Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance Only

[drowelf]

Previously we only took 1 cruise a year, so an annual medical policy did not make sense. Well now are are looking at probably cruise at least twice a year for the next few years, so we are going to be getting an annual medical coverage/evacuation policy. As such I've started to research Trip Cancellation/Interruption only policies that we will purchase as we book the cruises, but I'm having problem finding them. I do an internet search for it, and get a bunch of hits, but when I drill down into the various sites, the policies always include medical and evacuation, which I'm not going to need. 

[GeezerCouple]

4 minutes ago, drowelf said:

Previously we only took 1 cruise a year, so an annual medical policy did not make sense. Well now are are looking at probably cruise at least twice a year for the next few years, so we are going to be getting an annual medical coverage/evacuation policy. As such I've started to research Trip Cancellation/Interruption only policies that we will purchase as we book the cruises, but I'm having problem finding them. I do an internet search for it, and get a bunch of hits, but when I drill down into the various sites, the policies always include medical and evacuation, which I'm not going to need. 

 

It appears you posted this question elsewhere before, and you mentioned that you have worked with TripInsuranceStore.com.

 

What did they say about this question?  Many of us would recommend that you contact them about the type of coverage you want or how best to arrange coverage.

 

GC

 

 

[Babr]

You can’t find them because they don’t exist. The closest thing you’ll find is the travel benefits with premium credit cards, but that kind of coverage  has significant gaps.

 

It does not cover pre-existing conditions for Cancellation or Interruption. Travel Interruption does not provide for return transportation - only change fees. Trip Delay is minimal and only for mechanical problems - not illness.

 

Nevertheless, you may find it adequate for your needs. The best practice is to discuss specific circumstances with a professional. As mentioned in the previous post, if you have worked with Trip Insurance Store, return to them for advice in finding the best solution.

[klfrodo]

I would ask myself, do I REALLY need cancellation/interruption insurance.

A world cruise? Yes, maybe something to look into. Local cruises? (Yes, I would consider a 7 day to the Caribbean a local cruise), Maybe not so much. How many have you had to cancel in the past and they were cancelled for a covered reason? After all these years, would you be financially devasted if you had to eat one due to cancellation?

 

Maybe consider sharing some of the risk to reduce your potential for loss. Maybe look into a credit card that has decent (none have great) travel benefits to include some cancellation/interruption benefits.

[Jersey42]

All of the advice you have been given has been spot on.  You will not find a Cancellation/Interruption policy only.  We also have an annual GeoBlue policy so we have faced the same dilemma. Here are a few more thoughts.  Your best solution really depends on the types of cruises you take, the costs of these trips and your risk tolerance.

• Take a look at the Chase Sapphire (Preferred or Reserve cards) if you normally would not be traveling with pre-existing conditions.  Make sure you fully understand the pre-existing conditions language.  Babr has pointed out many of the disadvantages.  But if pre-existing conditions are not an issue, the money you are saving in trip specific insurance premiums may more than offset some of the non covered items.
• Your signature makes me think you might do a lot of HAL cruises.  HAL's platinum plan is fantastic for trip cancellation.  You get 90% back in cash for any reason, and there are no covered reason issues nor any pre-existing condition exclusions for cancelation.  It is very weak for medical, but you don't need that.  Trip interruption is ok, but that excludes pre-existing conditions. HAL's plan also may be an issue if you have a lot of pre or post cruise travel.  Other cruise line policies are also worth looking at, but all that I am aware of have a pre-existing exclusion for cancelation.  Most offer CFAR, but it is in the form of a 75-100% future cruise credit.

 

Our approach is to use the Chase card and then occasionally purchase a trip specific policy when the situation warrants it.  These are usually for our more expensive cruises when pre-existing conditions could be an issue. Over time, we are way ahead with that strategy.

[drowelf]

19 hours ago, GeezerCouple said:

 

It appears you posted this question elsewhere before, and you mentioned that you have worked with TripInsuranceStore.com.

 

What did they say about this question?  Many of us would recommend that you contact them about the type of coverage you want or how best to arrange coverage.

 

GC

 

 

Nada from TripInsurance store so far. So I thought I'd post the question to a larger audience to see what other folks are doing. More information is always better. 😁

[drowelf]

9 hours ago, klfrodo said:

I would ask myself, do I REALLY need cancellation/interruption insurance.

A world cruise? Yes, maybe something to look into. Local cruises? (Yes, I would consider a 7 day to the Caribbean a local cruise), Maybe not so much. How many have you had to cancel in the past and they were cancelled for a covered reason? After all these years, would you be financially devasted if you had to eat one due to cancellation?

