The holidays are upon us, and it’s excellent news that bookings are up. But it’s not going to be a Merry Christmas if you don’t prepare your clients for the new realities of this winter’s cruises now that we’re facing the triple whammy of COVID, flu, and RSV.
Be Sure Your Clients Buy Travel Insurance or Travel Protection
Travel insurance or travel protection makes so many things more manageable. It protects YOU against getting caught in the never-ending cycle of canceling and making new bookings without compensation. With “cancel for any reason” (CFAR) travel insurance or protection, if clients cancel bookings, you still get paid.
From the client’s side, CFAR preserves its options. If they decide to cancel a penthouse booking for a voyage to Antarctica (easily a $30K proposition), they can cancel it while only forfeiting the cost of the insurance or travel protection plan.
Further, no one gets hurt. The clients get most of their money back and may book again with you, your host agency, and you share that four-figure commission; and the cruise line keeps the fare and can sell the penthouse to someone else.
This is the kind of travel protection that you should recommend. If it’s offered by the cruise line or tour company, it’s often less expensive than the travel insurance without CFAR provided by independent insurance companies. Why? One reason is that the commissions paid on travel protection plans are typically 10% vs. the 20-25% paid by travel insurance companies. But travel protection plans have other benefits for you.
Travel protection policies typically don’t have age restrictions, and clients of all ages pay the same rates. In today’s market, they often cost about 10-11% of the cruise fare. They typically provide CFAR refunds until just a few weeks before you travel; they also cover trip baggage losses, trip interruptions, and medically related costs, including hospitalization, quarantine, and medical evacuations due to accidents, COVID, and other illnesses.
Travel protection policies usually DON’T cover the financial failure of the cruise line or travel company. If your cruise line goes bankrupt as Crystal Cruises did, a travel protection policy would not have to pay off. Also, cruise lines and travel companies offering “travel protection” often don’t require the financial reserves of insurance companies, and the persons selling them do not have to be licensed.
Some travel protection plans, such as those sold by Viking, combine the best of both worlds:
“The Viking Travel Protection Plan includes a non-insurance Cancel For Any Reason Waiver (provided by Viking), Travel Insurance Benefits (underwritten by Generali- U.S. Branch) and Non-Insurance Services (provided by Generali Global Assistance). Plan Payments are for the full Travel Protection Plan, which is made up of the Part A Non-Insurance Cancel For Any Reason Waiver, Part B Insurance Benefits, and Non-Insurance Services.”
Viking’s Travel Protection is “highly recommended” on all ocean and riverboat cruises and required on cruises to some destinations such as Antarctica and Vietnam.
Encourage Your Clients to Get Vaxed and Fully Boosted
Not getting vaxed or regular boosts is no longer a political statement. If like me, you got COVID immediately after returning from a fall cruise on a nearly half-empty luxury small ship, it makes no difference whether you got infected on the cruise, airline, or a shore excursion. Your paramount concern is worrying about how to survive the experience.
Medical personnel have labeled me a “trainwreck” due to my bouts with obesity (now cured), diabetes, strokes, and heart disease. When I got COVID on my last cruise a month ago, because I was vaccinated and “quad-boosted,” I had only three bad days requiring bed rest. I went to a clinic and took the medication they recommended the day after I tested positive; I tested negative within a week. With so many unvaxed but younger & healthier people requiring hospitalization, it makes no sense for your clients to “roll the dice” on their next vacation.
Suggest Your Clients Consult a Doctor Before They Leave
Methods of mitigating the effect of COVID and other contagious illnesses are far from “cookie cutter.” They depend on your health history, age, and physical condition. Also, some physicians are more proactive than others. Friends on the same cruise on which my wife and I got infected consulted their doctor a few days before the cruise and were provided with self-administered COVID tests and the medication they would need to take if they became infected. (And yes, they ended up needing it.)
Warn Your Clients to Protect Themselves on Planes and Ships
Please don’t believe the hype that airlines and cruise lines have installed HVAC and cleaning systems that protect you from COVID and other viruses: they haven’t and don’t. If you’re seated next to someone –masked or not – who is coughing and sneezing early in the flight, politely ask a flight attendant to move you to another seat: Even if it’s between two huge football players. If you’ve gone to the expense of buying a veranda cabin, slide open the door slightly 24×7: Even if it’s cold out there. Our friend who got sick on the cruise never even saw the couple who were being isolated for COVID by the cruise line in the stateroom next to them.
Tell Your Clients That COVID Statistics for Travelers Might Not Be a Good Predictor
The COVID statistics reported for travelers often don’t include those who self-test or don’t seek treatment. This drives the reported cases way down. In most parts of the world (Australia and New Zealand being notable exceptions), cruise lines do not have to report the number of crew members and guests who get COVID during the cruise.
There are ways to deal with this problem in real-time, such as analyzing the “solid waste” (poop) on a ship and identifying blocks of cabins where some people are infected. Then, a 30-second breath-analyzer test can identify the individuals who will probably test positive on a hospital-grade lab test.
The problem is: What does the cruise line do then? Do they isolate these persons in their cabins and provide medical supervision for guests or crew? Do they move them to an isolated block of cabins? Do they remove them from the ship at the next port? Or do they ignore the problems of any of these options and not attempt to identify infected individuals?
A Better Way of Doing Business
Most cruise lines have opted not to identify those who have COVID unless they self-report or seek treatment. Circling back to the top of this article, this is almost certainly what guests, and the cruise line, will choose to do unless they have travel protection plans that protect them against the financial consequences so they can cruise again shortly.
This is probably why certain lines, such as Viking, “strongly recommend” or require that all guests buy CFAR travel protection. It is also why all Viking Ocean ships have a medical lab and specially trained medical personnel. This gives the guests and Viking options that aren’t viable on most other cruise lines.
This adds another item for which guests must pay but, judging by the growth of Viking Ocean and their river cruises and the awards they’ve won from guests, it hasn’t harmed their competitiveness. Perhaps this is what other lines and travel advisors should do to improve the possibility of the guests opting to book with them again.
Dr. Steve Frankel and his wife have cruised on most of the Seabourn, Silversea, Crystal, Azamara, Oceania, Regent, and Windstar ships. Steve is the founder of Cruises & Cameras Travel Services, LLC. He has been recognized as a “2021 Top Travel Specialist” by Conde Nast Traveler magazine and a “Travel Expert Select “by the Signature Travel Network. His specialties are luxury small-ship cruises and COVID-19 safety measures, and has a doctorate in Educational Research with minors in Marketing and Quantitative Business Analysis. He’s also earned a Certificate in Epidemiology from Johns Hopkins University. Previously, he managed qualitative and quantitative research in the private & public sectors. He’s a member of the Los Angeles Press Club, and has written 13 books and hundreds of articles. His email address is steve@cruisesandcameras.com.
