titong

I had to cancel a cruise and claim a refund with my Sapphire card, which is essentially the same card, I believe (i.e. Chase Visa). AFAIK they both use the same insurance company - ?Chubb.

Had no problem - received full amount claimed.

Paulchili, thank you very much. That convinces me to keep my Chase United Airlines Mileage card. Also, you are correct, I checked and they both use Chubb.

I think that if you cancel a United Airlines overseas ticket, and want to change to a different overseas trip, that is non-refundable ticket, there is a $300 change fee plus any additional amount that the new ticket costs? The main reason I bought the United Airlines Mileage Plus card is because of the Cruise Cancellation protection. I am wondering if anyone has had to cancel a cruise-and tried to get a refund from the United Airlines Mileage Plus Card? If so, what has been their experience? I have done a web search, and have not found anyone who has ever had to cancel a cruise try to get a CRUISE refund based on the United Airlines Mileage Plus Card. Any thoughts or experiences would be appreciated-as that is the main reason I got the United Airlines Mileage Plus Card.

Noxequifans,

 

I have remained quiet on this subject until your entry above. Your take on children is quite offensive and leaves a lot to be desired.

 

We travel with our grandchildren quite often and they have been taught how to behave in public and to use their inside voices when in restaurants etc.

We will be on the Riviera this winter with them and their parents and I hope you will also be on this cruise so you can experience the joy of two 5&6 year old well behaved children.

 

We keep them busy off the ship all day, give them a swim in the pool when we return and then have dinner in the grill or any of the restaurants at 6:30 which is the time children should eat.

 

There is no reason that children should not cruise on Oceania, and if you are so against children on ships maybe you should look for an adults only cruise line.

Dlouise,

Oceania is an Adult oriented cruise line. It is not designed for 5 and 6 year old kids. For the sake of the many passengers on Rivera do them and the many passengers who do not want to deal with them and their parents a favor-cruise with those 5 and 6 year old children on Disney. Leave Oceania to the adults. Thank you.

Boy that sounds good... but better read it again IF is in there 2 times for a reason. I read it as a double escape clause. IF...by who's judgment and by who's standard. You read it as IF your making the decision, which is what they intend.

They, the insurance and their medical folks are the ones however, as I read it, and it is their decision... You can request what ever you want till your blue in the face.. They are in control and who do you thing the attending MD is working for?

Bottom line is the old what if and and if what.....if you buy that

Excellent points. You write thorough, well thought out posts.

Might get more real information by doing your own research beforehand rather than rely on the destination "experts" onboard:)?

I agree that one is better off doing their own research. I would rather Oceania or any cruise company spend their money on other things like the food, entertainment etc.

Comcast has one of the worst reputations for poor customer service. The callback system might be nice but, for people at work, they cannot sit in their office waiting for a phone call at the whim of the company and likely many missed callbacks to people working. Would probably work for retired people.

 

Agree many of my comments are negative but, your continual blaming of anyone except the cruise line is very tiresome. Hope you get taken care of as am sure you have been promised.

As an unfortunate Comcast customer, I take issue with your comment: "Comcast has one of the worst reputations for poor customer service." They have the WORST customer service of any company, I have ever dealt with!

Gee .. lobster live in salt water so that's why they're salty. Thanks for the insight. Despite my PhD in Physics, I hadn't realised the connection between salt water and lobster. It leads to another question which I'm sure you with your expertise in these matters can answer. I've eaten lobster a lot, at one point in Boston 2 or 3 times a week fresh off the dock, and never experienced one that was too salty until this cruise. That night we were eating with another person who also is not inexperienced in lobster eating activities, but who also thought it was much too salty. Now, given your superior knowledge, the problem clearly was with us and not the lobster. Do you have any insights about what personality flaw in me and the other person that I ate with that night could lead to such obviously wrong impressions? Should we have had the strawberry shortcake instead?

Excellent points. I eagerly await the answers. :)

I do not cancel my cards. the 4 I have I rotate according to need to keep them current. I do not cancel because canceling a card does hurt you your credit. And I have not even begun with Marriott credit cards.

