Insurance and FCC

[Working 2 Cruise]

If I cancel my currently booked cruise after final payment, will the insurance cover the future cruise credits I earned on the short getaway cruise?

 

Since the deposit on my cruise is non-refundable and I'd rather go to Mexico, if I cancel the cruise, would I be able to book the Mexico cruise instead? I will have paid the insurance by then...

 

Thanks!

[Colo Cruiser]

If I cancel my currently booked cruise after final payment, will the insurance cover the future cruise credits I earned on the short getaway cruise?

 

Since the deposit on my cruise is non-refundable and I'd rather go to Mexico, if I cancel the cruise, would I be able to book the Mexico cruise instead? I will have paid the insurance by then...

 

Thanks!

 

Not sure I understand what you are asking, but you must sail to get credit for the cruise.

[Working 2 Cruise]

Colo, I cruised in January and received $600 in FCC. If I cancel my cruise, will the insurance cover the whole amount or just the money I actually paid?

[shepp]

If I cancel my currently booked cruise after final payment, will the insurance cover the future cruise credits I earned on the short getaway cruise?

 

Since the deposit on my cruise is non-refundable and I'd rather go to Mexico, if I cancel the cruise, would I be able to book the Mexico cruise instead? I will have paid the insurance by then...

 

Thanks!

 

If you're talking about FCCs you've purchased, my understanding is that even if you have Platinum cancel-for-any-reason Princess insurance, if you'd booked a sale fare with non-refundable deposits and canceled, you would lose the FCCs you used for the deposit no matter when you cancel. (And, of course, your insurance would have to be bought no later than final payment.) At least, that's what I was told months ago. Why not ask Princess instead of us, though?

 

On the other hand, if you're talking about the full-money-back promotions a while back, I have no idea. You didn't get a list of conditions?

 

EDIT: Just read your response. I have no idea what the deal was in the full money-back promotions. Generally, you can re-deposit FCCs once before final payment and re-use them. If indeed you are past final payment and have already paid for Princess Vacation Protection, I'd assume you'd get your whole fare back in cruise credits. I know that rules for extending the expiration of FCCs have changed fairly recently, so you should get up-to-date info.

Edited June 6, 2014 by shepp

[paul929207]

I do not believe the insurance will cover any insentives offered by the cruise line or a TA. It only covers your costs

[Working 2 Cruise]

Paul, thank you! I guess we'll stick with what we have!

[crackupforlaughs]

This doesn't answer the OPs question, but it is on the same topic, sort of.

 

How do you get $600 in FCC -- still figuring out how these work. Is that 6 $100 separate FCCs? We bought 3 FCCs on our last cruise -- one for each of us ($100 ea. toward a future cruise). Is there some other way it works?

 

On insurance, can you cancel it (Princess' Platinum) and get your insurance fee back if you cancel before final payment? Why would I want to? We have a very low rate on a short cruise and chances of us missing it are nil, and the amount of the insurance is almost equal to the cabin fare, so would rather just get it back and risk it.

[rdsqrl]

This doesn't answer the OPs question, but it is on the same topic, sort of.

 

How do you get $600 in FCC -- still figuring out how these work. Is that 6 $100 separate FCCs? We bought 3 FCCs on our last cruise -- one for each of us ($100 ea. toward a future cruise). Is there some other way it works?

The OP booked under a promotion Princess offered last year: sail on a selected short cruise and receive the value of the fare you paid back as a future cruise credit to be used on your next cruise.

 

On insurance, can you cancel it (Princess' Platinum) and get your insurance fee back if you cancel before final payment? Why would I want to? We have a very low rate on a short cruise and chances of us missing it are nil, and the amount of the insurance is almost equal to the cabin fare, so would rather just get it back and risk it.

Yes, I guess you can, but why would you? And how could the amount of the insurance be equal to the cabin fare when it's always a fixed percentage? That said, only you know if you can afford to take the full loss post-final payment if you have to cancel the cruise. I would never cruise without insurance, even on the short cruise I booked only six weeks in advance. I always think the chances of my missing a cruise are almost nil. Except . . . once I was ill and once I had a completely non-reschedule-able job interview. So, you know, there you are. Nil is a tough word to throw into the winds of fate.

[Loonbeam]

As a rule of thumb (check your specific policy to be sure) insurance does not cover any discounts applied to a cruise regardless of reason.

 

I assume the $600 in FCC was from the cruise free program where your fare was credited to a future cruise? If so, that would be considered the equivalent of a discount (again in most cases), since its not money you spent out of pocket for purposes of insurance. The most likely scenario is you would ask Princess to reapply that to a different cruise within the eligible time frame, if applicable.

[shepp]

On insurance, can you cancel it (Princess' Platinum) and get your insurance fee back if you cancel before final payment?

 

The real question is why anyone would pay for insurance before final payment, since it won't do any good whatever in any circumstance I can imagine until after final. Unless...and I'm contradicting myself here..."non-refundable" deposits under flash sale rules will indeed be made good on by PVP. In that case, insuring the $100 deposit might or might not make economic sense, depending on the cost of insuring the entire fare.

