Travel insurance for pre-existing waiver

[BlondieinFL]

I am confused about purchasing travel insurance for the pre-existing waiver. Everything I read seems to say that to get a pre-existing waiver you need to purchase the insurance within 2-3 weeks of the initial trip deposit and insure the full amount of the non-refundable costs. Well. I don't have any non-refundable costs when I make my initial cruise deposit. I don't really want to insure the full cost of the cruise before I've even paid it, because that becomes kind of expensive, especially for something I may not need (if I decide to cancel the cruise before the pif date). I have emailed a couple of insurers and received the same response, that I need to insure the full cost of the cruise. This just doesn't make sense to me. Has anyone dealt with this, and maybe knows of a company that doesn't require the whole cost insured before it even becomes non-refundable?

 

[Girl of the South]

What do you need the insurance for? I mean, mostly medical or also Trip Interruption and lost baggage??? You may have some coverage though a credit card? Are you talking about "Cancel for Any Reason"? Do you have a pre-existing condition that would preclude you taking the cruise? I don't insure anything that I can cancel and get my money back - like a hotel room, or airfare (like on Southwest). At this point in my life I just get an Annual Plan. It covers any trips for a year and is almost the same as a single trip plan. Do compare the limits. Insurance preys on your fears. I agree it doesn't make a lot of sense. What are the odds?? Only you know how much you can afford to 'lose'. Google "Trip Insurance Annual Plan".

 

[Mommb]

Yes, insurance for a single trip will only cover the amount of coverage you ask for when you purchase the insurance. You can add coverage later (if, for example, you book airfare after making your initial payment) but any situations due to conditions that existed before your first trip payment may not be covered.

You need to decide whether you are concerned enough about cancelling or needing medical treatment during the trip due to a pre-existing condition to pay the cost of insurance even if you cancel the cruise. I think of it this way: I usually pay for insurance I don’t use, because nothing bad happens during the cruise, and that is a good thing. Some insurers will allow you to move the coverage to a different cruise if you change plans before the original cruise begins — you can ask about that.

If you and your travel companions don’t have conditions that are likely to flare up and lead to cancellation or expensive treatment, then you can wait until after you reach the point of cancellation fees to get insurance,

 

[fla4fun]

I am confused about purchasing travel insurance for the pre-existing waiver. Everything I read seems to say that to get a pre-existing waiver you need to purchase the insurance within 2-3 weeks of the initial trip deposit and insure the full amount of the non-refundable costs. Well. I don't have any non-refundable costs when I make my initial cruise deposit. I don't really want to insure the full cost of the cruise before I've even paid it, because that becomes kind of expensive, especially for something I may not need (if I decide to cancel the cruise before the pif date). I have emailed a couple of insurers and received the same response, that I need to insure the full cost of the cruise. This just doesn't make sense to me. Has anyone dealt with this, and maybe knows of a company that doesn't require the whole cost insured before it even becomes non-refundable?

Try the website insuremytrip.com which compares policies from multiple companies. If there is a company out there who would allow this, you may find it there.

I have never encountered a travel insurance policy that didn’t require buying the insurance within a few weeks of booking/paying your deposit and I have never seen one that did require insuring for the full amount of the trip up front. Once you buy a policy, that is the amount you are covered for. So let’s say you put down a deposit of 25% and buy the insurance for that amount. If you have to cancel when it is paid in full, you would only be covered for 25%. Also consider any auxiliary costs such as airfare, that may have different cancellation policies than the cruise. You are insuring to cover a worst case scenario, a complete cancellation or a medical evacuation after departure. You are buying insurance to minimize your out of pocket loss if you cancel at the last minute or during the trip.

The requirement to buy within a specific time period is to protect the insurance company against people waiting to buy until they know for sure they will be using it. For example, a traveler has terminal cancer and wants to go on one last cruise. If they could buy insurance any time between booking and sailing, if they discovered they were too sick to travel they could buy it and turn right around and file a claim. By purchasing at the time of booking, both the customer and the insurance company assume part of the risk instead of the insurance company assuming all the risk. It’s like the restrictions on homeowner’s insurance or flood insurance that stipulate you have to have a policy in force for a specific period of time before the storm in order to be covered.

