Internet is the best place to look for travel insurance

When it comes to purchasing single trip or annual travel insurance, people should turn to the internet to identify the best deals, it has been suggested. According to travel expert Sophie Butler, a "common pitfall" when purchasing holiday insurance is to accept packages being offered by tour operators or airlines.

Writing in the Telegraph, she explained that doing so could leave holidaymakers paying out more for insurance that provides them with less cover than a policy from a specialist provider. Ms Butler also urged customers to consider buying an annual policy if they are planning on travelling more than three times within 12 months.

She wrote: "You're likely to get the best rates by purchasing cover on the internet." Urging travellers to check the small print of their holidays, the travel journalist suggested that it is "deadly boring to do, but it's the only sure-fire way to know what you are and aren't covered for".

Earlier this month, the Air Transport Users Council predicted that the online check-in procedure being introduced by Ryanair could lead to cheaper flights for passengers.ADNFCR-1320-ID-19064002-ADNFCR

news source : http://www.world-first.co.uk/

Five Historical Figures In Need Of Travel Insuranc

1. Byron :

In 1824 the immoderate libertine found himself in Messolonghi consorting with Alexandros Mavrokordatos on how best to recapture the Turkish fortress of Lepanto for Greece. Falling ill in mid-february he responded badly to the treatment of ýbleedingý, eventually developing a fever from which he never recovered. With the choice of repatriation offered by a basic travel insurance policy, would he have stayed and lost his life before the battle began? We will never know.

2. Hannibal

A nightmare proposition for any insurance broker. ýYouýre taking those elephants whereý?ý. Still, most holiday insurance policies would have offered ample compensation for the loss of a third of Hannibalýs army and most of his cavalry. With that kind of financial muscle, which was apparently unforthcoming from Carthage, very little would have stopped a march on Rome herself. Ah, what could have beený

3. Napoleon

Mired in snow and mud, starving hungry and marching towards an enemy that fled before their every approach, Napoleonýs invasion of Russia in 1812 was as catastrophic an experience as the Frenchman had even known. With a monstrous trail of dead behind them the French took Moscow, only to find the city razed and barren. Now, if travel insurance premiums had been top of his concerns, who knows how Napoleonýs plans would have developed? Perhaps, without finding a broker crazy enough to support him, le petit caporal would have stayed in Corsica and become a lawyer like his father. Or perhaps not.

4. William Buckley

With an astonishingly strong claim for ýWorst Holiday Everý, we have William Buckley. Transported to Australia in 1803 for stealing a piece of cloth, Buckley and a group of fellow convicts managed to escape their prison ship onto the shores of modern day Victoria. By now alone and lost in an unreal landscape of venomous creatures he was taken in by the Wautharong Aborigines. After 32 years of an affectionate life amongst this new community he was rediscovered by a European settler ship in 1835. Officially pardoned and then hired as an interpreter he soon became disenchanted and left for Van Diemenýs Land, where he lived until his death in 1856 in as much obscurity as he had lived. Madness, we say! He should have milked his holiday insurance for all it was worth and retired to a beach-side mansion in Queensland. If it had existed.

5. Odysseus

If thereýs anyone that could benefit from travel insurance, even cheap travel insurance, then itýs Odysseus. What if the Trojans decided to press charges after he sneakily trashed their city with his wooden horse? Surely thereýs some mental trauma involved in trawling through Hades? Just how many shipwrecks was this man involved in? Slaughtering the cattle of the sun-god Helios was definitely a bad choice too. Now, he may be mythical, but these are things that concern a dedicated insurance broker and all weýre saying is that if heýd had the support of a decent policy behind him maybe it wouldnýt have been such an Odyssey afterall.

news source : http://www.eco2day.gr/

Mondial Assistance responds to new regulations

According to a report filed by e-tid.com, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) introduced new rules on 1 January requiring the sale of connected travel insurance to be conducted by authorised or exempt companies only. The new regulation means consumers can no longer buy insurance as part of a holiday package unless their agent, tour operator or online retailer acts as the Appointed Representative (AR) of an insurer or insurance broker.

Ben Smart, UK sales director for Mondial Assistance, said: “Offering travel insurance to customers allows travel agents and companies to deliver added benefits as well as enable them to reap the rewards of ancillary revenue. The new regulations made it imperative for us to act quickly to maintain this revenue stream for our clients and help them provide an uninterrupted level of service to their consumers.”

Towards the end of 2008, Mondial Assistance won a new contract with leisure travel group, TUI Travel UK & Ireland, to provide a complete travel insurance solution. It was shared that Mondial will provide underwriting capacity for both the UK and Ireland through its insurance arm: Elvia Travel Insurance International. In addition, Mondial will provide claims management and international medical assistance for travellers. In-branch sales and compliance training will be delivered in partnership with Citybond Suretravel, who will also act as the medical screening provider for the contract.

Travel companies, for instance airlines in the US, are increasingly looking at a la carte ­pricing. It is being said that already airlines in other regions of the world are taking notice of what the US network carriers are doing.

news source : http://www.m-travel.com/news/

Shopping around can bring travel insurance savings

Holidaymakers worried about budgets can make their cash go further taking time to find the best deal on travel insurance. That is according to the Glasgow Daily Record, which suggests that comparison sites can be used to help holidaymakers find the best deals on their single-trip or annual travel insurance policies. "Some deals will include travel insurance but often it pays to take out annual cover for the whole family," it suggested.

