Viking "Watch Outs"

[WanderingBrit]

I admire the optimism that enables people to generously share tips here for those who can’t/won’t/don’t read T&Cs, thinking that those same people would ever use a forum search 😜

[Orsino]

Well, I’m just booking my first Viking cruise so this is all very helpful for me. 

[Babr]

I’m just trying to understand how so many people at Viking end up with vouchers and why they subsequently get burned with Viking insurance. There are third-party policies that cover vouchers - at least the initial cost, not any bonus or incentive value granted by the cruise line. Perhaps other terms discourage the practice of buying outside Viking.

[WanderingBrit]

47 minutes ago, Babr said:

I’m just trying to understand how so many people at Viking end up with vouchers and why they subsequently get burned with Viking insurance. There are third-party policies that cover vouchers - at least the initial cost, not any bonus or incentive value granted by the cruise line. Perhaps other terms discourage the practice of buying outside Viking.

During the mass cancellations of cruises in 2020 and 2021 passengers were offered either a full refund, or a future cruise voucher worth 125% or more of their original fare. 

[Babr]

23 minutes ago, WanderingBrit said:

During the mass cancellations of cruises in 2020 and 2021 passengers were offered either a full refund, or a future cruise voucher worth 125% or more of their original fare. 

 

I guess I expected those to be off the books by now. Third-party insurance would not cover the extra 25%, but that is still better than Viking’s insurance which covers nothing for cancellation with vouchers. Is it that people just don’t know their options or is the policy from the original cancelled booking carrying forward? People don’t want to buy another policy because they think they are covered?

[Baron Barracuda]

Just looked at the Atlas policy I purchased through Insuremytrip to replace Tripmate and verified the policy doesn't even contain the name of the ship or sailing specifics, just the dates we'll be away from home and countries we'll be visiting.  So if a new Viking promo emerges and we cancel / rebook the same sailing don't believe we even need to inform insurer of the change.

[Heidi13]

2 hours ago, Babr said:

 

I guess I expected those to be off the books by now. Third-party insurance would not cover the extra 25%, but that is still better than Viking’s insurance which covers nothing for cancellation with vouchers. Is it that people just don’t know their options or is the policy from the original cancelled booking carrying forward? People don’t want to buy another policy because they think they are covered?

 

The reason the Tripmate Insurance, available from Viking, doesn't cover vouchers is because they did not charge premiums on the value of the vouchers. You only paid the premium on the portion of the cruise paid with cash.

 

Since pax with vouchers have previously booked with Viking, they should have noted the reduced premium when booking with vouchers. Even getting multiple insurance quotes would have shown that the Tripmate Insurance premiums were lower than expected. Even if Viking did not advise the vouchers weren't insured, these are red flags to ask why.

 

As with everything regarding insurance, you get what you pay for, and the cheapest policy is probably not the best coverage. Unfortunately, not enough consumers practice due diligence before making significant purchases.

[janetcbl]

All of this is great advice IF you are one of the younger passengers (usually under 75). Once you fall into the OLD category, other insurance is so expensive that Vikings’ makes sense…just be sure your private medical insurance is in order.

[Babr]

26 minutes ago, Heidi13 said:

 

The reason the Tripmate Insurance, available from Viking, doesn't cover vouchers is because they did not charge premiums on the value of the vouchers. You only paid the premium on the portion of the cruise paid with cash.

 

Since pax with vouchers have previously booked with Viking, they should have noted the reduced premium when booking with vouchers. Even getting multiple insurance quotes would have shown that the Tripmate Insurance premiums were lower than expected. Even if Viking did not advise the vouchers weren't insured, these are red flags to ask why.

 

As with everything regarding insurance, you get what you pay for, and the cheapest policy is probably not the best coverage. Unfortunately, not enough consumers practice due diligence before making significant purchases.

So people did have an opportunity to choose another policy. It seems they just weren’t  aware of the consequences of staying with Viking insurance.

[WanderingBrit]

As a follow on to the topic of insurance - I found that an annual policy, with no limit on the number or nature of trips, was less expensive than TripMate for a single 10 night cruise.

[Heidi13]

5 minutes ago, Babr said:

So people did have an opportunity to choose another policy. It seems they just weren’t  aware of the consequences of staying with Viking insurance.

 

As per our experience, you nearly always have options to purchase insurance from a 3rd party vendor.

