Insurance question for pet owners

For my fellow "pet parents" out there who may have older pets, does that factor into the decision re: which cruise insurance policy you buy?

If a pet gets hurt or sick right before your departure date, that's not covered under traditional plans. So the only choices I'm aware of are to add a very expensive cancel for any reason supplement or take the chance on eating the trip cost. For my last cruise, I used celebrity cruisecare because of the cancel for any reason 75% credit back. I drive to port and it was a short cruise.

But now considering a sailing involving 1k+ airfare total for us to the west coast and seeing that cruisecare doesn't cover Choice Air. (Which I may be using due to a credit from Celebrity). 3k+ for cruise; 1k+ for air is a bit much to lose:eek:

Just curious to hear what others opted to do.

A good question with no real good answers. In some cases one must just opt to stay home with their pets. Over the years of extensive travel we have heard many fellow travelers/cruisers say that they did not do much traveling when their pets were alive. In our case, when the dog died (at 17 human years) we decided to go "petless" so that we were free to travel.

Hank

Appreciate your reply. I may just insure the airline tics separately, although that would be a pretty hefty spend just on insurance w/2 policies. Petless sure does give you a ton more travel freedom. But they give us so much joy the other 50 weeks/year. Not sure I'm ready to go petless quite yet. For those of us without children, they're truly our "kids". I wish a few travel insurance firms would look into the option of adding pet illness as a covered cancellation for maybe a 10-15% surcharge (vs wide open 50%+ "cancel for any reason" coverage.) There are so many pet owners that must be in the same boat I am.

We have 2 canine children. One got sick just before a trip a couple of years ago, but recovered quickly and our trip wasn't interrupted. But we knew that if she hadn't gotten better we would have cancelled. Since then we have switched from regular trip insurance to "cancel for any reason" coverage. Costs a bit more, but we have peace of mind. We travel in Europe several times a year for up to 2 weeks and don't want to postpone our travels until we are without pets.

We also have a great cage free boarding facility with owners who live onsite, plus a friend at home who is available as an emergency contact for the pups.

As was mentioned on another post we don't include our airline tickets in the coverage. Our credit card provides for some coverage of those. And it is generally cheaper to rebook and pay the change fee charged by the airline.

Just sharing one of the limitations to "Cancel For Any Reason" insurance.

Most policies discontinue CFAR coverage 48 hours prior to beginning of trip.

Beginning of trip is the moment you walk out the door.

I personally don't have a dog in this fight. Just don"t want someone to think that CFAR is the end all, be all for a pooch that gets into mischief 18 hours before you depart for the sunny coast

Just sharing one of the limitations to "Cancel For Any Reason" insurance.

Most policies discontinue CFAR coverage 48 hours prior to beginning of trip.

Beginning of trip is the moment you walk out the door.

 

I personally don't have a dog in this fight. Just don"t want someone to think that CFAR is the end all, be all for a pooch that gets into mischief 18 hours before you depart for the sunny coast

Thanks for raising this issue. The Cancel for Any Reason addition to travel insurance applies to just that, cancellation of the trip. The policy we use requires cancellation at least 3 days prior to scheduled departure. It is protection against loss of advance nonrefundable payments, and does not apply to protection during travel. We only have this provision added (at cost) to our travel insurance if we have large advance nonrefundable payments involved, such as for a cruise.

As was mentioned on another post we don't include our airline tickets in the coverage. Our credit card provides for some coverage of those. And it is generally cheaper to rebook and pay the change fee charged by the airline.

Thanks for chiming in - much appreciated. Agreed on air tics: thinking I'll just take a chance and pay change fees if necessary. My credit card covers air as part of trip cancellation, but it's the same restricted policy - immediate family only. Doesn't cover pets.

Just sharing one of the limitations to "Cancel For Any Reason" insurance.

Most policies discontinue CFAR coverage 48 hours prior to beginning of trip.

Beginning of trip is the moment you walk out the door.

 

I personally don't have a dog in this fight. Just don"t want someone to think that CFAR is the end all, be all for a pooch that gets into mischief 18 hours before you depart for the sunny coast

Exactly what happened to us a few years ago...and sure enough I think it was the night before our departure. That 48hr restriction is what led me to use RCI's Cruise Care last year (you can cancel right up until departure) vs 3rd party coverage. The restriction negates the whole reason I would pay 40-50% more for "cancel for any reason" coverage. Murphy's Law practically guarantees whatever goes wrong will go wrong the day AFTER the coverage ends. :)

Appreciate your reply. I may just insure the airline tics separately, although that would be a pretty hefty spend just on insurance w/2 policies. Petless sure does give you a ton more travel freedom. But they give us so much joy the other 50 weeks/year. Not sure I'm ready to go petless quite yet. For those of us without children, they're truly our "kids". I wish a few travel insurance firms would look into the option of adding pet illness as a covered cancellation for maybe a 10-15% surcharge (vs wide open 50%+ "cancel for any reason" coverage.) There are so many pet owners that must be in the same boat I am.

