WAVEJourney

4 hours ago, Tom O. said:

I purchased insurance from my travel agent when I booked my August Cruise last December. The insurance was from Allianz, the largest insurance company in the world.

We bought it mostly in case we needed a medical evacuation or something during the trip. I never thought that my cruise would be cancelled, I have never cancelled a vacation myself.

So now the cruise is cancelled, and Allianz refuses to refund the $575 we paid for it. Also, they refuse to cover any loses we have suffered from this cancellation. HAL should refund our deposit, but we also added the cost of our flight and an expensive hotel in Copenhagen to the coverage. Delta allowed us to cancel our flight for a future credit, but we are going to lose the money we paid for that hotel. Allianz says that since this is caused by a pandemic, they are not responsible.

So Allianz won't refund our money or pay for our loses. What a completely useless insurance policy. I will think twice before ever buying travel insurance again. And I will never do business with Allianz again.

Allianz has an exclusion for pandemics in their list of exclusions. Many have learned the hard way that this blanket exclusion means all claims at this time that are in any way affected by COVID-19 are not covered. Many thought the pandemic exclusion would only be instituted if they knowingly travelled to an area with a pandemic, and not just one breaking out after the fact. Now we do know and this is an issue booking any further travel. What companies will cover pandemics? Just because it's a cancel for any reason policy doesn't mean it covers a pandemic. 

We did a 15-day Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi trip with Uniworld, which included a 7 night Mekong cruise to Siem Reap. It was fantastic! Some differences in itinerary and ship between the various river cruise companies that do this cruise, but they all get great reviews. If you are interested, take a look at our write-up of our trip to get an idea of what to expect - Top 12 reasons to take a Mekong River Cruise :)