Buy Insurance!

[clarku]

2 hours ago, clo said:

Well, this make me want to puke 🙂 Are you by any chance a USAA member?

I can’t speak to whether this is common with Travel Insured or not, this is just our one and only experience in filing a claim with them.  I’ve been a USAA member for 35 years

[clo]

5 minutes ago, clarku said:

I can’t speak to whether this is common with Travel Insured or not, this is just our one and only experience in filing a claim with them.  I’ve been a USAA member for 35 years

Thanks for your reply. I'll be sending in my claim ASAP and will keep my fingers crossed. It's voluminous!

[GeezerCouple]

4 minutes ago, bbqoug said:

I had to file a claim with Travel Insured 5 years ago when we had to return home early from a cruise because of a death in the family.

They were very helpful and promptly paid my claim for the portion of our trip that we didn't finish.

 

Another positive experience with Travel Insured. 🙂 

 

Actually, *several* other positive experiences, all with Travel Insured!

Unfortunately, we've had to make several claims and a few of them were large.

ALL of them were paid promptly, and without nonsense.

 

It might have helped that we always buy our travel insurance through

www.TripInsuranceStore.com - Many others here on CC also do this, and that's how we learned about them (thanks to some wonderfully helpful CC members!).

There was one time when the notice that our claim was approved took a bit longer than usual, so we called TIS.  It turned out that although our claim was due to a medical emergency, there had just been a couple of hurricanse, so *all* of the travel insurance companies were swamped.  They made a call on our behalf, and our claim was paid.  That still didn't take long anyway.  However, none of the other claims needed any intervention.

 

NOTE:  We are always very careful to include ALL of the necessary documentation, which means there aren't assorted "back and forth" communications.

And we learned to get RECEIPTS for EVERYTHING!  (This is so important.)

All of it goes in together.

(I didn't get a receipt for the *tip* for a taxi fare, and that was denied.  The amount was so small, I never bothered to complain.)

 

GC

[clo]

30 minutes ago, GeezerCouple said:

NOTE:  We are always very careful to include ALL of the necessary documentation, which means there aren't assorted "back and forth" communications.

And we learned to get RECEIPTS for EVERYTHING!  (This is so important.)

All of it goes in together.

I actually talked to a live person at the beginning - that was just a few days ago. She strongly encouraged me to send in EVERYTHING so I am. Our group # or what it's called actually has USAA in the middle of the sequence. I'm hoping that gives us 'favored nation status.' 🙂

 

[clarku]

Glad to hear that there were some favorable outcomes with others’ claims, very different from our experience.  Even though we had provided full documentation, and then some, we had many unanswered emails and phone calls to Travel Insured, multiple hurdles we had to clear, and despite my oncologists releasing my full history corroborating my claim, it was denied 6 months after my claim was initiated.  Our credit card company’s coverage was able to provide our refund about a month after our claim was submitted, without any runaround.

[mnocket]

2 hours ago, bbqoug said:

I had to file a claim with Travel Insured 5 years ago when we had to return home early from a cruise because of a death in the family.

They were very helpful and promptly paid my claim for the portion of our trip that we didn't finish.

Good to hear.  I'm using them for the first time for a cruise next January.

[GeezerCouple]

2 minutes ago, clarku said:

Glad to hear that there were some favorable outcomes with others’ claims, very different from our experience.  Even though we had provided full documentation, and then some, we had many unanswered emails and phone calls to Travel Insured, multiple hurdles we had to clear, and despite my oncologists releasing my full history corroborating my claim, it was denied 6 months after my claim was initiated.  Our credit card company’s coverage was able to provide our refund about a month after our claim was submitted, without any runaround.

 

It sounds like you did not have that waiver of the pre-existing condition exclusion (that triple (?) negative means that pre-existing medical conditions are covered, as long as the affected person was fit to travel the day the insurance was started).

 

Unfortunately, that probably means at a minimum that the claim might take extra time (and how much extra time!?!), and worse, the claim might be rejected...

Also, the definition of "pre-existing medical condition" can be very different with travel insurance that in other uses most of us are familiar with.  That can be a good thing for some, but a "not good" thing for others...

 

Do you know if that was the reason, something to do with a pre-existing condtion?

Because we *always* get that waiver, we have no experience with the claims process with that type of policy.

