Won a free cruise. What insurance?

My wife won a free cruise from the cruise line itself and we are departing on Nov 28th for a 7 day voyage. Our flights are with points and the total out of pocket expense will be $25.00. Tips and taxes are included.We want primary medical coverage, baggage coverage, trip interruption and medical evacuation. We just won this last week so there is no problem with pre-existing conditions. Anyone have ideas on how to handle this.

I would only purchase medical coverage for outside the country unless your usual medical insurance covers you internationally. Make sure it includes evacuation and repatriation coverage.

Congratulations on winning. Enjoy.

You just go to your preferred travel insurance company and buy insurance. It's no different than purchasing a policy if you paid a lot more money. Just enter the amount you have paid. Simple.

What Rugrats said. Insure your trip cost of $25, (do not insure $0) and enjoy the medical coverage while you are gone. Coverage starts upon purchase. Baggage and medical are irrespective of trip cost. Trip interruption coverage will be minimal.

ETA- since you want Primary medical, look at Travelsafe Classic. Low cost, $100,000 medical, primary payer. $1million emergency medical, $2500 missed connection. You won't have interruption coverage, but delay and medical should take care of any interruptions you might have.

What Rugrats said. Insure your trip cost of $25, (do not insure $0) and enjoy the medical coverage while you are gone. Coverage starts upon purchase. Baggage and medical are irrespective of trip cost. Trip interruption coverage will be minimal.

 

ETA- since you want Primary medical, look at Travelsafe Classic. Low cost, $100,000 medical, primary payer. $1million emergency medical, $2500 missed connection. You won't have interruption coverage, but delay and medical should take care of any interruptions you might have.

I very interested.........

Why do you say to not insure the trip as "$0 " ?

Thanks.

A trip cost of $0 does not start coverage until the departure date. A trip cost of $1 or more starts on the day of purchase. The difference being that any medical condition that occurs after insurance purchase but before boarding would be excluded as a PEC in the former case but covered in the latter. I learned this from Steve at the Trip Insurance Store, you can read it in more detail here:

http://tripinsurancestore.com/blog/dont-insure-a-0-trip-cost-to-save-money/

A trip cost of $0 does not start coverage until the departure date. A trip cost of $1 or more starts on the day of purchase. The difference being that any medical condition that occurs after insurance purchase but before boarding would be excluded as a PEC in the former case but covered in the latter. I learned this from Steve at the Trip Insurance Store, you can read it in more detail here:

http://tripinsurancestore.com/blog/dont-insure-a-0-trip-cost-to-save-money/

Excellent advice from TripInsurance Store. We have used their services on several cruises. I'm glad you provided the link to explain why travelers should never put $0 as a trip cost when purchasing travel insurance.

Excellent advice from TripInsurance Store. We have used their services on several cruises. I'm glad you provided the link to explain why travelers should never put $0 as a trip cost when purchasing travel insurance.

We've also gotten terrifically helpful info from TripInsuranceStore (sometimes the info was unexpected, but very important!).

But how would this work, with the free cruise?

When is that $25 in misc (or whatever) fees actually paid?

The type of insurance we've always gotten "starts the clock" when the FIRST PAYMENT is made, such as the deposit. (This is the one case, at least for the policies we get, where it does not matter if this payment is refundable or not, even though the requirement overall is that all NON-refundable costs *must* be included.)

So if that $25 isn't paid until some later time...?

I guess one could purchase an excursion in advance? (Again, for our type of policies that *first* payment to start the clock is the only one that doesn't need to be non-refundable.)

I doubt we'll ever have this nice problem of "how to insure a free cruise", but I'd like to keep learning more about how travel insurance works, so we are unlikely ever to goof and not have valid coverage when we need it.

Thanks!

GeezerCouple

Thank you all for your advice. A small detail is that the cruise invoice date was Oct 9th for $0. We then "purchased" airfare using points. The fees on those air tickets were $25 so I will then purchase insurance based on that amount.

Please check with an insurer (like TripInsuranceStore.com - and there are others) to make sure of the terms of your coverage for what you want (medical, interruption, etc.).

And then enjoy!

GeezerCouple

A trip cost of $0 does not start coverage until the departure date. A trip cost of $1 or more starts on the day of purchase. The difference being that any medical condition that occurs after insurance purchase but before boarding would be excluded as a PEC in the former case but covered in the latter. I learned this from Steve at the Trip Insurance Store, you can read it in more detail here:

http://tripinsurancestore.com/blog/dont-insure-a-0-trip-cost-to-save-money/

Great information.

Thank you.

If the insurance is purchased within the time period required for PEC, would it make a difference to value $1 vs $0 ?