Andrea Doria and Trip Insurance

[RJP]

I forget what the percentage of time they CAN'T make the crossing from Grand Cayman, but I seem to recall that it's not terribly uncommon. I think it's one of those "you pay your money, and you take your chances" sort of things. Especially given the fact that they are crystal clear about the fact that you may not make the crossing.

I was on a livaboard in Truk a few years ago and one of the divers ended up with a full-blown sinus infection. Only got two dives in the whole week. What would the "good customer service" recognition be for such a disappointment? On the Galapagos Sky back in 2009 the six divers on the "other" RIB got skunked and didn't see any whalesharks in two days diving Wolf & Darwin. That must have been disappointing to them. Missing an experience of a lifetime must be worth a few hundred dollars, right?

At some point, should divers expect a few dollar refund for undercooked eggs or a beer that wasn't cold enough to their liking?

Yes, they offer "Storm Check" promotions... because they'd be leaving the dock with half-empty boats during hurricane season. They also offer discounts and promos during other times when the boats are less than full.

 

[Wookie]

I will only speak for this policy. The insurance was for the value of any pre-paid costs - not delivered - due to a covered reason (such as weather.) Pre-paid costs for this trip are strictly the charter fees: $1750. Whatever value was delivered - would be deducted from the payable part of this claim.

They would not include my gasoline driving a trailer with 1800 pounds of dive gear, cylinders, and compressed gas from St. Louis, MO to Point Judith, RI. Nor would the 700 cf feet of Technical Grade Helium be covered. Lost time. Any other incidentals. My costs for this trip approached $5000, 8 days of vacation, and 2200 miles on my truck.

Nor did I get the worst of it. My dive buddy from Jersey (in the United Kingdon) flew in from the UK, rented all his gear, and purchased his gas fills locally. This was a super expensive trip for him - and he indicated that trip insurance is not available in his part of the world... He is looking at a total loss. Heck - I was even able able to scavenge most of the helium I had pumped - and re-purpose it. I only lost about $100 in helium (my wholesale cost).

I consider myself very lucky. And I met some really wonderful people from all over the world. It was not a total loss. Hope I have better luck next year.

Cheers,

I think you said TravelGuard, and that's the policy that we sell also. They have been excellent with my customers. It is also important (to me) that many of the folks on your trip with you were on the Spree last week, including Sharkbait, Carrie and Katy, and Sabine. Sharkbait, Carrie, and Katy drove from Arizona, and there was much (overwhelming) discussion of the trip to the Doria.

To answer KWinter.

In that case, if I screwed up the weather call, We would not refund, because the money is spent, but we would give you a full value voucher for another trip in the future.

 

[bl6394]

I think you said TravelGuard, and that's the policy that we sell also. They have been excellent with my customers. It is also important (to me) that many of the folks on your trip with you were on the Spree last week, including Sharkbait, Carrie and Katy, and Sabine. Sharkbait, Carrie, and Katy drove from Arizona, and there was much (overwhelming) discussion of the trip to the Doria.

Yes. I saw Sharkbait's pictures from your trip to the Araby Maid and regarded the porthole he recovered with a great deal of jealousy...

And Sabine was a pleasure to meet on the Doria trip. A very nice lady - and I really enjoyed the wreck diving videos she shared.

Hope sometime I get a chance to dive with you. It looked like your customers had a great time.

 

[kwinter]

In that case, if I screwed up the weather call, We would not refund, because the money is spent, but we would give you a full value voucher for another trip in the future.

That would be fully acceptable and good customer service. That's why you are still in business and the other jackass is not.


iPhone. iTypo. iApologize.

 

[KathyV]

I forget what the percentage of time they CAN'T make the crossing from Grand Cayman, but I seem to recall that it's not terribly uncommon. I think it's one of those "you pay your money, and you take your chances" sort of things. Especially given the fact that they are crystal clear about the fact that you may not make the crossing.

I was on a livaboard in Truk a few years ago and one of the divers ended up with a full-blown sinus infection. Only got two dives in the whole week. What would the "good customer service" recognition be for such a disappointment? On the Galapagos Sky back in 2009 the six divers on the "other" RIB got skunked and didn't see any whalesharks in two days diving Wolf & Darwin. That must have been disappointing to them. Missing an experience of a lifetime must be worth a few hundred dollars, right?

At some point, should divers expect a few dollar refund for undercooked eggs or a beer that wasn't cold enough to their liking?

Yes, they offer "Storm Check" promotions... because they'd be leaving the dock with half-empty boats during hurricane season. They also offer discounts and promos during other times when the boats are less than full.

