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Anyone with cruise insurance claims experience...?


AlohaLivin

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I am bringing this question here now because I don’t know who else to ask. It’s a super sensitive issue right now, I just cannot wrap my head around this - my family is feeling a huge mix of sadness, anxiety, and anger and I very much hope people will consider so I would ask that. ?  We have a cruise booked for the 4th week in January. The cabin was an expensive one, but it’s going to be split with my adult (step) sister and so it made it more reasonable when it is divided 3 ways.  It has been planned for nearly a year and we’ve all very much looking forward to it. 

The problem is that my sister works for TSA that is part of the government shut down. Essentially, they are now working for free (and this time, unlike past shut downs, Congress has not yet acted to ensure they will be paid later). What is worse, is that unlike every other shut down in history, this time they have been told that all vacation (leave) time is cancelled (no matter if for a serious illness or a prepaid vacation). Should an employee take the time off that they had scheduled anyway, they will be fired on day 3 for being AWOL. ?. As much as I would like to, I am not going to get into the ethics involved with the decision-making surrounding all of this, but as you can see it definitely could negatively impact this long awaited cruises for all of us if the situation is not resolved by the sailing date (and my faith is gone so we have to prepare for what is possible at this point).

We have trip interruption coverage through Chase Sapphire CC that we used to cover the cost of the entire cruise (her portion and ours). It covers immediate family (I assume my step sister would be that). The policy does covers problems like jury duty where the person can’t be released so to me that suggests that her situation would also be reimbursable.

My greatest concern is that our cruise happens to be one of those where the 3rd passenger sails “free.” It would be the same kind of problem if the cruise was one where passenger 1 pays 100% and passenger 2 pays 50%. We split the cost, despite the the odd way it is divided on paper for marketing purposes. Does anyone have any experience with how the insurance companies deal with those circumstances? I am assuming there is a general consensus with insurers on this issue, it must come up often, I simply have no idea what that might be.

Thank you for any help that you can provide on how insurance deals with these situations -

Lynn

 

P.S. I realize that it’s bad timing, but Happy New Year to all of you.

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Might be a challenge due to Royal's pricing gimmicks. With guest 3 being "free" they might see the value as $0 for coverage.

One idea might be requesting to have guests 2 and 3 swapped on the invoice. That way at least they have some value assigned to them. 

Also be sure to read every line to that policy. I know some paid policies do cover cancellation due to work nullifying a leave request. Just have to make sure everything job wise is officially documented.

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20 minutes ago, CGTLH said:

Might be a challenge due to Royal's pricing gimmicks. With guest 3 being "free" they might see the value as $0 for coverage.

One idea might be requesting to have guests 2 and 3 swapped on the invoice. That way at least they have some value assigned to them. 

Also be sure to read every line to that policy. I know some paid policies do cover cancellation due to work nullifying a leave request. Just have to make sure everything job wise is officially documented.

Thank you ?

It is certainly a unique situation, but since it is s Goverment edict it seems closest to the jury duty than a pure employer situation and they do use that as an example of covered instances. Good idea on the swapping, although it could cause a few other issues (Certain benefits are for guests 1/2, also if 2 is a no show the effect on the 3rd passenger is unknown). 

‘The 3rd passenger quandary (or 2nd for that matter) is one I hope has been run into before since that odd pricing is so frequent now that there surely is a way they typically deal with it, just not one I know!

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I hope the government will reopen well before the fourth week in January, as the shutdown causes adverse consequences on your sister and hundreds of thousands of other government workers. Thinking good thoughts that the insurance will not have to be used and, if it does, that it will come through.

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@Baked Alaska

3 hours ago, yaya luvs to cruz said:

I hope the government will reopen well before the fourth week in January, as the shutdown causes adverse consequences on your sister and hundreds of thousands of other government workers. Thinking good thoughts that the insurance will not have to be used and, if it does, that it will come through.

