Trip Insurance

[forgap]

This is a very interesting article in the New York Times concerning trip insurance, a cancelled flight and, thus, a missed cruise.   The moral of the story, in my opinion, is to read the fine print and avoid insurance that is offered by the cruise line. 

  https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/01/travel/cruise-travel-insurance.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

[pappy1022]

Unfortunately you have to buy a subscription to The NY Times to read this article. 

[2SailingNomads]

We buy an annual policy that covers all trips, land and cruises.

[-Lew-]

8 hours ago, forgap said:

The moral of the story, in my opinion, is to read the fine print and avoid insurance that is offered by the cruise line. 

 

The moral is more than reading the fine print...

 

My personal practice is to not purchase insurance from the entity I may have to submit a claim against. This is because the entity or its insurance company may have a conflict of interest when it comes to paying out claims. IMHO it is better to purchase insurance from an independent third party who has no stake in the outcome of my claim. This way, I can be confident my claim will be handled fairly and impartially.

[Mahogany]

2 hours ago, -Lew- said:

 

The moral is more than reading the fine print...

 

My personal practice is to not purchase insurance from the entity I may have to submit a claim against. This is because the entity or its insurance company may have a conflict of interest when it comes to paying out claims. IMHO it is better to purchase insurance from an independent third party who has no stake in the outcome of my claim. This way, I can be confident my claim will be handled fairly and impartially.

Unfortunately, sometimes the cost of buying from a third-party may be prohibitively expensive, if it is age-based - expensive for us seniors, so sometimes the cruise line's is the cheapest, but I agree, maybe not the wisest.

[flare3192]

I look at it that the money spent on the cruise is gone. Getting some back if something happens is nice but I am more concerned with something happening while on the cruise or trip that I need medical treatment or something else. I don't want unexpected expenses. So if, for example , I spent $30,000 for my husband and myself I may insure $10,000 for him and $7,500 for myself. I take the risk that I would lose $12,500 and limited the amount of insurance cost. My husband is younger so I give him more as it costs less. We are covered for air, sickness, delayed flights, lost luggage etc. I may spend $1,500 less on insurance and if I do that 10 times it is a break even if I lose some on a trip. I know not everyone looks at it that way.

We just got back from Ecuador and the Galapagos. Just before we left there were curfews in place and military actions against the drug trade. If we had cancelled the trip we would have lost everything in spite of the insurance as that is not covered unless the cruise and airlines cancelled -- it was not my call. We went and had a magical time. But many people cancelled and  lost everything they paid including the insurance. So I really look at what I am willing to lose vs what I want to pay for.

[irishwitchy]

I also read that “tripped up” column and totally agree.  We never purchase the Regent or for that matter the insurance offered by the any cruise line or tour group.   It isn’t in your best interest.  
 

I look at it from this point of view - HR in most companies protects the company, not so much the employee.  

[pappy1022]

Combining trip insurance coverage from your credit card plus a 3rd party insurance broker can dramatically decrease the total cost. For example, we booked at $30,000 cruise for the 2 of us. Our credit card gave us $10,000 each of trip cancellation coverage for out of pocket cost. Leaving us $10,000 to insure through an insurance broker. So we insured the $5,000 each which was a lot less expensive than insuring $15,000 each and we also received all of the medical, hospital and evacuation coverage as part of the independent insurance coverage. We saved almost $1,000 by doing this combined coverage. It is a common practice and is legitimate and provides great coverage.

[CJANDH]

For me, losing the money paid for the cruise would be painful, but not catastrophic. Having to pay for major medical and perhaps evacuation would be a disaster. So we buy an annual insurance policy that covers nothing much more that medical and evacuation. It costs only about $500 a year and covers all the trips we take each year. If I had to suck up the losses from a cancelled cruise, it would be less than I have saved from not insuring every cruise individually at thousands at a time.

