Do You Need Carre Neige?

A snowHead

If you have insurance do you really need carre neige?

A snowHead

I always get it. Peace of mind for a tenner.

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

thefatcontroller, f you have good insurance you don't need it.

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In France particularly, it's a question of convenience.
Many resorts' rescue services and medical centres are fussy about which insurance companies they'll deal direct with. U can always pay up front and claim it back of course but if you have the liftpass-inclusive Carré Neige or the Annual Carte Neige, they all just take the number and you're done.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Cheers its about £52 for the 2 of us for 2 weeks, which is not far off what we pay for a years holiday insurance?

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Just look into it all, if you are seriously injured you will be evacuated and treated and any bills settled later.

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

Not needed it, Dogtag has looked after everything on two separate occasions now Confused

After all it is free

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No, never heard of that - would be a deeply unethical decision on the part of the rescuers. Anyway, even if a UK insurer didn't pay out you'd still be put in the helicopter if that was the medically/safety/operationally appropriate thing to do and you'd have to cover the cost yourself.

Carte neige also covers other activities (including off piste and racing) (?globally?, certainly in most of Europe) and is annual thing.

I think it's excellent value for money and would rather have 3 potential insurance companies (accident if in CH, travel elsewhere and CN) fighting over which one was going to pay which amount than any doubt that I might have a liability myself.

There are other schemes in operation, friends have used AXA in the past for example. French residency may have been a requirement.

admin, iirc, Monterosa have an analogous per day with lift pass insurance.

snow reports

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Because it asks for extra payment for winter sports cover, but I suspect the trouble may arise with any non specific winter sports travel insurance.

So if you get novovirus in Tignes it may say you are on a winter sports holiday and hence will not cover you even if you are not doing any winter sports activity at the time. Similarly, you have gone with your family but do not intend to ski, then slip while out walking. Or having got off the top station of the lift to join your family for lunch, slip breaking your collar bone and have to be rescued by the pistuers, will you be covered? Or ice skating at the outdoor resort rink? Or sledging?

A snowHead

A snowHead

I discovered this summer (fortunately before travelling and without needing to use my insurance!) that undertaking any "prohibited" activity invalidated my insurance for the complete trip, even if the insurance claim event was unrelated. I contacted my insurer before travelling since I knew we would be hiking above 4000m in the USA, and even tho' I was happy not to be covered for this specific activity (i.e. we would spend limited time above 4k and rescue is free in that part of the US) my insurer stated that cover would be withdrawn for the entire trip once I exceeded the altitude limit...

... which required me to buy another policy and then, technically left me double-insured with both my insurance policies stating that if I was insured with someone else, they would not pay! So, in theory, if my bags had been lost on the outbound flight, I'd have had to fight to get the 2 insurance companies to agree who was paying.

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

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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

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Craig G,

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

For the record we have travel / health plan through my employers which extends to the whole family, I've always been assured by the underwriters, AXA, that they will take care of everything if I ever get into a pickle but I always go for the Carte Neige cover as well...don't ask me why, I just do.

After all it is free

Craig G,

Carte or Carre? They're quite different.

Interesting comparison here. I may switch alliance. http://www.assurski.fr/compare-ski-insurance

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Craig G, autocorrect has all gone a bit daft.

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Thanks, clarky999. I'm sure the question popped up on one of the Carre/Carte Neige discussions once before, but no answer was forthcoming. Appreciated.

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

We have specific winter sports insurance that we have to take out as we go more than 21 days a year, something to look into by the way a lot of winter insurances don't cover you for more than a certain number of days of actual winter sports and is very very inclusive, there is not much we are not covered for, including being choppered out. This insurance however is good for all are other more sedate holidays.

The most amusing thing though is we had to get that level for our 3 year old as well as she will be skiing that many days (granted only in village enfants) and luckily it was heavily discounted due to age.

However the amusing part of it is because of the high level we had to get to accommodate that many days, we are all insured for Heli-skiing (amongst other crazy things we will never need), so I could technically throw my daughter out of a helicopter at the top of some ridiculous off-piste and she would be insured. I would love to see that claim.

