trip insurance

[abqmommyof4]

Forgive me if this has been addressed.

but it has always been my UNDERSTANDING that tip insurance does not cover acts of war or acts of God, ( i don't think of nasty weather an act of God) but I daresay that a earthquake wouuld qualify.

so wouldn't that make allthe complaints about princess a little silly?

Yes I think princess should do the right thing and give those that were incomvienenced because of the earthquake credit refunds or what ever based on what was paid and or lost. ( yes even if they had no insurance because this was s omething that couldn't be predicted .. as with weather thats predictable ..( or almost)

 

just my thoughts please don't tell me I don't understand things or i am reading it wrong i don't have the legal mumbo jumbo in front of me)

[cruisin36]

If they refunded everyone then why buy insurance?? Perhaps if they did then those that had insurance should get their premium refunded.

 

I don't understand why people do not buy travel insurance!!

[AFT_LOVER]

Since some folks like Access America want an airport closed for 24 hours to get a refund for missing the cruise. Airlines can cancel flights and an airport doesn't close, so you lose it all.

 

I lost plenty when I was injured with the gangway snapping my toes & tears my ligaments on the top of my foot from ankle to toes & 5 years later I am still limping. CSA did nothing when RCCL refused to give them accident report & medical info. As well as $1000 difference for a 2 week cruise in Concierge Class stateroom that all meals are served on a dining room table on the 200 sq ft balcony. But we didn;t have one or a waiter. Steward didn't work during 3 meals and times we wanted to eat 6AM, 12 PM, 6PM. We paid $700 for the insurance.

 

Berkley who cruiselines use also refuses ACT OF GOD: weather, waves, whatever.

 

Travel Guard is great with the policies we have bought as the cover it all. If a flight is cancelled call them & they book you on another one.

[cherylandtk]

It depends on the policy as to what it covers. Again, trip insurance covers specific named reasons, not all unforeseen events.

 

In general, most do not cover acts of war. In general, most third party policies DO cover acts of god/natural disasters. Except for Princess' I have not read enough of the cruiseline policies to say what they do or do not cover. For Princess, they do not list destination natural disasters as a covered reason, BUT they do have a cancel for any-reason provision. It's a trade off that covers everything, but as a cruise credit. People who purchased Princess insurance had the option to be 100% covered with a future cruise credit. IF that was not acceptable to them, they should have purchased another policy.

 

LBNL, put me down on the list of folks who always buy insurance. If Princess fully compensates people who do not, why should we bother to continue to buy it? They gambled, they lost. You see it in Vegas every day. I am not without sympathy for the people who are now out a lot of money and disappointed in not having a vacation, but they CHOSE to not have insurance. Perhaps they were misinformed as to what it covers, or why they needed it. But we are all adults here with adult responsibilities.

[Cruise Junky]

I started looking at trip cancellation only policies yesterday and out of the 6 or so that came up for me, three of them covered earthquake and volcano activity delays. You just have to read the details and not go with the cheapest.

[Northender]

We always buy the trip insurance thru the TA as soon as we book the trip.

 

I would rather have it and not use it, that not have it and need it.:)

[PescadoAmarillo]

We always buy the trip insurance thru the TA as soon as we book the trip.

 

I would rather have it and not use it, that not have it and need it.:)

And do you know that the insurance you bought would have covered this situation? Because I think a lot of people just count on "being covered", and as has been mentioned, it may not be the case.

 

We always buy insurance and we've never had a claim denied. But we've never run into anything quite like the Chile earthquake before either. I am tempted to think that flying Southwest (re-usable tickets) and buying Princess insurance (with it's cancel for any reason policy) may be best, but I know that their medical reimbursement and evacuation clauses are a bit weak compared to other companies.

 

It gets complicateder and complicateder...

[Northender]

Yes, it does get complicated. I really buy it more for the medi-vac insurance. I have seen three of them in the past 5 years.:o

 

Funny thing is I never actually read the policy exclusions. Must do that

soon:)

[RMLincoln]

After 10 or more cruises we have saved enough to put a big dent in the price lost if we ever have to miss a cruise.

