Unique situation: Suggestions on getting last minute travel and evacuation insurance

I won't go into too much detail, but today DH and I had the unique opportunity to take over a non-insured River Cruise reservation from friends that will not be able to go. We are purchasing the trip (cruise, hotels and transportation) from them. The trip is in 1 week! :eek: Everything was handled by their TA and we now have the documents in our names. I guess this is allowed with River Cruise companies.

Now, we always purchase travel insurance, with the evacuation and pre-existing waiver, especially when going to Europe! I am at a loss of how to go about getting it for this trip since we did not originally book it. Final was paid a few months ago.

American express...purchased last minute ...long story...needed it...they covered all

Do you have to have a AMEX CC card?

I have a regular amex card..nothing special

Contact staff at Trip Insurance Store (https://tripinsurancestore.com/).

They will give you accurate information. We always purchase thru them.

Contact staff at Trip Insurance Store (https://tripinsurancestore.com/).

 

They will give you accurate information. We always purchase thru them.

Ditto. Steve has always given us useful advice on different scenario. We always get insurance thru him.

We also have Medjet Assist for medical evacuation to hospital near home if hospitalized in a port.

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I have a regular amex card..nothing special

Don't have one.

Thanks, I'll give Steve a call today. ;)

American express...purchased last minute ...long story...needed it...they covered all

Was it American Express Insurance that you purchased or were you covered by your credit card?

Called Steve and learned many new things. We purchased the recommended travel insurance and all is good. :)

Please share what you learned so we all may learn.

Glad it worked out. Steve is pretty good at what he does.

Was it American Express Insurance that you purchased or were you covered by your credit card?

No..not covered by card bought a policy last minute ..as in a week prior to sailing for a cruise ...mother in law passed unexpectedly

Fully covered

Good news. Steve recommended GENERALI Travel Insurance (used to be CSA) to us because they have a plan that you can buy for the trip at the last minute--no cancellation coverages but who needs at last minute.

GENERALI's medical coverages are the most extensive.

DISCLAIMER: What you read below is only what my DH and I understood from talking with a "Steve" rep, yesterday.

Good news. Steve recommended GENERALI Travel Insurance (used to be CSA) to us because they have a plan that you can buy for the trip at the last minute--no cancellation coverages but who needs at last minute. GENERALI's medical coverages are the most extensive.

Funny that when I told the "Steve" representative that we always use CSA Luxe, she said that we did not need that coverage for this cruise. In fact, she didn't seem to be familiar with the LUXE at all! She recommended either Global or Traveled Insured. So when I did the research on Steve's website, only CSA Lifestyle showed up. Which, as it turned out, would have been fine for our situation (I'll explain what the rep said, below.) I did not know that CSA is no longer that name. Didn't show that way on Steve's website.

Please share what you learned so we all may learn.

Glad it worked out. Steve is pretty good at what he does.

OK, the rep explained since we did not make the payments to the travel agent, the cruise line, or for the hotels and transportation cost, that OUR initial payment would technically be when we paid our friends (check sent overnight and will be cashed on Monday. We keep a record/photo copies of that transaction) and/or purchased our airfare (done 48 hours ago.) She says this practice is not uncommon and that they actual get this a lot, and advice is the same. No problems with anyone needing to use the insurance that was purchased under these circumstances.

And because we were purchasing the insurance within the Initial payment time period (14 days), we did not need to purchase anything unnecessary, like upgrading to CSA Luxe to have the pre-existing waiver. We went with the Travel Insured because we felt it met our needs. Though we probably over insured. Added a couple of extra's that did not cost much more. Like accidental death on the airline. $8pp will get our children $2,000.000 if we have a fatal accident! That type of news always eases their minds when we tell them we are traveling again. :D

Two of the most helpful things that we learned:

1 - We always hear/read that you HAVE to refund all non-refundables or the insurance company will not pay. That's not really true. They will not pay for a non-refundable if you submit a claim on a non-refundable that was not included the total cost of your trip. In other words, if you insured $1000 of non-refundables, and then you submitted a claim for $1300 because you had that excursion you forgot about, they would not reimburse you for that amount. The insurance companies really have no idea what you have purchased, and what you haven't. :rolleyes: Their job is to reimburse the amount you submitted to be insured.

Which led me to the question I asked of them about airfare. Although I have read both to insure the full air cost, or not to insure anything but the exchange fee, I was never sure. Rep said no need to insure the full amount of the air unless you want to get back the full amount. So if you had to cancel a trip to Europe and you don't plan to fly again in the next year (from the date you purchased the ticket), then you would want to insure the entire cost. In our case, we travel frequently. So using an airline credit voucher within a year of the date we purchased a flight should be no problem. Been there, done that!;)

2 - I recently read someplace that travel insurance should be purchased within 24 hours of when the greatest cost of your trip was purchased. We have a cruise to AUS/NZ coming up. Cruise final not due until October. As I mentioned earlier, we normally purchase CSA Luxe at final cruise payment. I was worried after what I read because we purchased our air to Australia about 2 months ago. And it is Business Class airfare! Much more than the cruise portion of our trip!

So the rep says that is also not true. And for the life of me, I cannot remember her explanation. I'll ask DH (we were on speaker phone) when he returns from golf...and post back if anyone is interested. ;)

So that info, along with not having to insure the total cost of air in Business Class, has taken a huge weight off of my shoulders. :)

Hope I explained things clearly enough. :eek: