About Winter Sports Travel Insurance

As the days grow shorter and summer becomes a memory, many of us will be turning our thoughts towards planning a winter vacation, especially one involving winter sports such as skiing. Travel insurance is an often overlooked part of holiday planning, but if you plan on taking part in sporting activites then it really is essential.

A normal travel insurance policy will probably not be up to the standard you need for winter sports, and if things go wrong you could be left facing a huge bill. So what features should you be looking for in a policy?

• Injury Cover

No matter how accomplished a skiier you are, hurtling down a mountain is always going to be more risky than simply lying on a beach working on a tan. And if you do have an accident, a mountainside isn't the easiest place for medical services to reach. If you're unlucky enough to need a mountain rescue or airlift to hospital, you'll be facing a bill running into the thousands even before you get medical attention. This sort of expense is likely to be specifically excluded on a standard insurance policy, but will be an integral part of almost any winter sports cover.

• Equipment

Most winter sports require expensive equipment, and where there are valuables there's always the chance of theft. Your insurance should provide enough cover to fully replace your equipment with brand new items if necessary, right there at the resort. Even if you plan to hire your equipment, the hire company will probably require insurance - and your own policy is likely to be cheaper than the standard one they'll try to sell you.

• Liability

Even the best skiiers or snowboarders can be involved in an accident in which someone else gets injured. Whether or not an accident is your fault, you could end up being taken to court and this is usually a long and expensive process. A decent insurance policy will cover costs from any legal proceedings and / or compensation payments.

• Closure of Piste

If bad weather (or warm weather!) means that the pistes are closed and you can't ski, your policy should pay you compensation to cover the costs of any pre-booked lessons or lift fees, and many will even include a payment simply to cover the inconvenience of not being able to ski.

• Off Piste

A final point to note is that a standard winter sports policy will probably only cover you for accidents that occur when skiing on designated pistes. If you plan to go off-piste, then make sure your insurance will cover this - you'll probably have to pay a supplement.

As with most kinds of insurance, paying out for travel insurance can seem like a waste of money. However, if you find yourself caught up in an accident on the mountainside then the costs involved can be truly frightening and you'll be glad you took the time to arrange adequate cover in advance!

A short guide to travel insurance

Travel Insurance – A Need to Know guide? Travel insurance protects holiday expenses against adverse events such as cancellation and interruption and also reimburses medical expenses, the loss or damage of property and transit delays. 

Many millions of travellers and holiday makers purchase some form of insurance every year, but few people know really what it is and how it can be defined. If you know what is included, and what is not you will be able to make the most of your protection, and get reimbursed fairly.

There are four main categories of travel insurance:

1. Health and Medical reasons

Emergency evacuation: This garuantees emergency transportation to either a local hospital in the event that the traveller is unable to get there by themselves or back to a hospital near the traveller’s home town. If family members are covered on the same policy they can travel back home also.

Medical reasons: This reimburses emergency medical and dental costs. Nearly all holiday insurance plans work by reimbursing the traveller after they have paid locally for treatment. Claims are usually paid within 7 – 10 working days. Pre-existing medical conditions are covered by most policies if the policy is purchased within (at the most) 21 days from the date the traveller made the first payment or deposit.

2. Delays and cancellation or curtailment

Cancellation: Re-imbursement comes into effect if travellers have booked and paid for a holiday, but are unable to embark because of personal illness or injury, death (of the individual or of a family member), adverse weather conditions, transport strikes, terrorism, bankruptcy, sudden unemployment, jury duty or by sustaining serious damage to their home causing it to be uninhabitable due to fire or flooding. 

Delay: This reimburses travellers for hotel, food or clothing expenses in the event of a flight delay. Some plans also cover costs associated with catching up with a cruise should another delay cause the traveller to miss embarkation.

Interruption: Insurance companies pay money to policy holders abroad if they have to cut short their trip due to illness, death (of the traveller or a family member), terrorism, weather, airline strikes, bankruptcy, sudden unemployment, and other adverse conditions which mean that, due to events outside the control of the holiday-maker, a trip has to be curtailed. 

3. Death :

Accidental death – covers death or dismemberment at any time of your trip. Usually garuantees the lowest amount of coverage due to a higher risk

Air Flight accident – this covers death or dismemberment during an air flight only. Usually garuantees the highest amount of coverage due to fairly low likelihood of this occurring.

