A cautionary tale about trip insurance and changing the dates of your trip

[fredandkell]

Thought I'd post this to alert others--hopefully someone can benefit from my experience.

We were supposed to sail on tomorrow's 9/23 Fantasy Eastern. We booked the trip back in May 2016. I bought trip insurance in May 2016, and paid extra for the "cancel for any reason" coverage (you must buy travel insurance within 14 days of initial purchase date to get this coverage).

Disney offered to let us change our cruise to another cruise as opposed to going on the altered 9/23 Western itinerary (which we had already sailed several times). That was really nice of them and we took them up on that offer. We switched to a Mediterranean cruise in July 2018.

When I called the travel insurance company to update our travel insurance, I was told that I could not modify the policy because policies must be used within 2 years of purchase, and July is 2 months outside of this time period. Also, because the initial payment was in May 2016 for the old cruise, even though the new cruise was booked Sept. 14, they still counted initial payment as May 2016, thus I cannot elect "cancel for any reason" on the new policy. There are some cruise-specific policies that will still let you do "cancel for any reason" after the 14-day initial payment period, but you have to buy those policies before the payment-in-full is received. Of course I had already paid my cruise in full back in June when we checked in.

They did work with us and are giving us a refund of the original policy, but only if we bought a new policy from the same insurer. I was pleased that we will get a refund, but the new policy we bought is not nearly as good as the old one due to no "cancel for any reason" clause, and there was no way to get that clause back.

So, moral of this story - if you change the dates of a cruise for which you have already purchased travel insurance, change it to within 2 years of the insurance purchase date if you can. (This was third-party insurance, btw, not DCL insurance.)

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Thought I'd post this to alert others--hopefully someone can benefit from my experience.

We were supposed to sail on tomorrow's 9/23 Fantasy Eastern. We booked the trip back in May 2016. I bought trip insurance in May 2016, and paid extra for the "cancel for any reason" coverage (you must buy travel insurance within 14 days of initial purchase date to get this coverage).

Disney offered to let us change our cruise to another cruise as opposed to going on the altered 9/23 Western itinerary (which we had already sailed several times). That was really nice of them and we took them up on that offer. We switched to a Mediterranean cruise in July 2018.

When I called the travel insurance company to update our travel insurance, I was told that I could not modify the policy because policies must be used within 2 years of purchase, and July is 2 months outside of this time period. Also, because the initial payment was in May 2016 for the old cruise, even though the new cruise was booked Sept. 14, they still counted initial payment as May 2016, thus I cannot elect "cancel for any reason" on the new policy. There are some cruise-specific policies that will still let you do "cancel for any reason" after the 14-day initial payment period, but you have to buy those policies before the payment-in-full is received. Of course I had already paid my cruise in full back in June when we checked in.

They did work with us and are giving us a refund of the original policy, but only if we bought a new policy from the same insurer. I was pleased that we will get a refund, but the new policy we bought is not nearly as good as the old one due to no "cancel for any reason" clause, and there was no way to get that clause back.

So, moral of this story - if you change the dates of a cruise for which you have already purchased travel insurance, change it to within 2 years of the insurance purchase date if you can. (This was third-party insurance, btw, not DCL insurance.)

Of course, not all insurance policies will have that "must use within 2 years" criteria.

That's why it's real important to read and find out exactly what the policy covers.

 

[fredandkell]

Of course, not all insurance policies will have that "must use within 2 years" criteria.

That's why it's real important to read and find out exactly what the policy covers.

I agree; however, I got the vibe from talking to the travel insurance people that this is an industry standard. I'm sure some of them have different time frames, but no one I talked to (and I talked to several) seemed surprised in the least by this. I went through my original documents with a fine-toothed comb and nowhere can I find mention of the "must use within 2 years" clause.

If you look at this URL (which is the aggregator from whom I purchased the insurance) it doesn't mention 2 years there either. https://www.insuremytrip.com/travel-insurance-policies-and-claims/changing-your-travel-plans/

Long story short, hopefully someone can learn from my "tale of woe." Ha!

 

[cyclenut]

If you cannot find the two year clause in your contract or in above URL, were they able to point out in your contract where it specifies the two years? I must be missing something.

 

[FigmentSpark]

Just a note, when I was talking to someone about insurance, I was told "cancel for any reason" had to be booked within 48 hours, so it sounds like different companies may have different rules on a lot of details. Good warning, though. It's so important to know the details of your contract. And they don't make it easy to compare, either.

 

[cargo13]

I only shop on the travel insurance aggregator sites but buy with the actual travel insurance provider because you get direct updates re: their policies.
Due to hurricane disruptions, our travel insurance provider GENERALI travel insurance (used to be CSA) allowed for policy dates to be moved if your travel suppliers--cruise lines-- made forced changes to dates and you took the change, instead of a credit.

Their policy language is awful to read which seems to be the case in the travel insurance industry but they called us during Irma.

 

[Racer X]

Eh - consider yourself lucky they refunded you in the first place. Could have been a total loss. *besides, you didn't really cancel your cruise, you moved it... plus you didn't lose any money in the process, so what would you expect the insurance to do, just go with it?

 

[bumbershoot]

If you cannot find the two year clause in your contract or in above URL, were they able to point out in your contract where it specifies the two years? I must be missing something.

Yeah, I would not be comfortable with that restriction without it being in writing anywhere.

 

[MariaJ]

Hmmm. If you can't find the 2 year language in the contract you agreed to, then how can it be enforced? I would let it go for now UNLESS for some reason you have to cancel for a currently not covered event. If that happens, the invisible clause would be where to start....and a letter written by a lawyer (hopefully you have a friend) can point this out. You didn't agree to something unless it is in the contract. "Industry standard" or not. In the contract, enforceable. Contracts are written SO THAT nothing is assumed.