 

What I bought, the one time I bought insurance, was through CSA and it only reimbursed the "cruise portion"price not any of the taxes, port charges, government fees etc. It skipped about one third of the price of our cruise tickets. I thought that was a bit of a "gimick" to save the money.

 

For medical evacuation coverage we now buy a Medical Emergency Assistance package underwritten by MEDEX for just over $100/yr for two of us, and it covers us no matter where go, or how we go, domestic or foreign travel, all year.

 

It works for us, but it may not be the answer to everyone.

[NancyIL]

What I bought, the one time I bought insurance, was through CSA and it only reimbursed the "cruise portion"price not any of the taxes, port charges, government fees etc. It skipped about one third of the price of our cruise tickets. I thought that was a bit of a "gimick" to save the money.

When my sister had to cancel a cruise less than a week before the ship sailed, the cruise line refunded the taxes she paid, and she filed a claim with the insurance company to be reimbursed for the rest of her cruise costs.

[RMLincoln]

I'm glad to hear that they did that and I hope she got the rest of her costs reimbursed. :)

[NancyIL]

I'm glad to hear that they did that and I hope she got the rest of her costs reimbursed. :)

 

Yes, she did. My point was that the cruise line should've refunded your cruise taxes, rather than the insurance company.

[MoneyGuy]

I don't understand why people do not buy travel insurance!!

 

Because it's not a good investment. I'm a financial planner and I sell insurance as part of my business. I've never bought trip-cancellation insurance. If you took 1,000 people taking one major trip a year for 20 years, the amount that was paid out in benefits would probably be about two-thirds of all that was paid in. (This is just a guess, but it's probably close.) I believe in insuring against catastrophic events but I self-insure all else.

 

Forget 1,000 people. I believe that over my lifetime I'll be saving a lot by not buying this insurance and I'd probably never collect anyway. Or, I might have had to collect once or twice but my savings will far outweigh the insurance premiums.

 

I'll take my chances and there is a 90% chance I'll profit.

 

I'll always buy health insurance. That's essential.

[Cruise Junky]

Because it's not a good investment.

 

I do think your chances of having to claim go up depending on where you're travelling. We have medical insurance and I sometimes don't bother to get trip cancellation. But if I was sailing to South America, you bet I'd have insurance. So yeah, it's probably on the whole not a good investment, you play those odds and sometimes you lose.

[steponboard]

 

I don't understand why people do not buy travel insurance!!

Because it doesn't make sense. Let's say I cruise 3-4 times a year. cruise insurance would run around $1200 per year. The chance of my loosing that much is slim especially when i take 4 or 5 cruises in a year. I do believe in taking a medical evac insurance which is cheap and saves $100,000 if you need a helicopter evac but who cares about loosing a thousand dollars when it costs you that much to buy insurance.

[Buddy604]

Because it doesn't make sense. Let's say I cruise 3-4 times a year. cruise insurance would run around $1200 per year. The chance of my loosing that much is slim especially when i take 4 or 5 cruises in a year. I do believe in taking a medical evac insurance which is cheap and saves $100,000 if you need a helicopter evac but who cares about loosing a thousand dollars when it costs you that much to buy insurance.

You know you can buy a good annual medical/cancellation/trip interruption policy for about $200 a year? I usually take 3 to 5 cruises a year (7 one year!), and the policy gives me $1 million in medical and evacuation, $2000 in before trip cancellation and $25,000 in trip interruption.

 

I never used to buy cancellation insurance, but after hearing some of the trip interruption stories, decided it was a small price to pay for some extra peace of mind.

[cherylandtk]

You know you can buy a good annual medical/cancellation/trip interruption policy for about $200 a year? I usually take 3 to 5 cruises a year (7 one year!), and the policy gives me $1 million in medical and evacuation, $2000 in before trip cancellation and $25,000 in trip interruption.

 

I never used to buy cancellation insurance, but after hearing some of the trip interruption stories, decided it was a small price to pay for some extra peace of mind.

