Trip Insurance Gotcha

[pyroguy]

My family and I were on the Splendor in July. My wife and 2 kids were booked in an empress balcony and my in-laws were booked down the hall in an Empress suite with our 4-year old sleeping on thier couch.

 

Unfortunately my mother-in-law was injured the week before the cruise and they ended up staying home.

 

They had purchased trip insurance.

 

Good...so we thought.

 

My wife had to switch rooms to the suite because our 4-year old needed to have an adult in the room (bummer, right?)

 

Well, when it came time to collect on the insurance, I feel like my in-laws got screwed.

 

The first refunded fare was the 3rd person rate...not the first.

 

The second person rate was the 4th person rate in our room (since my wife had to move).

 

There is absolutely nothing about this in the insurance contract. Carnival got thier full rate paid to them, but they wont authorize payment to the insurance holder due to thier "policy".

 

If my wife had been in the 3rd person in the suite, she wouldn't have had to move and that rate wouldn't be an issue.

 

Weird, but its a gotcha that ended up biting us.

 

FYI.

[mondello]

I don't even bother buying insurance. Its getting really hard to jump through hoops with my bad back. Thanks for the heads up and sorry this happened to you. I take it you bought Carnival insurance? Most PAX would tell you to purchase third-party insurance.

[coevan]

Third party insurance like insuremytrip.com are 14/2 the price with twice the coverage. We use Travel Guard with cancel for any reason. We always get insurance, yes it's a crap shoot but if something serious happened and you did not have emegency evac. You would be looking at a $20,000 + bill. I think that would be worth our $78 investment.

[Homosassa]

I don't see a problem with how the refunds were handle by the insurance. There were three people in the room. Two canceled. That would be the second and third person. (3-2=1 remaining)

 

The insurance covered three people, it was not specifically tied to a passenger being #1, #2, or #3.

[misguidedangel]

I feel for you and your situation. However, the way the insurance company sees it is way different.

 

First of all, you have five passengers and two cabins.

 

Two cancelled and that meant Cabin A with two full fare and 3rd/4th person rate was downgraded to cabin with two full fare and a 3rd person. Cabin B had now had two full fares and the 3rd person rate cancelled. Therefore, only a 3rd and 4th person fare cancelled. Technically to insurance and Carnival, they won in the end and your inlaws got screwed.

 

If you could have managed to squeeze all five if you into your cabin, then your inlaws would have gotten a better refund, but since the cabin you booked for four couldn't accommodate five, well, your inlaws got screwed....

 

Trip cancellation is good, but in this case, it wasn't that great of a deal as your inlaw got back perhaps 25% of what they paid......

 

Medical coverage is something that can't be considered a waste because if something happens.....

[camper49]

Third party insurance like insuremytrip.com are 14/2 the price with twice the coverage. We use Travel Guard with cancel for any reason. We always get insurance, yes it's a crap shoot but if something serious happened and you did not have emegency evac. You would be looking at a $20,000 + bill. I think that would be worth our $78 investment.

Do you have to purchase as soon as you book in order to get cancel for any reason??

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Which company was it from ???

[Ken076]

Do you have to purchase as soon as you book in order to get cancel for any reason??

 

Depending on which Company, you need to purchase 7-21 days after booking cruise - usually at 50% additional premium. ken

[martinchem]

We pay extra for insurance and now I have to wonder why?

[klmorg]

We pay extra for insurance and now I have to wonder why?

 

I don't even bother buying insurance. Its getting really hard to jump through hoops with my bad back. Thanks for the heads up and sorry this happened to you. I take it you bought Carnival insurance? Most PAX would tell you to purchase third-party insurance.

 

It sure came in handy when we(DH) had a medical emergency on board a few years ago & had to debark in Grand Cayman & air ambulance to Miami. We incurred alot of expenses associated with that, not just the medical. Total expenses were around $115,000. Trip insurance at the time was $41 PP (thru insuremytrip.com). Pretty good investment for us. Anytime you are leaving the country, trip insurance is a good idea. You never know what could happen. We don't buy it just for any cancellation coverage.

