Can someone please enlighten me regarding insurance

[Rogillio]

Sorry, I don't buy that premise at all. My previous good fortune does not influence my future good fortune any more than previous flips of a penny affect future flips of a penny. The odds remain 50/50.....even after 10 'heads' flips in a row, the odds remain 50/50 for the next flip.
I submit the more I travel the LESS likely I am to have an issues not more likely. The more I travel the more I know to make allowances for the alarm that did not go off or the flight that was canceled due to weather. I always have options. If our luggage is lost, the airlines are liable and we will use the opportunity to have fun shopping. We may plan to fly to MCO but I also know that if our flight was canceled due to weather, we could drive it in just over 13 hrs and not miss the boat. It's not all about luck. Sometimes it comes down to good planning and knowing how to deal with situations as they arise.

 

[Rogillio]

I rely on the trip insurance I receive from my Chase Sapphire Preferred card.

http://milecards.com/2063/chase-sapphire-preferred-full-benefits-guide/

In addition to that, I absolutely love when I go to rent a car, and decline all their marked-up insurance. When they ask why, and I tell them my card includes it, they again try to tell me that it's secondary insurance, blah blah. As soon as I say "It's primary insurance" they put their head down and finish the contract.

I love that card. For travelers I think it's a must-have.

That being said, knock on wood, in nearly 25 cruises I've never filed any sort of claim.

Check with your auto insurance and your credit card - one or both of them may provide coverage of rental cars. I found this on my USAA insurance website:

Generally, coverage from your primary auto insurance will extend to a rental vehicle. If you cause an accident while driving the rental, your liability insurance would pay up to your policy limits for the damages to other cars or property. Likewise, if you carry collision coverage on your regular policy, that would pay for accident-related damages to the rental car you're driving. Finally, your comprehensive coverage would take care of damages to the rental vehicle not related to a traffic accident, such as theft or vandalism.
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So check with your auto insurance and check with your health insurance and check with your credit card company.....as you might already be covered. If your main concern is medical cost, pick up the phone or email your medical insurance company and ask specifially what is and is not covered in the areas you will be traveling to. Call you auto insurance and ask them if you need to buy secondary auto insurance when you rent a car.

To me, this is just part of the fun of planning a vacation. Others may just opt to pay the insurance and forgetaboutit.

 

[KLB9]

Since you brought up statistics and probability, the laws of probability and chance state that the longer you go without an event happening the higher the probability that it will happen. Borrowed time is just that - borrowed. It comes down to the question of when (not if) your luck will run out. I prefer not to roll that particular pair of dice.

You should go to Vegas, you can make a lot of money with that theory.

 

[DCL4LIFE]

Check with your auto insurance and your credit card - one or both of them may provide coverage of rental cars. I found this on my USAA insurance website:

Generally, coverage from your primary auto insurance will extend to a rental vehicle. If you cause an accident while driving the rental, your liability insurance would pay up to your policy limits for the damages to other cars or property. Likewise, if you carry collision coverage on your regular policy, that would pay for accident-related damages to the rental car you're driving. Finally, your comprehensive coverage would take care of damages to the rental vehicle not related to a traffic accident, such as theft or vandalism.
​

So check with your auto insurance and check with your health insurance and check with your credit card company.....as you might already be covered. If your main concern is medical cost, pick up the phone or email your medical insurance company and ask specifially what is and is not covered in the areas you will be traveling to. Call you auto insurance and ask them if you need to buy secondary auto insurance when you rent a car.

To me, this is just part of the fun of planning a vacation. Others may just opt to pay the insurance and forgetaboutit.

Yep my insurance carries over to a rental car just as if it were my own car. Between that and the credit card insurance, the rental agents don't get any extra money from Me. My friend was a manager with Enterprise and told me he never gets the insurance.

I'm like you, I love researching this stuff.

 

[dotfurio]

We booked air and hotels separate from DCL, so we purchased Allainz insurance separately so everything was covered. Thankfully we didn't need it, but you never know. 2 months before our cruise I ended up having unexpected surgery. What if that would have happened when we were supposed to go? I'm not much of a gambler- I'd rather be safe than sorry.

 

[MillauFr]

You should go to Vegas, you can make a lot of money with that theory.

I'm sure you were trying to be snarky with that post when it is completely obvious the poster you quoted has no idea about statistics. If anything the more times you go without collecting on the insurance the less likely you are to collect in the future.

 

[MillauFr]

Sorry, I don't buy that premise at all. My previous good fortune does not influence my future good fortune any more than previous flips of a penny affect future flips of a penny.

