Travel Insurance for Papua New Guinea trip...need advice...

I have been researching some travel insurance ideas and my main concern is being able to be re-imbursed on airfare in the event that the liveaboard dive boat I'm going on does not leave and has a down week. DAN Travel Insurance and Travel Guard have both told me that if the tour company cancels the trip due to lack of participation that there's nothing they can or would do...

Has anyone ever been in this case and found a travel plan that would re-imburse you the cost of your plane tickets if the trip didn't leave because the liveaboard in question didn't have enough people?

Anyone able to offer advice?

something to keep in mind about airfare - even a non-refundable ticket can generally be reused for a fee. So if you think you would reschedule the trip, or it's on an airline you would be able to use the value of the tickets someplace else (typically within a year) you aren't out the whole cost of the tickets.

I think I see what you're saying.....

I booked my tickets on travelocity.com and they were non-refundable - but I suppose they can have the dates change but you have to pay the difference and the penalty change fee which might amount to a few hundred dollars but regardless, you can change the dates. I am trying to avoid this, but it is nice to know that this is an option in the worst case scenario.

Thanks!

check this company:
Travel Insurance - CSA Travel Protection Provides Coverage for Your Trip

whenever we go on a liveaboard trip, we buy trip insurance just because you never know what might happen when you are out of the country. I have heard so many horror stories I would rather have the peace of mind!!

You also might check out Travel Guard International for your travel insurance.

ewaiea:

Has anyone ever been in this case and found a travel plan that would re-imburse you the cost of your plane tickets if the trip didn't leave because the liveaboard in question didn't have enough people?

Click to expand...

Having travel insurance is a good idea for foreign travel as others have said. However, with respect to your worries about the LOB not going due to too few people, boat problems, etc. -- have you spoken to the operator about their policies??

Fortunately, I've never had a problem yet. However, I know of several instances where the operator did whatever they could to ensure their passengers could dive with someone else or were compensated (e.g. hiring a substitute boat due to their own boat coming out of dry dock late, finding places on other operators or even compensating for expenses for cancelling due ot the operator's problems, doing a charter with only 2-3 guests on board).

Clearly, if they've informed you that they might not run due to low number that's another kettle of fish....

ewaiea:

Has anyone ever been in this case and found a travel plan that would re-imburse you the cost of your plane tickets if the trip didn't leave because the liveaboard in question didn't have enough people?

Click to expand...

Hi ewaiea,

With the diver in mind, I've researched and written several articles on travel insurance plans and am not aware of any that include this specific protection. Moreover, I highly doubt that such coverage exists.

Hopefully the boat will make quota.

Have fun.

DocVikingo

If you would be choosing Febrina or Star Dancer out of Walindi, your best bet then would be that you can dive with Walindi as there is excellent boat dives from the resort. This would be of course flying in to Hoskins (New Britain) out of Port Moresby

I've exchanged a few emails with Wayne Brown the CEO of Peter Hughes and Aggressor - he has told me his marketing team will be working on shifting some things around to get the trip booked. They usually don't see people book this trip more than 150 days out so I'm just sitting tight. But props to Wayne Brown for his attention to his customers, I hope everything works out. I also asked him if I could jump on the Island Dancer in Fiji (if there is space last minute and the Star Dancer gets cancelled)for the same timeframe, since I would only have to fly from Sydney to Fiji which is far less than from home and asked if I could apply my Star Dancer charter money to the Island Dancer, Fiji - I never did hear back on that so I am assuming it's more like a "we'll jump off that bridge when we come to it" type of deal. I talked with some reservation agents with Peter Hughes and they couldn't give me a for sure answer of what would happen if the trip got cancelled - I assume it's kind of a case by case basis.....I sincerely hope this doesn't wind up being an issue.

The Star Dancer has been in PNG for some time, I figure they would have cancelled ops there if it was a huge liability and weeks were always cancelled, so hopefully cancelling the boat is rareity - if anyone knows otherwise or any details of what the company does if the boat is cancelled please feel free to chime in.

Eau_Girl:

Having travel insurance is a good idea for foreign travel as others have said. However, with respect to your worries about the LOB not going due to too few people, boat problems, etc. -- have you spoken to the operator about their policies??

Fortunately, I've never had a problem yet. However, I know of several instances where the operator did whatever they could to ensure their passengers could dive with someone else or were compensated (e.g. hiring a substitute boat due to their own boat coming out of dry dock late, finding places on other operators or even compensating for expenses for cancelling due ot the operator's problems, doing a charter with only 2-3 guests on board).

Clearly, if they've informed you that they might not run due to low number that's another kettle of fish....

Click to expand...

They didn't warn me about this being an issue - in fact they encouraged me to get in on this week as opposed to a different one because some dive club in Texas had 4 spots booked with one more single booked so I would make the 6th person, needing to fill only two more spots. Well, this Texas dive club just cancelled every spot and now we're back to only two people including me. I was the one who brought up my concerns, they never warned me because they said it's too early to get worried.

hmmmm.......**biting finger nails**........who wants to come??? It's gonna be a great trip! Honest!......**biting finger nails some more***