 

Maybe consider sharing some of the risk to reduce your potential for loss. Maybe look into a credit card that has decent (none have great) travel benefits to include some cancellation/interruption benefits.

 

7 hours ago, Jersey42 said:

All of the advice you have been given has been spot on.  You will not find a Cancellation/Interruption policy only.  We also have an annual GeoBlue policy so we have faced the same dilemma. Here are a few more thoughts.  Your best solution really depends on the types of cruises you take, the costs of these trips and your risk tolerance.

• Take a look at the Chase Sapphire (Preferred or Reserve cards) if you normally would not be traveling with pre-existing conditions.  Make sure you fully understand the pre-existing conditions language.  Babr has pointed out many of the disadvantages.  But if pre-existing conditions are not an issue, the money you are saving in trip specific insurance premiums may more than offset some of the non covered items.
• Your signature makes me think you might do a lot of HAL cruises.  HAL's platinum plan is fantastic for trip cancellation.  You get 90% back in cash for any reason, and there are no covered reason issues nor any pre-existing condition exclusions for cancelation.  It is very weak for medical, but you don't need that.  Trip interruption is ok, but that excludes pre-existing conditions. HAL's plan also may be an issue if you have a lot of pre or post cruise travel.  Other cruise line policies are also worth looking at, but all that I am aware of have a pre-existing exclusion for cancelation.  Most offer CFAR, but it is in the form of a 75-100% future cruise credit.

 

Our approach is to use the Chase card and then occasionally purchase a trip specific policy when the situation warrants it.  These are usually for our more expensive cruises when pre-existing conditions could be an issue. Over time, we are way ahead with that strategy.

 

Well, everyone has raised some good points, so I'll try and address them.

 

First on the CC, the primary we card we use for cruises is our Disney Rewards, which offers nothing for Travel,, but our average cruise  generally buys us 1 park day in rewards. I've read that the Chase Sapphire is a really good card, but between my business CCs, personal CCs and the other various cards from banks that Chase has sucked up over the years, they won't advance me any additional credit, its not that I am a poor credit risk, they just feel that the large amount of available credit they have already applied is all they are going to do. That was straight from the credit risk manager when I last asked for a credit line increase on one of my personal Chase CCs. 

 

We don't tend to do any local cruising out of the US. The Caribbean is not our thing, as we are not beach people, so in 25+ years we have only been three Caribbean cruises, all to different areas. We take cruises to see the world. So we tend to take both longer cruises that leave from far away ports. So I would like to back stop the considerable investment we make with some kind of insurance. 

 

We do mostly cruise HAL, but are starting to branch out a bit as we get back to cruising again. Not been entirely happy with the direction HAL has taken over the past few years, so looking to test if the grass is greener on other comparable lines. Princess does not seem to offer a Cancellation only type policy, theirs includes medical and the medical they do include I consider as insufficient for what I would want. 

 

We've never had to use any trip insurance so far, but its like the old adage, "You never know if you'll need xyyz, but if you do you'll be grateful you have it"

 

I'm going to talk to my TA about this too, but she off on a Mediterranean soiree with Seabourn at the moment. 

 

Thanks to all. 

[GeezerCouple]

3 minutes ago, drowelf said:

Nada from TripInsurance store so far. So I thought I'd post the question to a larger audience to see what other folks are doing. More information is always better. 😁

 

You called them and no answer or no return call?  They are usually good about that, but this is a holiday weekend...

Is it possible that most of the "costs" to a travel insurer are from the various cancellation/delay/etc., expenses, and so the cost wouldn't be much less if they excluded the medical?  (It could be the other way; perhaps medical is the biggest share of the claims.  I don't have any knowledge about that.)

 

My thought comes from our experiences to date.  We've had quite a few policies, and several claims, including a few large claims.  (All paid without any nonsense, fortunately.)

However, almost all of the claims were for cancellation or interruption expenses (we did have to be careful to make sure that any possible links to pre-existing conditions wouldn't interfere with those).  I think the "medical costs" were less than $2,000 total, even though the total of the claims to date went well into 5 digits.

 

We are (obviously!) among those where we figured there would be more than average probabilities of claims, for a variety of reasons (including a very elderly and frail relative).  The one hospital stay overseas happened to be a place where they didn't bill any patients, even though we tried to insist on paying. (We don't pay taxes in that country, after all, and it didn't seem fair, but they insisted they didn't even have any way to accept money if we gave it to them.  Pretty amazing!  That trip included a couple of visits from the physician that the hotel called, before he told them to call an ambulance.)

