Get Your Trip Cancellation Claim Paid in Full

by Steve Dasseos on July 1, 2024

Hi Steve, My husband and I booked a Celebrity cruise for about $8,000. How much is a good Trip Cancellation plan?

This sounds like a simple request, right? It isn’t, but not for obvious reasons. In fact, because of the apparent simplicity, had they not called us, they probably would have lost $2,405 on a covered trip cancellation claim.

Me: What’s the per person cost for each of you?
Them: it’s $4,000 per person.
Me: Since it’s a Celebrity cruise, does Guest #2 have a 75% discount?
Them: I don’t know. My travel agent told me that’s our per person trip cost.
Me: Since November 2023, almost every Celebrity invoice we’ve seen shows Guest #2 with a 75% discount. In order to be sure, you’ll need to see your Celebrity invoice.
Them: I don’t know if it’s worth the hassle.
Me: I think it is, because you don’t want to discover at claim time that you’re not getting all your money back.
Them: What do you mean?
Me: If Guest #1 paid the full price and Guest #2 got 75% off, then insuring $4,000 per person means that a trip cancellation for a covered reason could result in Guest #1 losing at least $2,000 on their claim, while Guest #2 ends up being overinsured.

I told them this story:

In November 2023, a couple called me about insuring a $1,000 per person April 2024 Celebrity cruise. I asked if they were sure they had the same cost, because I’d seen Celebrity invoices where Guest #1 has a higher trip cost than Guest #2. They called their travel agent to clarify and called me back and saying their travel agent confirmed the trip cost was split equally at $1,000 per person which they insured.

In April they cancelled their cruise for a covered reason. We helped with their claim. They called in May unhappy with its outcome: Guest #1 received only $1,000 and Guest #2 received $520. I reminded them (I have a good memory) that in November their travel agent said their trip cost was $1,000 each. Unfortunately, Celebrity’s cancellation invoice showed Guest #1’s trip cost as $1,480 and Guest #2’s trip cost as $520. The total was still $2,000, but the split wasn’t equal because Guest #2 had a 75% discount on their trip cost. Sadly, their travel agent wouldn’t take responsibility for misleading them so they are out $480.

Those people called me back a few hours later after they got a copy of their invoice. Look at what it showed:

As you can see, Guest #1’s total charge is $6,496.98 and Guest #2’s total charge is $1,767.98. They were very happy they got the invoice and didn’t take their travel agent’s advice. They also told me that the other websites they visited advised them to do exactly what their travel agent said.

This is why I said “they probably would have lost $2,405 on a trip cancellation claim” if they insured a $4,000 per person trip cost.

PS – They said they have been insuring their cruises incorrectly for years, but they won’t be making this mistake again.

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Your Social Security Retirement Benefits are Complicated

by Steve Dasseos on June 3, 2024

I am grateful and fortunate to have a wonderful community of kind-hearted customers, each of whom excels in their respective fields. What they have in common is their selfless desire to help others.

As you’re aware, I seldom endorse businesses, and the few I do, do not compensate me in any way. The only individual I’ve previously acknowledged on TripInsuranceStore.com is my programmer and friend Amrit Hallan. Today, I’m introducing my customer (since 2008) and friend, Mark Hendelson.

During the pandemic I needed to start collecting my Social Security (SSA) retirement benefits sooner than later. It’s a monthly check that replaces part of your income when you reduce your hours or stop working altogether.

Mark worked for the Social Security Administation and kindly took his personal time to educate us. My situation wasn’t simple, so, without Mark’s help, I definitely wouldn’t have gotten all the benefits I was legally owed when I started collecting SSA benefits 7 years early.

I asked Mark to put something together for my Blog because you yourselves or your family members will have to wade through this and I want you to be prepared.

Mark will take it from here:

When you’re years away from retirement, Social Security seems straightforward: Leave your job, file for benefits and receive a monthly check for the rest of your life – easy, right? But in truth, getting the most from Social Security is far from simple. As retirement draws closer, the choices you make can seriously affect your income, and some of them are set in stone. You’ve got to tread carefully to maximize this income stream.

My aim is to assist you in understanding your Social Security benefits and steering clear of costly mistakes. SSA administers complex programs that require careful planning.  This has been my career expertise for 38 years working for the SSA. I’ll guide you in carefully assessing all your options. You’ll learn how best to maximize your benefits, navigate the system, and make the right choices.

