Question about travel insurance and cancelled flight

[AmyAnne]

I asked this on the cruise forum a few weeks ago but realized I might get more input here.

I am trying to figure our flights and also our travel insurance for a possible cruise. The first problem is that we would be flying in the day of our cruise departure - I know, bad idea but there is no way around it (except to reschedule, which is another possibility, but for purposes of this question, let's accept that we are going to fly in the day of our departure). Another problem is that direct flights are super expensive so I am looking at a connecting flight - which of course makes me nervous because I have now doubled the chances of something going wrong.

Now here is my question. What happens if our initial flight is delayed so that we would miss our connecting flight, or the initial flight is cancelled - and there is no way for our original airline to get us to MCO in time to make the cruise BUT there are flights on other airlines that would (or at least could, assuming nothing goes wrong with them). If we purchased tickets on another airline's flights, would that be covered by travel insurance?

As an aside, I know it is difficult if not impossible to get one airline to pay for seats on another airline (although I do recall that I was able to do this once - Delta gave me a voucher to fly United when a delay caused me to miss my Delta connection but I have not heard of that happening in a long time - but if anyone knows how to make that happen, please let me know).

 

[DVC California]

Regarding travel insurance, every insurance company has different terms and conditions for coverage. I would call and ask if the policy you're interested in covers both air and sea (in case you need to be flown to the next port). Also check if the policy covers mechanical delays, not just acts of God (Weather, Disaster, etc) as well as the duration of the delay needed to trigger the claim.

As far as your question about being re-booked on another airline, there used to be something called a Flight Interruption Manifest (FIM). The gate agents, at their discretion, could issue a FIM substitute ticket for another airline that participated in the program. I'm not sure if that's still in practice.

If it is impossible to fly out a day earlier, try to limit yourself to carryon so you won't have to worry about "missing luggage" or even waiting at the carousel.

 

[Brian Noble]

OP: if it were me, I'd very strongly consider rescheduling. If you can't do that, bite the bullet and get the earliest direct flight no matter what it costs. Booking a connecting flight with a tight window to make the cruise is just asking for trouble. Even if the trip insurance ends up covering any extra costs, you won't know for sure until you submit the claim and you'll be frazzled beyond description if you end up having to go through trying to find alternate flights, etc.

 

[DebbieB]

I asked this on the cruise forum a few weeks ago but realized I might get more input here.

I am trying to figure our flights and also our travel insurance for a possible cruise. The first problem is that we would be flying in the day of our cruise departure - I know, bad idea but there is no way around it (except to reschedule, which is another possibility, but for purposes of this question, let's accept that we are going to fly in the day of our departure). Another problem is that direct flights are super expensive so I am looking at a connecting flight - which of course makes me nervous because I have now doubled the chances of something going wrong.

Now here is my question. What happens if our initial flight is delayed so that we would miss our connecting flight, or the initial flight is cancelled - and there is no way for our original airline to get us to MCO in time to make the cruise BUT there are flights on other airlines that would (or at least could, assuming nothing goes wrong with them). If we purchased tickets on another airline's flights, would that be covered by travel insurance?

As an aside, I know it is difficult if not impossible to get one airline to pay for seats on another airline (although I do recall that I was able to do this once - Delta gave me a voucher to fly United when a delay caused me to miss my Delta connection but I have not heard of that happening in a long time - but if anyone knows how to make that happen, please let me know).

The legacy airlines (Delta, United, American, USAir) will sign over your ticket. Southwest and the smaller airlines do not.

I would contact the travel insurance company with your question, every policy is different.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

First please note that you are confusing a direct flight and a non-stop flight. A direct flight has stops.

As for travel insurance, what is covered depends on what policy you buy.

Flying into the departure city on the day of your cruise is a very bad idea.