 

For our 2nd World Cruise, I checked all our local brokers and the online store and nobody would accept the risk, since we booked so far out. Although the PIF wasn't until 6 months, the deposit at 2 yrs before departure was more than most people pay for a cruise.

 

Therefore, our only options was Tripmate or from our TA.

[Babr]

5 minutes ago, Heidi13 said:

 

As per our experience, you nearly always have options to purchase insurance from a 3rd party vendor.

 

For our 2nd World Cruise, I checked all our local brokers and the online store and nobody would accept the risk, since we booked so far out. Although the PIF wasn't until 6 months, the deposit at 2 yrs before departure was more than most people pay for a cruise.

 

Therefore, our only options was Tripmate or from our TA.

I suppose my confusion stems from not know what happened to the Viking policy purchased for the original cancelled cruise that resulted in vouchers.  I thought it might be applied to the subsequent booking as is third-party insurance when the supplier cancels a cruise. The policy is not refunded but can be applied to another trip.

[Babr]

1 hour ago, WanderingBrit said:

As a follow on to the topic of insurance - I found that an annual policy, with no limit on the number or nature of trips, was less expensive than TripMate for a single 10 night cruise.

Sure, but there is no cancellation unless you chose Allianz. The max there is $15,000 per person annually. That won’t cover many Viking trips. One claim could deplete your coverage for the rest of the year.

[Mariastreby]

54 minutes ago, WanderingBrit said:

As a follow on to the topic of insurance - I found that an annual policy, with no limit on the number or nature of trips, was less expensive than TripMate for a single 10 night cruise.

I always have a problem with people who say they have an annual policy. I never would use TripMate, but use Allianz. We normally take 2 cruises a year, at 2 weeks+ each, PV cabin, plus the airfare, so each total trip cost can reach $15-20,000 for both of us. Times two. Yet Allianz's annual coverage maximum is $10,000/pp! If I want to cancel one trip, then we are left mostly uncovered for our second trip. So we have no choice but to purchase individual Allianz policies within the 14 days "no pre-existing conditions" clause. Or we could skip that if we wanted to. But we only pay for the basic cruise fare at first. Later, when we know what our airfare is (also NEVER Viking Air Plus), and the cost of pre cruise hotels or extra post cruise traveling we do, we call Allianz and update the cost of the whole vacation from start to finish.

 

We are unusually lucky by living in the state of South Carolina. Due to some law, we can get a total refund on the premium paid for a cruise which we later cancel. Or they can transfer it to a different cruise, even if it's a year later. We always take the refund, which has now worked for us twice. Has anyone else reading this been able to get back their insurance premium? It has to be prior to making the final payment.

[surus]

16 hours ago, dd57 said:

We have moved an Alianz policy to a different date, trip type, and destination without an issue.

Our TA advised us against Viking insurance for this very reason. We bought Allianz for a Scandinavian cruise and then changed to Italian Sojurn. No problem and even got a partial refund as it was a cheaper cruise. Then we decided to add three days on our own at the beginning and end of our trip. TA simply had the dates extended. No problem at all.  

[vadraw]

Selion,

Thanks for posting this very useful summary and to everyone else for adding in.  We've a couple of Viking cruises under our belt but the devils in the details on these things.

[1985rz1]

23 hours ago, Babr said:

Sure, but there is no cancellation unless you chose Allianz. The max there is $15,000 per person annually. That won’t cover many Viking trips. One claim could deplete your coverage for the rest of the year.

Actually, it's $15,000 per policy (not per person) annually, for trip cancellation/Interruption.  It's usually enough for one trip for us but we supplement it with the $10,000 per person per trip offered by our credit card.  We assume that if we have to cancel one trip and have to make a claim,  we can cancel future trips with no or minimal penalty or add new trip insurance policies for future trips.  We also put the cc insurance in line for first claim, should we need it, minimizing the impact on our annual Allianz policy.  Of course, medical coverage by Allianz is per person per trip, so that would be our go to for medical/evacuation coverage.

Edited July 20, 2023 by 1985rz1

[Babr]

52 minutes ago, 1985rz1 said:

Actually, it's $15,000 per policy (not per person) annually, for trip cancellation/Interruption.  It's usually enough for one trip for us but we supplement it with the $10,000 per person per trip offered by our credit card.  We assume that if we have to cancel one trip and have to make a claim,  we can cancel future trips with no or minimal penalty or add new trip insurance policies for future trips.  We also put the cc insurance in line for first claim, should we need it, minimizing the impact on our annual Allianz policy.  Of course, medical coverage by Allianz is per person per trip, so that would be our go to for medical/evacuation coverage.