Common carrier – Covers death or dismemberment while travelling on public transport such as a plane, ferry, train bus or taxi.

4. Loss or damage of property : 

Baggage loss – reimburses travellers for lost, stolen or damaged personal items. This coverage is usually restricted to the duration of the trip and not confined to baggage damaged or lost by the airline. There are two policy limits, total claim and per item maximum. Some policies also place limits on the type of items that can be claimed for – such as precious jewellery, laptops and sporting goods

Hire Car damage – This reimburses travellers for damage or loss to a rental vehicle. It is designed to allow the traveller to decline collision damage waiver (CDW) coverage offered by the car rental companies. Liability coverage should still be purchased through the car rental company. Rental Car Damage coverage is also often included with the credit card used to pay for the car rental which is often matches the coverage provided in the policy.

Assistance services – garuantees a 24-hour collect telephone advice and assistance service to travellers. This service can be used anytime a traveller needs advice. Make sure you keep a copy of this number in several places in your luggage or on your person when you move around.

Travel Arrangements and Insurance

There are many different types of traveller. There are business men and women who are flying from one city to another for brief meetings, then there are families taking a two week holiday to the sun with young children, then there are students or gap year travellers who will be backpacking around exotic locations on extremely low budgets. There are really about as many different types of traveller as there are different types of person. 

There are many different approaches you can take to booking your travel arrangements. Your main priority may be convenience, for example if you have a meeting near the airport you will need airport accommodation and little else, however, if you are travelling for pleasure, you are likely to have far less restrictions and will be willing to consider all types of arrangements. You can have these arranged for you by a travel agent or you could do it for yourself online. Or alternatively, you may wish to simply travel to a city or country with absolutely no plans and just see what happens when you get there.

On of the things you should always travel with is proper health and travel insurance. Obviously your requirements will again vary depending on what kind of travel you are undertaking. If you are travelling for business, full travel insurance that will provide you with alternative flights if yours is cancelled or delayed will be important. For most holiday travellers, this may not be quite as important. If you are travelling with children you may wish to consider it, but otherwise you may be quite flexible and tolerant if delays do occur. But you may be more worried about your luggage and belongings and wish to have good coverage for loss or damage to your property. All these options are available today with the various travel insurance companies that are operating in the market.

Generally speaking, you will always need health insurance when you travel. You cannot afford to take the risk that an accident or serious injury occurs and you do not have proper coverage. There are many parts of the word where free national health insurance is not provided and if you do require medical treatment, it will only be provided if you can pay for it. Particularly if you are travelling with children, you should always arrange adequate travel insurance with medical coverage. This is simply a risk that you do not want to be bearing yourself especially when the cost of travel insurance is so affordable.

Travel Pet Insurance

Recent changes to the UK’s quarantine laws mean that it is now possible for you to obtain a pet passport (under the government’s ‘passport for pets’ scheme) and take your family pet away with you on holiday. However, before you run off down to your local travel agent and book tickets for the whole family to that exotic seaside tropical location you have always wanted to visit but have to put off because everyone else at home didn’t want to leave Fido in the kennel, you might want to consider getting you and your family some travel insurance – including that all important travel pet insurance.

A number of leading pet insurance providers now offer pet owners travel pet insurance to give pet owners the comfort of knowing whether they are far away in exotic places enjoying the sun and sea or closer to home enjoying the cultural delights of Europe, their pet will be insured against any illness or mishap that may unfortunately befall them.  

Typically, included in the travel pet insurance is:

• x-rays
• injections
• lab tests
• prescriptions
• costs while they stay at the vet and recuperate

Keep in mind, however, that as with other types of insurance, travel pet insurance usually comes with what is known as an excess.  In short, what this means is that you – as the owner if the pet – will be required to pay a certain amount until a threshold amount is reached.  Thereafter you can claim for a reimbursement against the insurance provider.  However, unlike humans, travel pet insurance premiums are usually calculated on the type of animal you have and the age of the animal.  As such, it is possible to leave arranging the travel pet insurance policy until the last minute, then purchasing this online once you have decided that you will definitely be taking your family pet away with you on your family holidays!

Moreover, as with human travel insurance policies, pet travel insurance can be purchased either as annual policy or as a one-off travel policy.  If you get an annual pet travel policy, this means you can take your pet with you whenever you travel one of the 25+ countries outside of the UK which the UK government currently has arrangements for the ‘passport for pets’ scheme, or any of the European Union countries (which are all part of the ‘passport for pets’ scheme already).  Alternatively, with one-off pet travel insurance policies you need to name the country you are going to visit and the dates you’ll be there and the policy will only cover you for the duration and place stated.