[Herfnerd]

We alwasy buy insurance - you just need to ejumicate yourself on what it covers.

[pyroguy]

Which company was it from ???

 

I'm not sure which company, but it was purchased when they booked.

 

The screwy thing is CCL got thier full fares, they just chose themselves which ones to report to the insurance company.

 

We really could not afford full suite fares, but to be fair I guess we need to reimburse my in laws now.

 

I was not aware that 3rd party insurance carriers were cheaper. Good to know.

 

We also got screwed on another front. My wife and I had paid (pre-cruise) $70 for a carnival "las caletas" excursion for us (4 in our room) as well as our 4-year old in my in-laws room. When we got on board to get the tickets, they would not let me have the one for our 4-year old since I was not my father in law.

 

They made us purchase another ticket with the promise we would be refunded after the cruise when CCL determined my FIL was a no-show.

 

Nope, we never got the refund. They know nothing about it. You can only talk to them so long on the phone before you start to feel like its not worth your time anymore. ...sigh...

 

Well the cruise was fun anyway, but dealing with "policies" of a behemoth like CCL gets tiring. Anyone wanna buy a cheap 100 shares of CCL?:mad:

[pyroguy]

We pay extra for insurance and now I have to wonder why?

 

Exactly. There is nothing about this situation that tells me we should be treated the way we have. It was bad enough they had to miss the cruise. There is NOTHING in the contract that says anything about the rates of reimbursement because the insurance company just pays what CCL TELLS them to reimburse.

 

Its CCL's policy to play the shell game like they did to keep a loyal customer from getting the full expected benefit of a product they bought on good faith.

[2wheelin]

Wondering what happens if one of two people in a cabin cancels with insurance (either through ccl or third party). Can the other still use the cabin at the rate they paid?

[coevan]

It sure came in handy when we(DH) had a medical emergency on board a few years ago & had to debark in Grand Cayman & air ambulance to Miami. We incurred alot of expenses associated with that, not just the medical. Total expenses were around $115,000. Trip insurance at the time was $41 PP (thru insuremytrip.com). Pretty good investment for us. Anytime you are leaving the country, trip insurance is a good idea. You never know what could happen. We don't buy it just for any cancellation coverage.

 

 

 

insuremytrip is not an insurance company. They list and compare several insurance companies. We used Travel guard, $78 for me and my wife 59 and 60. The CCL insurance is minimal and if you had chosen a 3rd party insurance company your Mom would have got all her money back as she is insured not the cruise. The insurance company asks you a total cash value of the trip. Cruise, airfare, and hotels are not broken down, they just want, age, length of trip, and total cash value.

[klmorg]

insuremytrip is not an insurance company. They list and compare several insurance companies. We used Travel guard, $78 for me and my wife 59 and 60. The CCL insurance is minimal and if you had chosen a 3rd party insurance company your Mom would have got all her money back as she is insured not the cruise. The insurance company asks you a total cash value of the trip. Cruise, airfare, and hotels are not broken down, they just want, age, length of trip, and total cash value.

 

:rolleyes: Since you quoted me... I said THRU insuremytrip.com. We used TravelSafe purchased THRU insuremytrip.

[Express Man]

Thats a real bad deal you have gotten. I'm just glad we didnt buy CCL insurance and bought 3rd party inc thru Travelex as per a post I saw Ken076 reply too. No less did we save over $100 compared to CCL we got about double the coverage and few extras.

[okwriter]

Next time, drag your injured MIL on board with you. :)

[pyroguy]

Next time, drag your injured MIL on board with you. :)

 

Yeah...broken pelvis on a ship. They would have loved dealing with that!

[Tapi]

Ouch. I wonder if you could've cancelled the suite completely (including your child), collected the insurance for the entire cabin, and in the meantime, made a new reservation for your child in a lower category cabin and added your wife to it.

 

The insurance companies may have their "loopholes" and "gotchas", but with a little creativity, you can throw your own "loopholes" at them. I know we did once before when I had to cancel our cruise in 2010...:D. I read their fine print until I got dizzy, but it paid off. We got a 100% refund!