Would you mind sharing which company you selected, and if there was anything particular about what their coverage included? (I will presume you found it a good value, I was more interested in whether there was a specific clause you wanted; much as people today are looking at natural disaster coverage.) Thanks

[Buddy604]

Would you mind sharing which company you selected, and if there was anything particular about what their coverage included? (I will presume you found it a good value, I was more interested in whether there was a specific clause you wanted; much as people today are looking at natural disaster coverage.) Thanks

I use TravelGold. I reviewed the policy, which contains an amazing number of covered reasons (sickness, jury duty, school exam schedule changes, cancellation of meeting, wedding, sporting event at destination, etc) and has a fairly extensive trip interruption section which includes:

In the event of the delay or cancellation of a scheduled common

carrier due to weather conditions, earthquakes or volcanic eruptions,

mechanical failure of the common carrier, a traffic accident, or an

emergency police-directed road closure which causes you to miss a

connection at any point during your trip or results in the interruption of

your travel arrangements, you will be reimbursed for:

a) your non-refundable unused prepaid airfare and/or other prepaid

travel arrangement costs excluding the cost of prepaid unused

transportation back to your departure point; or,

b) reasonable catch-up costs to rejoin a tour or a one-way economy

airfare to your next destination; or,

c) the change fee; or,

d) the cost of a one-way economy airfare to the original contracted

point of departure to return earlier or later than the contracted

return date.

[jeanrtco]

buddy604, that sounds like a great deal - I am going to check it out!

 

thanks for the info.

 

jean

[Buddy604]

buddy604, that sounds like a great deal - I am going to check it out!

 

thanks for the info.

 

jean

I purchase it through my local AAA/CAA affiliate. It also has a nice cruise interruption clause that gives you up to $350 a day for lodging, food, etc, if you get bumped off a cruise because you or a traveling companion are unfit to travel, and have to wait for transport home.

[broberts]

Because it's not a good investment. I'm a financial planner and I sell insurance as part of my business. I've never bought trip-cancellation insurance. If you took 1,000 people taking one major trip a year for 20 years, the amount that was paid out in benefits would probably be about two-thirds of all that was paid in. (This is just a guess, but it's probably close.) I believe in insuring against catastrophic events but I self-insure all else.

. . .

 

I can understand your reasoning for not buying trip cancellation, but what about trip interruption? It seems to me that then it's not only a question of the likelihood of a claim but also the cost should that likelihood arise. For some self-insurance is simply not fiscally possible or prudent.

[msmayor]

Because it doesn't make sense. Let's say I cruise 3-4 times a year. cruise insurance would run around $1200 per year. The chance of my loosing that much is slim especially when i take 4 or 5 cruises in a year. I do believe in taking a medical evac insurance which is cheap and saves $100,000 if you need a helicopter evac but who cares about loosing a thousand dollars when it costs you that much to buy insurance.

 

Actually, I care a lot about losing $1,000 and for my family it doesn't cost nearly that much, simply because we don't cruise that often. If we traveled more extensively we might investigate an annual policy, but we still would not risk the loss of big non-refundable vacation dollars.

 

To insure my family's cruise this summer...which for the four of us costs almost $4,000 and is non-refundable if something happens deep into the penalty phase...is $114.

 

If I end up not using the insurance at all, then it is true that I've 'lost' the $114. But that's a much softer hit to my pocketbook than $4,000.

[lauriedun]

Actually, I care a lot about losing $1,000 and for my family it doesn't cost nearly that much, simply because we don't cruise that often. If we traveled more extensively we might investigate an annual policy, but we still would not risk the loss of big non-refundable vacation dollars.

 

To insure my family's cruise this summer...which for the four of us costs almost $4,000 and is non-refundable if something happens deep into the penalty phase...is $114.

 

If I end up not using the insurance at all, then it is true that I've 'lost' the $114. But that's a much softer hit to my pocketbook than $4,000.

 

Can you tell me what company you used? Was that trip cancellation only or did it cover medical for all 4 of you?