or damage (during excursion) would need specific language including volcano eruptions. 

I can’t imagine you would have a loss.   As with Covid many businesses closed down and most of us were reimbursed.  There were a few outliers where the customer had to go through the dispute process.  If an airline changes or cancels a flight they are required by law to compensate.  If a lodging option closes then a dispute will find in favor of the customer.  Travel insurance never covers for lost time as when you schedule vacation.  So the question remains what would the purpose of volcano travel insurance be?  There would be no reason to insure that risk.  (I live in tornado alley so am well aware of hazard insurances)

[BermudaBound2014]

2 hours ago, daisy-mae said:

Good to hear. We have a similar travel insurance policy - it covers us if our travel companions' plans change or affect our travels, and we are also covered if we can no longer lodge with our intended hosts at our destination.

 

9 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

To make a claim you must have a loss, so again?…

 

If I'm not mistaken, the topic of volcano coverage originated w/Daisy-mae's discussion about having insurance just for a change of plans. Example: Your plans change due to VOG and you no longer want to visit the BI. 

[REOVA]

5 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

I can’t imagine you would have a loss.   As with Covid many businesses closed down and most of us were reimbursed.  There were a few outliers where the customer had to go through the dispute process.  If an airline changes or cancels a flight they are required by law to compensate.  If a lodging option closes then a dispute will find in favor of the customer.  Travel insurance never covers for lost time as when you schedule vacation.  So the question remains what would the purpose of volcano travel insurance be?  There would be no reason to insure that risk.  (I live in tornado alley so am well aware of hazard insurances)

For 2020 COVID claims,  there are many who were denied (myself included) when trips were cut short due to it not being a listed coverage. My insurance agent (Steve at Tripinsurance) had many customers' claims denied. Policies are different and the language needs to be specific. Tornados at home is a separate type of insurance than travel insurance. 

[daisy-mae]

16 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

 

If I'm not mistaken, the topic of volcano coverage originated w/Daisy-mae's discussion about having insurance just for a change of plans. Example: Your plans change due to VOG and you no longer want to visit the BI. 

Well it looks like I have opened a can of worms...My comment related to the statement made by terrydtx about an insurance claim that was paid even though he had not been ill; my guess was that he coverage included both parties as travel companions, and one's claim automatically covered the other.

 

Then bennybear set the cat among the pigeons by mentioning volcanoes - likely tongue-in-cheek - and everything went off the rails.

 

In the case of our coverage, and in the interest of keeping the discussion flowing,  if lava were to set fire to the home of the folks with whom we were hoping to stay, then we would be covered for alternate lodging arrangements, or possibly cancellation (but I would have to verify that).

 

 

Edited December 3, 2022 by daisy-mae

[Mary229]

18 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

 

If I'm not mistaken, the topic of volcano coverage originated w/Daisy-mae's discussion about having insurance just for a change of plans. Example: Your plans change due to VOG and you no longer want to visit the BI. 

I know but those kinds of issues are usually covered by consumer protections not insurance.  

[Mary229]

11 minutes ago, daisy-mae said:

Well it looks like I have opened a can of worms...My comment related to the statement made by terrydtx about an insurance claim that was paid even though he had not been ill; my guess was that he coverage included both parties as travel companions, and one's claim automatically covered the other.

 

Then bennybear set the cat among the pigeons by mentioning volcanoes - likely tongue-in-cheek - and everything went off the rails.

 

In the case of our coverage, and in the interest of keeping the discussion flowing,  if lava were to set fire to the home of the folks with whom we were hoping to stay, then we would be covered for alternate lodging arrangements, or possibly cancellation (but I would have to verify that).

 

 

Their homeowners insurance would be the one to claim against.  In reality if you and they were violating a mandatory evacuation order then all claims would be null and void.  If it were by prior notice your consumer protections would refund your money assuming  you used a credit card.  The only travel clause that would be considered is trip interruption.  The issue is advanced notice is given for both hurricanes and volcanoes.  I would assume anyone traveling into such a region is not mitigating risks.  
 

the analogy to Covid is different, at first those caught off guard by a declaration of a pandemic were denied because most travel insurance does not cover pandemics.  Later there were policies put in place that did specifically cover Covid.  Steve recommended such a policy when it became available.  Insurance companies expect us not to be foolhardy and to mitigate risks.

Edited December 3, 2022 by Mary229

[Gray Lady]

4 hours ago, terrydtx said:

My wife tested positive on our August cruise 5 days before the end of the 14 day cruise, she was put into isolation, but I was not. I wasn't positive until we got off the ship and in isolation in Venice, my positive test was from a home test at the hotel so nothing official. Our travel insurance reimbursed us both for the missed 5 days, even though it was only my wife who had a positive test result from the ship. We were in a suite, so the 5 days for our reimbursement was substantial and we got the check last Monday.

