Anyone insure husband/wife separately

I'm looking at insuring our upcoming cruise to Australia and for the first time think I will purchase separate policies for myself and husband.

Here's the background:

The policy I'm looking at is thru Nationwide (cruise policy).

We have frequent flyer tickets and in order to get the lowest mileage awards we had to book several legs separately so we each have 3 separate tickets. If we would have to cancel, it would cost us $150 per ticket to re-deposit the miles into our FF accounts. That comes to $900 total (what a ripoff, but that's another matter :mad:).

The Nationwide policy states: "You may be reimbursed for the fees incurred to re-deposit your frequent flyer miles due to a covered reason up to an aggregate amount of $250." I called them to clarify if that is per person or per policy. The agent said per policy. So I said then it would be better if we each had our own policy and she said yes.

I know in the scheme of things $250 isn't a lot, but since we would still be out $400, I'm trying to minimize our loss.

The policy cost is the same per person if it's one policy or individual.

Has anyone else insured spouses separately?

I think you should call an insurance professional like insuremytrip.com or the other one - tripinsurancestore.com or something like that. I faced a similar situation on our last cruise only the cost was about $400pp to redeposit miles if we had to cancel.

What I'm getting at is that there are policies that will cover your actual cost if you include the fees in the total amount you are insuring. I think I bought AXA, but there are others that do not limit you to a maximum amount. You don't have to insure each person separately.

Someone who is knowledgable can help you match your needs to the appropriate policy.

I think you should call an insurance professional like insuremytrip.com or the other one - tripinsurancestore.com or something like that. I faced a similar situation on our last cruise only the cost was about $400pp to redeposit miles if we had to cancel.

 

What I'm getting at is that there are policies that will cover your actual cost if you include the fees in the total amount you are insuring. I think I bought AXA, but there are others that do not limit you to a maximum amount. You don't have to insure each person separately.

 

Someone who is knowledgable can help you match your needs to the appropriate policy.

We also suggest calling the TripInsuranceStore.com

Steve or anyone there can discuss this with you.

In the past, we've had a single policy.

But for our next trip, we chose a different type of policy, and a different insurer (so we could start the insurance later, and still waive the pre-existing condition exclusion).

This policy had less in terms of medical and evacuation than our other policies.

Therefore, they suggested that we just split it into two separate policies, so that the max would be per person, not for the trip.

Chances are it wouldn't make much difference, but it was easy enough to do.

We are still 'linked', so if one of us needs to cancel, the other is covered as well, etc.

GeezerCouple

We also suggest calling the TripInsuranceStore.com

Steve or anyone there can discuss this with you.

 

In the past, we've had a single policy.

 

But for our next trip, we chose a different type of policy, and a different insurer (so we could start the insurance later, and still waive the pre-existing condition exclusion).

 

This policy had less in terms of medical and evacuation than our other policies.

Therefore, they suggested that we just split it into two separate policies, so that the max would be per person, not for the trip.

Chances are it wouldn't make much difference, but it was easy enough to do.

 

We are still 'linked', so if one of us needs to cancel, the other is covered as well, etc.

 

GeezerCouple

What company did you end up using? I've also waited until closer to final payment date to buy the insurance but still want the pre-existing waiver. There are only a few companies that allow this.

What company did you end up using? I've also waited until closer to final payment date to buy the insurance but still want the pre-existing waiver. There are only a few companies that allow this.

Again, please check with Steve, at TripInsuranceStore.com

because what "works for us, for that trip", might not be the best for you.

But we had used TravelInsured before (and we WILL use them again, given that they paid a big claim with no hassles).

But this time, with the later "start" to insurance, we used CSA.

According to Steve, there is at least one other option "if all else fails", but I think it's very pricy and/or tricky, which is why he doesn't list it with all the others.

But that's another reason always to *speak* with them.

If they know what you need, they can recommend the best choices, or maybe the only choice!

Anyway, for something like this, it's great to know that CSA works for us.

However, given some differences in the policies, we'll continue to try to start the insurance sooner, and use TravelInsured.

BTW, one problem for us with this is that we plan very far in advance, given that we have very specific preferences about cabin types, and there aren't many, so they go fast.

And we've sometimes booked quite a few out the next year or two or more.

So that means we had to pay insurance on the first deposit (small amount, but it adds up) on each trip.

TravelInsured allows one to change the insurance to a different trip, once (with some restrictions, I think).

Point is, we ended up losing a few of those deposits, because we had to cancel/reschedule yet again. (DH simply does not always know the projects that might be extra busy 2+ years in advance, etc.)

But with more experience about all of this now, we still might decide to risk losing a few deposits, and have the better coverage that we prefer.

Still, it's good to know that CSA is there for this situation.

GeezerCouple

You need to look at your booking. If you are being charged on a per-cabin basis, (one line-item, two names) you will need to be on the same policy (because otherwise one person will have a trip cost of $0). If you are being billed on a per-person basis, then separate policies are okay.

Also ask about purchasing trip insurance on just the trip deposit and increasing the amount covered once you make final payment. We buy TravelInsured via USAA and they have allowed us to increase our coverage later on, once we have non-refundable costs.

For our upcoming December cruise, we had only made a $100 deposit per person. When I then purchased insurance, I asked specifically if I needed to purchase the insurance for the total, since at the time we were not sure we could afford the trip. She said that I needed to cover the non-refundable costs. Ok, the deposit was $100, so that is all we had out at the time. The rest of the payments were put into my savings account and a week or so before final, my TA made the payment and sent me the receiot. At that time, I called TravelInsured and upped the coverage, saying that I now had non-refundable costs. They were happy to take my card number for additional coverage. I asked and was told that I still had pre-existing coverage.