What I learned about trip insurance

[ARandomTraveler]

1 hour ago, Joebucks said:

I think the biggest takeaway here is that insurance isn't a plan that grants all of your wishes when you have a problem. There are terms and fine prints.

 

Remember, for CFAR, you generally only get back 50-75% The real number of what you would get back would surprise many people becaus the cruise line would refund you your taxes and port fees anyway. CFAR is largely a waste. Protection against a medical condition, especially with a pre-existing condition, is something of value.

I disagree. CFAR is good for other reasons. You never know what might come up in your own life that has nothing to do with covered weather or medical reasons. You may have a wedding to attend that you don’t want to miss, or a hurricane may have rolled through and damaged ports but the cruise ISN’T cancelled, but you no longer want to go. CFAR is the only way you can back out and get airline costs and cruise fare back. 75% of $5,000 or $10,000 is a lot of money.

[Balsam12]

7 hours ago, ARandomTraveler said:

I disagree. CFAR is good for other reasons. You never know what might come up in your own life that has nothing to do with covered weather or medical reasons. You may have a wedding to attend that you don’t want to miss, or a hurricane may have rolled through and damaged ports but the cruise ISN’T cancelled, but you no longer want to go. CFAR is the only way you can back out and get airline costs and cruise fare back. 75% of $5,000 or $10,000 is a lot of money.

It sounds to me like the cover for pre-existing conditions would be the worthwhile one to get when you have only paid your deposit (if that's the only way you can get it).

As for the CFAR, based on what I read in this thread, I still wouldn't bother until final payment, as the cost of the insurance is likely to be more than your deposit.

 

[sparks1093]

15 hours ago, Joebucks said:

I think the biggest takeaway here is that insurance isn't a plan that grants all of your wishes when you have a problem. There are terms and fine prints.

 

Remember, for CFAR, you generally only get back 50-75% The real number of what you would get back would surprise many people becaus the cruise line would refund you your taxes and port fees anyway. CFAR is largely a waste. Protection against a medical condition, especially with a pre-existing condition, is something of value.

Exactly, we can never be insured for everything life throws at us. I was reading a story where a bad guy holed up in a person's house and the police virtually destroyed the house in the process of getting him out. The insurance company only paid a small part of the claim because damage caused by police isn't a covered event (I suspect what was paid out was damage to personal belongings). The person sued the police department and the court's ruled that the police were acting fully within the scope of their duties and did not owe anything (this is the ruling through the first appeal). A neighbor's house was also damaged and their insurance company paid zero. So, life can always throw us a curve ball that isn't covered by insurance.

[Roger88]

We lived in Russia for some time and my wife decided to use services by some local tourist agency.  When were filling up the forms we were asked to purchase an insurance cause it was mandatory for the tour purchase. When I read through it I found that it basically covered only incidents that required our transportation back to the US in case of war or some other catastrophes.. and it was not refundable at all 

[Joebucks]

15 hours ago, ARandomTraveler said:

I disagree. CFAR is good for other reasons. You never know what might come up in your own life that has nothing to do with covered weather or medical reasons. You may have a wedding to attend that you don’t want to miss, or a hurricane may have rolled through and damaged ports but the cruise ISN’T cancelled, but you no longer want to go. CFAR is the only way you can back out and get airline costs and cruise fare back. 75% of $5,000 or $10,000 is a lot of money.

 

Depends on many factors. I could tell you that if I bought CFAR on every trip I've ever went on, I have never used it once, and would be out of thousands. Even if I did use it once, I would still be behind.

 

A cruise is a sunk cost. Your financial situation wouldn't change whether you took the cruise or not. Paying thousands more to maybe one day get a partial refund back makes no sense. No financial expert would tell you it's a good deal in general. Maybe if certain risk factors are higher.

[AshleyDillo]

7 hours ago, Joebucks said:

A cruise is a sunk cost. Your financial situation wouldn't change whether you took the cruise or not. Paying thousands more to maybe one day get a partial refund back makes no sense. No financial expert would tell you it's a good deal in general.

 

This ^^^  You need to insure against what could financially destroy you which is more likely to be a medical incident or medical evacuation while out of the country.

 

On 2/23/2020 at 12:44 PM, sparks1093 said:

I would expect someone selling the insurance would know.

And I would expect to call someone at RCL and get a correct answer about anything related to their cruises, but we all know that's not likely to happen 😂😂😂

 

[Marilyn Johannes]

On 2/21/2020 at 8:57 AM, FLConnie said:

NCL cancelled our Asia cruise that was scheduled for April and we got 100% of trip refunded from NCL and 100% of the trip insurance that was booked separately through Allianz. Our TA thought we may have to put the travel insurance toward another trip, but we didn’t. 

Update on Travel Guard insurance. Our Spectrum Shanghai to Shanghai on March 21 was canceled last Wednesday. Royal will give a full refund on cruise, air and even the $65 I paid to downline (leave the ship early in Tokyo instead of Shanghai). All tour companies refunded monies as well as hotels. I contacted Travel Guard and asked for a refund because at this point there is nothing to insure and it wasn’t my choice to cancel. They said I could have credit to be used within 2 years. So I’d suggest you check other insurance carriers and see what their policy is for something like this. We have purchased travel insurance through Travel Guard for the last 10 years and luckily never had to use it. In the future I’ll probably reach out to another company like Allianz. 

