“months (or even never)”. Do you actually dare go outside Poly? Spend too much time worrying and insuring for everything that could happen and you’ll end up doing less

I don’t think I am insured more than the average person in the UK – and I spend very little time worrying about it. The point being insurance is intended to cover the worst case scenarios not just the minor mishaps. Most people can afford to cover, or live with the inconvenience of the minor problems – most people would have big problems when the proverbial really hits the fan.

I find it very hard to foresee a circumstance where you couldn’t travel home on a normal fight for months – or by train.

TJ – so you don’t know anyone who has ever been in hospital for weeks or months? Serious stroke, or head injury requiring nursing care are the obvious ones, but anything requiring specialist equipment. Even pneumonia could see you unfit to fly for weeks or months. Bear in mind that a normal airline won’t let you on if they think there is any risk they will have to divert because your condition worsens. In some cases a couple of days on a train / car might get you home but not in the worst situations – will your significant other leave you for a couple of months? Will she return to “escort” you home on the train?

Dead bodies are also expensive to move around.

My net worth is low – but I do have a credit card. I get no sick pay at all bar SSP.

So the worst time to start racking up a very big credit card bill – when you’ve just lost your income stream for the immediate future!

On that basis, Poly, holiday insurance is more expensive in France. Especially if it includes winter sports such as ice climbing, ski-moutinaeering, para-gliding or any other potentailly dangerous activity.
I’m surprised a policy that cost only £100 for a whole family worldwide for a year covers you for extreme sports.

Edukator – Your more unusual winter sports might not be covered. I’d need to refresh my memory as none of those things are ‘normal’ for me. I wouldn’t be surprised if some or all were excluded or significantly restricted.

I could get cover include “Winter Sports” with fairly unattractive excesses for £50 for the whole family. For a £100 I get upto 31 days per trip with no more that £50 excess on any element. Bringing us vaguely back on topic that does include cover for delayed sports equipment (up to £300 per person if not there 12 hours after reaching destination).

and loss of earnings during all these months or years cost you?

I don’t have loss of earnings cover, that is why its all the more important to me that I do cover the travel related risks. I can live with losing a month or two of pay or a I can live with a scary medical type bill but not both.

Only idiots don’t insure themselves. Also TP car insurance? You must be very poor with a rubbish car in order for that to make sense.

My experiences with holiday insurance;

1) My grandmother – died on holiday in Greece, insurance paid for everything and most importantly, dealt with all the paperwork etc. don’t think my grandad would have been able to do it on his own (even if my Dad had flown out to help).

2) My mother invoolved in a minibus crash in The Cameroon 5 years ago. 15 people on minibus 12 of whom died. She was laid out with the bodies until someone noticed she was breathing after a couple of hours. Fractured skull, broken neck, broken shoulder, broken hand. 3 days in local clinic on a bed with no mattress and very rudimentary care, helicopter to capital and 3 weeks in hospital, medical flight home (not full medevac but nurse flew out from uk and accompanied her home and she flew first class). On return home ambulance to hospital and further 3 weeks in hospital. **** knows what the cost of that lot was but a bit more than ‘saving a few years premiums’ I suspect.

Poly – as I said I don’t worry about millions to one occurrences. I don’t fear the sky falling in.

And yes – in that situation I would merely stay in hospital there under reciprocal arrangements until I was fit to come home on a normal flight.

As alluded to above – you only get the huge bills if you are insured. – cos if you are you go into everything privately. If you are not insured the only thing that is different is the repatriation.

wwaswas – I would take insurance in both of those situations – elderly and / or outside europe.

I’m off to Morzine next week

Bike worth a couple of grand
Bike related bits like helmet, bike bag etc worth £500-ish
SLR & video camera worth about £700
Holiday cost of about £500

£30 to insure that lot for the week is a small price to pay in relation to the initial outlay.

If you can afford nice stuff and a nice holiday, a tiny premium (0.8% of the value of my stuff + holiday cost) is a minor price to pay for peace of mind.

TJ – my mum was 70 at the time so fell into both camps!

She’s mostly recovered now – spends a couple of months a year abroad int he Phillipines, India, Africa and South America.

Only place she really doesn’t feel safe is Mindanao where the local police insist on her having a full Swat team with her at all times – haggling in shops with a bloke carrying a machine behind you (and one in the car and two more at the door) is quite effective, apparently.

She’s quite a star at her local head injuries unit – they don’t get many people in who’ve had such significant head trauma that’s been virtualy untreated for so long after it occurred so she’s being treated as a ‘control’ for a lot of studies they’re doing on rehabilitation and so on.

(Mr MC posting)

Edukator, insurance is about estimating risks and protecting yourself against them to a level you are happy with. Most people will be able to use hindsight to say they didnt need some form of insurance, thats how insurance works and companies stay in business. Ive benefited from travel insurance and got more than my money back, others wont. I have never been burgled, and have never had a motorcycle accident in 20yrs of riding but I still have insurance (and fully comp in the case of the bike, as one accident would be likely to cost thousands to repair, such is the way with plastic-wrapped sports bikes).

