Can You Have Multiple Travel Insurance Policies For The Same Trip?

by Steve Dasseos on April 25, 2008

My sister and I put a deposit on a cruise last Feb 2007, to depart in September 2008. We purchased the insurance at that time with the travel agent, for the cruise portion of the vacation. We are now purchasing our air fare and hotel for a pre cruise stay. Can we now get additional insurance through you for just the air and hotel portion, and keep the cruise portion with the other carrier? The final payment for the cruise is due June 18. Thanks, Linda

Yes Linda, you can insure any part of your trip cost with one of our plans. And you can get the plan anytime, even if you’re past your final payment.

The only part of this scenario you should keep in mind is if you end up having a medical claim. It’s likely the cruise line’s plan has Secondary medical coverage. Secondary’s not better or worse than Primary. It just refers to the order in which a claim is paid.

Therefore, if you end up getting another travel insurance plan, you must take care not to submit the same medical claim to both companies separately. I’ve seen people do this because they assumed that’s what they are supposed to do. The problem with submitting the same medical claim to both companies separately is that it has the appearance of committing medical claim fraud. It’s also known as “double dipping”.

In none of the cases I’m referring to, was “double dipping” ever the customer’s intention. However, in those cases it became known to both companies’ claim departments and it created a lot of unnecessary paperwork to get those claims paid.

PS – It’s not just “double dipping” on medical claims you have to watch out for. You have take care not to submit the same claim to both companies separately on any of the coverages where the policies overlap.

PPS (added Oct 13, 2017) – In the 9 and 1/2 years since I wrote this, some companies are now asking “Do you have other travel insurance that covers this trip?” If you see that, and you have more than one travel insurance policy that covers what you are making the claim for, then you need to say yes.

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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