[Working 2 Cruise]

As a rule of thumb (check your specific policy to be sure) insurance does not cover any discounts applied to a cruise regardless of reason.

 

I assume the $600 in FCC was from the cruise free program where your fare was credited to a future cruise? If so, that would be considered the equivalent of a discount (again in most cases), since its not money you spent out of pocket for purposes of insurance. The most likely scenario is you would ask Princess to reapply that to a different cruise within the eligible time frame, if applicable.

 

Yes, that's exactly right! That means that I can possibly switch to that lovely 10 day cruise without having to forfeit my deposit (just the insurance). If we decide to go that route. So happy to have cancel for any reason insurance!

[bigenna]

I had phoned Princess about that same subject a month or so ago

and they told me to phone the actual insurance rep. We had $1199 each from a suite on one of the four day promos last fall. I was told that if I paid insurance based on a percentage of the full price of the cruise, BEFORE the $1199 was subtracted, then if I had to cancel it would be fully covered.

[Working 2 Cruise]

I had phoned Princess about that same subject a month or so ago

and they told me to phone the actual insurance rep. We had $1199 each from a suite on one of the four day promos last fall. I was told that if I paid insurance based on a percentage of the full price of the cruise, BEFORE the $1199 was subtracted, then if I had to cancel it would be fully covered.

 

Thank you for this information, it's very helpful. I'm pretty sure I'm paying the percentage of the full cruise price so it shouldn't be a problem. As for just getting the refund as a credit, that will work really well!

 

Thank you again!

[san diego sue]

When we recently had our freebe cruise credited to an already booked cruise at final payment, our insurance cost was drastically reduced (Princess' insurance). Don't know that it covers that part of the cruise.

I do know if you cancel a cruise with that credit on it, it gets moved to another one you have already booked for this year (happened to a friend).

[timetobook]

This just happened to me last week. 2 days before cruising.

Father in law was hospitalized (diagnosed with colon cancer 3 weeks ago).

I did have the platinum insurance...purchased about a week after I made the deposit with FCC's.

 

I was told by my TA and Princess, that I will have to include the $200.00 deposit in my insurance claim. I also need to have his doctor fill out information. I have to show he was diagnosed after I purchased the insurance. Otherwise, they will show it as a pre-existing condition, which isn't covered by the insurance.

My TA informs informed me that had I purchased the insurance when I booked and put the deposit down, it would have been covered.

 

The $550.00 in OBC is gone.

[crackupforlaughs]

The cruise I want to d/c the insurance on is a one-nighter repo that is $125 (cabin plus taxes/fees) and the insurance is $40. Given that it is a local one-nighter, I'd rather have the $40 back if I can. For longer trips and anything I have to fly to, I always get insurance, even on airfares.

[Coral]

The real question is why anyone would pay for insurance before final payment, since it won't do any good whatever in any circumstance I can imagine until after final. Unless...and I'm contradicting myself here..."non-refundable" deposits under flash sale rules will indeed be made good on by PVP. In that case, insuring the $100 deposit might or might not make economic sense, depending on the cost of insuring the entire fare.

 

The reason is pre-existing conditions. Many policies (not Princess) require payment within 14 or 21 days to cover pre-existing conditions. For example, if you have a heart condition and have a heart attack while on your trip, you want that covered, thus you pay for insurance when you book the trip.

 

My agent has a policy that covers pre-existing conditions when purchased at final payment but for many years, I did buy insurance early.

 

Also, Princess's policy for pre-existing conditions is very vague - it only covers if the condition doesn't change in the previous 60 days from payment of policy. So if someone is stable for the previous 60 days when they make a deposit, it is in their best interest to pay for insurance then as opposed to final payment (not just add it to the trip but pay for it). Even changes in medication can start that 60 day clock to start ticking again. This is why I don't recommend Princess's insurance policy for anyone with a pre-existing condition.

 

Personally, I don't have any but I traveled with someone who did and the last thing we would want is for insurance not to cover us when out of the country.

Edited June 6, 2014 by Coral

[bigenna]

Oh my gosh....

I thought I had it all straight when I spoke to Princess, and then the insurance company. Now I am finding it all confusing again.

My understanding by paying the insurance based on the cost BEFORE deducting the credit from last fall's promo that if I had to cancel everything would be covered. The insurance cost to me was far greater the way I did it than if I just paid on the small balance that was left after credit applied.

[Working 2 Cruise]

Oh my gosh....

I thought I had it all straight when I spoke to Princess, and then the insurance company. Now I am finding it all confusing again.

My understanding by paying the insurance based on the cost BEFORE deducting the credit from last fall's promo that if I had to cancel everything would be covered. The insurance cost to me was far greater the way I did it than if I just paid on the small balance that was left after credit applied.

 

I did check and the insurance amount was half of what it would have been had I paid for the cruise without the credit...