[papaflamingo]

On 2/4/2024 at 4:03 PM, -Lew- said:

My personal practice is to not purchase insurance from the entity I may have to submit a claim against. This is because the entity or its insurance company may have a conflict of interest when it comes to paying out claims

Actually I think you might be misunderstanding a bit.  The insurance company, in fact, IS the entity that loses out.  They have to pay out your total claim.  They recover nothing from anyone else.  So `100% of the payout is out of their coffers.  The cruise line gets paid no matter what, it's the insurance company that loses the money.

Travel Insurance is pretty straightforward.  But I rarely use cruise company's insurance because it is usually more expensive and it doesn't cover any costs associated with pre or post cruise stays, or if you book your own flights, etc. 

I had to cancel our cruise in Oct. due to Covid.  We had a third party company, GoReady.  They covered everything except what Regent refunded (port fees), including hotel stays that were non-refundable, etc.  You just have to make sure you include those costs in the amount you insure for.  Regent's plan would not have covered those. 

[papaflamingo]

3 hours ago, CJANDH said:

If I had to suck up the losses from a cancelled cruise, it would be less than I have saved from not insuring every cruise individually at thousands at a time.

Not necessarily.  We had to cancel our Oct. cruise due to Covid.  The cost of the cruise, fully refunded less port fees which Regent refunded, was way more than all the premiums I've paid over 25 years and 40 cruises.  We also had a claim in 2011 due to a family death.   Regent cruises are so expensive, one claim and you'll be way ahead of all the premium costs of your cruise lifetime. 

Edited February 6 by papaflamingo

[Fess23]

Can you recommend an insurance company who will issue an annual travel policy?

[Queasy_Cruiser]

Allianz Travel issues annual policies, which mostly cover medical and evacuation/repatriation expenses, which can be very, very expensive. MedJet also offers plans to cover evacuation/repatriation expenses.

 

As others have noted, Cancellation Coverage makes travel insurance a lot more expensive, but if one can "afford" the losses associated with cancelling a cruise, policies that cover the catastrophic expense of hospitalization and evacuation/repatriation, are relatively reasonable. We never travel without medical and evacuation/repatriation coverage.

[giustot]

For  those who can't read the article, I think I can gift it.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/01/travel/cruise-travel-insurance.html?unlocked_article_code=1.TU0.tPU0.zI9u-awVA_vq&bgrp=a&smid=url-share

 

[forgap]

5 hours ago, giustot said:

For  those who can't read the article, I think I can gift it.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/01/travel/cruise-travel-insurance.html?unlocked_article_code=1.TU0.tPU0.zI9u-awVA_vq&bgrp=a&smid=url-share

 

Thank you for your help.  How do you gift a NYT article…..for future reference? 

[briar14]

1 hour ago, forgap said:

Thank you for your help.  How do you gift a NYT article…..for future reference? 

If you have a subscription to the NYT, choose an article, in the bottom right of the article is a “present” icon. I think the gifting limit is 10/month. Washington Post has the same option.

[CJANDH]

11 hours ago, Fess23 said:

Can you recommend an insurance company who will issue an annual travel policy?

We use Allianz Travel.

[CardowMD]

Thanks for sharing Tom!

[edgee]

On 2/5/2024 at 5:02 PM, pappy1022 said:

Combining trip insurance coverage from your credit card plus a 3rd party insurance broker can dramatically decrease the total cost. For example, we booked at $30,000 cruise for the 2 of us. Our credit card gave us $10,000 each of trip cancellation coverage for out of pocket cost. Leaving us $10,000 to insure through an insurance broker. So we insured the $5,000 each which was a lot less expensive than insuring $15,000 each and we also received all of the medical, hospital and evacuation coverage as part of the independent insurance coverage. We saved almost $1,000 by doing this combined coverage. It is a common practice and is legitimate and provides great coverage.

To my knowledge credit card coverage does not include coverage for pre existing conditions, so I would be reluctant to rely on it for any portion of my trip. If anyone can point out a credit card coverage plan that does not have a pre existing coverage exclusion, I would love to hear about it.

[edgee]

On 2/6/2024 at 9:17 AM, CJANDH said:

We use Allianz Travel.