The reason I choose UAL is because I already had 500,000 miles in the bank and Marriott 200,000 points. That's my zero start... and I have built on that foundation. Too UAL serves my location better than another. I could do better in other programs perhaps but I am doing just fine for my goal.

 

and Hey silversweetie... ... " Life is tough.... its even tougher if your dumb" . John Wayne

Yo Dan,

5 or 6 months ago, I got the Chase United Airlines credit card, and I got 30, 000 free miles. I have also accumulated an additional 15 thousand miles-mostly from spending on that card, and a few additional points from flying UAL. I did notice when I went online and logged into my UAL account it states that my points will expire in Dec. 2014. I thought as long as I had the Chase United Airlines credit card they never expired. Can you explain that to me?

There is a little known technique known as "churning" . Presently Chase still permits it however as of August 2013 Citi prohibits it

 

Churning is where you do one of 2 things Get use and cancel the card and request a new one. or where you every 90 days apply for a new card. You can, presently request a new card ( there are presently 4 levels in Chase UAL one of which is an explorer card.

These cards carry a 30,000 mile each sign up. You can get an additional 5000 miles for adding a name to the card. and 10,000 if you charge 25,000 in 12 mos . If you are married, then you and your spouse each apply separately for a card and then place each others name on the card. Result for round 1 60,000 miles total plus 10,000 miles bonus. you can apply every 90 days of one of the cards each time repeating the process. At round 2 you get another 60,000 miles +10,000 At round 3 you get another 60,000 + 10,000

 

So together in 90 days, with just charging $1000 on the cards you will have 210,000 miles in 6 mos. AND, the 6000 in charges will earn you 6000 more miles !!! So now we are at 216,000 miles ! are you with me?

 

But wait, timing is everything .because if you charge $25,000 in 12 mos you get a 10,000 bonus for each card that you hit $25,000 with. Using you card for all you do : gas food, tax,cruise, air, vacation, clothes gum.. telephone, cable, water,electricity..... each of you picks one card to do the $25 k on ( $50,000 should be easy in a year for normal cost of living..

So now at the end of the first year you chave used the cards for $54,000 in charges ( paying it off in full each month)

This give you 20,000 miles bonus plus the 50,000 miles earned from the actual charges. So that is altogether another 70,000 miles

 

So 12 months from the start you are now sitting on 286,000 miles or 146,000 each... having only spent $54,000 in normal routine expenses. And this is if you do not fly one mile !!! Then each year still spending $50,000 in charges for your normaly do will continue to add 50,000 miles a year And it gets better and better as each year you get a renewal of 2000 to 5000 mile bonus per card. Using just 2000 per card ( and you have 6 remember between you two) that's another 12,000 miles a year

SO......24 months after getting the original cards you have 298,000 miles total. and If you charge a couple of cruises and air...you can add another 20,000 miles !!!!

 

You have to pay about $190 per year for the cards x 6 or $1140 a year.

Not bad to get almost $300,000 worth of miles doing nothing more than sitting around the house.

THe secret 1 brand credit card...no others... fly only UAL or star alliance and quit paying cash for anything.....

 

And I didn't even get into hotel cards such as Marriott where you can easily between 2 people 6 to 10 free stays a year !

 

Ball is in your court

Hawaiidan, thank you. Very useful post. I thought about quoting your post and posting it on the Crystal forum website. However, I don't know if you would object. However, I cruise Crystal a lot and Oceania some. Would you post your post on the Crystal forum as well? If not do you object if I post your very valuable post on the Crystal cruise critic forum?

I am the person that you are talking about Oceania not only not giving any type of credit although they have my $15,000 + plus my understanding also the monies paid by the now-occupants of that stateroom (Marina 12002). My main issue is the fact that I was treated as a persona non grata. Your information is consistent with the information provided to me by Crystal and a few other lines - it would be treated on a "case by case" basis presumably not by a flawed form letter. In my fact finding this morning another luxury line have tentatively offered me a substantial credit if I can produce documentation and also pending senior approval on Monday. Any equivalent cruise will still cost me more than we lost but they must have passed their MBA 100 course :D Even if it does not work out I know where my loyalties will be. Thank you for the information anyway.