Here are 10 essential details you need to know:

  1. What is my Social Security Full Retirement Age and why is that important to know?
  2. How many quarters of covered FICA earnings do I need to be eligible for Social Security retirement benefits?
  3. How are my Social Security benefits computed?
  4. What is the impact of the annual Cost of Living Adjustment and future work on my monthly benefits?
  5. Will my monthly Social Security benefit increase the longer I wait to claim?
  6. Is there a potential Social Security benefit payable to my spouse?
  7. How might other pensions impact my Social Security benefit?
  8. Are Social Security Survivor benefits payable to Spouses and Children?
  9. Can I claim Social Security benefits earned by my ex-spouse?
  10. Can I undo a Social Security benefit claiming decision?

Question: I’m struggling to decide at what age I should file for my Social Security benefits. What factors should I consider when making this decision?

Answer: First, let’s start with some basics. You can start getting retirement and spouse’s benefits as early as age 62, but you will permanently receive up to 30% less in each check than if you had waited until your full retirement age, which is age 66 for those born from 1943-1954 and gradually rising to age 67 for those born in 1960 or later. If you delay taking your benefits from your full retirement age to age 70, you will get an 8% increase in your benefits for each year you delay.

If you are single and have never been married, spousal and survivor benefits aren’t a factor. Therefore, your decision about when to file really centers around how long you think you will live. If you can afford to delay taking benefits and are considering waiting until age 70, an important question is do you expect to live past age 80?

Research shows that at about age 80, the total benefits received is about the same whether you started your benefits at age 62,age 70 or anywhere in between. With this in mind, if you believe that you will not live to age 80 don’t delay filing until age 70. If you anticipate living past age 80 it might be prudent to delay the receipt of your benefits until age 70.

There are advantages and disadvantages to taking your benefit before your full retirement age. The advantage is that you collect benefits for a longer period of time. The disadvantage is your benefit will be permanently reduced. Each individual’s situation is different. It is important that you also take into account your health, longevity in your family, your income and expenses, and the impact of taxes.

Steve’s note:
If you want to get in touch with Mark Hendelson, his website is YourSocialSecurityPro.com and his email is Mark@YOURSocialSecurityPro.com

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The Drawback of Hospital of Choice

by Steve Dasseos on April 17, 2024

I received this email about a year ago:
“Hi Steve, My husband’s in the American Hospital in Cabo San Lucas because he broke his hip. First, thank you for contacting the insurance company for us since our phones weren’t working correctly. We’re in touch with them now. Next, we also contacted my husband’s doctor as you suggested, but we don’t want to use the hospital his doctor wants. We have hospital of choice so we want him sent somewhere else. Can you help us? Liz”

I helped them, and they were very happy in the end, but I had to push against what they wanted. Hospital of Choice is touted as a big advantage, but, in my opinion, it can cloud your judgement and may result in you not getting the best overall treatment.

I told Liz to contact her husband’s doctor so he could have input for the right hospital her husband would be transported to that was close to home. As it turned out, they didn’t like that hospital and wanted a different one. She asked me for help, so I asked her”: “Are either of you doctors? If not, I’m not either, so if I were you, I’d take the doctor’s advice.”

They took his doctor’s advice and as it turned out, if her husband had gone to the hospital they wanted, he wouldn’t have been happy because that hospital didn’t have the expertise to best treat the kind of hip fracture he had. That’s why the doctor was recommending a different hospital. He is now fully recovered and is back to normal with no complications.

How Exactly Does Travel Insurance Medical Transportation Work?

Like many of the complicated parts of travel insurance, there’s confusion about how the Emergency Medical Transportion works, so I hope this will make sense to you:

Early in the process of determining which is the best travel insurance plan our potential and repeat customers should get, we often hear “If something happens to me on a trip, I don’t want to go to an adequate medical facility, I want to go a better one.”

Steve's Cement truck If you’re on a trip and something bad happens to you medically (ie – getting hit by a cement truck), it’s likely that you will need an Emergency Medical Transport.

What needs to take place before a transport is arranged:

  • Get to a medical facility if you are ill or injured. If you’re on a cruise, go to the infirmary. If you are on land, you might be taken by ambulance to a local medical facility.
  • Make sure you see a doctor. If the condition is serious, you will likely be seen by other medical professionals, too. If you are traveling with a family member who is a doctor, you will need to see a doctor that you aren’t related to.
  • Call the travel insurance company’s 24 hour emergency assistance phone number. You may do a collect call from anywhere in the world. Also, make sure you give them your contact information in case the call drops. Anyone can make the call on the person’s behalf, too.
  • If you want your own doctor to be invloved, contact them. They may not be set up to take collect calls, so maybe contacting them via a Patient Portal would be best.
  • You may let us know, too, if you want.

