Wasted money on travel insurance.

[Bobster]

When you buy life insurance you don't really hope to have to use it do you?

Nuff said. Insurance is just that.:D

[CaribbeanBound]

We take the insurance. Hate to be without it in some foreign country, or even on the ship, if an illness or accident occurred --- let alone being ill before the trip and necessitating a cancellation.

 

I have seen the topic of Travel Insurance surface almost daily. I am not an agent for any travel insurance company. I thought I would post the important considerations under a tempting header to make it easy to find. If you have any hints to add, please do so!

1. Check out InsureMyTrip.com for a comparison of the most popular travel insurance policies. This is a great place to start.

 

2. In conjunction with InsureMyTrip.com, check out InsureMyTrip.com for comparitive information about the plans on the InsureMyTrip.com web site plus hints on what the different covereages mean and what to look for.

 

3. Many companies offer two different policies. A premium policy with all the "bells and whistles" and a less expensive alternative with a little less coverage. Buy the policy that fits your needs.

 

4. Make sure your insurance coverage is considered "Primary". This way if your problem is covered by the policy, the insurance company pays you. Period. You do not want "secondary" coverage wherein you have to submit your claim elsewhere first (like to your Homeowners, Health, or other insurance).

 

5. Make sure your policy is real insurance. Don't get fooled into buying "travel protection" offered by non-insurance companies. These other companies are often fly-by-night outfits who are not governed by the same rules and bonding/reserve requirements that insurers are.

 

6. Do not buy travel protection or insurance issued by your travel agency, airline, or cruise line. There is bound to be some contention here from fellow travels, but think about why you are buying the insurance. What good is insurance if the airline, travel agency, or cruise line you are traveling with goes under? You never know. Now, this is not to say you shouldn't buy your travel insurance from any provider, like your TA. Just make sure the insurance is independant of the provider.

 

7. Make sure the insurer is rated "A+" or "A++" by AM Best. Make sure the company has the financial wherewithall to pay your claims.

 

8. Buy the policy within the first 14 days (or so) from when you make your first trip payment, so that all Pre-Existing Conditions are waived. This way you never have to prove that a pre-exiting condition didn't exist.

 

9. Read the entire policy before buying. Usually the policy and the exclusions can be found online. Make sure it covers you for any scenareo you want covered.

 

10. Make sure the policy includes "financial default" coverage. This is important.

 

I have purposely not mentioned any insurers by name to this point as everyone seems to have a preferred insurer. I like Travelex's (rated "A+") Travelite product and have bought it 3 times now. Other folks have mentioned CSA (rated "A-"), Travel Insured (rated "B++"), and Travel Guard (rated "A++"). Of these four, CSA and Travel Insured are rated below A by A.M. Best and therefore would be disqualified from my immediate consideration given the other choices available. It is surprising how dificult it can be to actually find the ratings on some companies.

[new_cruiser]

6. Do not buy travel protection or insurance issued by your travel agency, airline, or cruise line. There is bound to be some contention here from fellow travels, but think about why you are buying the insurance. What good is insurance if the airline, travel agency, or cruise line you are traveling with goes under? You never know. Now, this is not to say you shouldn't buy your travel insurance from any provider, like your TA. Just make sure the insurance is independant of the provider.

 

10. Make sure the policy includes "financial default" coverage. This is important.

It seems that no matter what you do, the financial default coverage has some holes in it. Every policy I've read says something such as:

"Financial Default of an airline, cruiseline, or tour operator resulting in the complete cessation of services. Excluded is the organization from which the Insured purchased his/her Trip or this coverage." (Travel Guard)

So it appears you are never covered for financial default of the organization from which you made the purchase.

[dkjretired]

6. Do not buy travel protection or insurance issued by your travel agency, airline, or cruise line. There is bound to be some contention here from fellow travels, but think about why you are buying the insurance. What good is insurance if the airline, travel agency, or cruise line you are traveling with goes under? You never know. Now, this is not to say you shouldn't buy your travel insurance from any provider, like your TA. Just make sure the insurance is independant of the provider.

 

I disagree with this to a certain extent. For example, several years ago there were a couple of cruise lines that went under and those people who bought the insurance through the line and also lost the cruise were completely out of luck. I do not see any problem with buying insurance through your travel agency which of course is independent of the cruise line. The chances of your losing your cruise and the travel agency going bankrupt at the same time are a bit slim. Same goes for medical emergencies, etc.

