Insurance

[austintravelers]

Has anybody had any experiences with Celebrity insurance?

 

We are unsure if we should use Celebrity or TA coverage.

 

Many thanks fro any input

[chessbriar]

If you have preexisting conditions go with the TA's coverage, just make sure it covers pre existing Conditions. X's does not

[TWOFERTWO]

Go to this site and check prices and coverages. Compare to what you have. :)

http://insuremytrip.com/

[Spender Nui]

Celebrity insurance won't over financial default by the cruise line. Go with http://insuremytrip.com/ and compare various policies.

[smeyer418]

As long as the ship leaves from the US and or you charge it on a credit card, financial default should not be a great concern. US law requires a bond for all cruises leaving from the US( see http://www.fmc.gov), and a credit card will charge back a cruise line default(just like they do with airlines). Also Celebrity is not in Financial problems. You can get more coverage through buying the insurance youself especially if you are buying your own air tickets. Look at at website mentioned above and compare. One final point as you age, the cruise line coverage becomes more competitive.---good luck

[CaribbeanBound]

This is a common, but important, topic. There are a number of items you should consider BEFORE buying insurance.

 

Check out my link...

How to Select Cruise Insurance / Travel Insurance

Great consumer tips to assist you in chosing the right insurance for your trip.

http://www.lavasurfer.com/info/useful-info.html

[new_cruiser]

Caribbean Bound, you might want to modify your item 14 to mention that A.M. Best ratings aren't static. For instance at the current time Travel Guard is showing up as A- rather than the A+ your page mentions. (It is also possible that in some cases the underwriter may be different for different states.) Travelex is the only one I'm seeing at A+ now.

 

Personally, I'm willing to go to an A- rating because sometimes when I've compared other differences outweighed the risk that an A- rated underwriter would default vs. an A+ underwriter.

 

I also don't particularly care whether the medical coverage is secondary or primary. I'm already paying for regular medical with a provider that does cover outside the US and I don't feel I need to buy that service twice, to avoid having to submit the bills to two insurers. Also, for people that don't have primary insurance outside the US, the secondary primary shouldn't matter. Secondary means that if you are covered by someone else, then that insurance is suppose to pay before the secondary insurer. If you don't have other coverage, then the secondary coverage pays.

 

The pre-existing condition waiver time period varies between insurers. I've seen between 7 and 14 days so someone who waits until 14 days is limiting their choices. Lately CSA is doing it differently. They allow the waiver up to the day after the final payment which is often much later.

[cruiseco]

Here's more on the AM Best ratings:

 

http://www.tripinsure.info/rating.htm

 

and on primary vs secondary coverage plans:

 

http://www.tripinsure.info/primary.htm

[smeyer418]

good info. The AM Best rating rates the financial ability to pay not the service level. Also some states where you live have security funds that guarantee payment even if the insurer can't(NY is one that is the reason many time the insurance companies have a sperate NY sub which the NY State insurance department oversees)

[Sky Sweet]

I like to buy Celebrity's Insurance for a few reasons. First of all, they give you the option of not having to buy it until you make your final payment. If you buy travel insurance upfront from a third party, and subsequently cancel your cruise before the penalty period begins, you have wasted money on insurance. Secondly, I am in my fifties and a good policy at my age costs more from other insurance companies than it does from Celebrity.

[cruiseco]

I like to buy Celebrity's Insurance for a few reasons. First of all, they give you the option of not having to buy it until you make your final payment. If you buy travel insurance upfront from a third party, and subsequently cancel your cruise before the penalty period begins, you have wasted money on insurance.

 

In many cases that's no longer true. CSA has plans that let you cancel your trip for any reason at any time and get your premium refunded. And with Global Alert if you cancel the policy before there's any penalties they'll refud your premium.

[new_cruiser]

I like to buy Celebrity's Insurance for a few reasons. First of all, they give you the option of not having to buy it until you make your final payment. If you buy travel insurance upfront from a third party, and subsequently cancel your cruise before the penalty period begins, you have wasted money on insurance. Secondly, I am in my fifties and a good policy at my age costs more from other insurance companies than it does from Celebrity.

You can wait to buy trip insurance from any company until the final payment. With most of them though you have to buy within a number of days of first payment to get the pre-existing conditions exclusion waived. I assume that is what you were referring to. When I bought travel insurance recently I found that CSA is now doing the pre-existing condition waiver based on final payment. You can wait up to some time (24 hours I think) after the final payment and still be covered for pre-existing. Personally, I would rather buy the insurance earlier and have more options to get the best coverage for me, but if you want to wait you don't have to be locked into the Celebrity coverage.

 

We didn't go with Celebrity because I couldn't get as solid information on their plan before I bought (the plan document to read and the underwriter rating). Those details can represent a much larger financial risk than the loss of the insurance premium if you cancel before final payment.

 

Also, we have found Travel Guard to be pretty flexible in its response to a cancelled cruise. We had insurance with them for an RSSC Diamond cruise this August. The Diamond got sold and the cruise was cancelled. Fortunately at that point we hadn't booked our air yet so we didn't have any costs due to the cancellation. When we heard the Diamond cruise was iffy, we booked a June Windstar Cruise as a back-up. Travel Guard transferred our insurance to that cruise. Because that was a slightly cheaper trip, they also sent us a credit for the difference in price. A cancellation may not even loose the benefit of your premium unless you think you will cancel your cruise and not do anything in replacement.

[CaribbeanBound]

New_Cruiser: good points. I will update my site. Thanks.