The UK Insurance Blog

Figures published today show that British Airways, our so-called ‘National Airline’ loses 2.65% of all the baggage checked onto it’s aircraft. Now I appreciate that I’m not a B.A. fan (I don’t think that I’ve ever had a completely trouble free long-haul flight with them), but surely that’s a frightening figure. It means that on each and every full 747 flight there will be around 14 bags that will disappear en route. It seems that amongst the European airlines only TAP, Portugal’s national airline, has a slightly worse record with 2.78% of the checked luggage disappearing.

I guess that I must be a hard customer to please. As I said, I’m no lover of B.A., I’ve been on flights with no food, no drink, all the fuel in one wing (luckily they noticed before trying to take off), oh and once they must have put too much fuel in because we were sitting on the end of the runway at Edinburgh airport and the wheels were gradually sinking into the melting tarmac…it was a hot day !!.

I’m a keen fisherman and have taken a few trips to Canada over the last 6 or 7 years. I’ve flown Air Canada a few times but they’re not much better. No TV in the back of the seat and once when running late and arriving at Heathrow to find that their docking place had been given to somebody else it took them 30 minutes to find a set of stairs to let us off the plane. You can imagine what a plane load of late passengers thought about that after a 9 hour flight.

I’ve had a few uneventful transatlantic flights with American Airlines, biggest problem with them is that the window seats have a bloody great air conditioner box under the seat in front and it makes it impossible to stretch your legs. Plus there’s the American thing of “are you sure that you should be having that 2nd beer?”. YES…I’m SURE, now do your bloody job and stop being stupid !!.

No, my vote has to go to Virgin. I had one very bad experience when Richard Branson wandered around the cabin and asked me if I’d like his autograph !. WTF, I politely declined his kind offer. Apart from that they’ve been good to me.

The moral of this disconnected rant ?…if you’re flying with British Airways make absolutely sure that you have good travel insurance !!.

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Received a press release this morning extolling the virtues of a new travel insurance product from a company named noclaimscashback.com. At first glance it seems a neat product, you pay for your travel insurance and then when you’re back home, provided that you haven’t made a claim, you get up to £10 of your money back. They compare it to the no claims discount that we get with motor insurance, whereas I tend to compare it with life insurance, you don’t get any refunds but you’re still alive !.

Anyhow, let’s take a closer look at the small print :-

• Single trips only - no annual policies
• Single person or couples only - no family groups
• Everybody has to be between 18 and 49 years of age
• No ski insurance available
• No insurance for people with pre-existing medical conditions

So, they’re cherry picking the very lowest risk travelers and are only offering single trip policies. We’ve always pointed out that the best value comes from annual policies, and that’s best value to you, the consumer, and thus lowest profit to the insurer.

Their pre-existing medical conditions clause of the policy isn’t awfully clear and I’d strongly advise anybody considering buying this particular policy to contact the company and double check if they are at all unsure. The relevant clause is

“The policy does not provide cover for any pre-existing medical condition. A medical condition is any medical condition which has been suffered or which is under review (routine or otherwise), or for which medication, advice or treatment has been received within the last 12 months (prior to the date your policy is issued). This includes long standing conditions as well as injuries.”

When I checked against a Churchill policy, Churchill restrict the medical condition to anything that caused you to be hospitalised within the last 12 months. There’s a big difference there. Also most companies will offer insurance (maybe restricted a little) to most people with pre-existing, long term medical conditions, it’s another instance of noclaimscashback  cherry picking the very safest clients.

My final thought on this policy is that it reminds me of the recent phone cashback scandal where people were promised their money back at the end of a one year term. The phone companies were expecting only a small percentage of customers to claim their money back. When something like 80% claimed their cash the company couldn’t pay and it left a very bad taste in the mouth. I’m not suggesting that there is any danger of noclaimscashback not returning money although I do worry that the terms for repayment are quite so strict in that you are offered up to £10 back provided that you claim it after one month and before two months of your return.

I’m sure that the policy will appeal to some people, myself I’m happy to get back from a holiday that went without incident or accident, travel insurance is money well spent and I hope to never have to make a claim.

Amid claims that British holidaymakers are taking loutish behaviour to the winter sports resorts comes news that Swiss piste police have introduced speed cameras in some popular resorts. Their aim is to slow down speeding or drunken skiers in an attempt to reduce a worrying increase in the numbers of deaths and serious injuries on the slopes.

Après ski is recognised as an essential ingredient of the winter snow scene, but insurers are keen to point out that skiing after too many drinks invalidates your ski insurance cover. Insurance policy terms and conditions state that cover ceases in any incident “caused by the direct or indirect effect of you using alcohol or solvents or you being under the influence of drugs.”

A story in the Telegraph points out that even with the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) there could still be significant expenses for mountain rescue, ambulance rides and flights home. The story is even worse in the US, in fact you’d be totally mad to ski there uninsured simply because medical fees are simply sky high.

When arranging you winter sports insurance remember that an annual policy with ski cover will be about the same price as two separate policies if planning to go abroad once during the summer. If there’s the chance of additional weekends in Europe then go for the annual policy, you’ll save money and it’s one less thing to worry about when planning a trip.

Two interesting reports on UK gap year travellers were brought to my attention by travelbite.co.uk. AA travel insurance reports that with backpackers carrying electronic instruments such as mobile phones, digital cameras, MP3 players and laptops, the value of an average backpack and its contents has risen to around £450. The AA estimate that at any given time backpackers from the UK are wandering around the world with £1.7 billion worth of electronic gadgetry stowed in their rucksacks. When you consider the low security of many cheap hotels and even the possibility of sleeping under the starts, it’s essential to hold a valid travel insurance policy. They warn that you must look for the correct type of policy which is a long stay or backpacker policy rather than an annual policy that runs for a year but each trip is limited to something like 28 days.

Around the same time as the AA report, American Express Travel Insurance published the results of a poll of 10,000 of their customers. Bizarrely, they say that one third of all gap years are taken by the over 55s. Now I’m not disputing that people of that age might well decide to take a trip around the world whilst they still have the energy and desire to want to do it, but it surely can’t be a gap year…a gap from what ?. Hell, they’re on the verge of retirement and there’s no scope for a gap year unless it’s the year between work and retirement, but then we normally call that early retirement don’t we?. Anyhow the poll showed that more than half of gap year travellers from the UK are over 25. Presumably those in their twenties and thirties are taking a gap between jobs or between freedom and parenthood which is still stretching the accepted definition of the term “gap year”.

Hardly surprisingly, American Express Travel Insurance were quick to point out the importance of arranging travel insurance before setting off on your big journey. Their advice was :