 

Don

[kitty9]

Well, I, for one, am completely relieved to have purchased travel insurance for all my cruises. I've had to make claims three times due to last minute health problems where no refund would have been made. I do not ever think it's a waste of money when compared to the loss I could have incurred. For the first cruise I was reimbursed over $15,000 for the cancellation of a South America cruise. The second time I was reimbursed $3500 plus the cost of changing the airfare when I had to join a cruise part way through the segment (plus they paid for the hotel room in the city where I met the ship). The third time I had to make a claim because I needed treatment on board the ship that my own insurance didn't cover. When you add all those numbers up, it more than covers the small cost of the insurance.

[Host Walt]

My post was an attempt at humor. The $90 spent for the 2 of us was well worth the peace of mind.

 

 

I assumed that. I was planning to post something like, I just spent $900 on life insurance last year and I didn't die. What a waste of money. Then I decided there were enough wiseguys in this world already.

 

Then I saw your clarification and decided to post it anyway.

[new_cruiser]

I disagree with this to a certain extent. For example, several years ago there were a couple of cruise lines that went under and those people who bought the insurance through the line and also lost the cruise were completely out of luck. I do not see any problem with buying insurance through your travel agency which of course is independent of the cruise line. The chances of your losing your cruise and the travel agency going bankrupt at the same time are a bit slim. Same goes for medical emergencies, etc.

 

If the travel agency is actually the underwriter (that is they are the ones who will be paying if there are expenses) buying the insurance from them would be risky. The reason you wouldn't want something like an agency or a cruise line to be providing the insurance is that if something major happened like a disaster where a lot of their patrons were hurt or bankrupcy of a cruise line on which they booked a lot of passengers they might not have the financial reserves to cover the losses. You want your insurer to have the size and resources to cover your losses in a major event.

 

However, I don't think that is usually the case. I know the agency through which we booked our cruise sells Access America insurance. The only risk in getting the insurance through them would be if they went bankrupt between when you gave them the money and when they paid it to the insurance. If I am reading the policies correctly, they never cover the travel agency going bankrupt while the agency is holding your money. (See my earlier post)

 

Reasons to not buy from the travel agency -

You might pay more for the insurance than the best rate you can get on line.

They usually have only one policy or levels of policy from one company so you might not get the coverage that is best for you (e.g. you might be an avid bungee jumper - something some policies exclude and others cover) or on investigation you may find you want a policy with a better grade for the underwriter.

 

Reasons to buy from the travel agency -

You want to be sure to get the insurance in time to get the pre-existing condition waiver. Sometimes we get too busy to do research and get around to things - even though buying trip insurance on the web is pretty fast. The risk of that may be more important than the risk that you don't have the ideal policy.

[CaribbeanBound]

New Cruiser: that's exactly why it is important to read the contract details and only deal with high-end insurers. Travelex publishes a list of airlines, cruise lines, and business it will not cover. If your trip carrier is not on this list at the time you pay for your insurance, then you are covered! That list, by the way, includes only those businesses which are in bankruptcy.

 

dkretired: the fact is, travel agencies do go under. Why pay the agency for proprietary protection that will not cover you if the agency goes under when some independent insurers (like Travelex) WILL cover such a loss. New Cruiser covers this well.

[DCosbey]

Insurance covers more than a missed cruise due to illness, etc. We always purchase the insurance (15 cruised) and have used it twice, for a visit to the ship's doctor (very expensive) and to cover a stolen/misplaced item onboard.

[janjay]

I always get it and always will...the one time I didn't would be the one time I needed it.

[new_cruiser]

New Cruiser: that's exactly why it is important to read the contract details and only deal with high-end insurers. Travelex publishes a list of airlines, cruise lines, and business it will not cover. If your trip carrier is not on this list at the time you pay for your insurance, then you are covered! That list, by the way, includes only those businesses which are in bankruptcy.

Travelex terms and conditions include the following: "Unforeseen Bankruptcy or financial Default of a Travel Supplier (other than the travel agency or organization from whom You purchased the Travel Arrangements) which stops service after Your Covered Trip departure or more than 14 days following Your Protection Plan Effective Date."

 

If I understand that sentence correctly, it means that if you purchased your cruise or airfare directly from the cruise line or air line and they go into financial default, you aren't covered because they are the "organization from whom you purchased the Travel Arrangements." If you purchased indirectly through a travel agent, then they cover you.

 

This usually affects my flight arrangements, but I'm willing to assume that risk. I'd be interested to hear if you read that sentence differently.