Lots of people tell us “I don’t want to go to an adequate medical facility, I want to go to a better one.”

To that we say “No one wants you to die in the street, so you’ll first get taken somewhere to stabilize you. If you need further treatment in a better facility, and when it’s safe to transport you (as in you not dying in the process), you’ll be taken to the better facility or even back home depending on what the doctors taking care of you say. The insurance company doesn’t make that decision, though they will arrange and pay for the medical transport.”

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I hope this makes sense. If you want the right travel insurance advice, call us at 1-888-407-3854 and we'll help you figure it all out.

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Are Itinerary Changes a Covered Trip Interruption?

by Steve Dasseos on February 24, 2024

My cruise is supposed to be going through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean in early April. Unless the conflict near Yemen ends quickly, it looks like my cruise line will be changing the itinerary and going the long way around Africa. I will be missing a lot of ports in the Red Sea and the Mediterranean that were the reason I chose this specific cruise. An amended itinerary is not what I signed up for, do I have a covered Trip Interruption if I decide to go home early?

This is a timely question considering how much travel has changed due the war and tensions in the Middle East since the October 7, 2023 Hamas Terrorist attack on Israel.

The short answer is “No, Itinerary Changes are not a covered Trip Interruption” when the travel supplier makes the change. And, it’s the same answer for a Trip Cancellation when the travel supplier cancels a trip or makes Itinerary Changes.

There are some (not many) Trip Cancellation plans that include reimbursement of up to $250 or $500 if a change to Your Trip itinerary either prevents You from participating in a previously scheduled event/activity or eliminates a destination from originally scheduled itinerary.

In a Trip Cancellation insurance plan there are many covered reasons (Perils) which may happen to the Insured Person that will be paid as a claim. My favorite example is “you’re walking across the street and get hit by a cement truck“. I’ve had this Playschool Cement Truck ever since I was a Life Insurance agent and my sales manager Frank hated it.

There are also many excluded reasons that are not covered.

So, if you haven’t read the Terms and Conditions from your travel supplier, now is a good time to read it. You will find out exactly what your Cruise Line, Tour Company or Airline will do for you if they cancel or change your itinerary.

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May I Buy a New Flight if My Flight is Cancelled?

by Steve Dasseos on January 6, 2024

Hi Steve, Uncle Lenny takes off tomorrow and there are high winds expected. If they cancel his flight and can’t put him on a new flight for some reason is he able to buy a new flight even if it’s a higher cost? Will his travel insurance cover him if there’s only a flight available on a different airline? Hopefully, it won’t be an issue, but he wants to make sure. Thanks, Elizabeth

Hi Elizabeth, There’s no need for him to buy a new flight. His airline ticket is a contract and the airline is required to get him to his destination even if there are delays. He’s obligated to take whatever substitute flight the airline offers him. This means he can’t refuse the substitute flight and expect his travel insurance to reimburse him for the extra cost for buying a new airline ticket.

Just to be clear, if you are on a trip and your flight is delayed, changed or cancelled, your airline is required to get you to your destination. Your travel insurance won’t reimburse you for the purchase of a new airline ticket if you refuse that flight. And, if you’re flying Standby you don’t have a confirmed reservation, but the airline will still try to help you. I only know one company that will insure your other travel arrangements if you are flying Standby.

Inclement weather is a common reason flights are delayed or cancelled. Nearly 10 years ago, my customer Jon from Massachusetts was facing a potential trip cancellation when his flight was cancelled. Here’s what Jon sent me on May 9, 2014 (it’s also here at https://tripinsurancestore.com/travel-insurance-claim-paid-jon-massachusetts/):

Hi Steve,

I wanted to follow up with you on your very helpful telephone calls as it relates to the claim that we ended up filing with Travel Insured. As you may recall, my family of nine (wife and 7 children) were supposed to go on a Sunday to Sunday Royal Caribbean cruise from February 16, 2014 to February 23, 2014 out of Galveston, Texas.