You are very lucky. DH tested positive and I didn’t until we were in a quarantine hotel. I tested myself with a home kit, so nothing official. Our AON policy had a limit of $500 for hotel per person (quarantine hotel charged $550 per night). They would not pay for me because I didn’t “officially” test positive. We are still waiting for reimbursement from HAL as promised. It is possible policies for longer cruises (ours was 7 days with a platinum plan) may pay more. Also policies purchased on your own, not through HAL, can have larger allowances for those things.
 

 

 

 

 

 

[terrydtx]

2 hours ago, Gray Lady said:

You are very lucky. DH tested positive and I didn’t until we were in a quarantine hotel. I tested myself with a home kit, so nothing official. Our AON policy had a limit of $500 for hotel per person (quarantine hotel charged $550 per night). They would not pay for me because I didn’t “officially” test positive. We are still waiting for reimbursement from HAL as promised. It is possible policies for longer cruises (ours was 7 days with a platinum plan) may pay more. Also policies purchased on your own, not through HAL, can have larger allowances for those things.
 

 

 

 

 

 

Our case was very similar, I didn't test positive until the day we got off the ship and it was done with a home text we brought with us. We were dumped in a quarantine hotel in the industrial area of Maestre in Venice, it was a Sheraton 4 Points, one room for my wife and one room for me. The hotel never knew I was positive so I wasn't under lockdown like my wife. For the 3 nights the rooms were $1035 at the Sheraton total, and we had one night at the Mariott Courtyard at the Venice airport the night before we flew home. Our total hotel charges were $1447 and our policy had a $1000 cap per person or $2000 for both of us for hotels, so we were covered 100%. We were told by HAL Guest services on the Oosterdam that our hotel would be directly billed to HAL by the hotel, but that was not the case when we checked in and had to give a CC. HAL also told us my wife would have $100 per diem for food while in the hotel and they would send us the check directly, we have yet to see the promised $300. 

 

I do not know if it made any difference for coverage but our total trip including 24 cruise days and 9 land days was all covered by the insurance. We bought the insurance through a company called Leisure Care through my TA's parent company; I didn't know that AON was the carrier until we filed the claim and they contacted us.

[birdie16]

On 11/20/2022 at 6:06 AM, Ipeeinthepools said:

 

Maybe I missed it, but how long are you staying in Fort Lauderdale and is HAL providing the hotel?  I caught Covid last month on another cruise line and there wasn't any post cruise help.  All they offered was a ride in a nice SUV anywhere I wanted to go.  I think they just wanted me gone, they took pictures of our passports and we bypassed Customs and Immigration.

Sorry, I’m just now seeing this question. We felt like we were dumped on the curb. We were told the cruise line would reimburse us for travel, hotel and $100/person/per day for food. We were given a reimbursement form, which we submitted as soon as we got home. I also wrote a six page letter, going into the details of the mishandling of our situation. We have yet to receive our FCC, reimbursement, or any response to my letter.

Edited December 9, 2022 by birdie16
Added content.

[AKJonesy]

IMHO Covid will never be over and we will just have to deal with it like dealing with the flu.  If that is the case, I think many people, and hopefully the most vulnerable will do what they have to, and not necessarily rely on others to keep them safe.  I think others will treat it like the flu and not do much.  I say this because even all the people I know do take more precautions than prior to covid, so I think we are all a bit trained that covid can be worse than the flu.  However, one thing I have heard from many people is that they refuse to do anymore boosters.  Even as recent as the cruise we just took, people were saying they are not doing anymore boosters.  IMHO that is square on the authorities for politicizing covid instead of having consistent messaging.      

[bennybear]

On 12/3/2022 at 1:38 PM, daisy-mae said:

Well it looks like I have opened a can of worms...My comment related to the statement made by terrydtx about an insurance claim that was paid even though he had not been ill; my guess was that he coverage included both parties as travel companions, and one's claim automatically covered the other.

 

Then bennybear set the cat among the pigeons by mentioning volcanoes - likely tongue-in-cheek - and everything went off the rails.

 

In the case of our coverage, and in the interest of keeping the discussion flowing,  if lava were to set fire to the home of the folks with whom we were hoping to stay, then we would be covered for alternate lodging arrangements, or possibly cancellation (but I would have to verify that).

