Ski Travel Insurance
Know before you go – travel advice
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office website is full of useful information for people planning foreign trips. The site is promoting the “Know Before You Go” campaign; a partnership of travel industry organisations. The main points the campaign is getting across are:
- Do not travel without travel insurance
- Check the FCO website “Country Travel Advice” section
- Research your destination- know the local laws and customs
- Visit your GP as soon as possible about immunisations
- Check your passport is in good condition and valid- different countries have different requirements for the number of unexpired months you need.
- Make copies of important travel documents
- Tell someone where you are going and leave an emergency contact number
- Take enough cash and have access to emergency funds
Thousand of British travelers could have avoided a great deal of trouble if they had followed this advice. Also remember that you need to make sure your annual travel insurance or single trip travel insurance covers all the activities you are planning and all the countries you will be visiting.
If you are off on winter holiday make sure you purchase specialist winter sports travel insurance or ski travel insurance.
Parasailing death highlights travel risks
A father has fallen to his death in Turkey while parasailing with his daughter. Emma Hudson was on her first flight when her father Glenn who was in tandem with her suddenly fell 150 ft to the beach. Turkish police are investigating what went wrong and caused the death of an experienced parasailor.
Mr Hudson’s widow Linda has instructed a lawyer and is calling for tighter regulation of this type of holiday activity. Parasailing, water skiing and scuba diving are just some of the hazardous activities people often try on holiday and it is very difficult to judge in advance whether they are being properly run.
Make sure your travel insurance covers you for all the activities you may want to try. It is much better to contact your insurer before you travel rather than leave it until you are on holiday and decide to try something new. It may then be too late to arrange the cover you need.
Click4quote standard policy includes a variety of activities as standard and we also sell specialist polices and additional cover sections such as golf travel insurance, sailing travel insurance and ski travel insurance. Get a quote for full details.
Reckless skiers may not be rescued
Rescue services in the Italian Alps are criticising skiers and mountaineers who ignore advice and get themselves into trouble after reckless behaviour. They not only endanger themselves; on Boxing Day four rescuers were killed trying to save people trapped in an avalanche. The head of public safety at the time, Guido Bertoloso said : “I’ve had enough of rescue workers losing their lives because people want to go on excursions without heeding warnings”. His agency has proposed stiff penalties for reckless skiers including fines of up to £4,500 and even jail sentences.
More than 20 people have lost their lives in accidents in the Italian Alps this season. Recently, a rescue team found the two bodies of two climbers in an avalanche. They had taken no notice of safety warnings.
It is already a criminal offence to cause an avalanche and legal action can be taken against skiers and snowboarders recklessly injuring others. The new development is the suggestion that rescuers might not be prepared to risk their own lives to save people who had only themselves to blame.
It is essential that your travel insurance covers all the skiing, snowboarding and winter sports activities you will be undertaking. Check carefully for restrictions and contact your travel insurer if you are unsure.
Click4quote sell wintersports travel insurance online with documents instantly emailed to you. Quote and buy your travel insurance online and pick up and ski travel insurance deal!
Take care skiing on the slopes this winter
The Telegraph (January 23rd) reports that ski travel insurers are taking a tough line on skiers who injure themselves because of excessive drinking. A survey by a leading travel insurance provider suggests that more than 500,000 Britons will be skiing this winter season with almost twice the UK drink-drive limit of alcohol in their blood. The alcohol consumed the night before may still be in the bloodstream, possibly topped up at lunchtime. Another piece of research, this time by an insurance website suggests that 25% of skiers are adversely affected on the slopes by people who have drunk too much.
Some insurance policies contain an exclusion clause specifically aimed at drink related accidents. Even if your ski travel insurance policy does not specifically refer to alcohol there will probably be a clause saying that the insurer will not pay if the accident was caused by the policyholder failing to take reasonable care for his or her own safety. Excessive drinking would be an example of this.
Always check that your winter sports travel insurance policy covers all the activities you are likely to try. You may have to contact your insurer for quotations for the more hazardous activities like ski-racing for example. Let us know if you have any ski insurance problems or issues to raise.
Will travel insurance cover strike action?
The threat of strikes by BA cabin crew this Christmas has prompted many people to ask whether their travel insurance will cover them if their flight is cancelled.
As with so many questions about insurance the only answer is to check your policy wording because different insurers have different rules, and some policies may not cover your particular circumstances.
If your policy has a cancellation section check that strikes and industrial action are covered. If so, much will depend on when you bought the policy and travel ticket. The policy will almost certainly not cover you if you took it out after you knew about a strike that would cause the cancellation of your trip. Equally you will not be covered if you go ahead and by a ticket for a flight that you know will be covered by the industrial action. The good news is that as long as you have good quality cancellation or holiday abandonment cover and took out your policy and made your travel arrangements before the strikes were announced you should be covered. How much you receive will depend on the limits in the policy.
The Click4quote annual and single trip travel insurance policies do cover cancellation/holiday abandonment caused by strikes. Check the policy wordings and summaries on the website.
Ideal for this winter, check out our ski travel insurance and winter sports travel insurance.
How dangerous is skiing – need ski insurance
A few years ago the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents reported that more than 10,000 people have to attend British hospitals each year following accidents on the slopes.
This sounds like a worryingly high number and one wonders how travel insurers could ever make a profit! However there are always different ways of looking at statistics and recently a GP in Scotland has undertaken a comprehensive survey of skiing injuries. Dr Mike Langran runs a specialist website: www.ski-injury.com .
He says that between two and four people need medical attention out of every thousand people skiing or snowboarding in a day. Apparently the figure is slightly higher in Greece and Japan. The risk of accidental death is .7 per million skier visits and a lower figure of .46 deaths per million for snowboarders. These figures seem quite reassuring but for the people involved an accident on the slopes can be traumatic.
Apparently 10% of accidents involve a collision, 5% involve ski-lifts and another 5% relate in some way to equipment breaking or failing. You are more likely to have an accident if you have been drinking and this may be a reason for there being more accidents in the afternoon than the morning.
There has long been a debate about the benefits of helmets but Dr Langran advises wearing one that is suitable for the activity you are planning and conforms to the relevant standards. Personal fitness is also a factor; if your body is unprepared for the physical strain of skiing you are more likely to suffer an injury.
Make sure your ski travel insurance covers the type of activity you are planning- some have exclusions that may rule out the cover you need. Make sure you have winter sports insurance in place before you travel.