Winter sports insurance

My Direct Travel policy is up for renewal this month and i was going to renew but i just noticed this :

What you are not covered for:

"Any search and rescue costs (costs charged to you by a government, authority or private organisation connected with finding and rescuing you. This does not include medical evacuation costs by the most appropriate transport"

I can't quite work out what they are saying here.

thoughts?

Do you think that getting dragged off the mountain is fine as long as no one has to actually look for you?

If someone calls in a rescue to where you are the insurer will pay, if you go missing and they have to launch a full scale search then don't expect your insurer to cover it. Sounds fair enough to me.

If you find yourselves hopelessly lost in a snowstorm, get your pal to break your arm before calling for help! :mrgreen:

It's a bit worrying, I've recently seen several policies with this exclusion. If you get caught in a resort slide, then it looks like you will have to pay for the Pisteurs to dig you out.

I really wonder if some UK Insurers want to be rid of skiers altogether.

Bandit, I can't comment on all insurance companies. But if you look at my previous comments you will see that my insurance policy covers for slides etc on main pisted areas. What andyhull said fits with what I was told also

As I said, a long time ago on another thread, I think the costs of insurance for search and rescue and medical assistance 'on the mountain' should be added to the price of a lift pass and hence compulsory for everyone.

It should work out that we don't actually pay any extra because the cost of our 'normal' ski holiday insurance should be reduced by a similar amount as we wouldn't need two lots of cover for the same thing.

Ally

It would seem that most recreational skiers here are choosing Insurance based on price these days. Perhaps we should all start by examining the companies at the top of the pile, and then we will feel less miffed when we eventually purchase a budget policy which lacks comprehensive cover for skiing.
Whilst viewing this winters offerings, I now note that "jumping from Hotel Balconies" is not included as covered on most annual policies with skiing options.

You don't really get that happening much on ski trips do you :mrgreen:

OK quick update. Phoned Direct-Travel today as I'm a current Policy Holder and talked through the options I'll have, come renewal time.

If you phone them, be aware that there is a lot of blurb to sit through before you can talk to a human.

If you are an Annual Travel Policy holder, you can indeed add extra ski days onto your yearly allocation of 17 days.

For a basic level policy, adding 1 extra day skiing will cost £12.54
If you have the middle grade policy, adding 1 extra day skiing will cost £16.09

To me this seems quite a high price, considering that the client has already paid out for Annual Travel Cover.

It was also confirmed to me that there is no cover whatsoever for Search & Rescue in situations where a Medical Emergency is not declared.
We talked through the hypothetical situation of an avalanche search being initiated by a resort and it was confirmed that this was not covered by the Policy, and would not be paid for.

Snapzzz wrote:My Direct Travel policy is up for renewal this month and i was going to renew but i just noticed this :

What you are not covered for:

"Any search and rescue costs (costs charged to you by a government, authority or private organisation connected with finding and rescuing you. This does not include medical evacuation costs by the most appropriate transport"

I can't quite work out what they are saying here.

thoughts?

Do you think that getting dragged off the mountain is fine as long as no one has to actually look for you?

Snapzzz - you got me worried on this and so I phoned them, as I had paid for my renewal a week or so ago.
It is odd, and is new wording this year.
Also a double negative as with most legal language it also relates to the heading half a page higher.
You are covered for blood wagon and helicopter rescue when skiing as this is counted as medical evacuation cost by the most appropriate transport.
Lady said this wording has confused a number of people.
And then Bandit ....
Your message then further muddies things, I do wonder if Direct Travel realise what the likely scenarios actually are?
I suppose the bottom line is that a medical evacuation will be paid for but getting "lost" and needing rescuing will not. My lady used hiking as an analogy, where falling down and breaking a leg would be paid for but going the wrong way and getting lost and needing rescuing would not.
I wonder how easy a damaged knee is to fake :lol: ??