Actually your good fortune does effect it. It makes it far less likely that you will collect in the future. A comprehensive travel insurance policy should cost about %0.25 of your cruise fare. They could charge this amount and still make money. The travel insurance companies are far worse than even the pay day loan sharks.

 

[Rogillio]

Statistically air travel is the safest mode of transportation but if you are afraid of flying because you think the plane is gonna crash, statistics do little to assuage your fears.

Similarly, the odds of something catastrophic happing to completely ruin your vacation are statistically extremely low. If PP's number is correct, then your chances of using the insurance is 1 in 400. And that is just the break-even point for insurance companies. I feel very comfortable being one of the 399 and refuse to bet on me being that 1 person in 400 that something happened to that they needed travel insurance.

 

[bethy]

Thanks for the this discussion. I am a new cruiser but not a new traveler. I am going to find insurance to cover emergency medical evacuation from a foreign country and call it good.

 

[artnerds]

the laws of probability and chance state that the longer you go without an event happening the higher the probability that it will happen

No, the laws of probability state that the probabilities of independent events are independent. If a coin is flipped and you get heads 5 times in a row, the next flip still has equal chances of yielding heads or tails.

This is only untrue if there is something biased about the coin or the way it is being flipped (i.e., the events are not independent).

 

[dmunsil]

There's a basic principle of buying insurance: don't insure against losses you can afford. In other words, be your own insurance for losses that are not going to be catastrophic. For almost everyone, the total loss of your house would be a catastrophic loss, so you get insurance. The same goes for the kind of big liability you could create via a car accident, so you insure against auto liability. If the loss of your car would be a huge strain on your finances, you insure against loss of your car (collision & comprehensive).

The principle implies, for example, that you shouldn't ever buy extended warranties, because they're a form of insurance and basically the insurance companies know how often appliances and electronics break, which is really not often.

So by that analysis you should never get trip cancellation insurance, because vacations are a luxury item and the loss of a trip is never going to be catastrophic. Yes, there's a chance you'll have to eat the cost of a trip, but it's very low and over the course of your life if you consistently don't insure against losses you can afford, you should come out ahead. The insurance company has to make money, so the cost of insurance must always exceed the mathematical average payout for insurance.

All of that above, though, ignores the psychology of the situation. If you have a lot invested in a trip, you are not going to feel good at all if you have to cancel and eat the cost. If you saved for multiple years for your trip, or it's a "once in a lifetime" trip, the fact that it won't actually kill you or send you to the poorhouse to lose it is not much comfort. Trip insurance will allow you to take a different trip if you have to cancel the first one, and if that helps you sleep at night, then it may well be worth it to you. This is the key fact about insurance: the financial aspect is only part of it. The intangible feeling of security is another large part, and it is actually worth money, unless you are the kind of very analytic person who can be sanguine when they have to take a big financial loss.

Also, there are situations when travelling where you could actually have a catastrophic cost, mostly due to medical issues. The biggest one is getting into a medical situation where you need to be (or want to be) airlifted to the US for treatment. That adds up very quickly. And some countries have very expensive medical care. So making sure your own medical insurance will cover you adequately outside the country is important. And if it doesn't, supplemental travel medical insurance is actually pretty cheap.

The bottom line is to think hard about how you'll feel if something comes up and you basically just lose the whole trip. If you think it's highly unlikely to happen, and even if it does you'll be able to shrug it off, then great, don't get insurance. If you know it's going to be super upsetting, you may want cancellation/interruption insurance. Obviously try to get the best deal you can, and only buy the insurance you need.

And definitely take the time to read your medical insurance and/or call your insurer and quiz them about their coverage while outside your coverage area and outside the country. Don't assume you'll be covered, or covered adequately. Some insurers give great coverage for anywhere that isn't a war zone, and others have absolutely no coverage when you're outside the US. Most are somewhere in between; they cover emergency care with some deductible, and have some amount of coverage with a massive deductible for non-emergency situations. Keep in mind that what you might consider an emergency might not match what your insurer feels is an emergency.

 

[Rogillio]

Good summary!

At work we use a 5 x 5 matix to quantify a given risk.

Across one axis is the likelyhood of the risk occuring (1 being very unlikely and 5 being very likely).

The other axis is the consequences is if a risk occurs (1 being little consequence and 5 being very consequential).

So a 1x1 risk is one that is very unlikely and of little consequence. A 5x5 risk is very like and major consequence.