 

It may not have helped this time, but in the future, you might want to consider buying travel insurance through an agent or broker.  Then you have someone helping with the process.  At the least, that could help make the claims process faster and less annoying. But perhaps they can word things differently or whatever such that some claims might be approved...?

 

I'm very glad that you had the additional insurance through your charge card!

 

GC

[ORV]

2 hours ago, clo said:

Thanks for your reply. I'll be sending in my claim ASAP and will keep my fingers crossed. It's voluminous!

Are you having to cancel your upcoming cruise? 

[clarku]

49 minutes ago, GeezerCouple said:

Also, the definition of "pre-existing medical condition" can be very different with travel insurance that in other uses most of us are familiar with.  That can be a good thing for some, but a "not good" thing for others...

 

Do you know if that was the reason, something to do with a pre-existing condtion?

Basically, yes, it was due to their warped definition of pre-existing conditions, which we still refute that my circumstances met their definition.  Waivers will be a must for us in the future.

[clo]

57 minutes ago, ORV said:

Are you having to cancel your upcoming cruise? 

Yep. Lung nodule removed 12/23. Pain and related things. Not getting better soon enough to safely go to sea 🙂 Sadness. (Turning 77 in a few days)

[1985rz1]

1 hour ago, clarku said:

Basically, yes, it was due to their warped definition of pre-existing conditions, which we still refute that my circumstances met their definition.  Waivers will be a must for us in the future.

I'm so sorry this happend to you.  But, yes, it's a good idea to get the pre-existing waiver on travel policies, if you've had any problems in the past that could re-appear, even after it has been "cured." And, you should know that, if offered,  the waiver usually does not cost any extra;  it's just you have to buy your insurance policy within a set number of days of making your deposit.  The number of days vary with company.  And with many (most?) you don't have to insure the entire trip when you initially purchase the policy.  Just insure the deposit, then increase the amount covered when you do your final trip payment or add any non-refundable payments (e.g. airfare).  Best yet, talk with an agent at a broker company and compare prices.  Using a broker does not add any cost and can answer specific question about company policies.

[Vallesan]

5 hours ago, clo said:

Yep. Lung nodule removed 12/23. Pain and related things. Not getting better soon enough to safely go to sea 🙂 Sadness. (Turning 77 in a few days)

Sorry. We’ve had to cancel two this year but finally made our third! But Happy birthday anyway!

[Cruisedreamer1]

We used travel insurance once and the reimbursement to us came just before the credit bill arrived.

[Silent Penguin]

On 6/4/2024 at 6:27 AM, clarku said:

OP update 

Luckily, my wife thought of applying for a claim through our credit card company, which offers travel insurance automatically on travel purchases, and they agreed that my claim was valid and paid us our lost cruise fare.

 

So, be aware of which company you’re purchasing your policy from and remember to take a look at your credit card insurance benefits, you may be pleasantly surprised.

Hi. I'm jumping in here because your experience with a claim through your credit card is exactly what I'm looking for now that I've just started looking into NOT buying a policy.  I also have travel insurance with my credit card.  It appears the coverage with my Chase Sapphire card is comparable to the policies I've bought in the past (before I realized I had this benefit already).  Thank you for sharing your experience with your wife submitting a claim through your credit card. 

[clo]

6 minutes ago, Silent Penguin said:

Hi. I'm jumping in here because your experience with a claim through your credit card is exactly what I'm looking for now that I've just started looking into NOT buying a policy.  I also have travel insurance with my credit card.  It appears the coverage with my Chase Sapphire card is comparable to the policies I've bought in the past (before I realized I had this benefit already).  Thank you for sharing your experience with your wife submitting a claim through your credit card. 

Is there a dollar limit? We have Chase Sapphire Reserve.

[1985rz1]

8 minutes ago, clo said:

Is there a dollar limit? We have Chase Sapphire Reserve.

$10,000 pp per trip, max of $20,000 per trip, max of $40,000 total per year.

[thebsinmiss]

Wow, those dollar limits on the credit cards is impressive.  In Canada it typically is the high end (high annual fee) cards that offer trip cancellation and the limits I saw were typically much lower. 

 

 

• Trip Cancellation/Trip Interruption Insurance¹¹: For Trip Cancellation coverage of up to $1,500 per insured person, with a maximum of $5,000 for all insured persons, and for Trip Interruption coverage of up to $5,000 per insured person, with a maximum of $25,000 for all insured persons on the same covered trip.

