Travel Insurance and 9/11 and Katrina

[flashdog_1]

Would anyone like to relate to us your experience with having had a cruise/airline reservation immediately following one of our national disasters and how your travel insurance aided you? (or not). There is a clause in most insurance policies that they do not pay when there is an act of terrorism or war.

 

We had a time share reservation in New Orleans for the weekend following 9/11. When we arrived they had to put us in a different unit since the people who'd occupied our assigned room had not been able to leave since there were no flights out (we drove). So I know that many people had to be jiggled in the system.

 

Then when Katrina hit the Gulf Coast of the states, New Orleans' port was closed for a very long time. Those of you who were booked and had insurance, were your travel arrangements covered if you were allowed to book a cruise from a different port?

 

I know that 3 of Carnival's ships were used for relief workers and that passengers already booked had problems.

 

Besides hearing heart felt stories, I am interested in how the cruise lines and travel insurance worked under these unusual circumstances. Thanks for sharing your memories.

[terrymtex01]

It will be interesting to see what replies this thread gets. We just bought travel insurance for the second time. Bought it for our first cruise and for our cruise to Alaska next year. There is a clause that we are covered for acts of terrorism as long as there were no acts of terrorism 30 days before we were to visit the port (for foreign ports, no specification for domestic ports). However I'm having a hard time find out what it covers if we miss the port due to terrorism or if we are injured due to terrorism, etc.

 

As far as Katrina or natural disasters, I do remember some cruiselines, if not all, were allowing people to change their cruise to another itinenary leaving from another port and were even giving them discounts towards the new airfare.

 

This should be an interesting thread.

[flashdog_1]

At least to you and me. There have been so many new threads that I think it got lost for a while today. Glad you found it, friend.

[garycarla]

Threads do not get lost, they just slide to the 2nd or 3rd page, etc. And I believe that 90% or more of the folks here think there is only one page.

 

As to big events like this, many airlines and cruise agencies were working with folks to book alternatives. No specifics, but generally they did work with them.

 

I can tell you what I did about flying that week of 9/11. They started flying on Thursday that week and I was booked on a flight from DC to Atlanta. I wanted to leave two hours earlier than originally planned but they said it was sold out. I decided to go to the airport and check. Our 757 had about 20 people onboard and turned out to be the last flight that left that night from DC. Washington Dulles Airport was very quiet as most people were still afraid to fly. It was very strange.

[flashdog_1]

No heart felt stories to relate? I was sure there would be gobs of people were were affected!

[Mooder]

I don't know if this applies, nothing too heartfelt and neither 9/11 nor Katrina. But our first cruise was a day after what was at the time dubbed "The Storm of the Century," a major blizzard affecting the entire Eastern Seaboard. Our flight out of Hartford was canceled and we were instructed to drive to NY for a flight to Miami. Because of road conditions and long waits at the ticket counters, we arrived minutes after the flight was closed. At that time, we were told that we could cancel our cruise and reschedule, but we chose to persevere. We basically puddle-jumped our way South. First, a long wait in NYC and then a flight to Washington, D.C. where we were put up overnight. Then flights to Charlotte, Atlanta, Miami and eventually Nassau where we met the ship because obviously we had missed the departure from Miami. Although it was only a 4 day cruise, we were glad we missed that first night based on the stories of the seasickness up and down the corridors and the plates flying, etc. because of the high seas. We saw plates flying at the midnight buffet, but things had calmed down compared to the first night. To top it off, one of our bags never arrived (it was later found at the D.C. airport). But, so far, I was happy because I had made it onto my first cruise. I woke up early the first morning and ran up to the decks to see the sunrise over the Atlantic - I was so excited. I opened the doors and was pelted with freezing seawater pellets. I could go into more detail, but the cruise went downhill from there. We vowed never to cruise again.

 

Travel Insurance covered all of our out of pocket expenses, including the clothing purchased because of the lost luggage, food at the various cities on our way down the coast, etc. But if I had it to do again, I would have taken their offer to reschedule. We just thought it would be better once we got south but it never was.