What is a good cruise travel insurance company?

[silverwillow]

Hi all. I have travel insurance on my credit card but my good friend is leaving on a cruise in April on the Solstice. I am helping her with her planning and itinerary and she needs to get travel insurance. What is a good cruise travel insurance company?

 

Should she buy a multi trip as she has another cruise to Indonesia in December?

 

Or would it be better to buy a one trip policy?

 

Thanks in advance.

[lyndarra]

Some credit card companies have travel insurance if you pay for your trip (or a percentage of) with their card. Their website should have a policy document.

We use NAB Visa platinum but haven't had a claim as yet. We travel several times a year so its quite convenient.

I think it was recently mentioned somewhere else on thism forum that PROBUS provide travel insurance.

[Aus Traveller]

If your friend doesn't have a credit card, or hasn't paid some of the cost of the trip on the card, I suggest she should look at Travel Insurance Direct. We buy their annual policy because we travel a few (or more) times a year.:)

[The_Big_M]

It depends how many days in total will be travelled, and destinations. From what you've described though, I'd say it's still likely that two individual trip policies will work out cheaper, especially as both trips are in the Asia Pacific region.

 

I did some price comparisons before and with travel under a month in total, an annual policy would be more expensive.

[silverwillow]

Thanks so much I'll go and check them out and do a costing for her. The Solstice cruise is going to Hawaii. :)

[joyfulone]

We always use Travel Insurance Direct.

Be mindful of credit card insurance, it only covers you for the international part of your trip, if you have domestic travel/flights maybe to get to your departure port....you will not be covered for that part of your trip. Check the small print.

 

 

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[rkmw]

We always use Travel Insurance Direct.

Be mindful of credit card insurance, it only covers you for the international part of your trip, if you have domestic travel/flights maybe to get to your departure port....you will not be covered for that part of your trip. Check the small print.

 

 

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if booked with Aus Post you are covered once you leave your front door for any sort of travel as long as you are 250 ks from home

[Cabansail]

I have used TID too and they were good. On advice from the travel agent I have used for over 20 years I have switched to Covermore Insurance. When I go the quote for the cruise it was about half of the annual policy, so took that. I have so far recouped almost half the premium.

 

Hired two cars during the cruise and one since, so saved the excess insurance payments. Then had to see the doctor on board and it would have been over AU$250 but that was reduced to the AU$100 excess. The claim process was very easy online.

 

A couple of years ago I had a Covermore policy while away in Thailand. Got very ill and almost died of pneumonia. The medical helpline was excellent help and my hospital stay was covered for the US$5000 fee and then an upgrade to Business Class for the return flight.

[Dizziedi]

If your friend doesn't have a credit card, or hasn't paid some of the cost of the trip on the card, I suggest she should look at Travel Insurance Direct. We buy their annual policy because we travel a few (or more) times a year.:)

 

Hi Aus Traveller, we too always bought the TID Annual Policy but this year we have changed. Two reasons, one being their price went up and more importantly, I don't recall ever before noting that "each" trip could be of a length of no more than 60 days. We have therefore changed to 1 Cover which was marginally cheaper but importantly, it allows 90 days which this year in particular, we need.

 

Cheers

Di

[cruisine21]

Hi Aus Traveller, we too always bought the TID Annual Policy but this year we have changed. Two reasons, one being their price went up and more importantly, I don't recall ever before noting that "each" trip could be of a length of no more than 60 days. We have therefore changed to 1 Cover which was marginally cheaper but importantly, it allows 90 days which this year in particular, we need.

 

Cheers

Di

 

Just had a look at 1Cover annual policy. Unfortunately we can't get it because my husband is 65. I rang Covermore for 5 nights in Cairns + a 10 night Papua & New Guinea and Solomon Island cruise and the quote was $442. One of the medical conditions I've just been diagnosed was extra. It looks like TID don't cover for medical conditions that aren't listed. Insure & Go were $178.

Edited March 8, 2016 by cruisine21

[Swissmiss6253]

I booked some airfares a little while ago to visit Adelaide as my mother was ill. I was travelling down around two weeks every month. My mother had just entered palliative care and was expected to live for several months. I had airfares booked for the 15th to the 27th. She died very quickly and I changed my flights to the 9th to the 25th. The previous flights had been booked some time ago but the replacement ones were booked the day before. I had insured through QBE and put in a claim for the difference in prices. I got a letter back tonight saying as my mother had a pre-existing condition my claim was disallowed. Probably my fault but I had assumed the pre-existing condition rule related only to travellers. Anyhow, QBE are off my list now for insurers. I am using Insure&Go for the next cruise.