Youre comfortable relying on reciprocal arrangements and your ability to cover any other costs. Others aren’t and are willing to pay a premium for that security.

edit; boardinbob, succinctly put.

i see insurance as an investment, insure me and you going to pay out 🙂

I don’t worry about millions to one occurrences. I don’t fear the sky falling in.

Can you insure against that?

I have never used travel insurance and doubt I ever will – its simply not needed in europe

…I would take insurance in both of those situations – elderly and / or outside europe.

So a change of heart then?

as I said I don’t worry about millions to one occurrences

Is your house insured against lightning damage? Subsidence? Hurricane? etc

no change of heart. Its a different scenario to what we were discussing.

Is your house insured against lightning damage? Subsidence? Hurricane? etc

A condition of having a mortgage. My mortgage is not insured for me dying tho

no change of heart. Its a different scenario to what we were discussing.

You said you doubt you will ever get insurance – then a little later say you would get it when you are elderly (not sure when you are planning on dying, but presumably you think 50 is too young).

A condition of having a mortgage. My mortgage is not insured for me dying tho

so you’ll stop the insurance once the mortgage is paid? Life cover is less clear cut to me (although I am covered to protect my dependants) – because you won’t actually be around to reap the rewards. Having said that, and administered an estate where the deceased (considerably younger than you!) had the mortgage covered it was a mighty relief to not have to worry about whether his wife would have to move.

Normally TJ I have a lot of respect for your views on risk. On this occasion I think you are taking the “it won’t happen to me” approach though which is not your usual intelligent position! Edukator on the otherhand has a quite rational approach – it might happen to him, but mathematically he should be ok in the long run; of course that only works if you have the resources to underwrite the risk when waiting for the lucky years!

When I travel to the Alps, I get on a train in Edinburgh, hook up with friends in London, and spend a day driving across France. Does it take a long time? Yep. Is it relaxing. Yep. The only time I flew, I joined a group for week 2 of their fortnight holiday, and they had taken my bike with them the week before as there was no way I was risking a damaged bike, and I missed the drive. There’s something about that drive to Morzine…

Having said that, about 20 singlespeeders got on an Easyjet flight to Berlin for the 2004 SSWC – they managed that fine, bikes arrived in the baggage hall before we did, still freezing cold. On the way back, they forgot to wheel the trolley into the baggage reclaim – causing a bit of a delay, but all arrived safe and sound. Perhaps, as people have said, they are getting worse.

And FWIW, Endsleigh insurance covers DH mountain biking (I phoned and verified) and costs less than a round of drinks in Morzine. I think that’s a price worth paying.

Poly – its the same as my usual position – tiny chances are not worth worrying about and combine that with being comfortable with the reciprocal arrangements.

You only get the huge bills if you are insured. You can get home in comfort and ease quickly if you are insured, if you are not it could be awkward. Thats the only significant difference.

As I said a pal of mine broke his leg and was home not long later with a full plaster on his leg with no great hassle or cost.

As I said a pal of mine broke his leg and was home not long later with a full plaster on his leg with no great hassle or cost.

He probably went on and on as much as you and they couldn’t wait to get rid 😉

This sort of backs up TJs claim but it could well be just another sales pitch 🙂

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/holidays/article-1646860/Expert-Private-travel-insurance-is-a-risk.html

Somewhat apt article from Aunty….

http://www.bbc.com/travel/feature/20110718-is-travel-insurance-right-for-you

But the usually superficial and useless BBC reporting with scaremongering and bigging up of insurance companies. Look for anything specific and it fails you. I looked for “reciprocal azgreement” or “European card” and failed to find both.

Edit: No but seriously, the BBC that blocks some of its content in my country provides more information for Americans than Britons about whether they have free cover abroad.

Have the Op’s bikes turned up yet?

Blimey – all this sleazy / easyjet hatred. I use them loads and think they are fine so long as you aren’t stressed by seating and quick turn around times.
Good routes, cheap and flying a super modern fleet with some of the best pilot training around is fine for me. You can’t argue about the bagage handling agency at the end of the day but that isn’t always the airline’s fault.

Edukator – for someone who purportedly leads an almost self-suficient and care-free lifestyle, you seem to spend an awful lot of your time in a foul mood… Perhaps us conventional sheep have the right idea after all

back to the OP – we used to have a couple of bikes each year get delayed with people out on holiday with us – this year there’s been a shed load – not sure why, but it doesn’t seem to be just about easyjet. I am currently waiting for a bike from Hong Kong to turn up!

Liverpool seems to be the worst route for missing bikes for our guests…

Hijacking the OP, I am flying from Newcastle with Air France to Geneva and then back with KLM in a few weeks time.
Does anyone have experience of taking bikes with these airlines?

It’s not a question of the airline being more or less competent. The culture in the entire transport industry, road, sea, air cargo and air passenger, is that if you are overloaded you simply bump the cargo onto the next service. What else can you do?

Where the name of the airline matters is in the quality of the information they give you and the speed of the delivery of the delayed item once it is in your country.

That’s the way things “seem”, Zokes.