The newspaper also recommended that people preparing to fly away for a much-needed break think about going for an all-inclusive package deal and booking a hire car in advance for savings, if they think they will be driving. Travelling during off-peak times (during school term-time), booking last-minute flights and staying outside of city centres can also help to make the costs of a holiday more manageable. Earlier this month, the Irish Independent claimed that single-trip holiday insurance can often be more appropriate for people only planning to travel for two weeks in search of summer sun than an annual deal.

news source : http://www.world-first.co.uk/

CSA Travel Protection Celebrates Mardi Gras With Fun Facts

SAN DIEGO, Feb. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- The celebration known as "Mardi Gras Carnival Season" kicks off Friday, ending when the last reveler heads home on Fat Tuesday, February 24. CSA Travel Protection (CSA), a company dedicated to providing value-driven travel insurance and emergency assistance services, provides the following list of fun facts about Mardi Gras.

1. Mardi Gras is the direct French translation of "Fat Tuesday." It refers to the last day before the season of Lent begins.

2. The first American Mardi Gras was celebrated near modern-day New Orleans on March
3, 1699.

3. The official colors of Mardi Gras are purple, green and gold (representing justice, faith and power).

4. In New Orleans, private social groups called "Krewes" put on parades during the season's festivities.

5. Fat Tuesday is a legal holiday in Louisiana.

6. More than 60 parades and hundreds of private parties, dances and masked balls are scheduled annually in the New Orleans metropolitan area during Mardi Gras.

7. The Zulu Parade, put on by the oldest and most prestigious, predominantly African American Carnival club in New Orleans, will celebrate its 100th year in 2009.

8. The term "Throws" refers to plastic beads and cheap trinkets thrown by masked krewe members from floats as they pass by parade goers.

9. Mardi Gras, the day, is actually the last day of a long celebration of parades and merriment that begins 12 days prior to Fat Tuesday.

10. In 2005, more than one million revelers attended Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

Travelers heading to New Orleans or other Mardi Gras and Carnival destinations are reminded to protect themselves from unforeseen circumstances that could potentially postpone or cut-short their trip. While travel insurance can't stop the unexpected from happening, it can protect and support travelers when mishaps occur, such as flight delays and missed connections.

CSA offers its customers convenient protection when traveling, with additional benefits like No Out-of-Pocket Medical Expense. If a traveler develops an acute illness while on their covered trip, a one-time medical expense will be paid for treatment under $1,000*. Travelers can call their travel agent to purchase, or request more information on, this CSA Travel Protection exclusive.

About CSA Travel Protection

CSA Travel Protection is dedicated to providing affordable travel insurance and emergency assistance services to protect travelers' valuable investments and provide the peace of mind one deserves while traveling. Since its inception in 1991, CSA has developed a reputation for standing behind its customers and evolving products and services to meet their needs. Through superior customer service, extensive experience and industry-leading innovation, CSA is with its clients every step of the way whenever and wherever they are needed.

* When using CSA's designated provider network of 30,000 physicians and 850,000 service providers worldwide.

news source : http://sev.prnewswire.com/

The Crafty Traveller: A cheaper way to cover your tracks

Doing without travel insurance or buying the cheapest policy on offer is a temptation if you're trying to cut back on the cost of your holidays this year. But either approach is a false economy. If you have an accident abroad and are uninsured, you could be liable for medical and repatriation costs running into tens of thousands of pounds.

Buy a policy on price alone and you may find that it has stingy levels of cover, punitively high excesses that make it pointless to claim for, say, a doctor's bill, and endless exclusions that severely reduce the chances of any payouts anyway. Yet decent policies are available at very reasonable rates to most travellers, and there are ways to save on travel insurance without skimping on the cover.

BOOK IT DIRECT

The websites of airlines such as easy-Jet, Flybe and Ryanair automatically add travel insurance to bookings. If you don't want the cover, you have to deselect it. By doing so and taking your custom elsewhere, you'll save money. A week's insurance for a family of four travelling to Europe with online provider Travel Insurance Web (www.travelinsurance web.com) - recommended as a 'best buy' by the consumer organisation Which? - costs £16 to £20 depending on the age of the parents but £47.96 on Flybe's website.

It's a similar story for long-haul travel, with insurance for an individual going to the United States costing half as much with Travel Insurance Web as it does with online agents such as Lastminute.com and Expedia. You are also likely to pay heavily over the odds if you book your insurance through a conventional travel agent or tour operator rather than direct with a travel insurer.

news source : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

Domestic travellers must still think about insurance

Brits take more than 50 million domestic holidays a year, even though many of them do not take out adequate travel insurance, Sainsbury's Finance has warned. According to the holiday insurance provider, nearly seven million people (15 per cent of adults) have never holidayed abroad, while £10.9 billion is spent on British tourism every year.

However, travel insurance appears to make up a small proportion of holiday spending money for Brits staying within the UK, even though they are at risk from many of the same things as overseas holidaymakers. Sainsbury's explained that domestic travellers would receive NHS cover anywhere in the country but would be forced to pay for their own repatriation if holidaying without cover.

They would also be unable to claim for accommodation cancellations due to illness, internal flight delays or lost or stolen luggage. Meanwhile, people taking long-haul trips to faraway lands have been encouraged by ABTA, the Travel Association, to ensure they are fully vaccinated against common local diseases before travelling.

news source : http://www.world-first.co.uk