Do I need insurance for a holiday in the UK?

Last week my wife and I booked a two centre holiday on the Scottish Isles. Seven days on Skye and then a ferry over to Steornabhagh for a further seven days on the Isle of Lewis. Wonderful scenery, plenty of walks and masses of peace and quiet. 

You could have blown me over when my local travel agent assumed that I wanted travel insurance for an additional £27.50. Not on your Nellie the Lock Ness monster, I thought. Who needs travel insurance for a holiday in Britain? The National Health Service is free and in an emergency, my son could drive up and bring us home. 

Later in the relaxing setting of my sitting room I got to thinking ………….. 

Holiday misfortunes don't only happen abroad. So with my pessimistic hat on, I made a note of the risks: 

Some rotter might steal our luggage 

Last week I bought an all singing and dancing digital camera especially for the trip. Got it on the Internet. I might lose it whilst away. 

If either of us were hospitalised we wouldn't want to be marooned on Skye. We'd want to transfer to our local hospital in Warwickshire. 

My wife's parents are getting on. God forbid, but I'd have to cancel the holiday if something happened to them just before we're due to go. 

One of us could be taken ill before we depart and we'd be forced to cancel. As the ferries and the hotels were non-cancellable, we'd lose everything we'd paid. 

There may be a major delay at the ferry going over to the Isle of Lewis. Besides the inconvenience, we have to arrange an extra overnight stay on Skye. 

One of us might be called up for jury service. 

Then it struck me. If I were holidaying in the Britain, my existing Home and Contents policy might cover me for loss of my camera or luggage. I dug out the policy document. Lucky I did. I was only insured for “personal possessions” if they were listed and as I'd just bought my digital camera I hadn't got round to listing it as a valuable item on my policy. 

Another aspect struck me. I'd lose my no claims discount if I made a holiday related claim on my Home & Contents policy. That wouldn't be a good idea. I've got a ten year claims free record that policy and it still cost me £310 a year. I jotted down a another note – remember, when the policy comes up for renewal, see if I could get it cheaper on the Internet. 

By now a travel policy at £27.50 for was looking worthwhile after all. 

Now my wife says I'm a bit of an old skin flint. So keep up the image! I know, get back online and check out the travel agents' policy at £27.50. Is it competitive? 

Not all the web sites I surfed could offer me a single trip travel policy for a holiday within the UK but within ten minutes I'd found what I wanted - and a saving of over £10! 

Time to study the small print to confirm I had the cover I wanted. Great, all the risks I had noted were covered. The insurer would even pay out £30 if my ferry was delayed for up to 12 hours and then give me the option to cancel my trip to the Isle of Lewis and get my money back. 

Now what wouldn't they pay for? I wasn't covered if my holiday was for less than two nights or my hotel was less than 25 miles away from home. I also had to meet the first £30 of any claim. Seemed fair to me. 

The decision was made. Simply type in my credit card details and I was insured in a CLICK. 

Peace of mind restored!

Travel Insurance

Are you considering about traveling overseas? It is something quite common these days. A trip overseas can be a great experience a once in a lifetime adventure. It would be a great tragedy if something went wrong, so it’s better to be prepared. Not only will it beneficial to you but your loved ones.

Besides the obvious things to have when you travel like passports, and tickets, you should get travel insurance. It is something many people might over look, but it is essential when traveling overseas. But don’t go for the cheapest insurance you can find. Make sure you find a policy that will cater to all your needs and take care of you incase anything happens to you or your family. Look around at different policies and see what is out there. 

You should know what is in the policy and what is not included. Read what the policy covers. A good example is terrorism; some insurance policies can not include those kinds of incidents to be claimable. Find out about this and other incidents that are claimable and not. You should ask as many questions that you want, don’t be shy if you don’t exactly understand what is said in the policy, and ask before you sign it. Make sure that your insurer knows and cover adventure activities, like water rafting or things of that nature. Make sure you can participate in those types of activities before getting the insurance because sometimes they aren’t covered in some polices. Ask if you can claim for your luggage if it is left unattended, you should know all the little deatiles. 

So save yourself some unforeseen trouble and get travel insurance. Because you never know what will and can happen. Anything is possible. So be prepared, you’ll be glad you did.