Legal note, and for the daily mail readers - I have no intention of taking my 3 year old heliskiing, this is not an inducement to or admittance of negligent parenting in anyway Smile

A snowHead

gordonrussell76, well, you know, we have some regular clients who were thinking that equipping their 7 and 8 year olds with transceivers might be about to be a good thing. They don't go very off piste, but they do go off piste...

A snowHead

Fair enough, however right now we are still enjoying the wonders of the pizza/wedge/triangle, so a few years yet.

G

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

Insurance = minefield

CN covers your backside so you don't have to rely on your insurer. Which begs the question, why do buy the insurance. Que long debate...

A couple of years I risked EHIC+CN. Now I rely on Snowcard, my most trusted of a very untrustworthy bunch and no CN.

It's a minefield for skiing holidays because of the all the definitions of lift served off piste, when you follow/ignore the authorities signs/advice, etc..

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We did check up on this when we got our insurance I spoke with pass office and they said just carry your insurance with you. We all have a plastic sandwich bag which contains our passport and insurance docs (make photocopies for each person so everyone always has them on them)

The office said if you are injured just show them the insurance paper and you will be fine, and the event you are unconscious or incapable of showing the papers its automatic chopper time anyway, cheery bunch Smile

Ps that is a direct translation my wife has very very good french.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

If you have insurance through your bank account and it limits you in some way, it's worth giving them a call before doubling up on insurance from somewhere else. I rang HSBC to see if they'd cover me this season after the broken leg and they said yes. They also said if I wanted to do more than 31 days (I think) I should give them a call and pay an upgrade.

However, on the question at hand, I generally get carre neige for unguided off piste as it's not very much money and it's easy.

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I think it is worth it if you ski off piste as the majority of standard holiday insurance with winter sports excludes this - so include it but with a guide.

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

The problem with all insurers is with the claims handling - which is often outsourced to another company. Even well-known insurers do this. Whatever clarification your receive before you go, your conversation won't be with the handlers, and so is often irrelevant or worse, misleading. For example, most insurers won't pay for pre-emptive heli-rescue i.e. where you find yourself in the wrong location and there's no way back. Perversely, if you were injured, you'd probably be covered. I take out Swiss heli-rescue cover partly for this reason and partly for summer accidents as well (it's £45 for the family for the year). My experience claiming against an AA travel insurance made me move to Direct Travel, as the claims handler the AA use took 15 weeks and a load of hassle to finally pay out.

After all it is free

My general rule/advice would be to get Carre/Carte Neige if:

you ski off piste without a guide,
you're not a beginner (i.e. will ski around much of the mountain) and have only budget insurance that doesn't cover helicopter evacuation or has a significant excess, or
you value convenience very highly and have an insurer that requires you to pay and get reimbursed.

If you have comprehensive insurance with winter sports cover and don't ski off piste without a guide it's unlikely Carre Neige adds anything. But this highlights the need to look at your policy details - I can't stress this bit enough (the vast majority of people, though probably not snowheads, never actually compare cover, just pick the cheapest in their category). While not a perfect guide, I go skiing with a group of people who work in various parts of the insurance/finance industry and while it's always offered by the tour operator no-one has ever (to my knowledge) bought it. We do have pretty comprehensive travel insurance though, as you might expect.

As for whether to get comprehensive insurance or go budget + Carre Neige, look at prices and cover details and see what works best for you. Both could be good value and provide an appropriate level of cover.

The one and only time I've claimed on travel insurance was cancelling a climbing trip due to flu (proper flu, not man flu). A real pain as I'd worked hard to be the fittest of my life in preparation. The point is Carre Neige would not have got back the (substantial) dosh I'd pre-paid whereas Snowcard paid up with no difficulty.

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Does anyone know how the Austrian Alpine Club insurance stacks up. It seems pretty thorough to me for anyone going off-piste and ski mountaineering and yet is not expensive.

Help!!

Do You Need Carre Neige?

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