If I was in your situation, I would write and/or call FDR again, and if I got no satisfaction, I would not cruise Oceania in the future.

I never place a bet or book a cruise that I can not afford to loose.

 

Time , tides and dollars over the years has saved me $$$$$$$$$$$$

in insurance. I can thus afford to loose a hand or too.

 

Self insured , if you start in the beginning , will pay off if and when in spades to your benefit.

 

Never bought insurance, never will....and this is for cruises up to 50K

 

fear sells ! diligence prevails!;)

Very well stated. I agree.

Asking Chase (or insurance affiliate) would certainly be good, but in a case like this, I certainly wouldn't count on any verbal response given over the phone by a rep - someone who could be mistaken, misunderstand the question, or just lazy (giving "any old convenient answer").

 

Read the policy carefully, about how "pre-existing conditions" are defined.

And remember, IF an insurer can find a valid reason to deny a claim, that's just about guaranteed to be what happens.

 

In some policies, there is a "look back" period, and only conditions that developed within that relatively recent period are problematic.

 

In at least some policies, if a pre-existing condition is something chronic like blood pressure, but it's "controlled" [careful of definition here, too] with medicine, it's not considered one of the pre-existing condition exclusions IF there has been NO change to the prescription dosing AND no one [medical personnel type] has recommended changing the dose within x amount of time.

An existing in-place stent might or might *not* fall into the "no change of treatment".

 

It would all depend upon whether and how "pre-existing condition" is defined.

 

You may "feel fine", and that is GREAT!

But if one of the biggest risks you have in terms of a possible medical need to cancel or be evacuated and/or hospitalized in a foreign country is heart-related, if it were us in your situation, we'd do our very best to make sure that is NOT excluded.

 

You mentioned cancellation insurance. IF you use the Chase/UA card for this insurance, do you have suitable medical/surgical and evacuation/transport coverage through other insurance?

THAT is where the potential catastrophic costs can arise.

 

GeezerCouple

Geezer, excellent suggestion you gave about looking at the definition of "pre-existing condition." I just looked and saw the definition in the Chase United Mileage booklet and it looks like it only has a 60 day "look back period." It states in relevant part: "illness, disease...of you for which medical advice, diagnosis, care or treatment was recommended or received within the 60 day period immediately prior to the purchase of a Covered Trip. The taking of prescription drugs or medication for a controlled condition throughout this 60 day period will not be considered to be a treatment of illness or disease."

Thus, it appears to me that the pre-existing condition statement only applies within 60 days prior to the purchase of Covered Trip like a cruise etc. If you are outside of the 60 days, the pre-existing condition statement does not apply. Do you agree?

Asking Chase (or insurance affiliate) would certainly be good, but in a case like this, I certainly wouldn't count on any verbal response given over the phone by a rep - someone who could be mistaken, misunderstand the question, or just lazy (giving "any old convenient answer").

 

Read the policy carefully, about how "pre-existing conditions" are defined.

And remember, IF an insurer can find a valid reason to deny a claim, that's just about guaranteed to be what happens.

 

In some policies, there is a "look back" period, and only conditions that developed within that relatively recent period are problematic.

 

In at least some policies, if a pre-existing condition is something chronic like blood pressure, but it's "controlled" [careful of definition here, too] with medicine, it's not considered one of the pre-existing condition exclusions IF there has been NO change to the prescription dosing AND no one [medical personnel type] has recommended changing the dose within x amount of time.

An existing in-place stent might or might *not* fall into the "no change of treatment".

 

It would all depend upon whether and how "pre-existing condition" is defined.

 

You may "feel fine", and that is GREAT!

But if one of the biggest risks you have in terms of a possible medical need to cancel or be evacuated and/or hospitalized in a foreign country is heart-related, if it were us in your situation, we'd do our very best to make sure that is NOT excluded.

