Trip Insurance BEFORE Booking Flight?

[HtomSirveaux]

Just booked for the 2/7 4-Night on the Wonder.

That said...Southwest flights aren't open for booking until September. (Booking on my own instead of through DCL.) Everything I read recommends getting Trip Insurance within 14 days of the deposit, so obviously I wouldn't have a flight booked yet. I've been looking on InsureMyTrip.com and had a couple of questions:

1. Am I even technically ABLE to insure the flight before it's booked?
2. If I can, is it safe to "guess" the price of the tickets? I would think my total should be stateroom + flight + hotel night the night before I booked through Priceline.

Thank you!

 

[hgon76]

When looking on insuremytrip I believe most of the polcies say " must be booked within 14 days" for things like prior medical conditions. DCL doesn't even purchase the insurance for the traveler who gets it from them until final payment.

 

[lbgraves]

That is what I do. If the flights end up being more you can increase your insurance coverage.

 

[KrisannB]

I use Travel Guard and Travelex and both will allow you to add overall coverage as you add items to your plans. I never have my airfare booked when we do the cruise and always just go back and add it in right after I book it. Even if the cost doesn't change I still call and let them know about the airfare just so they are aware but do not know if you HAVE to if you do not need to add money.

Krisann

 

[kcashner]

As above, make a guess as to the flight costs and book while you'll still have pre-existing coverage. Then increase the coverage later if you choose.

I frankly "under-insure" a little sometimes. Your coverage is per person....if my total cost was $1100 per person, I might stay with $1000 insurance. My logic is that the odds of a total cancellation are small (especially since I fly in the day before....), and paying an additional $33 in premium to insure $100 doesn't make sense to me. I do realize that if I insure $1000 per person, that's the max they will pay in the event of a total cancellation, but if I insure for $1500 per person, they will still only pay what I paid ($1100). Reality is that I'm buying the insurance for the health coverage.

 

[HtomSirveaux]

Here's what I ended up doing:
I figured out the total of my trip based on the following:

• Total cost of the cruise and ground transfer portion itself (amount paid to DCL).
• The Priceline amount paid for the hotel room for the night prior to sailing.
• The cheapest possible price I anticipate the flight being for the two of us.

I insured that amount with Travel Guard. Looks like their cost was based on the range my total fell into. If the flight ended up being more expensive, I still don't anticipate it getting out of the coverage range for the premium I paid. I'll still probably notify them of the "new" total when I book my flights, just to be safe.

That reminds me though...Southwest doesn't technically "refund" the flights, they make it a "credit" that is good for a year before it expires. Wonder how insurance handles recovering that money. Oh well...hopefully that doesn't come into play anyway.

Thanks, all!

 

[NancyIL]

Most insurance policies are priced in $500/pp increments. That means $1100/pp in coverage costs as much as $1500. You could either round down to $1000/pp as kcashner suggested, or round up to $1500/pp.

If there are more than two people in the cruise ship cabin, base the insurance quote on the highest per-person cost for the first two people in the cabin, rather than the total price of the cruise. If you do the latter, everyone will get an average amount of insurance coverage, leaving the first two people underinsured.

Example: Family of 2 adults and 2 kids. The first 2 passengers pay $1250/pp and the 3rd and 4th passengers pay $750/pp = $4000 cruise cost. You want to get a quote for at least $1250/pp ($1500/pp if adding airfare). If you get a quote based on a $4000 trip cost, everyone gets $1000/pp insurance coverage - leaving the first two people underinsired by $250 each. If you have to cancel the cruise, the first two people will be reimbursed only $1000 each, even though their cruise cost $1250, because that's how much insurance coverage you bought.

 

[HtomSirveaux]

In this case, my "calculated" total (and therefore the amount I insured) was $820.09 pp. Only 2 adults this trip. I get the feeling I am in the $500-$1000 pp bracket (May have been a $1500-$2000 total bracket, but same difference in this case). Even if my flights were $100 more pp then I anticipate as "best case," I should be okay in coverage....right?

 

[NancyIL]

In this case, my "calculated" total (and therefore the amount I insured) was $820.09 pp. Only 2 adults this trip. I get the feeling I am in the $500-$1000 pp bracket (May have been a $1500-$2000 total bracket, but same difference in this case). Even if my flights were $100 more pp then I anticipate as "best case," I should be okay in coverage....right?

If you insured the trip for $1000/pp, even an additional $180/pp for airfare or other pre-paid expenses would be ok.

If you think you would use the Southwest credit within a year, then you wouldn't file a claim for airfare reimbursement. Other airlines charge a $75-$150/ticket change fee to use the remaining value of the ticket. In that case, you would file to get the change fee back if you plan to fly within a year of the original booking. If not, then you would file a claim for the total cost of the airfare.