The only scenario I can imagine that would warrent us canceling the entire trip would be if one our immediate family members got injurred and ended up in the hospitol. The liklihood of that occuring inside the no-refund window is very unlikley, a 1. The consequences would be a 3. I can live with a 1x3 risk.

Honestly, I can't even think of a very likley risk.

Anyway, this is how senior managment and executives 'quantify' risk. I this we all do this assessment mentally all the time....that is, we ponder how likely something is to happen and balance that against the consequencs.

I'll go back to my storm shelter analogy....the consequences of a tornado hitting you house is devestating.....but statistically, the chances of that hittle your house is like 1 in several million!

 

[eskimoinparadise]

No, the laws of probability state that the probabilities of independent events are independent. If a coin is flipped and you get heads 5 times in a row, the next flip still has equal chances of yielding heads or tails.

This is only untrue if there is something biased about the coin or the way it is being flipped (i.e., the events are not independent).

Remind me to never ask you to do a regression analysis.

 

[ptcbass]

OP Bottom line is that no one knows if/when anything will happen to them or their family. Do what you feel comfortable with.

 

[KLB9]

Remind me to never ask you to do a regression analysis.

If a true coin flip is tails 5 times in row, what is the probability of heads on the next flip?

 

[eskimoinparadise]

If a true coin flip is tails 5 times in row, what is the probability of heads on the next flip?

The question at hand is are you willing to bet your life on the outcome of that one flip?

If chance is truly chance, then the fact that you have never experienced a negative life altering event in the past has absolutely no relevance to anything that can happen next. Run a regression and you'll see there is absolutely no correlation between past events and future events. BTW, heads or tails aren't the only possible outcomes of a coin flip, so it will never be a true 50/50 outcome.

 

[KLB9]

The question at hand is are you willing to bet your life on the outcome of that one flip?

Is that really the question at hand??

there is absolutely no correlation between past events and future events.

This is what we have been trying to tell you, earlier you stated " the laws of probability and chance state that the longer you go without an event happening the higher the probability that it will happen"

 

[Funky Chicken]

We booked a VGT on Fantasy for this past January. Got the insurance thru the TA-Disney's coverage thru Aon.
Cancelled less than 48 hours prior due to a bacterial lung infection (mine).
If we had shown up and been honest on the pre board medical screening they would not have let us board. We got a refund within 30 days.
I usually self insure, but I won't go without trip insurance on a cruise ever again.
The whole idea that you might not get enough of a refund to cruise again at a different time is pretty ignorant. The alternative is having paid for a trip you did not take.

 

[MillauFr]

Remind me to never ask you to do a regression analysis.

What does that have to do with a coin flip?

 

[CherylA]

We booked a VGT on Fantasy for this past January. Got the insurance thru the TA-Disney's coverage thru Aon.
Cancelled less than 48 hours prior due to a bacterial lung infection (mine).
If we had shown up and been honest on the pre board medical screening they would not have let us board. We got a refund within 30 days.
I usually self insure, but I won't go without trip insurance on a cruise ever again.
The whole idea that you might not get enough of a refund to cruise again at a different time is pretty ignorant. The alternative is having paid for a trip you did not take.

This relates very closely to why I buy travel insurance for cruises. I don't buy it for other kinds of travel because usually most of my travel is refundable, at least in part, up to 24 hours before the trip. To me, besides the risk of having to have someone airlifted out in a medical emergency, the biggest benefit is options. If me or someone in my traveling party is sick and I have to cancel I will already be upset about missing the trip, if I have to add to that losing my money, I know that I personally would take some risks with traveling while ill that I might not take if I could be refunded. Same with a death in the family. If I can cancel my trip without penalty (trip insurance) to stay home for my grandmothers funeral I would. If I would lose the $7000 I paid for the trip I honestly might decide to skip the funeral and then likely regret it for the rest of my life. I know how I am, I'm too cheap to cancel a trip if I'm going to lose my money, even if it means risking my health or missing a funeral.

Whether you choose to buy Vacation insurance or not, the important thing is to be fully informed about that decision. If you booked same day flights and no trip insurance and your flight gets delayed and you miss the ship you need to have a backup plan in place as to what you will do. (I say this because this just happened to a friend of mine- didn't buy the travel insurance, booked flights for the morning of the cruise, left their phones at home so they could be 'unplugged'. Flights were delayed 4 hours, had to take a taxi to another airport to take the next available flight, bags got lost/delayed rerouted in the process. They did end up making the ship by the skin of their teeth but didn't have any of their bags and were in tears trying to make the ship and completely bewildered about what they were going to do in Orlando for a week if they missed it when they had no reserve money to spend since they used it all on their cruise.)