Insurance - are you REALLY Covered?

A snowHead

Sky News has reported the case of a girl on holidays in Marmaris in Turkey who fell from a balcony ( under the influence of alcohol ) and required extensive medical care costing £30,000 and the Turks refused to fly her home until the bill was paid ( The Post Office, from whom the policy was purchased eventually paid her return fare home).

Basically the insurance company refused to pay on the basis that she did not take " reasonable care " and was under the influence of alcohol when she fell from the balcony.

I am just wondering whether we should re-read our snowsports insurance policies at the start of this season and hope that we are not in the same position of having the need to be rescued from a montain top after irresponsibly skiing off-piste without a guide. Just a thought!

A snowHead

Most if not all policies bought with package holidays or from travel agents will not cover off piste activities. (None as far as I know cover the various insane apres ski sliding on plastic bags etc activities as organised by package tour reps),

Some "off piste" cover stipulates that it must be "with a guide" but does not define "guide".

Note that (as in other thread) anything beyond the markers is "off piste" and is to be treated with respect - rocks may or may not be visible but potholes (as in Flaine for example) almost certainly will not be.

The SC insurance does cover off piste without a guide afaik.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

AFIK, most policies do not cover you whilst under the influence of alcohol. Which is why I am sure we all abstain Little Angel

You need to Login to know who's really who.

Nick Zotov, I also saw the Sky News report. As you say, the important point for on-piste skiers to note was that the insurers were saying that you were not covered if you had an accident whilst under the influence of alcohol. This is perhaps particularly relevant to those apres-ski bars situated on the slopes, where when you leave you still have a few hundred yards to ski down to the village e.g the Krazy Kangaruh and Mooserwirt at St Anton etc. I wonder how much alcohol consumption in the insurers view is enough for someone to be "under the influence"?
As I find that my skiing ability is quite degraded after relatively small amounts of alcohol, I confine myself to a Radler (Shandy) at lunchtime and leave the serious apres-ski drinking until I am off the slopes. snowHead

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I fondly remember coming out of the Krazy Kangeruh in 1998 and being barely able to walk let alone ski...... how I got back to my chalet that evening I do not know! snowHead

You'll need to Register first of course.

Generally from another recent news article a couple of small beers or similar amount of alcohol is regarded as reasonable more than that is excessive, think in terms of how much you could have to drink and still drive in the UK and you wont be far out

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

On the off piste issue, the policy I had last year allowed unguided off piste but had an exclusion about when there was a risk of avalanche. I could not find anybody in the insurance company who could define what precisely was meant by this.

As there is always a risk of avalanche, albeit may be classed as low, the only conclusion I could come to was that the insurer always had a get out clause to nullify any claim arising from off piste activity.

I'll take a closer look before buying this years policy !

After all it is free

There was a thread on this a while back, but the situation is pretty much summed up on davidof's PisteHors site with respect to France. It really is worth reading thoroughly.

French policies are much cheaper, but there is a major difference between French and British policies in the nature and extent of the cover (with the exception of off-piste). If you want real peace of mind in terms of the extent of medical cover, third party liability, then certain British policies are far more generous. Search and rescue? SCGB insures for a very large amount, for some reason. But unless, as davidof says, you're marooned half-way up a mountain in Patagonia.... (and read his account of the strange system in France, where for certain rescues the tab is picked up by the French state... but not always!)

Third party liability? One French policy, Vieux Campeur (unlimited personal injury cover) comes off well on davidof's table, the other two do not. This is perhaps the one major weak point of the Carte Neige policy - you or your children might not intend to crash into someone else and injure them, but....

Medical? 3000€ tops might not seem much with the Carte Neige, but bear in mind that this is for incidental costs - some aspects of emergency treament, as far as I know, are still 100% covered in France. (Or certainly were a number of years ago, when my wife was in a pile-up on the motorway in France, with zero insurance cover at the time). Still, the line between what is and what is not classed as emergency treatment is rather vague, and anything less is only reimbursable at 75%.

Ironically the weak-spot in the British cover quoted is for sports injuries, off-piste, etc. Most French policies consider off-piste to be expected behaviour in the mountains, but beware the exclusions in the British policies in this respect.

However the French would not consider falling off a balcony to be a sports injury!

One last point - anyone with a gold card (Visa Premier, etc) will have quite good cover, but usually only if you use it to pay for the holiday, lift passes etc, and only, I think, on piste.

Help!!

Insurance - are you REALLY Covered?

snowHeads Forum Index >>> The Piste