 

BTW - Don't have a mishap while bungee cord jumping if you get travel insurance from Travelex and if you scuba dive, get diver's insurance - they have exclusions for both those activities. Some of the other companies cover diving if you are with a dive master but not if you are on your own. What I wonder about is the bungee cord exclusion. Several of the policies have it; most of the other exclusions seem more high risk activities to me; am I underestimating the risks?

[Andym]

It's not only YOU that the insurance covers. A few years ago whilst we were on vacation my wifes farther was taken seriously ill and we go a call saying more or less that if we wanted to see him again we had better get home now. We contacted the insurance company who gave the goahead and we got straight home and did get to the hospital before he passed away.

I personally would never be without cover.

In the UK we have annual polycies that are very reasonable, is this a thing you have in the US.

[hajekfam]

We did a transatlantic cruise a few weeks after 9/11. Airline flights to Europe were just starting up again and delays were widespread.

We were assigned a table for 10, but there were only 4 couples. The fifth couple showed up after the first port with quite a story. It seems there original flight was delayed from New York. They were told they could take another flight at a different airport leaving in an hour, but there was no way to make that flight. So they and about 10 other passengers arrived in Barcelona on a Sunday a few hours after the ship left - no hotel, no representatives, etc. The ships agent was not available - not much was open to find out what to do. He remembered he had trip insurance and called them. The insurance company got hold of Celebrity and explained the situation and they were able to meet up with ship in Cadiz. Without that insurance, they would have been stranded in Barcelona for the night and have to start contacting people on Monday.

They found an unexpected benefit from their insurance - a liason between them and the cruiseline headquarters.

[Silverfox]

Before Medicare age (65) we never bought insurance as our employer's insurance covered us outside the country.

 

With Medicare you are NOT covered once you leave the shores of the United States. We've seen many passengers taken off ship by helicopter due to a serious illness. We've seen passengers who had to leave the ship in a foreign port and be hospitalized.

 

Of course we hope it doesn't happen to us --- but it can. So maybe it means extra $, but the peace of mind is worth it at our age. Maybe that's why we're content with a standard outside cabin instead of the suites and balconys so that so many of you prefer. You have to balance what you're spending. But today I wouldn't take any trip outside the US without insurance.

[Stevesan]

Even if your present health insurance covers you while traveling, it likely won't include airlift evacuation. Five years ago, an air evac from Cozumel, Mx to Houston, TX cost $10,000, and that's a relatively short distance.BTW - I do buy travel insurance thru my TA. It costs the same as if I had purchased it separately, but the TA still gets a small commish. A small lagniappe for the TA.

[fendbass]

I could be wrong about this, but it seems like I read somewhere that, since the ship is under a foreign flag, it is considered a foriegn country, and will, most likely, not be 'In Network'. So, if you get Norwalk Virus, and go to see the ship's doctor, you may end up paying for every cent of it, and they aren't cheap. You may get partial reimbursement from your health insurance carrier, and you might not.

 

And, on our last cruise, they had a helicopter evacuation to Jamaica. I doubt that normal health insurance would cover that. So, my theory is, it is well worth the peace of mind

[CaribbeanBound]

New Cruiser: Travelex terms and conditions include the following: "Unforeseen Bankruptcy or financial Default of a Travel Supplier (other than the travel agency or organization from whom You purchased the Travel Arrangements) which stops service after Your Covered Trip departure or more than 14 days following Your Protection Plan Effective Date."

 

I called and spoke to Travelex. I was told:

1. the section "(other than the travel agency or organization from whom You purchased the Travel Arrangements)" has been removed from their newest policy statement, although this is what is still on their website.

2. In any event, if you buy the insurance within 21 days of paying for your cruise, you are covered if your travel agent goes under or fails to forward any of your money to Celebrity (like if they didn't pass on your final payment) AFTER TWO WEEKS of owning the policy or the start of your cruise (whichever is less).

 

For what it is worth, here is the link to Travelex: http://www.travelex.com/usa/personal/travelinsurance.asp?content=tie for US citizens.

 

Yes, you are clearly correct about dangerous activities like scuba diving, bungee jumping, sky diving, and hang gliding are not covered. All the more reason everyone should read the entire policy (as diligently as you have) before buying.

 

Stevesan: Yes, TA's typically get a commission for selling travel insurance, and they should. There is no reason not to buy from a TA as long as they are not offering their own proprietary policy AND it's the one you want.

