New survey from HAL

[Ky Colonel]

... received ours earlier today & responded immediately - for price and coverage reasons, we have always purchased Allianz travel insurance ... we have never needed to make a claim, so I have no experience with this aspect of travel insurance ...

[Hlitner]

We spent a lifetime in the Health Insurance field and still do not like any of the major cruise line policies. IMHO, unless you are getting over $100,000 (we prefer $250,000) then you are at substantial risk. The trip cancellation coverage is a known amount but medical expense liability is essentially unlimited. There are some decent annual policies that cover multiple trips for far less cost then the cruise line policies. We elect to buy good medical insurance ( only $350 a year per couple) and self-insure the cancellation policy. Our medical policy covers the first 70 days of any trip for an entire year.

 

Hank

 

 

 

 

 

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[iancal]

Hank...this is EXACTLY what a TA told us a number of years ago. We did a fair amount of business and leisure travel with her agency.

 

She did not want to sell us cruise line insurance, the insurance that her agency sold, and recommended against the bank travel insurance (in Canada) as being far more expensive w/ less coverage than other travel policies on the market at that time.

 

Her advice has held true every time we have shopped for travel medical insurance or trip insurance since that time.

[janmcn]

Yes, we got their survey. We always buy their Platinum Plan. When comparing costs it's important to us to have Cancel For Any Reason insurance (if you check how you can cancel with various plans they are quite limited.) AND…we always buy separate travel health insurance (depending on where we are going.) An annual membership with Medjet Assist is always there to bring us back from wherever we are should we need medical care beyond what is available "locally." That works whenever we are >150 miles from home. Nowadays, self-insuring will never cover the costs of medical care/transport etc., so we choose to be prepared…just part of the cost of travel IMO. (PS…we've used their insurance, too…and within a week all was taken care of.)

[cruz chic]

Hank...this is EXACTLY what a TA told us a number of years ago. We did a fair amount of business and leisure travel with her agency.

 

She did not want to sell us cruise line insurance, the insurance that her agency sold, and recommended against the bank travel insurance (in Canada) as being far more expensive w/ less coverage than other travel policies on the market at that time.

 

Her advice has held true every time we have shopped for travel medical insurance or trip insurance since that time.

I've googled cancel for any reason insurance in Canada. When I've gone into the links I've gotten nothing but errors. Since You have done extensive research can you suggest a company That provides this insurance?

[iancal]

We never buy cancel for any reason insurance-and have never shopped for it.

 

The only reason we would cancel would be medical. We never book very far in advance- two/three months at the most..

 

Our TA was referring only to trip cancellation (for emergency/medical reasons) and out of country medical. Most of the time we do not even bother with trip cancellation though we should start. We have probably saved thousands to date so the probability of a cancellation event occurring is probably increasing for us.

 

Two years we found a great annual policy and amended it to include 7 months of continuous travel outside the country. What we liked was that we were able to reduce the premium significantly by increasing the deductible to $5K. We are not concerned about a $5 or $10K bill, it is the medevac and the longer term hospitals stays-especially in the US- that we want to insure against. That premium was just under $800. for both of us-over 60/under 65.

Edited December 13, 2014 by iancal

[cruz chic]

We never buy cancel for any reason insurance-and have never shopped for it.

 

The only reason we would cancel would be medical. We never book very far in advance- two/three months at the most..

 

Our TA was referring only to trip cancellation (for emergency/medical reasons) and out of country medical. Most of the time we do not even bother with trip cancellation though we should start. We have probably saved thousands to date so the probability of a cancellation event occurring is probably increasing for us.

 

Two years we found a great annual policy and amended it to include 7 months of continuous travel outside the country. What we liked was that we were able to reduce the premium significantly by increasing the deductible to $5K. We are not concerned about a $5 or $10K bill, it is the medevac and the longer term hospitals stays-especially in the US- that we want to insure against. That premium was just under $800. for both of us-over 60/under 65.

Thx for the info. I think your ta is being a bit dismissive with cruise line policies. That's my concern. Do the long term policies cover preexisting conditions? When I've looked they don't. That said, I have not done extensive research.

[iancal]

Don't know about that. I do not have any pre existings, DW had a very slight issue. The company that we used was in Travel Underwriters in Richmond, BC. They have a web site. Very good to deal with.

[cruz chic]

Thx.

[crystalspin]

@s7s

 

Got the survey -- have never bought their cancellation insurance (three HAL cruises, one we returned from less than a week ago). Actually I thought the HAL message was a repeat for the post-cruise survey and had to get it out of my Trash Folder after I saw this thread.

 

Thought your point/message was very pertinent and helpful.