Travel Insurance

robinph

Has anyone who's previously done a season got any clues as to who I could get travel insurance from? Was just checking on the details of my current cover, which I'd got all the available extras on, and although it does cover for being out of the country for several months at a time, it only allows for 17 days winter sports during each year which is nowhere near enough for doing three months in New Zealand.

paulharte

USIT do a winter sports addon to their normal policy, which is pretty comprehensive, but pricy.

There are specialist UK insurers who do it, but I'm not sure if they cover irish people

robinph

Well the USIT one does at least cover oldies going away for longer periods, which I'd noticed some other policies nnot covering anyone over 30 for more than a month. They don't cover heli-skiing though or more than 31 days of skiing in one trip though so have to do a bit more searc hing yet by the looks of it.

I did see mention of BMC elsewhere, think that is British Mountaneering Club, and from a quick look at their various policies they cover things as daft as summiting Everest so must head off for a closer look at their cover details now then I guess ...

loobylou

I would never encourage anyone to tell an untruth but have always wondered how an insurance company could know how many days you have skiied, unless possibly you were making a claim a day!!

flikflak

loobylou wrote: »

I would never encourage anyone to tell an untruth but have always wondered how an insurance company could know how many days you have skiied, unless possibly you were making a claim a day!!

It is more to do with how long you are away for so if you arrived in March then skied and hurt yourself in July and had a return for the following March that is when they would know how long you had been away for.

I was always insured by the company I was working for so cant help - maybe natives/snowheads would have an answer?

robinph

Probably wouldn't be an issue normally although I think I may have just matched the 17days of my last policy. If they were to count the number of days that I had lift passes for though I'd possibly have been over that limit even though I wasn't actually on the snow for that many days.

This next trip though is going to be at least between 40-70+ days on the snow and that will be fairly obvious to the insurance in the event of needing to make a claim due to that being the whole reason for me being out there in the first place. I really hadn't been expecting to find clauses excluding me due to my age from insurance already though. I thought I had a good few years left in me before needing to worry about that kind of thing.

loobylou

I have an annual family travel insurance policy, worldwide, includes winter sports, etc.
Yes, there are restrictions, don't have the policy to hand but basically they have a maximum continuous abroad period, a maximum number of days skiing etc. It's a standard policy I renew each year, I do not need to declare in advance where or why I'm going.
My point is, should I have an accident skiing in NZ there is no way my insurance company could know if it was my first days skiing as part of a world tour/extended NZ holiday, or my 40th day skiing as part of an instuctors course etc.

Payton

If your a member of a trade union, most of them have travel insurance. e.g. Siptu have insurance through Brassingtons and a full years travel for the family works out about €70 the last time I booked it.

paddyb

get insurance off SCUK
You dont have to be a member to get it. It might be more expensive but it covers off piste £1500 of snowboard kit and they are very good to deal with if you have a claim

jimdev

My family use Jardine Lloyd Thompson who found us an amazing deal for the family through ACE Europe, I can ski 365 days a year. I got additional cover for FIS racing at no extra cost.

Jim