[Hard-habit-to-break]

For anyone looking at Annual Insurance make sure you are completely covered. We are looking at annual insurance for a 6 night domestic cruise, 2 week driving trip around Tasmania and 3-4 weeks in the US including a B2B on Allure. Insure&Go have advised that we would not be covered for the 2 weeks in Tasmania.

 

All trips are at different times so it isn't like the driving holiday follows straight after the cruise, there is about 4 weeks between them and the US trip is next year. I was told I could take annual insurance out but would need to take out a seperate policy for Tasmania. No one could tell me why.

 

Just make sure you are covered for all varieties of trips before booking. We are now looking at someone different.

[Bagwhan]

Hi Hard Habit,

Isn't most travel insurance quotes broken into either domestic packages and international packages for the obvious reason that as an Australian Resident no need to cover you medically etc when travelling at home. Further when booking an annual international travel coverage I assume that you would pay the premium of the maximum cost risk place that you are likely to visit in that year (usually health related when OS) such as the US. Do you really want your annual health package to cover to that level or be able to differentiate those trips such as domestic or lesser med cost countries? However this is only guess on my part.

[Gnomey]

I have just been full circle with Insure & Go. Their web site is straight forward, advice was good and policy was a good price too. Due to my own stupidity I had to visit the Doctor on board ship with a nasty cut which needed removal of coral and stitches. Several trips later and the bill was over $700. Like most people I didn't read the "fine print" and medical costs of over $500 had to be cleared by ringing the help line before treatment. This was two lines about halfway through the policy booklet. We though Oh bugger, but the claim was hassle free and paid in full, minus the excess.

Most of us hope to not make a claim, but it is nice to know that good service continues past the initial sales point.

 

Steve.

[Pushka]

You really cant always call up from a ship without the huge bill! I guess common sense prevails. And with a cut you really wouldn't expect a $700 bill!

[kent05]

I had an experience where I had to cancel a trip 3 days from departure owing to unforeseen illness. Insure and Go covered us fully. Nothing but praise for them.

Only problem I had was caused booking airfares through Expedia. They weren't so helpful.

[Meamat]

I've had virgin travel insurance and one cover before for non-cruise travel, both were great with claims (one cover was particularly excellent). I've booked our cruise cover with virgin, it was significantly less than the travel agent option, and they have a special add on for cruising with unlimited medical and evacuation cover. It was around $155 for a family of 4 for an 8 night cruise, $25 more to waive the $150 excess.

[wishfulone]

Hi Silverwillow.

The age of your friend is important I think and whether they have any pre existing medical conditions. We do a few trips a year and use a whole of year, whole world policy purchased through our general insurer. It's underwritten by Covermore and works very well for us. The premium is based on the countries you'll be visiting, max duration of any one trip (45 or 60 days are the most common) and any medical conditions. You can add on different things or increase the amount of cover for items such as car hire.

Seems your part of Australia has been on fire all year. Stay safe.

[kiwipete]

100% satisfaction with the service we received from the free BNZ Platinum Visa insurance (Cigna Insurance) on two recent claims. We are overage and had paid the excess premium for overage persons.

We were less than halfway through a cruise and were medically disembarked. Resulting from this problem we had to cancel our next cruise which was to have happened 7 weeks later.

Having made sure we had all the required paperwork, receipts doctors reports etc, in place we made two claims claims. One for the uncompleted cruise and the other for the cancelled cruise.

Full payout, less excess, on both, in a very short period of time, paid directly in to our bank account.

As I said, 100% satisfaction.

Thank you Cigna.

[cdwh1902]

We always use Travel Insurance Direct.

Be mindful of credit card insurance, it only covers you for the international part of your trip, if you have domestic travel/flights maybe to get to your departure port....you will not be covered for that part of your trip. Check the small print.

 

 

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We have an ANZ Platinum Credit Card which DOES cover you for any Domestic flights to your international departure point (up to 48 hours). For international trips we have always used this insurance, as long as you as you abide by the rules eg pay $250 for the trip using the card. I have only had 1 claim on a cruise coming into Hong Kong whereby I needed 3 days of IV antibiotic infusions twice a day. No problems with claims.

