My companion had to cancel on Windstar and they want a single supplement in addition to the 100% fee?

[llamadeo]

Looking for advice. My husband had to cancel from our cruise due to a medical issue at the 100% fee rate (we accept that), but now Windstar wants to charge me an additional single supplement on top of the 100% cancellation fee? Can that possibly be right? Is there a way around it? Can he just no show at boarding? Thank you for your help.

[GottaKnowWhen]

I don’t know THE answer. Some thoughts…

Was he the one who booked the cruise? Or did you book, with him as Additional Passenger? If You booked, then you might be able to find someone else to share? If He booked, then different issues. 

[Donald]

That is how the system works on most mass market ships.

Think of it as a not paying attention tax.

 

[Redtravel]

If your spouse cannot cruise for medical reasons, you might cancel too.  Last year, my spouse took ill the day before we were to fly. It was a life threatening event.   It didn’t occur to me to cruise alone. We canceled.  If you have travel insurance, you may get reimbursed. 

[mnocket]

14 hours ago, Donald said:

That is how the system works on most mass market ships.

You are absolutely correct that this is happening more and more on mass market cruise lines, but I keep hearing that Windstar is not just another mass market cruise line.  

[Strenz]

I seriously do not understand in this day and age, why folks do not buy travel insurance. I can not imagine taking a cruise without it. In addition to have to cancel a cruise last minute for health or family reasons there are cruise mishaps..... last  year on one WS cruise two mishaps a lady fell down some outside stairs a bit too much to drink, broke her leg, traveling with her doctor husband no insurance, hospitalized etc $17,000. On same cruise a lady was on the  water trampoline jumped and missed, a very bad injury to her ankle no insurance she had doctor bills plus she had to buy an extra seat on the plane. Travel insurance is probably as important as a passport, mass market cruise line or not. Hope the person who started this thread that the spouse is ok.Happy Sailing

[Host Jazzbeau]

In many cases I have found that my travel insurance was essentially free.  I book very far in advance, and at our age we can't be sure we'll still be traveling then so I always buy travel insurance which works out to about 10% of the cruise fare.  Many times the cruise fare has gone up by at least 10% as we get closer to the cruise – so (in my accounting method...) the insurance didn't cost anything.

[Strenz]

We have a credit card that has insurance with the card up to $20,000 trip cancelation. Then we purchase the medical which for the 2 of us is about $125 for two, we are in our 70's.  We pay a lot for the cc yearly fee but what we save on trip insurance it pays for the card. I always lock in the price of the cruise with WS, we never worry about a once reserved cruise having  a price increase. I do not know about other cruise lines, we have only cruise on WS since 1999, hint we like it. Happy Sailing

[mnocket]

23 hours ago, Strenz said:

I seriously do not understand in this day and age, why folks do not buy travel insurance.

Like you, my credit card provides $20K of insurance.  However, I don't fault others who may opt to "self-insure" their trips.  It's a judgement based largely on risk tolerance. In many cases, trip insurance mostly comes down to protecting you during that 90-day period between final payment and departure.  Overly simplified...If you're paying 10% of the fare for insurance and you have to cancel 1 out of 10 cruises for a covered reason, you break even.  Cancel more than 1 out of 10 and you come out ahead - fewer than 1 out of 10 and you would have been better off without insurance.  Again, the majority of the risk is during that short time between final payment and departure.  It's not an unreasonable gamble for some, even if it's not one I chose to take🙂

[Strenz]

1 hour ago, mnocket said:

Like you, my credit card provides $20K of insurance.  However, I don't fault others who may opt to "self-insure" their trips.  It's a judgement based largely on risk tolerance. In many cases, trip insurance mostly comes down to protecting you during that 90-day period between final payment and departure.  Overly simplified...If you're paying 10% of the fare for insurance and you have to cancel 1 out of 10 cruises for a covered reason, you break even.  Cancel more than 1 out of 10 and you come out ahead - fewer than 1 out of 10 and you would have been better off without insurance.  Again, the majority of the risk is during that short time between final payment and departure.  It's not an unreasonable gamble for some, even if it's not one I chose to take🙂

 

Hi, I was not trying to be judgmental, but financially safe with the insurance. We cruise once a year sometimes twice. We travel independently as well. We feel we really only need the insurance for the cruises, extra car insurance for driving when required ie. Italy and Ireland, not for trains, not for hotels, we don't go to resorts or AirBandBs. We always have travel health insurance. Our risks that we simply can't manage is losing a great deal of money. The credit card coverage truly matches what we need. I do understand your math. For our needs insurance makes sense. Happy Sailing.