 

 

Mea culpa!  But it was half serious,   As @BermudaBound2014 stated things can change quickly,  with vog and poisonous gasses.   It seems impossible to insure for every eventuality.    I doubt I had coverage for the incoming ballistic missile, not a drill!  
Volcanoes have been a known issue on the Big Island for years, and the mayor is saying no need to change plans.  I guess I am wondering if things go sideways, as this is the worlds largest volcano, that has been quiet for nearly four decades.    I am about to pay a very large sum….

 

Edited December 9, 2022 by bennybear

[syesmar]

20 hours ago, birdie16 said:

Sorry, I’m just now seeing this question. We felt like we were dumped on the curb. We were told the cruise line would reimburse us for travel, hotel and $100/person/per day for food. We were given a reimbursement form, which we submitted as soon as we got home. I also wrote a six page letter, going into the details of the mishandling of our situation. We have yet to receive our FCC, reimbursement, or any response to my letter.

@birdie16How long have you been waiting to hear back? One would think the process would be more efficient, yet repeatedly hearing such similar stories among travelers sounds like without the customer following up, things might not get taken care of, unfortunately. I hope everything works out for you soon. All the Best! 

[Gray Lady]

On 12/9/2022 at 8:25 AM, birdie16 said:

Sorry, I’m just now seeing this question. We felt like we were dumped on the curb. We were told the cruise line would reimburse us for travel, hotel and $100/person/per day for food. We were given a reimbursement form, which we submitted as soon as we got home. I also wrote a six page letter, going into the details of the mishandling of our situation. We have yet to receive our FCC, reimbursement, or any response to my letter.

We are still waiting for hotel and meal reimbursement from our quarantine in June. It is impossible to get a straight answer other than it will be sent to you soon.

[Vict0riann]

We wanted to apply any FCC to a booked cruise which was approaching final payment, and our PCC managed to get the credit "expedited"  for us yesterday.  We have heard nothing about the re-payment of our expenses (just a rental car and ferry to get home).  But at least we got the FCC!😁

[birdie16]

We returned from the cruise on November 20th. Still no reply to my letter, or the refund form. 

[Suzy Bell]

I had a Covid quarantine situation where things did not go as I was advised by Guest Services(too much to go into detail here).

 In mid September I tested positive towards the end of a 10 day cruise, my husband tested negative but we both had to stay in our cabins for the final 2 days of the cruise. After disembarking in Boston we were required to complete a 10 day quarantine in order to return to Canada(the Canadian Covid restrictions have since been lifted). Our stay in Boston was a considerable expense. We submitted a claim to our travel insurance provider but were reimbursed only up until the day our insurance coverage for the trip expired.

After writing 2 emails to Hal Guest Relations and another email to the president of HAL, I finally received a reply after almost 2 months. We are now in the process of submitting the Out of Pocket Expense Form along with our receipts excluding the amounts alreade paid to us by our travel insurance. I also had to submit a request for my medical records as the ship's medical center gave me no documentation regarding my date of testing positive nor my required quarantine dates .And we still haven't had the cruise credit for the 2 missed days applied to our Mariner account.

All this to say, it's a slow process, don't lose hope.

 

 

 

 

[birdie16]

On 12/14/2022 at 4:44 PM, Suzy Bell said:

I had a Covid quarantine situation where things did not go as I was advised by Guest Services(too much to go into detail here).

 In mid September I tested positive towards the end of a 10 day cruise, my husband tested negative but we both had to stay in our cabins for the final 2 days of the cruise. After disembarking in Boston we were required to complete a 10 day quarantine in order to return to Canada(the Canadian Covid restrictions have since been lifted). Our stay in Boston was a considerable expense. We submitted a claim to our travel insurance provider but were reimbursed only up until the day our insurance coverage for the trip expired.

After writing 2 emails to Hal Guest Relations and another email to the president of HAL, I finally received a reply after almost 2 months. We are now in the process of submitting the Out of Pocket Expense Form along with our receipts excluding the amounts alreade paid to us by our travel insurance. I also had to submit a request for my medical records as the ship's medical center gave me no documentation regarding my date of testing positive nor my required quarantine dates .And we still haven't had the cruise credit for the 2 missed days applied to our Mariner account.

All this to say, it's a slow process, don't lose hope.

 

 

 

 

Thank you for posting your experience. I wrote a 6 page letter to the President of Holland America, I have not heard anything. No FCC, no expense reimbursement, nothing. We were planning on taking an Alaska cruise in May with good friends of ours...neither of us will book until we receive our FCC and expenses. We also have a 14 night cruise out of Amsterdam in July...again, we will NOT make final payment until we hear from Holland America. We are NOT interested in giving them any more business until we see how well they handle our complaints. So far, not impressed.