 

We just took out travel medical insurance for our upcoming 10 day cruise but opted to pass on cancelation/interruption given our current health and limited other reasons to have to bail before or during the cruise.  For us at this specific point in time this made the most sense.

[ChadnKate]

So we always get TI and our TA knows this except when COVID hit and our longstanding TA “retired” our new one didn’t add it. Them wife got ill before our Egypt cruise our secondary coverage through Chase Visa repaid us!  

TI also covers onboard medical expenses. In our case once for Covid costs and once for a false heart related scare. Both of those over $3,000. 
so get the insurance and keep ALL RECEIPTS. 

[riversights]

Not being cheeky here, but just for reflection:  If one puts out for a cruise, the money is gone.  Would you cruise again next year?  Probably, because you bought the cruise with money you had to spend.  So if, say, you lose a cruise due to illness or accident, you have only lost money you were prepared to spend anyway.  What is money?  "Just dirty paper" (Bugsy Siegel).  

[GeezerCouple]

6 minutes ago, riversights said:

Not being cheeky here, but just for reflection:  If one puts out for a cruise, the money is gone.  Would you cruise again next year?  Probably, because you bought the cruise with money you had to spend.  So if, say, you lose a cruise due to illness or accident, you have only lost money you were prepared to spend anyway.  What is money?  "Just dirty paper" (Bugsy Siegel).  

 

Some of us are at higher risk of actually *using* that travel insurance, including for cancelled trips.  Sure, we can "afford the loss".  It's already paid for, after all.  And no, it wouldn't affect "the next trip".  Or the one after that...

But knowing that we have assorted risk factors, it would be very annoying to need to cancel more than occasionally or to have costly interruptions while overseas.

We are among the [unfortunate] few who have *not* "lost money on travel insurance premiums", although we would definitely rather be in that group rather than in the group needing to submit claims!

 

Even if we had fewer claims (or less costly claims), we'd still prefer to have travel insurance.  It's that SWAN effect:  Sleep Well At Night! 🙂 

 

Needless to say, others feel differently!  It's personal choice.

 

The main concern we have is about those who either never considered travel insurance or thought they'd never need it [but then something happened!] or those who did get travel insurance but did *not* carefully read the Terms & Conditions [and then something happened, something they *thought* was covered, but alas, nope].   It's a legally binding contract; we wouldn't dream of not reading an important document like that, and asking questions if necessary.

Also, working with an agent or broker helps a lot with figuring out what type of cover is or is not needed.  I can't imange starting that process without having someone like that to help us.

 

GC

[riversights]

The "Geezers" have made a good case for insurance as "peace of mind" (which I too appreciate).  But as a small counterpoint, I wonder why we are insuring "money," as such.  If we were traveling on borrowed money, maybe the lender would insist we insure our trip (so he gets his money back).  But most people are spending their discretionary income or savings or RMDs or inheritance or a windfall.  They are not denying themselves another cruise because they are too broke to afford another cruise.  No, they are cruising and cruising and cruising . . .🤪 

[goletans]

18 hours ago, GeezerCouple said:

SWAN effect:  Sleep Well At Night!

I like this acronym! Sleep is very important to one's health 🙂

[Vertygo]

14 hours ago, riversights said:

The "Geezers" have made a good case for insurance as "peace of mind" (which I too appreciate).  But as a small counterpoint, I wonder why we are insuring "money," as such.  If we were traveling on borrowed money, maybe the lender would insist we insure our trip (so he gets his money back).  But most people are spending their discretionary income or savings or RMDs or inheritance or a windfall.  They are not denying themselves another cruise because they are too broke to afford another cruise.  No, they are cruising and cruising and cruising . . .🤪 

The way I look at it, is that I don’t like throwing money away. If I need to cancel for an insured reason I recoup the cost to put on a future cruise. Yes, I may be “throwing away” the cost of coverage on those trips I’m able to take, but that is much smaller than cost of a cruise.

I make sure to never buy the cruise line’s  insurance-that IS throwing money away.

[land64shark]

On 6/4/2024 at 11:41 AM, mlmdaisy said:

I did use the Trawick policy once for a minor infection, medical visit and Rx on a cruise.  You need to submit a lot of documents, and it was a long wait (during end of pandemic) but I was reimbursed.

How much did the onboard medical facility charge you for a visit with prescription if I may ask?

[mlmdaisy]

It was not nearly as expensive as I expected.  All together it was something like $130.  This was on a Celebrity  ship.