[Host Jazzbeau]

1 hour ago, mnocket said:

Overly simplified...If you're paying 10% of the fare for insurance and you have to cancel 1 out of 10 cruises for a covered reason, you break even.  Cancel more than 1 out of 10 and you come out ahead - fewer than 1 out of 10 and you would have been better off without insurance.  Again, the majority of the risk is during that short time between final payment and departure.  It's not an unreasonable gamble for some, even if it's not one I chose to take🙂

There's an easy way to improve the odds with trip insurance.  Start the policy when you make the first deposit, for the smallest coverage amount available – that locks in your age and the 'pre-existing' waiver.  Increase coverage as you incur non-refundable costs – that preserves the waiver and also spaces out your payments.  If you decide to cancel the trip before the non-refundable costs are greater than the insurance cost – eat your loss on that trip and have the insurer roll the coverage over to your next trip.

[mnocket]

4 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

If you decide to cancel the trip before the non-refundable costs are greater than the insurance cost – eat your loss on that trip and have the insurer roll the coverage over to your next trip.

I'm not familiar with having the insurer roll the coverage over to another trip.  Can you fill me in on how this works? Is this common for most insurance companies?  Thanks.

[Host Jazzbeau]

3 hours ago, mnocket said:

I'm not familiar with having the insurer roll the coverage over to another trip.  Can you fill me in on how this works? Is this common for most insurance companies?  Thanks.

I've only done it with Allianz, and with policies booked through my TA – she would call them and handle the roll-over.  There are certain limits (total time from first purchase of the policy until sail date), but at least once she got them to waive that.  Allianz doesn't ask what cruise you're taking, only the dates (even the country info is optional) – so it's essentially changing the start and end dates of the existing coverage.

[mnocket]

3 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

I've only done it with Allianz, and with policies booked through my TA – she would call them and handle the roll-over.  There are certain limits (total time from first purchase of the policy until sail date), but at least once she got them to waive that.  Allianz doesn't ask what cruise you're taking, only the dates (even the country info is optional) – so it's essentially changing the start and end dates of the existing coverage.

Thanks. I'll keep this in mind should the circumstances ever arise👍

[Breckski]

On 6/17/2024 at 12:08 PM, Host Jazzbeau said:

In many cases I have found that my travel insurance was essentially free.  I book very far in advance, and at our age we can't be sure we'll still be traveling then so I always buy travel insurance which works out to about 10% of the cruise fare.  Many times the cruise fare has gone up by at least 10% as we get closer to the cruise – so (in my accounting method...) the insurance didn't cost anything.

If you pay 10% and cruise 10 times without using the insurance, you've spent the cost of your 11th cruise.  But I'm sure you know this already.

 

The only things I voluntarily buy insurance for are my house, medical and evacuation since these items could have material impact to my finances. If I couldn't take a cruise due to illness, I did not lose (spend) any more money than what I'd have lost (spent) if I participated in the cruise.  What I would have lost is the experience. 

 

I much prefer being self-insured and think it's the best financial decision for most.  Actually, I think it's the best financially for all as I think one shouldn't be cruising if the cost of the cruise is significant to one financially.  Maybe I could see insurance on a true once in a lifetime trip, but I'm too conservative with my dollars to ever take a such a trip.

[Host Jazzbeau]

49 minutes ago, Breckski said:

If you pay 10% and cruise 10 times without using the insurance, you've spent the cost of your 11th cruise.  But I'm sure you know this already.

Well, we did get the medical and evacuation coverages for all those cruises.  With my Medicare Supplement coverage I pay almost nothing inside the US but 100% outside.

[Phutch9136]

I’m so surprised they are trying to make you pay the supplement. If you were traveling with an unrelated companion you most certainly are not responsible for their actions in any way. It’s up to them to cancel for their own reasons and you don’t have any part of that decision. If you have a Travel Insurance plan definitely call and ask if WS is allowed to charge this. Look for the contract of Carriage documents in your booking for you to read again for clarity. Sounds like WS is assuming you’re making it up to sail at a lower than single rate. However as a couple that doesn’t play out it’s too costly 

[QuinGold]

I have had a similar situation. My friend was going to travel with me (I paid for the trip) but then a medical condition caused her to have to cancel. I decided to continue solo. Very glad I got travel insurance (through USAA).

 

Windstar required me to pay for the single supplement to continue on the sail solo, and they credited the 65% reimbursable portion of her fare towards the extra cost for my new solo fare. Travel insurance has reimbursed my friend's flight expense, but I'm still waiting to see if they reimburse me for the 35% cancellation penalty that I still have to pay and the single supplement extra cost. My most recent communication with the insurance company seemed promising. Fingers crossed. We had pages of documentation from my friend's surgeon justifying the cancellation. I hope insurance doesn't take the position of, "well, you got the advantage of cabin to yourself so we won't reimburse the single supplement" even though it was technically an "unanticipated" expense caused by friend's cancellation. I was paying for the whole trip either way, though, so I can live with whatever they decide.

 

On the upside, I just got my travel docs from Windstar today and it appears they upgraded me to a balcony cabin (I had booked an ocean view) that is midship (previously booked cabin was pretty far toward the front). So hey, that's a nice surprise! I think this might be because my original ocean view cabin might be easier to re-sell than the balcony cabin (which has a queen bed that cannot be converted to twins).