Thank you both ? I hope it does too Yaya, but I cannot say I have much faith left in humanity (sorry, present humans excluded ?). I am a behavioral scientist and I would not want to wager on the likely actions of the players in this “game.”  

I will try to call and see - I assume that I will get the usual “submit the claim and see” that we see in my practice constantly. They often will not tell you if it’s covered, but give you the “if medically necessary” (to be determined by them at them at at that time but who knows which rules). 

I am really trying to be hopeful, but the next 3 weeks don’t seem like they will be too enjoyable.

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I’m sorry.  Having trouble following your plan of action. So, if the shutdown does not end are you planning on cancelling the cruise entirely or are you just going to cancel your step-sister’s portion ?

Sorry to hear of this unfortunate situation.  I’m (selfishly) glad to be on a cruise while all of this is going down. I sure hope it’s over soon but not holding my breath.  I’m a “Beltway bandit” so things could get ugly for us before long.

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6 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I’m sorry.  Having trouble following your plan of action. So, if the shutdown does not end are you planning on cancelling the cruise entirely or are you just going to cancel your step-sister’s portion ?

Sorry to hear of this unfortunate situation.  I’m (selfishly) glad to be on a cruise while all of this is going down. I sure hope it’s over soon but not holding my breath.  I’m a “Beltway bandit” so things could get ugly for us before long.

I really appreciate that you took the time to say you care. It is very nice of you :12_slight_smile:  We will go anyway, we do not have a claim for not going. But her portion is over $2800 which is a lot for her to give up (or us) in addition to the already expensive cruise. Clearly we never would have booked a 2br 2ba for just the two of us, but that isn't going to matter to anyone in the end. 

I have a minor update as of today - 

I phoned Chase and although it was someone from card services rather than claims, she voiced the opinion that the claim might not be covered as it was an "employer issue." I believed it was a lot more closely related to the jury duty situation (which is covered), but she was not in a position to say. She suggested calling the cruise line or the travel agent.

I then called the travel agent who indicated that it was as I suspected, because she was officially a "free passenger" there would be nothing to refund (even if that were possible) although in truth she paid 1/3rd (the $2,800). Of course she would get the tax returned. She also suggested that the cruise line may allow someone to take her place (but those are very tight quarters and a lot of cash for short notice - I cannot think of anyone who fits that bill or could leave on this short of notice due to work or family obligations). There is no solution other than that the policy be changed or the shut down ended. I just have a hard time grasping just how truly wrong it is to do this to people without any real cause on top of requiring them to work without pay.  The next time it could be someone else's sister in this situation.

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Most policies allow you to cancel if your travel partner needs to cancel.  In that case you all would have to cancel to get your insurance to pay.  I would keep calling the insurance company though to find out if a government mandate isn't covered.  I see this as more a government mandate than an employer issue.  A lot of the policies these days do cover work issues. 

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13 hours ago, Hoski said:

Most policies allow you to cancel if your travel partner needs to cancel.  In that case you all would have to cancel to get your insurance to pay.  I would keep calling the insurance company though to find out if a government mandate isn't covered.  I see this as more a government mandate than an employer issue.  A lot of the policies these days do cover work issues. 

I completely agree, a govt mandate makes it quite different from an employer issue. We do have the official document which lays it all out clearly at least (or clearly enough).

 I think that our only option at this point is to cross our fingers. I was even up last night reading the wording to see if she had the option for leave without pay, but they don’t. There is some wiggle room for “brief or intermittent” time off ( not defined),  but then a mid-level supervisor who is rarely given any independent decision making would have to walk that fine line so I don’t have a lot of faith in that (I have people in my office sometimes so anxious they cannot tell me if they prefer an appointment at 10 or 11).  

This is a 10 day voyage, time has been reserved, just so much to change.  The real issue on insurance is that on paper her cost is tax only, I think these are issues that will become more frequent as fares are marketed as different percentages. Real issue.

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