[Vistadeck]

My wife & I have been on sixteen togetether, and bought insurance only for the first one. If you do the math, you have to miss about one in ten cruises (if, like us, you do your air & pre-cruise independently) for the insurance to be worth it.

 

Sweetie, we actually bought it 2x .. also for the Zenith around South America, but that was because I was worried about tripping over a penguin or something on Magdelana Island :)

 

If your in relatively good health, dont have any snow storm threats where you live that time of year if you are booking air with the cruise line, its not necessary in my opinion. But If I'm gonig on a longish trip, a long way from home to some isolated spot where I plan to do a lot of hiking, etc. I'd take it into consideration, or if you have some existing health concerns.

 

Tina

"Vistadeck"

[new_cruiser]

We buy it and our Aussie/NZ trip in January is $1,202.00 Canadian $ for the 2 of us. <snip>

 

I have read what some of you in the US pay for your premiums and it would seem much lower than ours, keeping in mind of course our much lower $.

You are comparing apples and oranges. The price of travel insurance depends on a number of factors including your age and the price of the trip. For very long trips they also factor in the duration of the trip. Of course there are also policies that offer a variety of coverage levels.

 

For last year's 7-night Carribean Cruise, we (in our 50's) paid a little over $100 US. For a three week trip to China last spring it was around $400. For the 3-week trip the we took a few years ago to Austrailia and New Zealand, I think it was close to what you paid (after adjusting for Canadian $). The difference between China and Aussie/NZ was that prices are lower in China so our trip cost was lower. Also, we were with a fairly economical tour company (Intrepid Travel) in China and on the other trip we went with a National Geographic tour that was very expensive. The difference woud have been even more except that on the China tour we went with a high end policy because at times we would be remote from good medical care.

[Silverfox]

Before we hit Medicare age, we never bought travel insurance because our employers' insurance covered us anywhere in the world.

 

That all changed when the birthday cake showed 65 candles. On Medicare, you are NOT covered once you leave the USA.

 

It's a small price to pay for assurance that, should anything happen medically, you are covered. Of course, there are other reasons: delayed flights, luggage issues, illness right before travel, etc.

 

So, when you're young and insurance is covered by employers, that's a different story. At age 65, you can't go without it, unless you are Mr & Mrs Got $.

[seetosea]

I, too, did not get travel insurance for our first several cruises. We were young and fancy free without a care in the world. Even now, it wouldn't break us if we lost out on the cost of our cruise. However, first hand knowledge changed our minds. My mother had to be medically evacuated from her ship, flown to Texas from the Mexican Riviera, and when she was stable enough, flown home. The cost was over 20,000, which did not include her cruise which she missed 12 days of. Her travel insurance paid every penny. Medical evacuation alone was over 5000. I guess for me, I would like to have peace of mind knowing that if a catastrophe happened, I'd make it back home without having to break the bank. If I never have to use my insurance, I've won also.

[Spender Nui]

We didn't take it for a long time. Getting older we changed our outlook. The biggest useage we had was when my wife needed open heart surgery 2 weeks before we were scheduled to sail. Fortunately she recovered and we recovered most of our expenses. Wouldn't sail without it. I think about it every time I see an airlift by helicopter off the ship ... and we've seen this quite a few times.

[45014]

We have never had the occasion to use the insurance, but always purchase it. My brother is ill and if I need to cancel and re-schedule a cruise i have that luxury if I need it.

I read on another board that if the person's parent or sibling got very ill ot even died, that the person would not cancel their cruise, because there would be nothing that he could do about it then. I find that really cold and callous.

[kit9172]

I saw your great posting on insurance. I did try to find the ratings on AM Best

but like you said it was differcult so could you tell me how you did it? I would appreciate it. Thanks

[winediva]

My husband and I were in our late 20's on our honeymoon in Italy and both in perfect health. I had the first occurrance of a heart problem (totally cured now!) on the second day of out trip in Rome. The hotel sent a cardiologist to my hotel room and administered a range of tests (including an EKG) and prescribed meds. He stayed with me for over an hour and apologized for having to charge us at all. It seems if we were EU citizens this would have been free! We happily paid him cash and were wired money the next day from our travel insurance company to cover it. Service was fantastic and invalueable. We paid a mere $75 for that coverage.

 

I just purchased coverage through Travel Guard for a seven day on the Century. The premium was $99 for both of us (both mid 30's now) which covers our hotel and air on either end of the trip. Even though our whole trip is only valued at $2000, $100 gives me enormous piece of mind.