Insurance ?

[Jimjam]

Has anyone pruchased cruise insurance for LESS than the actual cost of the cruise. i.e. Cost of cruise without arifare, cruise only $4,000.00 Cruise insurance purchase for $3,000.00 Thanks.

[torpeedo]

No because when you apply they are specific to say that you must insure the total cost of the trip!! We do insuremytrip and decide which policy suits our needs the best. We do the insurance when we book due to the pre X policy waiver.

[Cruising Illini]

I was told by Access America Insurance that we did not have to insure our Air if we did not want it covered by insurance. We NEVER take the ship's air so it is not involved in the total price from HAL. We also could ,with a penalty, postpone the use of our air if necessary and would not loose the total cost. I just AGAIN verified this with Access America & it is still correct that I do not have to include the cost of air if I don't want it covered.

[Jimjam]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I know if you book with the cruise line you have to purchase the full amount of the cruise insurance as was the case on my recent Holland America booking. I did not insure with HAL. and will insure through another source. What i look for is medical coverage which is most important and I have not been able to locate anyone that will sell only medical insurnce. Therefore, if I could buy insurace for less than the price of the cruise but obtain the necessary medical coverage would be ideal and at a lower cost.. Maybe it's just "wishful" thinking but, what the heck !

[Krazy Kruizers]

We also do Access America insurance. But we do include the air we book - just in case something goes wrong with one of our flights - it is rare when we can get a direct flight any more.

[TedC]

The May edition of Consumer Reports has an article about travel insurance.

Bottom line: In many cases your own medical insurance will cover you. And since most travel insurance is secondary insurance you have to file against your primary insurance provider first.

Medicare does not cover you outside the US, however. If you have a Medicare-gap policy you may be insured for foreign travel.

Read the article - most public libraries have CR.

[cruiseco]

No because when you apply they are specific to say that you must insure the total cost of the trip!! .

Not necessarily. It's true that with some plans if you need the plan's waiver of the pre-existing condition exclusions you have to insure the full amount of your non-refundable arrangements. For example, this is from Travel Guard:

"The Insurer will waive this exclusion if the Insured meets the following conditions:

The Insured purchases the plan within 15 days of making his/her "initial trip payment";
The amount of Trip Cancellation coverage purchased must equal the full cost of all pre-paid non-refundable Trip arrangements;
The Insured must be medically able to travel when he/she pays his/her premium. "

Many other plans don't tie the pre-ex waiver to the amount you insure. So you can insure as much or as little of the trip as you feel comfortable with. And of course, this also applies to anyone who doesn't need the pre-ex waiver.

Insuring less than the full amount of your trip costs will other wise have no effect on any of the other plan benefits. All you're doing is limiting the amount you could collect in the case of a cancellation or interruption claim -- you're basically self-insuring for part of the trip cost.

[serendipity1499]

Not necessarily. It's true that with some plans if you need the plan's waiver of the pre-existing condition exclusions you have to insure the full amount of your non-refundable arrangements. For example, this is from Travel Guard:

"The Insurer will waive this exclusion if the Insured meets the following conditions:

The Insured purchases the plan within 15 days of making his/her "initial trip payment";
The amount of Trip Cancellation coverage purchased must equal the full cost of all pre-paid non-refundable Trip arrangements;
The Insured must be medically able to travel when he/she pays his/her premium. "

Many other plans don't tie the pre-ex waiver to the amount you insure. So you can insure as much or as little of the trip as you feel comfortable with. And of course, this also applies to anyone who doesn't need the pre-ex waiver.

Insuring less than the full amount of your trip costs will other wise have no effect on any of the other plan benefits. All you're doing is limiting the amount you could collect in the case of a cancellation or interruption claim -- you're basically self-insuring for part of the trip cost.

I agree with this completely...I sent an e-mail to Insure my trip & asked about Access America & AIG only...Wanted to know if pre-existing conditions were covered if we insured only the cost of the cabin minus the non-refundable charges such as Taxes & Port Charges..They stated that with AI(G & Access America we had to insure the entire am out..

So I went on-line &pulled up the Travlex lite policy & e-mailed travelex directly..A very nice Gentleman named Neil phoned me & said we could insure up to any amount we wanted & the pre-existing would still be covered..We deducted the port charges & taxes from our policy..(non-refundable portion)

Their phone no is 1-800-228-0792..We also booked with them on-line directly..And as cruiseco states we are in effect self-insuring the balance..

Give them a call..Good luck..:) Betty

[Jimjam]

This is really great information and CRUISECO and Betty at SERENDIPITY hit the nail on the head..What ever part of the cruise cost is not covered by the insurance is simply being self insured for the balance BUT you are covered for the medical and I have no pre existing medical conditions so that is not a concern. THANKS !

[torpeedo]

Jimjam, there is a coverage for medical only on Insuremytrip. Some do cover trip interuption, baggage, cancellation losses etc but you can get one for just medical. It's pretty reasonable too and is called Travel Medical Policies or Multi Trip medical policies. If you look under products on insure my trip you can see what is available. They all have a variety of coverages available.

[Spender Nui]

Not necessarily. It's true that with some plans if you need the plan's waiver of the pre-existing condition exclusions you have to insure the full amount of your non-refundable arrangements. For example, this is from Travel Guard:

"The Insurer will waive this exclusion if the Insured meets the following conditions:

The Insured purchases the plan within 15 days of making his/her "initial trip payment";
The amount of Trip Cancellation coverage purchased must equal the full cost of all pre-paid non-refundable Trip arrangements;
The Insured must be medically able to travel when he/she pays his/her premium. "

Many other plans don't tie the pre-ex waiver to the amount you insure. So you can insure as much or as little of the trip as you feel comfortable with. And of course, this also applies to anyone who doesn't need the pre-ex waiver.

Insuring less than the full amount of your trip costs will other wise have no effect on any of the other plan benefits. All you're doing is limiting the amount you could collect in the case of a cancellation or interruption claim -- you're basically self-insuring for part of the trip cost.

Another vote for cruiseco being right on track. I questioned this a while ago buying travel insurance and recived the same information from insuremytrip.com. Because I wanted the waivers I bought the insurance accordingly.

[newfarmers]

I'm interested to know what you all pay in America (where ever actually) for insurance.

Our insurance cost us $302 (Aust) for the two of us, so about USD250. This covers emergency repatriation, resumption of trip (within 12 months I think) in event of medical emergency but also if we need to break the trip due to a medical emergnecy of one of our immediate family at home, the usual cancellation, luggage damage/loss, car hire excess etc etc

I get the feeling our insurance may be pretty good value.

[RuthC]

I get the feeling our insurance may be pretty good value.
Sounds it to me. :) I might just move over to Oz. :D