You are correct. It is per policy which makes it even worse. Your credit card can supplement your cancellation / interruption coverage as long as you, your traveling companion (s), or non-traveling family members do not have a pre-existing condition. That casts a pretty wide net so that means you need to be aware of everyone’s medical history for the 60 days preceding any booking. Otherwise you risk a claim denial because of the pre-existing conditions exclusion.

 

The credit card insurance I have seen is secondary. Language in the Guide to Benefits states that it will pay after any other coverage you have for the same event. The claim form will ask for that information.

[1985rz1]

21 minutes ago, Babr said:

The credit card insurance I have seen is secondary.

Unfortunately, yes, for ours.  I misspoke on that .  Only the car rental insurance is primary.

[KBs mum]

Any decent insurer will cover any amount requested, the problem may be that the cost of cover becomes un affordable. 

We have an annual policy that excludes areas we specify to keep costs down. For example, for us in the UK excluding USA keeps the premium lower. Europe and the Antipodes are fairly inexpensive. Repatriation cover costs dont vary much. The insurer we use is one of the few that will quote for pre existing conditions. 

Whatever you do, get quotes from several companies, find out who the underwriter is, read the terms and conditions and find out how they are rated by their past customers 

[Mackdogmolly]

On 7/18/2023 at 10:24 PM, dd57 said:

We have moved an Alianz policy to a different date, trip type, and destination without an issue.

So have I

[Clay Clayton]

To add to the original list:

If you have a voucher, be aware that it will be posted to a new booking (thereby reducing the final payment amount) immediately.  This became an issue when we booked using the $25 deposit and needed to cancel (knowing we would loose the $50 for the two of us) but it turned out we were going to loose $2560 as we had a $1600 voucher that had been applied to the booking without our knowledge.  It all worked out after lots of haranguing including via social media posts (noisy wheel and all that😂).  I am told but cannot confirm that if you note while making the new booking that you do not want to apply the outstanding voucher that this issue won't arise. 

[CDNPolar]

43 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

To add to the original list:

If you have a voucher, be aware that it will be posted to a new booking (thereby reducing the final payment amount) immediately.  This became an issue when we booked using the $25 deposit and needed to cancel (knowing we would loose the $50 for the two of us) but it turned out we were going to loose $2560 as we had a $1600 voucher that had been applied to the booking without our knowledge.  It all worked out after lots of haranguing including via social media posts (noisy wheel and all that😂).  I am told but cannot confirm that if you note while making the new booking that you do not want to apply the outstanding voucher that this issue won't arise. 

 

Clay, we had the same problem where a voucher was applied and we had previously been told that it would not.    We specifically asked that the voucher not be applied to a booking because we were making this booking further out and we were going to book something sooner and would like it attached to the earlier booking.  We were told that we could specify this and the voucher would not be applied.

 

When we got our invoice, the voucher was applied.

 

We called back, and it did not matter the arguing, and even though the escalated customer service agent admitted that in the notes we were given wrong information, they would not remove the voucher.

 

If you have any voucher on the books with Viking be VERY CAREFUL that you understand what is happening with that voucher and the rules around it.

 

If ever presented with the option of refund vs. 125% deal like Viking did during covid, I would not always opt for refund.  The 25% lift is almost always in Viking's favour.

 

 

[Squawkman]

We recently received a $500 voucher from customer relations which stated to be used on any booking. We did a cancel and rebook the same day, and the voucher was automatically applied to the rebook. When I asked my Viking agent why this was done, I was told Viking wants vouchers applied ASAP. Since I had another booking I wanted to use it for, my agent called a supervisor and got it changed. I would have preferred to hold the voucher, but was told I couldn’t since I had existing bookings.

[CCWineLover]

1 hour ago, Squawkman said:

We recently received a $500 voucher from customer relations which stated to be used on any booking. We did a cancel and rebook the same day, and the voucher was automatically applied to the rebook. When I asked my Viking agent why this was done, I was told Viking wants vouchers applied ASAP. Since I had another booking I wanted to use it for, my agent called a supervisor and got it changed. I would have preferred to hold the voucher, but was told I couldn’t since I had existing bookings.

We had the exact same experience with vouchers and auto apply on a rebook.  Couldn't get around it and yes, they admitted they want to get vouchers done with and off the books.