Scary Medical Emergency - Cruise Credit Chance

[RocCruisers]

I had a major cruise planned for mid January 2023.

I had a heart attack and open heart surgery on January 1, 2023.

I had RCL / Aon insurance.  

I got all my money back (minus the insurance cost) by March 5, 2023.  

[firefly333]

If I read they made a exception for the OP but I lost my money last jan I'd be mad. 

 

I was told positive covid test the only way you can cancel and get a fcc or refund. 

[ARandomTraveler]

1 hour ago, nelblu said:

At a minimum you will be getting taxes & fees (T&F) as refunds.

 

My only experience was when we had a family sail scheduled for Easter '20.  My wife was hospitalized, and we could not sail.  However, this was right around the beginning of the Pandemic and Royal was flush with cash and probably we in total did not visualize the future impact.  Anyway, I informed my TA who cancelled our cruise and informed Royal of the circumstances.

 

The result was that I received credit to my CC for one of us, plus all T&F--don't know if it was mine or my wife.  The unreimbursed amount, I submitted with all sorts of medical information to Chase Sapphire CC under the "trip interruption/cancellation policy.  Got the balance of the moneys including my TA $100 cancellation fee.

 

As others have said, you got nothing to lose but some time and effort.

 

 

I have this card too, and I'm pretty sure it's the only one on the market that has this comprehensive travel insurance policy. Others have some abbreviated form of it, but not as robust as the Chase Sapphire Reserve. 

[nelblu]

1 hour ago, ARandomTraveler said:

I have this card too, and I'm pretty sure it's the only one on the market that has this comprehensive travel insurance policy. Others have some abbreviated form of it, but not as robust as the Chase Sapphire Reserve. 

Mine is the cheaper version "Preferred" and a solo that fits my needs.  My SIL has the Reserve and get a lot of benefits for the price, especially travel & points.  

[Another_Critic]

1 hour ago, nelblu said:

Mine is the cheaper version "Preferred" and a solo that fits my needs.  My SIL has the Reserve and get a lot of benefits for the price, especially travel & points.  

I also have the Preferred (downgraded from Reserve).  I was looking at the travel insurance benefits and didn't realize that Preferred doesn't cover med evac.

[LobsterStalker]

On 4/6/2023 at 1:17 PM, dunrobbin said:

We always buy medical, but do not buy travel insurance.  Storm of the century on 23rd Dec closed Canada  by road and flights. No way to get to our cruise port.

First time we ever lost money after many many holidays. We always said if we lose one we will start getting both medical and Travel.

Instead we got a credit card that covers both.

No refund from Royal, and we didnt expect one.

What really bit though,  was that even though we paid for the cruise, we did not get our Crown and Anchor points. 😞  

Wow , that don't seem right !

[Denversail]

On 4/6/2023 at 10:17 AM, dunrobbin said:

We always buy medical, but do not buy travel insurance.  Storm of the century on 23rd Dec closed Canada  by road and flights. No way to get to our cruise port.

First time we ever lost money after many many holidays. We always said if we lose one we will start getting both medical and Travel.

Instead we got a credit card that covers both.

No refund from Royal, and we didnt expect one.

What really bit though,  was that even though we paid for the cruise, we did not get our Crown and Anchor points. 😞  

That is interesting. I missed the cancellation for a cruise about 15 years ago. So I forfeited my deposit and I never made final payment. The cruise is in my history with C&A points. A fluke I guess. 🤷‍♀️

[nolimits]

Is Covid still a legitimate reason to cancel  last minute 

and receive cruise credit ??

Edited April 7, 2023 by nolimits

[Denversail]

24 minutes ago, nolimits said:

Is Covid still a legitimate reason to cancel  last minute 

and receive cruise credit ??

I think so for sailings through 4/30/23. After that I think it flips to normal travel insurance. 

[Ourusualbeach]

1 hour ago, nolimits said:

Is Covid still a legitimate reason to cancel  last minute 

and receive cruise credit ??

Through the end of Aptil, 2023

[Ourusualbeach]

1 hour ago, LobsterStalker said:

Wow , that don't seem right !

Sure it does.  You have to actually sail to get the points otherwise people would be booking dirt cheap cruises with no intention of sailing just to get points. 

[LobsterStalker]

4 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Sure it does.  You have to actually sail to get the points otherwise people would be booking dirt cheap cruises with no intention of sailing just to get points. 

I just looked up statistics and I guess I forgot this when I made my comment ... A lot of the cruiselines profit actually comes from online spend rather than cruise fare . 

 

"Of that $1,560, 71.5% ($1,116 per passenger) was spent on cruise fares and the remaining 28.5% ($444 per passenger) was spent onboard for everything from booze to t-shirts in the gift shop"

Just 1 example %age wise of how they fare 

 

Cheers

[ReneeFLL]

On 4/7/2023 at 9:41 AM, nelblu said:

…Got the balance of the moneys including my TA $100 cancellation fee.

 

Your TA charges you &100.00 if you cancel? If you aren’t attached to that TA I would find another one. There are plenty out there who don’t have a cancellation fee.

[nelblu]

50 minutes ago, ReneeFLL said:

Your TA charges you &100.00 if you cancel? If you aren’t attached to that TA I would find another one. There are plenty out there who don’t have a cancellation fee.

The OBCs were attractive.  It's $50 pp.  However, like Royal they are not offering any good OBCs, so I turned their offers down and stayed with the Royal booking.  The problem is trying to find good TAs that reward you.  