Something similar happened to us several years ago in Bonaire. We were staying at Den Laman for 2 weeks and had purchased boat and shore dive packages with Bari Dive and Adventure. Shortly after we arrived my husband got sick with respiratory infection, and as he was getting better I came down with the same infection. We were only able to do a few dives during all that time. Just bad luck. The weather was great and we did manage to do some snorkeling.

They were under no obligation to do so, and we didn't ask, but they graciously offered us free diving vouchers for a repeat trip within one year. They recognized that we had purchased services that we had unable to use - although it was nobody's fault.

It turned out that we were not able to take advantage of the vouchers but we appreciated the gesture. When we returned to Bonaire a few years later we again stayed at Den Laman and dived with BD&A. We were happy to pay full price for their services and it was a great trip.

 

[BRT]

So, let's look at something that happens all the time. You bought a plane ticket to go diving. Let's say to Cayman. You check the weather and it looks too rough for the Cayman Aggressor to make the crossing, but you've been on the Cayman Aggressor before, and your purpose for booking is to dive the Brac and Little Cayman. It's obvious that you will be stuck on the North Shore.

Your purpose is to dive Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are on the itinerary. It's obvious you won't, but if you go you will dive North Grand Cayman (again. Maybe for the third time). The boat will go out, although not to the published itinerary.

Who owes you what?

You need to remember that this is an insurance company insuring the trip not the dive operator not getting paid.

 

[Wookie]

You need to remember that this is an insurance company insuring the trip not the dive operator not getting paid.

I do get that. Let me also tell you that most (like 95%) of liveaboard customers (at least my liveaboard customers) do NOT buy travel insurance. One of my competitors has a no refund policy for anything, including named storms, etc. If I adopted the same policy, and we cancelled for weather, the screaming would be heard at your house.

That's why I like Captain Hank's idea of supplying travel insurance for every trip. That way, the price of the trip is adjusted so that travel insurance is included in the price, the operator is protected from weather, and the diver is protected from any mishap, be it weather, plane delay, luggage delay (we don't exactly dive where you can put luggage in a taxi to the boat), etc. I'll be talking to TravelGuard later today.

 

[BRT]

I do get that. Let me also tell you that most (like 95%) of liveaboard customers (at least my liveaboard customers) do NOT buy travel insurance. One of my competitors has a no refund policy for anything, including named storms, etc. If I adopted the same policy, and we cancelled for weather, the screaming would be heard at your house.

That's why I like Captain Hank's idea of supplying travel insurance for every trip. That way, the price of the trip is adjusted so that travel insurance is included in the price, the operator is protected from weather, and the diver is protected from any mishap, be it weather, plane delay, luggage delay (we don't exactly dive where you can put luggage in a taxi to the boat), etc. I'll be talking to TravelGuard later today.

Probably a good marketing move but I try not to buy insurance for any loss that I can afford to take myself. Obviously insurance companies make a profit. While I approve of that I don't want to donate to their profit if I don't need to.

 

[KeithG]

should you think about "constant trip insurance"?

we have a friend that travels a lot. i mean a real lot. all for pleasure, not business. she introduced us to the concept of continuous blanket travel insurance.

we used to tack on travel insurance to each dive trip. this stuff included medical, cancellation and interuption and was normally about %10 of the cost of a trip.

she laughed at us. she paid slightly more than 1 of our trips for a whole year of full coverage.

we have now converted to a yearly plan that covers all of our trips: diving, golfing, drinking, whatever... It includes medical, interruption and cancellation insurance all in 1 policy.

our coverage is via blue cross canada and is not limited to scuba.

 

[Shasta_man]

<<this is one of the riskier activities that one can engage in>> - thanks for the chuckle.

Having gotten sick a couple of times, though at max missing 1.5 days, I never expected the liveaboard/dive op to give me anything towards it. Any offer would have been an unexpected surprise. The 1.5 days lost on one trip was on the Bilikiki where I got sick from another passenger. He was sick when he started the trip and never got to dive at all. Would seem even worse to have to sit there in that location and not be able to dive. I think I got his illness from the stairway bannister we had to hold on to going down to our cabins. The captain was not particularly helpful as he refused to consider choosing any sites for the last day where I could just snorkel nearby while normal diving was going on. Snorkeling wasn't the problem as one customer's wife swam around the boat every day instead of diving. That trip I also learned the value of humidity after living in dry ol' California for so long to avoid the humid East coast I grew up in. In the Solomons, my head was nice and open and flowing and when I returned it seized up and I had to go back to decongestants to open it up again