Looking to get DAN annual travel insurance (Voyager), have coverage questions

[TT_Vert]

I read through the entire description of coverages docs and still had questions. Called the DAN rep who asked me to call someone else. Unfortunately, all that person did was read off what I had already read and didn't answer my specific questions. In looking at covered events I see no mention of a dive op cancelling a trip due to weather. I see common carrier cancellation, evac due to weather, but not actual subjective cancellation due to weather. These were the examples I gave them and asked if they were covered. I also wonder if it makes sense to get both dive insurance and travel insurance. There seems to be some overlap so I'm unsure if you guys usually get both or not?


Hypothetical scenarios.

Would any non-refundable trip that is interrupted/cancelled due to say, poor ocean conditions or other subjective tour operator discretion be covered

• Examples (Are these “covered events”?)
  • I’ve already traveled to the location and am going on a liveaboard that has a no refund policy. They cancel due to bad weather. Would the liveaboard be covered? How about the flight to get to said location? (This is actually a very real scenario for me next year on a trip to Australia)
  • The water is a bit choppy, so the dive op opts to cancel a day trip and the dive op has a no refund policy (No hurricane

Thanks
Dave

 

[Damselfish]

Dive Accident insurance, you absolutely should have. Some ops require it.

Dive accident insurance does not actually overlap that much with regular travel insurance. And regular travel insurance may not cover some dive adjacent things you might hope. If you arrived at your destination, are lodged and fed, they may consider that enough - even if you didn’t get to do your planned activities. Or if its a liveaboard that never leaves the dock for whatever reason.
Diveassure offers a liveaboard rider that you might look into.

 

[TT_Vert]

Dive Accident insurance, you absolutely should have. Some ops require it.

Dive accident insurance does not actually overlap that much with regular travel insurance. And regular travel insurance may not cover some dive adjacent things you might hope. If you arrived at your destination, are lodged and fed, they may consider that enough - even if you didn’t get to do your planned activities. Or if its a liveaboard that never leaves the dock for whatever reason.
Diveassure offers a liveaboard rider that you might look into.

I will opt to purchase DAN's dive insurance and travel insurance but I just need to confirm that the above scenarios would be covered. If DAN travel insurance does not cover those scenarios they are not very helpful to me.

Dave

 

[Damselfish]

AFAIK DAN travel insurance has nothing special with regards to diving activities. It’s just regular travel insurance. I believe I read on this board that their travel insurance is from Generali (and that you can get the same policy direct from Generali for less.) Probably why they told you to talk to someone else.

Prepaid activities might be covered in some form, but they’d also need to be cancelled for a covered reason. Hurricanes are a special well defined thing, but dunno if random crappy weather conditions is one of their covered reasons. If they won’t say and put in writing they will cover something, there’s your answer.

But trip insurance covers a bunch of things, if you’re only buying it to insure dive charters and you consider the rest of the coverage unhelpful, you’re probably paying more for the insurance than you could lose. If you can’t work something out with an op and have to eat a day or 2 of day boat charter fees, hopefully it is not the end of the world?

I consider trip insurance to be primarily for the big things (if I buy it at all) and better to self-insure the small things instead of hassling with an insurance company.

A whole liveaboard is a big thing and a unique beast and as I said, you should look into Diveassure and their LOB rider.

 

[TT_Vert]

Thanks. We do travel a bit and annual travel insurance isn't a horrible idea. Especially for missed connections for a cruise, etc. We certainly have the ability to self insure most things (With the exception of major medical obviously) but this LOB to Australia got me thinking/researching. They say there are no refunds for bad weather and recommend travel insurance. If I have to eat a small trip I'm not worried about it but a $10K+ trip to AU., Galapagos, etc. I want to ensure I have some sort of financial guarantee I won't be holding the bag due to inclement weather, etc. From my reading most any non pre-existing medical issue is covered for both trip interruption/cancellation but it's the verbiage in the weather areas that make me wonder. Generali does not offer an annual travel insurance unfortunately.

I started to look at diveassure as well. If anyone has any other suggestions for other travel insurance options I'm all ears. I may go DAN for dive insurance and something else for travel.