 

You mentioned cancellation insurance. IF you use the Chase/UA card for this insurance, do you have suitable medical/surgical and evacuation/transport coverage through other insurance?

THAT is where the potential catastrophic costs can arise.

 

GeezerCouple

Thank you very much for the very thorough and well-thought out answer. Your post answers many of my questions. Yes, I already have excellent health and evacuation insurance. On my most recent Oceania cruise, I came down with a bad cold and had to see the ship's doctor. The doctor charged me about $200 for my very brief visit. My health insurance reimbursed me in it's entirety. The only thing that I am interested in is the cancellation insurance. Also, I noted a number of posts back someone posted that they did not have cancellation insurance, and stated that Oceania would not give them any credit for towards another cruise. I asked two different Crystal representatives what their policy was. They both told me that they decide whether to give a passenger who has to cancel the cruise credit toward another cruise on a "case by case" basis. This they stated is different than if you have cancellation insurance, and in that case the person is guaranteed a refund. Without it, Crystal stays they do it on a "case by case" basis.

That's a different question

 

No one on these boards can tell u about ur pre existing conditions

Obviously, you can't. However, someone who reads or posts on these boards could certainly tell us, if they had been in a similar situation what their experience has been.

You need to ask THEM -- not us.

Call the benefit administrator

I did ask them, but I got a run around instead of a straight answer. Perhaps I should re phrase my question and ask the following: Has anyone used the Chase United Airlines credit card. If so, have you had to cancel your cruise? What has been your experience in collecting from Chase or their administrator?

One more bit of information I gleaned today

 

I wanted to find out if all 4 of my Chase cards that provide cancellation insurance (Explorer, Ink, Sapphire, Marriott) have the same benefit administrator and the same insurer. I had someone do the research for me at Chase and they all have the same administrator and Chubb is the insurer for all of them. I "think" this will make it easier if I decide to do some stacking.

I just got the Chase United Airlines card which the brochure states covers cancellation insurance. The brochure also states that it does not cover pre-existing conditions. Does anyone know what that means? For example, I have never had a heart attack. However, about 7 months ago. I had an angioplasty with stents. Now I feel fine. Does that mean that if I have to cancel a cruise because of heart problems, like a heart attack, that Chase would not reimburse me, and instead would call that a pre-existing condition?

Does it really matter what we call it?

 

Obviously there was a condition on the ship that led to many people getting sick. Norovirus or not, Oceania needs to get its arms around it, sanitize the ship and do whatever it can to make sure the next sailing is free from whatever caused the problem. It is serious. I am sure Oceania will take every precaution regardless of the name of the illness.

I agree. It is obvious from the numerous posters here that were on the ship-that there was some type of virus going around that made people sick. It should not be minimzed by one of the above posters, who was not even on the ship, making the blanket statment that she is sure that it is not the Norovirus. In my humble opinion she owes the persons who got sick on that ship an apology.

I can tell you absolutely there is no Norovirus on Riviera..

Jancruz1

How can you be so sure when you were not even on the cruise?? There are posters above who were on that cruise who say differently.

I am a little amazed that O would charge guests medical costs for treating a disease outbreak on their ships. It is one thing if a passenger has an individual medical problem, but in my opinion, quite another when a virus is ravaging the ship. One could conceivably blame the cruise line and sue.

If I remember correctly, when I contracted the Norovirus, Crystal compensated me and my wife for the day lost in quarantine, rather than charge me for a nurse's visit. I find this disturbing.

I came down with a bad cold on Crystal. I went and saw the nurse-not the doctor. The nurse told me that because I did not have any fever at the time, I would not be quarantined. Crystal charged me about $130. I do remember that my health insurance company reimbursed me for the total charge. It did seem like some kind of virus was going around-but I am not sure.

I am surprised that anyone would pay money for a cruise and/or overseas travel and not have some kind of health insurance that would cover those medical expenses.

They look good but I do not eat lobster so cannot confirm the quality but I bet it is good ;)

The lobster is excellent in the MDR the grill area. I had it every night that I was on my recent Rivera cruise. The only nights I did not have it was when we ate in the speciality restaurants.