文章基本信息

标题：Additional insurance options
作者：William Coleman
期刊名称：Cruise Travel
印刷版ISSN：0199-5111
出版年度：2004
卷号：May-June 2004
出版社：World Publishing Co.

Additional insurance options

William Coleman

In the "Travel Insurance" article in the February 2004 Cruise Travel, author Don G. Campbell states several times that "Decisions about travel insurance must be made when you purchase your cruise. You can't buy a cruise, then decide days or weeks later that you need travel insurance."

This information is not correct. You can buy, travel insurance from the day you purchase your cruise up until the day you are leaving. Of course this will not cover pre-existing medical conditions, but it will cover everything else. I know this because I have in fact done it on a couple of occasions.

You can buy these policies from numerous companies including Travelex, Access America, and Travel Guard, to name a few. I just wanted to more fully inform your readers about these insurance options.

William Coleman, Philadelphia, PA

Don G. Campbell responds: Mr. Coleman is right, to a point. Some policies can be bought on short notice, The problem comes when filing a claim. Let's say departure is coming up on Sunday, you buy the policy on Friday, then cancel on Saturday. The claim department will want documents showing the cause of the claim, including items that indicate the dates of relevant events that led up to the claim. I know this from personal experience last year. They would be looking to see if the buyer knew he or she was about to cancel when the insurance was purchase. Still, that policy would protect a traveler who left on the trip and then had to cancel for a reason that developed after departure.

Every trip I've bought in recent years came with an offer for insurance that had to be either accepted or declined at the time of purchase. Policies that can be purchased on short notice will not cover some events, such as cancellations related to pre-existing conditions (medical and other) and the bankruptcy of providers, among others. So while some policies can be bought after the trip has been purchased, a traveler typically has more insurance providers to select from, better coverage, and an easier time filing a claim if this detail is handled early.