 

 

[Jimbo]

On 4/7/2023 at 9:31 AM, BND said:

On 4/7/2023 at 9:31 AM, BND said:

Insurance exists for a reason.  Why should we all buy it if they're going to refund those without it? We have an annual Allianz policy.  Well worth the money.

Just curious, I think you do a lot of traveling yearly...........Just how much do you pay per person per year for this coverage?

 

Is it just based on your age only or do they ask you where you might be going and the amount of trips you are taking.

 

Just looked at the site briefly.

Edited April 8, 2023 by Jimbo

[Big_G]

2 hours ago, Jimbo said:

Just curious, I think you do a lot of traveling yearly...........Just how much do you pay per person per year for this coverage?

 

Is it just based on your age only or do they ask you where you might be going and the amount of trips you are taking.

 

Just looked at the site briefly.

 

We also purchased the annual Allianz plan. They did ask ages and departure date of our first trip but nothing of detail beyond that other than personal information. We had booked 3 cruises during the insured period but then we booked additional cruises that were over the maximum cancellation benefit. We'll only be covered up to 75% for those but were OK with that. The cost was $715 total.

[shofer]

When we were younger, we never bothered with insurance.  But now...In Jan-2021, right before the Covid shutdown, DH, who had been feeling not good since Tuesday and refused to see the doctor, decided on Friday (we always fly in a day early) that maybe he should see someone.  Long story short, the doc sent him to the ER and he was admitted for cardiac eval d/t elevated cardiac enzymes.   Turned out to be a food borne illness which had seriously dehydrated him.  I came down with it (don't kiss a sick husband) and was sick the entire next week.

Even if we had made it onboard, we would have been confined to our room the entire trip.

Royal was great (we had their insurance) and everything was refunded.  Southwest gave us credit for 18 mos in the future.  We lost our hotel fee, but $300 was affordable. 

In 2008, we took our 2 kids and their spouses on a cruise and we purchased insurance for them too.  You never know what can happen.

 

[Jimbo]

1 hour ago, Big_G said:

 

We also purchased the annual Allianz plan. They did ask ages and departure date of our first trip but nothing of detail beyond that other than personal information. We had booked 3 cruises during the insured period but then we booked additional cruises that were over the maximum cancellation benefit. We'll only be covered up to 75% for those but were OK with that. The cost was $715 total.

All Trips Prime for 2 people was quoted at $280 each, 63 and 62 years old..............seems pretty good. 1 year coverage.

 

We have 3 cruises planned within a year and 2 are overseas in Europe and one goes to Greenland from the states. . Seems like a good deal.

[GTO-Girl]

We looked into the yearly policy but decided to pass.  
 

I prefer a policy that serves as primary and not secondary.  I also want a large medical and medical evacuation amount.

 

Because we are older the price of trip insurance has gotten pretty high, so we do not insure the cost of the trip itself because we feel we can absorb that if something happened and we could not travel.  We are more concerned with the medical and medical evac.

 

Last two cruises using the above method we got $500,000 of medical and $1,000,000 of medical evacuation under a policy that serves as primary for a total of $127 for both of us….

 

 

[Big_G]

17 minutes ago, GTO-Girl said:

We looked into the yearly policy but decided to pass.  
 

I prefer a policy that serves as primary and not secondary.  I also want a large medical and medical evacuation amount.

 

Because we are older the price of trip insurance has gotten pretty high, so we do not insure the cost of the trip itself because we feel we can absorb that if something happened and we could not travel.  We are more concerned with the medical and medical evac.

 

Last two cruises using the above method we got $500,000 of medical and $1,000,000 of medical evacuation under a policy that serves as primary for a total of $127 for both of us….

 

 

 

Makes sense. Traditional travel insurance is age and price dependent so we're not getting any younger and cruises aren't getting any cheaper. That's why this seemed like an appealing alternative to pay as you go.

 

PS: I can't believe anyone named 'GTO-Girl' could consider themselves old. 😉

Edited April 8, 2023 by Big_G

[LorraineP]

17 minutes ago, GTO-Girl said:

We looked into the yearly policy but decided to pass.  
 

I prefer a policy that serves as primary and not secondary.  I also want a large medical and medical evacuation amount.

 

Because we are older the price of trip insurance has gotten pretty high, so we do not insure the cost of the trip itself because we feel we can absorb that if something happened and we could not travel.  We are more concerned with the medical and medical evac.

 

Last two cruises using the above method we got $500,000 of medical and $1,000,000 of medical evacuation under a policy that serves as primary for a total of $127 for both of us….

 

 

“Last two cruises using the above method we got $500,000 of medical and $1,000,000 of medical evacuation under a policy that serves as primary for a total of $127 for both of us”

 

We always purchase travel insurance for each cruise. Interested now about the policy you get. Both of us are in our late 70’s.  Not a problem if we had absorb cost of cruise. 

[smokeybandit]

Annual policies are good for general travel, not cruises.

[Big_G]

1 minute ago, smokeybandit said:

Annual policies are good for general travel, not cruises.

 

How so?

[smokeybandit]

Just now, Big_G said:

 

How so?

Trip cancellation/interruption reimbursement is a lot lower than single trip policies, at least in my research.

[Big_G]

3 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

Trip cancellation/interruption reimbursement is a lot lower than single trip policies, at least in my research.

 

Yes and no. Allianz offers $5,000, $7,500, and $10,000 maximum benefits but you'd need to have multiple cruises booked to make the price paid worth while.