I'd suggest calling your Vet and asking if they know of any policies. They well might. Nothing to lose by asking.

Good luck. :)

I just happened to see this post and thought I would chime in.

My dog is a 3x cancer survivor and makes my cruising experience a living nightmare even though I try and enjoy it the best I can. My mother comes and stays with him but it's really the fear of him being diagnosed with something while I am waiting until my cruising date that kills me.

For this reason, I too purchase CFAR policies and I also will only book airfare with Southwest. Since you can change airfare without penalty on Southwest, if I should have to cancel my cruise, at least I know I can use that airfare for something else down the road and I am not out the money.

The last 4 cruises have been with Carnival so my travel agent as had me purchase a policy with Travel Guard. I'm not sure if the policies they can get are different that what is directly on their website b/c my TA has said that if I need to cancel (again with the 48 hour cut off window), I get 75% of the purchase price returned but their website only says 50%. I also don't like that I have to pay this insurance upfront whereas on Royal, you just tell them you want their insurance and it's not due until final payment but if you cancel the cruise, you're not obligated to pay the insurance.

I will tell you that it gives me such peace of mind knowing that I won't be out such a huge chunk of money if God forbid I had to cancel.

And yes, I am that crazy person who would fly home from a port if something were to happen to my dog! If he were already gone, no....but if I could make it home to say goodbye, absolutely. There's nothing in the world I wouldn't do for him. ;)

erby2283: thanks so much for sharing your own experiences. I can imagine how stressful it must be to plan vacations with all that in the back of your mind. I love Southwest for the same reason of flexible changes and always fly them before other airlines, even when their rate is higher.

Unfortunately, their flights from Fla to CA just aren't working schedule-wise. So need to consider the customer-UNfriendly legacy lines like AA w/their $200 change fees. :(

If I didn't want to do this particular cruise so darn much (it's a bucket list type trip for me and these specific ports/itinerary won't be offered next year,) I wouldn't even be considering it. Still might skip it in the end.

Thanks for everyone's input.

 

The last 4 cruises have been with Carnival so my travel agent as had me purchase a policy with Travel Guard. I'm not sure if the policies they can get are different that what is directly on their website b/c my TA has said that if I need to cancel (again with the 48 hour cut off window), I get 75% of the purchase price returned but their website only says 50%.

. ;)

Just for clarification.

IF you should cancel a Carnival cruise after having purchased Carnivals insurance, AND you are using the CFAR portion,,, you DO NOT receive any refund whatsoever. You will receive a 75% Credit to be used on a future cruise

Just for clarification.

 

IF you should cancel a Carnival cruise after having purchased Carnivals insurance, AND you are using the CFAR portion,,, you DO NOT receive any refund whatsoever. You will receive a 75% Credit to be used on a future cruise

Yes, thank you. My TA did make me aware of that and usually why I purchase a third party insurance. The other is b/c I like to make sure the company I use is "primary" when it come to medical when traveling out of the country.

I'm actually shopping it as we speak. Carnival's was $95 per person (not sure if their medical is primary, will have to check in to that), or, and I mis-spoke before, my TA's use Travel Insured - my quote with them is $78 per person ($50 without the CFAR which we know I won't entertain). :D

erby2283: thanks so much for sharing your own experiences. I can imagine how stressful it must be to plan vacations with all that in the back of your mind. I love Southwest for the same reason of flexible changes and always fly them before other airlines, even when their rate is higher.

 

Unfortunately, their flights from Fla to CA just aren't working schedule-wise. So need to consider the customer-UNfriendly legacy lines like AA w/their $200 change fees. :(

 

If I didn't want to do this particular cruise so darn much (it's a bucket list type trip for me and these specific ports/itinerary won't be offered next year,) I wouldn't even be considering it. Still might skip it in the end.

Thanks for everyone's input.

I actually just changed entire cruises b/c of Southwest...lol. Had an RCI cruise booked but it's to and from San Juan coming back 6 days before xmas and airfare coming home (just one-way) was $440 p/p. Heck no! I only paid $1541 for a D3 balcony!

So I switch from a 7-day on RCI to a 10-day Journey cruise on Carnival and only paid $40 more total- mixed reviews on the ship but heck - I just need a deck chair and a flank steak so I'm sure I'll be fine :). Round trip airfare to San Juan and home from Port Canaveral on Southwest, $293.

Enjoy your bucket list cruise and good luck with your furbabies. It sure would make it easier if we didn't love them so damn much.

I just need a deck chair and a flank steak so I'm sure I'll be fine

LOL...I don't even need the deck chair or the steak. Just hand me a margarita and plunk me down by the side of the pool. I'm a happy camper. (Besides, there's never an open deck chair by the time I get there anyway.)

LOVE the pics...adorable. Thanks for sharing.