How Close to Cruise Must There Be a Death in Family for Insurance to Pay
Tragedy struck just equally Ira Birnbaum and his wife prepared to set sheet along Alaska's breathtaking Inside Passage on Norwegian Cruise Line.
"The mean solar day before we were scheduled to fly to Seattle to lath the cruise, I got discussion that my mother was gravely ill and placed in hospice," recalls Birnbaum, who works for the federal government and lives in Annandale, Va. "The post-obit day, the twenty-four hour period of our scheduled cruise departure, she died."
When Birnbaum told United Airlines virtually his female parent'southward sudden passing, it offered him its condolences and a credit for a future flight. It also waived his ticket-change fee. Only when he informed his cruise line, it wasn't so generous.
"NCL refused to give me a refund, other than port taxes," he says. "They wouldn't fifty-fifty offer a credit toward a future cruise. I called dorsum several times in efforts to get more reasonable customer service representatives or speak to a supervisor, and I wasn't fifty-fifty allowed to speak to a supervisor. Needless to say, I was stunned by their draconian, insensitive attitude and outraged by their disgusting policy."
You lot'd assume that a cruise line would either refund a fare or offer a credit when there's a death in the family. Not necessarily. Some companies maintain strict no-refund rules, while other prowl lines claim to be more compassionate. Only it's about impossible to know how strict — or compassionate — until the unthinkable happens and a close relative dies before you're scheduled to set canvass.
AnneMarie Mathews, a spokeswoman for NCL, said that refund requests are reviewed on a "case by instance" footing, but that the company's refund rules are articulate: Any cancellations made within fourteen days or less of the sailing appointment are subject to a 100 percent counterfoil fee. A request for an exception must exist made to the company in writing. "In the example of Mr. Birnbaum, we are very sorry for his loss," she said. "All the same, we have not received a written request from him."
Birnbaum says that the cruise line never informed him of its refund process.
Although each cruise line handles credits or refunds in its own mode, they do accept compatible paperwork requirements, according to Michael McGarry, a spokesman for Cruise Lines International Association, an industry trade system. "A rider who tin't brand a cruise because of a family emergency should e'er notify the line and insurer of the counterfoil in writing, explain the circumstances, and provide whatsoever supporting information, such every bit a death certificate."
But beneath the surface, at that place are forces at piece of work that a traveler doesn't see. Sales of insurance and vacation "protection" are thought to be a significant and growing portion of a prowl line'due south revenue. In terminal year's almanac written report, NCL didn't suspension out its earnings from insurance sales, instead reporting $754 million in onboard and "other" revenue, an $82 one thousand thousand increase from a yr before. That's a piffling less than half the $1.8 billion in ticket revenue it reported in 2013.
Mathews says that NCL "strongly" encourages its customers to buy insurance "and then that they volition be covered" if at that place'southward a death in the family before a cruise.
To prod customers into buying pricey insurance, it benefits cruise lines to have a hard line on refunds — harder even than that of airlines, known for having some of the travel manufacture'due south least forgiving refund rules. It should come every bit no surprise, then, that some of the well-nigh intractable cases I've handled in the recent past involve uninsured passengers and intransigent cruise lines.
"Birnbaum'southward example is an easy call," says James Walker, a maritime chaser. "The poor passenger lost his female parent, for goodness' sake."
Past adopting rigid, bureaucratic policies, companies like NCL are sinking the unabridged manufacture'south image, says Kendall Carver, chairman of the International Cruise Victims Clan, a grouping that represents cruise passengers. "Clearly, in the long run, the failure to make any refund further hurts the image of the cruise industry, which is already pain. Information technology's a shortsighted approach on their office just to make a buck. It'due south my feeling that in the long run, it will only injure them more, equally individuals who have had this feel are clearly going to share their bad experiences with others."
Birnbaum suspects that NCL is imposing a too-strict "no refunds" policy that isn't shared by the residuum of the cruise industry. His married woman'southward niece had to cancel a recent Royal Caribbean cruise under like circumstances — a medical emergency involving a close relative — and the cruise line offered a full credit for a future cruise.
"We're normally pretty compassionate when a guest experiences a expiry in the family and is unable to have their cruise," says Cynthia Martinez, a Royal Caribbean spokeswoman. "We piece of work with the guest to come across what is the all-time course of action. We tin can work with them to reschedule their cruise. Sometimes we give them a credit to use on a future prowl, or they may take travel insurance that they tin can use. It really depends on their specific situation."
Carnival claims that it, too, is compassionate when its passengers experience a death in the family. "We are sensitive to when guests suffer a loss of a close relative and generally conform their wish to reschedule or provide a full refund, if requested," says Carnival spokeswoman Aly Bello.
Birnbaum isn't the only NCL example involving a refund asking subsequently the death of a family unit member. Howard and Sharon Levin were scheduled to sheet to Bermuda recently on the Norwegian Dawn ship, merely just earlier they left, their 25-year-old son died unexpectedly. NCL at first told Sharon that she'd receive no refund and that she should have purchased insurance. Then it offered her a 25 per centum discount on a hereafter cruise, which would expire later on a year.
"I don't even want my money back at this point, only the opportunity to take a cruise with my family to help heal," she told me. "My family has been devastated by this tragedy, and I am trying, on a daily basis, to hold anybody together."
I contacted NCL on her behalf. Initially, it did not respond. After I told the company that I was reporting on refunds, information technology reviewed its records and said that the Levins had accepted its discount offering. It considered the case closed.
Information technology's hard to say whether these passengers would have fared any differently on a competing prowl line, since none of the lines prominently advertise their policies on refunds in the event of a family member's expiry. Nosotros do know that insurance might have saved their vacation, but likewise that it would have benefited the cruise line.
Perhaps these families would have been better off flying to their vacation. At least they would accept received a more generous credit, if not a full refund.
Email Christopher Elliott at chris@elliott.org.
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Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/some-cruise-lines-take-a-hard-stance-on-refunds-even-when-a-relative-dies/2014/08/07/97a733a0-143e-11e4-98ee-daea85133bc9_story.html
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