 

On domestic cruises I use Insure & Go - excellent value and I always receive 10% discount for being a repeat customer.

[gogo65]

On land based trips I tend to use my CC insurance, however after reading the PDF, it states you are covered for plane, train, car and FERRY!!

I called and asked to confirm passage on a ship, they couldn't help, I didn't want to risk it, as our upcoming two trips are cruising one to Antarctica and one to the Panama Canal, I elected to use insure and go, who we have used before (for my husband) due to their specific cruise insurance.

I have previously had TID annual policy (prior to my cc policy) however there premiums have increased and are now at least 30% more expensive than insure and go and southern cross(who we have also used and had excellent service when hubby ruptured his calf muscle skiing in Austria last year).

I read all the PDFs thoroughly and first decide if my CC insurance will cover me if not then pick the best out of the online companies.

[Tara Jane]

I had the same concern and phoned the cc travel insurance section CBA diamond credit card. I asked them where on the pdf does it state i will be covered for a cruise particularly evacuation. The answer was that I am covered and because it was not an exclusion then it is covered.

Didn't feel particularly happy as I always like proof in writing.

I have previously had a claim on southern cross for having to cancel a european trip, not a cruise due to a cancer diagnosis. They claimed it was pre existing and I had a major battle but thanks to my wonderful GP I won the battle.

[cargo13]

We frequently cruise with friends from Australia. These friends bought travel insurance via Generali.

 

You have to buy from an Australian provider so not sure if these recommendations would hold for you:

http://travel-insurance-review.toptenreviews.com/

[Bagwhan]

Choice (Australia) did a travel insurance review in 26 Oct 2015 (this link may not be accessible to non-Choice members. Choice recommended buys were Apia ~ Comprehensive (Score 71 & $$); Good to Go ~ The Works (Score 71 & $$); Insure & Go~Gold (Score 67 & $); and Southern Cross Travel Insurance ~ TravelCare (Score 64 & $) from about 35 different policies (rated from scores 75 - $$$$ to 52 - $ where $ = relative cost). Note that these were not specifically rated for their cruise policy conditions or packages.

 

While I am new to cruising I have travelled many times across the world for work & leisure, 9 times out of 10 I have always gone with travel insurance with DEFENCEHEALTH (underwritten by Allianz). Indeed for my upcoming (and first) cruise I originally went with Defence Health and their Cruise Policy option. However cancelled that when I was able to get a special 20% discount (from another card membership) on an Insure & Go ~ Gold Cruise pack policy (very similar to the Defence Health offer) at significant savings to Defence Health. Without this one off savings, standard Defence Health Travel Insurance is cheaper than Insure and Go, however it may not be accessible to non-Defence Health policy members.

 

Many CC members Health Insurance policies would give them access to similarly competitive Travel Insurance providers. While I have been very fortunate to never having to made a claim, Both Defence Health & Insure & Go appear to be quite responsive and 'fair' to their policy claimants. A Related Choice article on Travel Insurance (The Cheat Sheet 19 Aug 14) also provided information on the Aust FOS 2013 report of disputed claims process and out comes (attached pdf) which would show that (at least in FY13-14) Allianz would appear to be the best at responding to claims (if I am reading the table correctly).

 

Further while I normally pay all my travel costs onto the one Platinum Credit Card for both FF points and insurance purposes, I would never ever consider travelling with simply my Credit card insurance benefit. To me there are way too many avenues for the underwriter to get out of a claim if they want to, so the Credit Card insurance provides me no peace of mind except as back up or for their OS Emergency Travel advice services etc. Choice has also recently done a review on Credit Card benefit travel insurance on 24 Nov 2015.

 

For travel insurance there are many individual factors (age, health, destination activities etc etc) that will impact on both your premiums and or insurability, so the above advice is offered with that caveat. What suits me may not suit you. I became a CC member to understand and get the best info on cruising from cruise consumers, similarly you may have guessed that I am a great supporter of 'Choice' and highly recommend them for Australian consumers and advocates. I don't think I have broken any CC rules by this recommendation as Choice is not in the game of cruising or travel, TA or tourism game at all. I hope that this info helps other CC members.

Aust FOS Disputed Travel Insurance Claims FY13-14 (source Choice On-Line).pdf