 

And although we get expensive policies (including Cancel For Any Reason - even though we've never used it... yet?), we are still "ahead".  That is, our claims have paid us more than all of the premiums combined, including the majority of trips where we had no claims.

[We very much wish it had NOT been that way!]

 

Note:  The CFAR coverage gives us great peace of mind, and there were a few time that we came extremely close to using it.

 

So, at least with us, the insurer paid almost nothing for actual "medical costs", and quite a lot for all of the other assorted costs.

 

GC

[Jersey42]

@drowelf after reading your last post I think the best solution for you is to skip the annual medical policy and purchase a good comprehensive policy for each trip. Work with someone who understands your personal details, especially your existing medical coverage, so you get a good policy for you. If you find a better option than trip specific plans, please share.  

[iamtrustworthy]

On 9/11/2022 at 5:30 PM, drowelf said:

Nada from TripInsurance store so far. So I thought I'd post the question to a larger audience to see what other folks are doing. More information is always better. 😁

Hi drowelf,

 

Did you call or email us about this? I don't have any recent email requests asking about Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance only plans.

 

And, the answer is that there are none.

 

Steve Dasseos

[iamtrustworthy]

On 9/10/2022 at 10:17 PM, drowelf said:

Previously we only took 1 cruise a year, so an annual medical policy did not make sense. Well now are are looking at probably cruise at least twice a year for the next few years, so we are going to be getting an annual medical coverage/evacuation policy. As such I've started to research Trip Cancellation/Interruption only policies that we will purchase as we book the cruises, but I'm having problem finding them. I do an internet search for it, and get a bunch of hits, but when I drill down into the various sites, the policies always include medical and evacuation, which I'm not going to need. 

Hi drowelf,

 

I found your question a moment ago in the Q & A that I thought was locked and answered there, too.

 

Steve Dasseos

[donaldsc]

On 9/10/2022 at 8:17 PM, drowelf said:

Previously we only took 1 cruise a year, so an annual medical policy did not make sense. Well now are are looking at probably cruise at least twice a year for the next few years, so we are going to be getting an annual medical coverage/evacuation policy. As such I've started to research Trip Cancellation/Interruption only policies that we will purchase as we book the cruises, but I'm having problem finding them. I do an internet search for it, and get a bunch of hits, but when I drill down into the various sites, the policies always include medical and evacuation, which I'm not going to need. 

 

I am not sure why you would want just cancellation / Interruption.  Unless I am missing something you should insure for the big stuff and self insure for the smaller stuff.  In cruising the big stuff is evacuation and medical and not cancellation/interruption.  We carry full coverage but if I was not covered for cancellation/interruption I could afford the loss.  It wouldn't break the bank if I did not have cancellation/interruption.  It could break the bank if I did not have medical/evacuation.

 

So why not just take the medical/evacuation coverage and self insure for the rest.

 

DON

[drowelf]

On 9/14/2022 at 12:40 PM, iamtrustworthy said:

Hi drowelf,

 

Did you call or email us about this? I don't have any recent email requests asking about Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance only plans.

 

And, the answer is that there are none.

 

Steve Dasseos

Steve, 

 

I posted in the Q&A forum that was at the top of the topic area. Ok, so I wonder what folks who do the annual policy thing do, just self-insure or buy a policy with minimal medical/evacuation benefits?

Edited September 15, 2022 by drowelf

[drowelf]

17 hours ago, donaldsc said:

 

I am not sure why you would want just cancellation / Interruption.  Unless I am missing something you should insure for the big stuff and self insure for the smaller stuff.  In cruising the big stuff is evacuation and medical and not cancellation/interruption.  We carry full coverage but if I was not covered for cancellation/interruption I could afford the loss.  It wouldn't break the bank if I did not have cancellation/interruption.  It could break the bank if I did not have medical/evacuation.

 

So why not just take the medical/evacuation coverage and self insure for the rest.

 

DON

Mainly because I can get very good annual policies for Medical/Evacuation that are much cheaper than doing it all (Cancellation, Interruption, Medical, Evac) by individual trip. Its all related the cost, its a rare cruise we take that including flights does not come out to be in the high 4 or even 5 digits in cost. Sure we could eat that potential loss, but its a fair amount of change to just leave hanging out. I want to learn what options, if any,  exist to mitigate that risk. 

Edited September 15, 2022 by drowelf