Vacation insurance question

[masdolphin]

I would really like to buy insurance for our upcoming cruise as all the airline problems is worrying me. I have a dilemna though, my brother bought our airline tickets using his credit card miles and only paid $105 and 50,000 miles for $905 worth of tickets. I called insuremytrip and they said the airfare portion of the insurance would only cover the $105 that he paid for the tickets not the miles portion of the tickets. But in logging into the airline website to view tickets it shows the full price being paid for by visa, nothing said on the receipt about using miles. If for some reason the flights are cancelled will that receipt be enough to get the full amount back??? Has anyone else ever done this? It wouldnt be worth it to insure our trip of we cant insure the airfare which is the only part of the trip we are worried about.

[cruiser429]

From my experience, the amount the insurance will cost if you add in the full price of the airline tickets is very small compared to the amount without it. I would insure for the full amount just to be safe. We've had similar problems/questions when we travel using our timeshare and don't know how much we're actually spending. Better to be safe!!!

[iamtrustworthy]

I would really like to buy insurance for our upcoming cruise as all the airline problems is worrying me. I have a dilemna though, my brother bought our airline tickets using his credit card miles and only paid $105 and 50,000 miles for $905 worth of tickets. I called insuremytrip and they said the airfare portion of the insurance would only cover the $105 that he paid for the tickets not the miles portion of the tickets. But in logging into the airline website to view tickets it shows the full price being paid for by visa, nothing said on the receipt about using miles. If for some reason the flights are cancelled will that receipt be enough to get the full amount back??? Has anyone else ever done this? It wouldnt be worth it to insure our trip of we cant insure the airfare which is the only part of the trip we are worried about.

 

Hi masdolphin,

 

All travel insurance plans only cover the actual prepaid nonrefundable out-of-pocket costs you pay for a trip when you are insuring a trip cost for trip cancellation and trip interruption coverage. I don't know of any travel insurance plans that would cover the value of the trip that you are getting for free.

 

However, there are other reasons to get travel insurance. Those reasons include getting hurt or sick on your trip and needing medical treatment having a travel delay (bad weather, mechanical failure, carrier caused delays, etc.), lost luggage.

 

There's a lot to learn about travel insurance, so, if you haven't read read this article on cruise critic about travel insurance, it's a good place to start: http://www.cruisecritic.com/cruiseplanning/articles.cfm?ID=274

[greatam]

I would really like to buy insurance for our upcoming cruise as all the airline problems is worrying me. I have a dilemna though, my brother bought our airline tickets using his credit card miles and only paid $105 and 50,000 miles for $905 worth of tickets. I called insuremytrip and they said the airfare portion of the insurance would only cover the $105 that he paid for the tickets not the miles portion of the tickets. But in logging into the airline website to view tickets it shows the full price being paid for by visa, nothing said on the receipt about using miles. If for some reason the flights are cancelled will that receipt be enough to get the full amount back??? Has anyone else ever done this? It wouldnt be worth it to insure our trip of we cant insure the airfare which is the only part of the trip we are worried about.

 

ANY trip insurance policy will ONLY cover the CASH fees for taxes/fees and a REDEPOSIT fee to put the miles back into the FF account. The redeposit fee is usually $100.00, same as the change fee for most airlines. You are NOT OUT anything EXCEPT the cash fees for taxes/fees and redeposit fee and that is what the insurance covers.

 

Believe me, I have tried to get back the VALUE of FF tickets about three times. Once on first class tickets to Asia for two people (over 300,000 miles) and twice on upgrades to first class with miles. I am also a non practicing attorney so know all the legal arguments. I have NEVER had any success getting anything from ANY travel insurance company EXCEPT the taxes and fees and the redeposit fee.

 

If anyone has different info, I would love to hear it.

[masdolphin]

Hi masdolphin,

 

All travel insurance plans only cover the actual prepaid nonrefundable out-of-pocket costs you pay for a trip when you are insuring a trip cost for trip cancellation and trip interruption coverage. I don't know of any travel insurance plans that would cover the value of the trip that you are getting for free.

 

However, there are other reasons to get travel insurance. Those reasons include getting hurt or sick on your trip and needing medical treatment having a travel delay (bad weather, mechanical failure, carrier caused delays, etc.), lost luggage.

 

There's a lot to learn about travel insurance, so, if you haven't read read this article on cruise critic about travel insurance, it's a good place to start: http://www.cruisecritic.com/cruiseplanning/articles.cfm?ID=274

 

 

I wish I was getting the airfare for free but I'm not, I had to pay my brother $605 for these tickets. So the reason for insurance would be only for the airfare as I forsee no problem with the cruiseline or the hotel, problem is if I cant get there due to airline issues. So if I buy insurance and cant get there I'm still out my $605 for the airline tickets. Basically from what I see all I can recoup in the event of airline issues is the $105 paid, which is about what the insurance will cost me.

[greatam]

I wish I was getting the airfare for free but I'm not, I had to pay my brother $605 for these tickets. So the reason for insurance would be only for the airfare as I forsee no problem with the cruiseline or the hotel, problem is if I cant get there due to airline issues. So if I buy insurance and cant get there I'm still out my $605 for the airline tickets. Basically from what I see all I can recoup in the event of airline issues is the $105 paid, which is about what the insurance will cost me.

 

I'm not going to get into a family dispute, but if you are worried about the tickets, buy an insurance policy for your brother. His miles were used, so he would get back the fees/taxes and redeposit fee for his account. Then he can REIMBURSE you the cash you had to give him.