Making me jealous. My state (NY) does not allow annual travel policies to be sold.🙄

[ec6393]

On 2/6/2024 at 1:01 AM, giustot said:

For  those who can't read the article, I think I can gift it.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/01/travel/cruise-travel-insurance.html?unlocked_article_code=1.TU0.tPU0.zI9u-awVA_vq&bgrp=a&smid=url-share

 

Thank you very much.

[NYC-London]

This article appeared in the NYT one week ago and the amount of coverage it has received is incredible. I have heard it mentioned on various radio and televisions outlets, as well on a number of travel websites/youtube channels that I frequent. There are almost 500 responses on the NYT website and the negative publicity for Norwegian cannot be good. I was listening to commentary about when businesses make poor decisions without thinking long term, i.e resulting bad publicity. Two different business analysts and a PR guy mentioned that if Norwegian had done the right thing in the first place, i.e., honor the insurance policy that they issued, at most if would have cost a few thousand dollars. Instead, they are dealing with serious negative publicity that is probably costing them hundreds of thousands of dollars. Apparently after reading the article/learning of the situation, a number of passengers have cancelled their reservations with NCL. NCL was provided the opportunity to respond or to explain their reasoning as to why it required such an immense amount of intervention to get a less than desirable result - NCL never responded.

 

For a company in such serious debt and a struggling stock price, one would think they would be extra careful not to alienate either current or future passengers.

[papaflamingo]

2 hours ago, NYC-London said:

This article appeared in the NYT one week ago and the amount of coverage it has received is incredible. I have heard it mentioned on various radio and televisions outlets, as well on a number of travel websites/youtube channels that I frequent. There are almost 500 responses on the NYT website and the negative publicity for Norwegian cannot be good. I was listening to commentary about when businesses make poor decisions without thinking long term, i.e resulting bad publicity. Two different business analysts and a PR guy mentioned that if Norwegian had done the right thing in the first place, i.e., honor the insurance policy that they issued, at most if would have cost a few thousand dollars. Instead, they are dealing with serious negative publicity that is probably costing them hundreds of thousands of dollars. Apparently after reading the article/learning of the situation, a number of passengers have cancelled their reservations with NCL. NCL was provided the opportunity to respond or to explain their reasoning as to why it required such an immense amount of intervention to get a less than desirable result - NCL never responded.

 

For a company in such serious debt and a struggling stock price, one would think they would be extra careful not to alienate either current or future passengers.

The person who the article was about did a few things wrong. First, sounds like she opted not to try to catch the cruise.  If she had purchased tickets to meet the ship, it's possible that her insurance would have paid for them.  She also, after going home, filed a Trip Delay claim, not Cancellation.  The policy clearly states that to cancel for any reason you must file before the cruise begins, She stated she filed the cancel for any reason claim later. So here's the thing... I always buy insurance.  But I always look at the policy to know exactly what I'm buying.  I have had to cancel 2 cruises (one this past Oct.).  I looked at the policy and got my "ducks in a row" before filing any claims.  If she had done that, maybe she wouldn't have had a problem.  

I'm not defending the cruise line nor insurance companies, but as adults, it's on us to make sure we know EXACTLY what we are doing and ask appropriate questions.   

Edited February 10 by papaflamingo

[H2O Polo Willie]

I can only speak from a bit of experience on cruise insurance in a specific situation.  We booked a world cruise on Crystal and low and behold as all may recall the company went into an Assignment for Benefit of Creditors (An ABC) which is essentially a poor man"s bankruptcy.  That said, we did have travel insurance as did one of our friends.  One lesson we learned is what credit card you use can be pretty helpful at least if you encounter that kind of situation (I doubt it would be of any help with medical issues which are a real reason to buy a policy for repatriation if there are serious issues that arise).  That said, I booked using an AMEX Platinum card and my friend booked using VISA.  AMEX had held monies on account and credited back about 2/3rds of the fare and I got the other 1/3rd back from the insurer (Berkshire Hathaway).  My friend got ZERO back from VISA but recovered fully from the insurer - again Berkshire Hathaway.  I hope we don't see any other cruise lines going broke but one never knows!