Travel Insurance

[temeraire]

Just had a renewal through for annual travel insurance (family of 4 with winter sports and whole of Europe). An increase of £60 (40%) versus last year, despite not making any claims, and looking through the list of what is not covered makes me wonder if it is worth having at all.

The main get out clause is that they expect you to claim from your booking provider or credit card before you contact them. Personally the point of having travel insurance is that, should something happen, then I can call someone to sort it all for me without getting in a bun fight over who is liable for a payout.

I'll have to spend a few hours looking for a new provider. Anyone got recommendations for travel insurance that is actually useful?

 

[Bav]

It's always worth having travel insurance when going abroad, if only for the repatriation coverage (especially true if participating in winter sports). Agree that it's frustrating when premiums increase whilst coverage decreases, but you must have heard of cases in the news where people are seriously injured or ill and are unable to return home due to the mahoosive cost of chartering a medical plane staffed with the requisite medics.

 

[temeraire]

It's always worth having travel insurance when going abroad, if only for the repatriation coverage (especially true if participating in winter sports). Agree that it's frustrating when premiums increase whilst coverage decreases, but you must have heard of cases in the news where people are seriously injured or ill and are unable to return home due to the mahoosive cost of chartering a medical plane staffed with the requisite medics.

Yes, you are right of course, those medical costs are pretty much the only reason I take it out, particularly in relation to skiing. Seen some horrific situations.

Found a policy now on money supermarket with holiday extras that was cheaper than my current policy and covers more so relatively happy with that...

 

[Grim Reaper]

I've used alpha travel insurance for quite a few years, their annual zero excess policy is the best, I paid £78 for worldwide non wintersports cover this year, about the same as a 2 week single use policy from many other providers.

 

[Salty Spuds]

Just gone through a similar process. Current insurer bumped up the price by nearly 30%. Shopped around & got a better policy for less than last year’s premium.

 

[Grim Reaper]

The main get out clause is that they expect you to claim from your booking provider or credit card before you contact them. Personally the point of having travel insurance is that, should something happen, then I can call someone to sort it all for me without getting in a bun fight over who is liable for a payout.

I had a situation last year where my travel agent went bust after I had paid for 4 flights.
Turns out it's a common thing for agents to initially book the flights when you book and pay for them (I checked and did see bookings on the airlines booking system in June immediately after I had paid for the tickets) but the agent then either cancels the booking or fails to pay the airline at which point the airline cancels the booking, the agent planning to rebook the flights when they get to a price less than I paid for them thus increasing their profit margin.
Trouble is the agent went bust in July before they could rebook the flights when they reached a cheaper price.
I only found out by accident in November when looking for more flights for later on this year.
I found the flights I thought I had reserved no longer existed, so put in a claim via ATOL/CAA for their cost to be refunded. It turns out that the ATOL insurance isn't worth the paper it's printed on, they rejected my claim instead referring me to my credit card company to recover the funds. So why did I pay £10 odd for ATOL insurance if they are not going to cover the refund? Why should my credit card company (who I didn't pay any insurance fee to) foot the bill?
Rebooking the same flights would have cost twice what I booked them for 5 months earlier, it now being only 6 weeks before the flight dates, best I could do was fly a day later at an extra £200 each. Nearly cancelled the whole trip over it.
Next time I book a holiday, I'm going to ask for my ATOL insurance fee to be returned.

 

[Bav]

Why should my credit card company (who I didn't pay any insurance fee to) foot the bill?

Your credit card company wouldn't be footing the bill - they consolidate all the cardholder refunds and become a major creditor of the failed company. Then they'd be right at the front of the queue when it came to divvying-up any residual assets.

 

[Snowdawg]

I had platinum travel insurance for a Canadian ski holiday… on the way home there was a tragic accident ahead of us in the tunnel through the rockies, being a fatality it was closed. Not only did we miss the flight but we were diverted to Vancouver for 24 hours. Nothing was covered under the insurance (hotel/food etc…) all we got was a re-scheduled flight home (act of god clause). Choose insurance wisely, so when you need it… it works (how many peoples home contents insurance, for example, actually properly protects their contents in full… not many I would wager)

 

[Ricardo T]

Just taken out my travel insurance for the year with Staysure...multi trip europe cover (with some exclsions but which includes the Scandinavain countries where we are going to in may) for four adults in the same household (kids apparently not kids anymore)...including winter sports and independent travelling with the usual limitations...i phoned to double (the wait was a faff though) check'campervanning' was included as other policies seem to want booked accommodation...i was offered a discount of £41.88 if i took the policy out there and then so overall cost was £167.49 which seemed reasonable, compared to the so called online discounted price of £209.37.