[sparks1093]

8 hours ago, Marilyn Johannes said:

Update on Travel Guard insurance. Our Spectrum Shanghai to Shanghai on March 21 was canceled last Wednesday. Royal will give a full refund on cruise, air and even the $65 I paid to downline (leave the ship early in Tokyo instead of Shanghai). All tour companies refunded monies as well as hotels. I contacted Travel Guard and asked for a refund because at this point there is nothing to insure and it wasn’t my choice to cancel. They said I could have credit to be used within 2 years. So I’d suggest you check other insurance carriers and see what their policy is for something like this. We have purchased travel insurance through Travel Guard for the last 10 years and luckily never had to use it. In the future I’ll probably reach out to another company like Allianz. 

I suspect that most, if not all, will have a similar policy in place. You had insurance and were covered inside the final payment period for potential loses. That your cruise ended up being cancelled does not change that.

[sparks1093]

15 hours ago, AshleyDillo said:

 

This ^^^  You need to insure against what could financially destroy you which is more likely to be a medical incident or medical evacuation while out of the country.

 

And I would expect to call someone at RCL and get a correct answer about anything related to their cruises, but we all know that's not likely to happen 😂😂😂

 

There are many different ways of looking at it. Yes, the money for the trip has been spent and you are no worse off financially if you don't go. But the way that I look at it is if I insure the trip cost then I will receive that money back to either take another vacation to help recover from whatever caused me to cancel the first one or it will give me money to help deal with whatever caused me to cancel. I would agree that "paying thousands" more would be intolerable but I don't pay that much for insurance. Buying a comprehensive plan costs me about $25 more per person than buying a medical/medevac plan, typically against a cruise cost of around $2000-2500. 

 

And as funny as your response is folks who sell insurance need to be licensed in many localities and they can lose those licenses for misleading their customers. I think the folks at Royal who do that get promoted.😂

[AshleyDillo]

On 2/25/2020 at 6:54 AM, sparks1093 said:

And as funny as your response is folks who sell insurance need to be licensed in many localities and they can lose those licenses for misleading their customers

 

Intentionally misleading yes, but most of them truly don't understand enough about the products that they are selling to do it intentionally.   😂

 

You don't even need to have a license in the majority of the states to sell travel insurance policies which is why you will see travel agents offering them.  

 

 

[ARandomTraveler]

Here’s an article I just read on Huffington Post about travel insurance and the Coronavirus. 

 

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/canceling-trip-coronavirus-travelers-insurance_l_5e553f25c5b65e0f11c750f3

[sparks1093]

4 hours ago, ARandomTraveler said:

Here’s an article I just read on Huffington Post about travel insurance and the Coronavirus. 

 

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/canceling-trip-coronavirus-travelers-insurance_l_5e553f25c5b65e0f11c750f3

Nothing new, really. I still wouldn't consider a Cancel For Any Reason policy because I'm not cancelling a scheduled trip because of these types of concerns.

[SRF]

On 2/25/2020 at 6:54 AM, sparks1093 said:

There are many different ways of looking at it. Yes, the money for the trip has been spent and you are no worse off financially if you don't go. But the way that I look at it is if I insure the trip cost then I will receive that money back to either take another vacation to help recover from whatever caused me to cancel the first one or it will give me money to help deal with whatever caused me to cancel. I would agree that "paying thousands" more would be intolerable but I don't pay that much for insurance. Buying a comprehensive plan costs me about $25 more per person than buying a medical/medevac plan, typically against a cruise cost of around $2000-2500. 

 

And as funny as your response is folks who sell insurance need to be licensed in many localities and they can lose those licenses for misleading their customers. I think the folks at Royal who do that get promoted.😂

 

My last cruise the difference between insuring $0 trip cost (med/medevac) and covering the entire cruise fare was $500 per person.  So for a $5000 cruise fare, if I make 10 cruises without cancelling, I am at least even.  More cruises without cancelling, and I am ahead.

 

Coverage of the cruise fare is VERY age dependent.  If you are young, it can be cheap, if older, not so cheap.

[sparks1093]

46 minutes ago, SRF said:

 

My last cruise the difference between insuring $0 trip cost (med/medevac) and covering the entire cruise fare was $500 per person.  So for a $5000 cruise fare, if I make 10 cruises without cancelling, I am at least even.  More cruises without cancelling, and I am ahead.

 

Coverage of the cruise fare is VERY age dependent.  If you are young, it can be cheap, if older, not so cheap.

Yes, age can certainly impact insurance cost. I just did a search for a policy for a $5000 trip and the comprehensive plan was $130 pp (ages 62/54). Without insuring the trip cost it was around $40 pp, so $90 each to cover everything. So paying less than sales tax to recoup the cruise cost doesn't seem exorbitant to me, but if it were $500 pp I agree, that would be out of the question. Yes, I've already spent the $5,000 and my financial situation would not change if we didn't go on the trip, but I also would not have received what I paid for. I'm not into just burning money and not getting something for it (and I'm sure that there are some that see insurance exactly that way). ETA- and I noticed that insuremytrip.com has a nice banner on the front page about insuring for the corona virus.

Edited February 27, 2020 by sparks1093