[REOVA]

27 minutes ago, birdie16 said:

Thank you for posting your experience. I wrote a 6 page letter to the President of Holland America, I have not heard anything. No FCC, no expense reimbursement, nothing. We were planning on taking an Alaska cruise in May with good friends of ours...neither of us will book until we receive our FCC and expenses. We also have a 14 night cruise out of Amsterdam in July...again, we will NOT make final payment until we hear from Holland America. We are NOT interested in giving them any more business until we see how well they handle our complaints. So far, not impressed.

Unfortunately you may not get FCC until you book. We know many (us included) that had to contact TA to get them to expedite their FCC before it showed up. 😖

[SFO Peter]

Our experience was that we told them we needed the FCC from Covid to apply to final payment which was coming up.  We worked directly with HAL on the phone and they calculated and applied the FCC to final payment while we were on the phone.

 

Peter

[Suzy Bell]

3 hours ago, birdie16 said:

Thank you for posting your experience. I wrote a 6 page letter to the President of Holland America, I have not heard anything. No FCC, no expense reimbursement, nothing. We were planning on taking an Alaska cruise in May with good friends of ours...neither of us will book until we receive our FCC and expenses. We also have a 14 night cruise out of Amsterdam in July...again, we will NOT make final payment until we hear from Holland America. We are NOT interested in giving them any more business until we see how well they handle our complaints. So far, not impressed.

I really hope you get a favourable response and soon. It is a frustrating and drawn out process. Everyone's case is different but we all share the experience of poor communication from HAL. Prior to this we had always enjoyed our HAL cruises and received excellent customer service.

 

Update on our claim:

I recently started receiving emails from a HAL personal cruise consultant urging me to book a cruise before my FCC expires. Checked my Mariner account and there is indeed a future cruise credit to be used by December 11, 2023. We have never booked with a cruise consultant - I'm ignoring these emails.

 On Dec.20 we finally were able to submit our expense claim to HAL accompanied by all our receipts and another letter. So far have received an automatic email to confirm receipt and advising that it will take another 6 - 10 weeks for processing. 

Waiting to see what our reimbursement will be - not booking another cruise for a while, much as we really want a vacation this winter.

 

 

[melspar]

My husband and I spent 12 days of a 14 day cruise in quarentine in Oct. on the Neu Statendam. We did “the right thing” and turned ourselves in. Very elderly population on HAL ships. Really didn’t want to risk infecting others. We were promised future cruise credits for each of the days we were quarentined. We’ve been trying to book another HAL cruise using these promised credits and can’t get anywhere through our travel agent or the HAL “cruise concierge”. I’ll never book another HAL cruise if they don’t get this straightened out. Any advice cruisers?

[leerathje]

On 12/3/2022 at 12:21 PM, Mary229 said:

I can’t imagine you would have a loss.   As with Covid many businesses closed down and most of us were reimbursed.  There were a few outliers where the customer had to go through the dispute process.  If an airline changes or cancels a flight they are required by law to compensate.  If a lodging option closes then a dispute will find in favor of the customer.  Travel insurance never covers for lost time as when you schedule vacation.  So the question remains what would the purpose of volcano travel insurance be?  There would be no reason to insure that risk.  (I live in tornado alley so am well aware of hazard insurances)

 

You are assuming that the rules for Americans apply for others....please understand that it isn't just Americans that are on CC.  It was only in September of 2022 that Canadians would be compensated for an airline change or cancellation.  Prior to that, airlines would always claim it wasn't in their control, and consequently, Canadians could not get reimbursement for their travel unless they had cancellation insurance. The airlines even claimed they were not responsible (and got away with it) when there were crew shortages last summer.

 

L.

 

[Mary229]

6 minutes ago, leerathje said:

 

You are assuming that the rules for Americans apply for others....please understand that it isn't just Americans that are on CC.  It was only in September of 2022 that Canadians would be compensated for an airline change or cancellation.  Prior to that, airlines would always claim it wasn't in their control, and consequently, Canadians could not get reimbursement for their travel unless they had cancellation insurance. The airlines even claimed they were not responsible (and got away with it) when there were crew shortages last summer.

 

L.

 

So I have learned but it still holds that insurance only covers for a monetary loss.  To be compensated for pain and suffering or other less tangible losses one must either rely on the courts or the kindness of corporations 

[leerathje]

1 minute ago, Mary229 said:

So I have learned but it still holds that insurance only covers for a monetary loss.  To be compensated for pain and suffering or other less tangible losses one must either rely on the courts or the kindness of corporations 

 

We are fortunate that now, in Canada, you also receive compensation for delays.  For example, if your flight is delayed 3 - 6 hours, you receive compensation from the airline of $400.  Never had that before.

 

L.