We had been planning to fly in Sunday morning on a non-stop flight from Boston but a snowstorm the Saturday night before caused our Sunday morning flight to be cancelled outright. The ship was to spend Monday and Tuesday at sea and arrive Wednesday in Jamaica and then Thursday in Grand Cayman. Because there had been a string of snowstorms in the Northeast, we weren’t able to get any flights on Monday to Jamaica and the only Tuesday flights had overnight stay-overs en-route making catching the ship on Wednesday risky. Candidly, I wasn’t so thrilled about staying in Jamaica with my wife and young children so I wasn’t that upset. Miraculously, we were able to patch together a set of three flights starting Monday morning at 6 am landing at 10:30 pm in Grand Cayman. We were also able to book a hotel in Grand Cayman for the three nights while we waited for the ship.

Thanks to all of the details about the fine print on your web site (and the advice you gave me on the phone the Friday before when the storm was coming in), Travel Insured paid ($16,300 check came today) for EVERYTHING (except a local cab we took to a restaurant and a few cash gratuities we didn’t have receipts for totaling about $100), including reimbursing us for 4 of the 7 lost days on the ship. What could have been a total disaster ended up becoming a very nice trip for my family (other than the crazy travel day getting there after the snowstorm).

I can’t thank you enough for the phenomenal information and advice on your web site and on the phone. Understanding the fine print in advance made all the difference in the world for our claim. We will be lifetime customers and we recommend you to everyone that we know!

Thanks again and best regards!

Jon L. and Family, Massachusetts
May 9, 2014

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I hope this makes sense. If you want the right travel insurance advice, call us at 1-888-407-3854 and we'll help you figure it all out.

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You Need to See a Doctor if You Get Ill or Injured

November 3, 2023

Subscribe You Need to See a Doctor if You Get Ill or Injured First, all our plans cover Covid the same as any illness. And, if you get ill or injured, you need to see a doctor wherever you are in the world. This includes seeing a doctor while still at home before you cancel […]

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What Are the Right Travel Dates to Insure?

October 7, 2023

Subscribe We are taking a European River cruise, but we are going 5 days early to Holland and adding on extra days in Budapest. Everywhere we look, it says to insure the length of the cruise, but we want to be sure we are also insured for the extra days in case something happens to […]

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Is it Worth Paying More to Have $500,000 Medical Coverage?

August 20, 2023

Subscribe An update on my being healed from Long Covid: I am still free of Long Covid and I explained how it happened it in detail here on April 12, 2023. Since then, dozens of people have contacted me telling me that they’ve been taking 5 – 20 grams of Glycine every day with positive […]

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Steve’s Long Covid Breakthrough

April 12, 2023

Subscribe Anyone that’s talked with me in the last 31 months probably heard (as I tend to overshare) about my Long Covid symptoms: Fatigue and brain fog that affected me until the middle of the day. I wrote about it here on Jan. 21, 2023. Not surprisingly, I lost business due to delays in my […]

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Travel Insurance Can be Bought After Final Payment

March 6, 2023

Subscribe Hi Steve, We recently paid our trip’s Final Payment, but didn’t buy a Trip Cancellation plan. Based on what I read on other websites, it’s too late to get a policy. But, your name keeps coming up online as the person to get the right answer from, so can you help me? We don’t […]

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Welcome to 2023 and Long Covid Tips

January 21, 2023

Subscribe Happy New Year and Welcome to 2023! I’m happy the last 3 years are over. The travel and hospitality business is recovering, the worst of the pandemic is over, though Covid and other diseases are still very dangerous for a small part of the population. Unfortunately, some people now have Long Covid. I’ve had […]

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How to Insure a Future Cruise or Travel Credit

July 28, 2022

Subscribe You were referenced on a Cruise Critic thread. Someone suggested you might know insurance plans that would cover the full cost of a canceled trip with Viking Cruises, when a portion of the cruise fare was paid with a Viking Voucher from a previously cancelled cruise. Once a Viking Voucher is used, Viking will […]

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Why are Travel Insurance Claims Taking So Long to Process?

July 14, 2022

Subscribe Why are Travel Insurance Claims Taking So Long to Process? Note: I originally wrote this on July 18, 2020. I updated it today with some more information. This is a typical phone call or email we have been getting for the last twenty nine (29) months: It’s now been 4 (or 5, 6, 7…) […]

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How Does Re-booking My Trip Affect My Initial Deposit Date?

March 28, 2022

Subscribe How Does Re-booking My Trip Affect My Initial Deposit Date? Prior to Covid, the most common reasons we saw that a traveler would potentially cancel and re-book their trip and not file a trip cancellation claim on their policy were these: Your travel supplier cancelled and they offered you a great deal on a […]

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