Insurance is always a gamble. There will always be a certain percentage of people who need to use it, and when they do they are glad they purchased it. If you will know by PIF date that you need to cancel, and can do so comfortably, then the insurance may not be right for you. If there is a better than average chance you won’t know until very close to your trip, then it is worth considering. I encourage you to do a little research to see what policies are out there to meet your needs. I have only purchased trip insurance for international trips, where both the trip cost and cost of medical care came into play. Fortunately I haven’t had to file any claims so far.

 

[Girl of the South]

I have used TravelGuard for individual (as opposed to an annual plan) trips and when I had to cancel a trip, I was able to use the price I paid towards another policy for another trip. You have to cancel the first policy and then you get a “voucher” for the next one. You have to pay the difference if the 2nd policy costs more.

 

[dreamer17555]

Huge fan of Allianz (especially annual coverage) as someone who has had to put in a claim with them. Yes if you want to cover preexisting conditions you will need to pay for a policy before PIF for your cruise. The goal of travel insurance in my mind is to hopefully waste the money on it and not need it vs need it and not have it. Read all policies carefully and when you add on flights etc if you use outside non DCL insurance you can call and add that into your trip policy (policy premium will likely increase unless you have an annual plan). Be aware that things like missing your cruise do to delayed or cancelled flights normally need a delay of 24 hours so choose flights accordingly. Missing flights the day of are not covered unless you have cancel for any reason insurance.

 

[reluctantredhead]

We had to purchase travel insurance with a pre-existing condition waiver for the cruise we just completed a couple of weeks ago. Yes, we did have to purchase a policy to cover the full non-refundable cost of the cruise, though we didn't include airfare because we all paid for that with airline miles.

Last year we were scheduled for a HOTHS cruise that we had to cancel 5 days before sail when my sister (a member of our traveling party) suddenly fell ill and was hospitalized for a week. Fortunately we'd purchased the DCL insurance and got either most or all of our money back (I can't remember if we lost our deposit or if we got that back too), but when we went to rebook we realized we couldn't simply book the DCL insurance again, because now my sister had a pre-existing condition.

I did a TON of research on this topic because we all still really wanted to go on a cruise together but didn't want to potentially lose our money. We ended up going with Allianz and, as a PP mentioned, they were excellent to work with, and I honestly can't say enough good things about their customer service reps and how they walked me through their policies piece by piece and made excellent recommendations about which level of coverage we should purchase given our situation. They also pointed out to me (which I didn't realize at the time) that the fine print stated that you had to be medically cleared by a doctor to be fit to travel as of the date you purchased the policy in order for it to be valid...which was problematic for us because we were trying to book the next cruise over a year in advance, and my sister's doctors hadn't yet released her from their care or said she was ready to travel. And because of what several PPs mentioned about having to purchase travel insurance within a short time after booking the cruise, that meant we had to wait to book until she got the all clear from her doctors. It was really hard to have to sit back and watch prices go up while we waited for the all clear, but in the end it was worth it for the peace of mind we had knowing we could cancel if her newly diagnosed condition suddenly flared before the trip.

The PP's recommendation to search Insuremytrip.com is a good one...it's where I developed my short list of companies to call, and it provided a lot of helpful information. Good luck to you! I hope you can find a policy that works for you.

 

[lanejudy]

Everything I read seems to say that to get a pre-existing waiver you need to purchase the insurance within 2-3 weeks of the initial trip deposit and insure the full amount of the non-refundable costs.

Yes this is mostly true. For most policies to cover PEC it must be purchased shortly after deposit — usually before anything is non-refundable. It IS possible to purchase a PEC policy later, but will likely cost considerably more and require some effort to find a suitable policy.