Fun flight facts

Some interesting flight facts for the festive season…

• American Airlines saved £27,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first-class.
• British Airways launched the world's first daily scheduled international air service between London and Paris back in 1919. The flight took 2 hours and 30 minutes and cost £21 per passenger.
• Chicago's O'Hare International Airport is the world's busiest airport. An airplane takes off or lands every 37 seconds.
• The average number of people airborne over the US at any given point is 61,000.
• Hijacking of airplanes was only outlawed in 1961.
• In 2001, Dubai duty free sold 1,570,214 cartons of cigarettes, 2,003,151 bottles of alcohol, 2,909 kilograms of gold, 101,824 watches, 690,502 bottles of perfume and 52,119 mobile phones.
• In-flight catering is an £12 billion worldwide industry employing nearly 200,000 people.
• KLM is the worlds' oldest airline established in 1919.
• More than 500 times as many people die on U.S. roads as in airline accidents
• In Alaska, it is illegal to look at a moose from the window of an aircraft
• A boeing 747-400 has six million parts, half of which are fasteners.
• The 747-400 wing measures 5,600 square feet (524.9 m 2 ), an area large enough to hold 45 medium-sized automobiles.
• According to FlightSafe Ltd the three safest airlines are KLM, BA and Lufthansa. The three worst airlines to fly with are Cubana, Myanmar Airways and Nigeria Airways.

Don’t forget your holiday insurance!

If you are taking a trip in the near future, make sure you take out holiday insurance before you go. Holidaysafe.co.uk travel insurance offers cover for a family for 7 days in Europe from just £13.70*. You can get a quote and instant cover by going online to www.holidaysafe.co.uk.

* Includes Insurance Premium Tax is based on 2 adults aged under 35 and 2 children aged under 17 taking out a ‘standard’ single trip travel insurance policy for 7 days in Europe. Cover details and prices are correct at time of going to press (December 2008) and are subject to change.

The travel insurance minefied

Travel insurance can be a minefield ready to trip the unwary. Which is the best travel insurance option for you? the first decision is between annual holiday insurance or single trip and it is important to understand the pros and cons for each.

A single trip policy covers only the one holiday and all the limits on cover apply to this single trip as do any restrictions applying to activities and health. It will be valid from the day you buy it until the day you return home. An annual holiday insurance or you may see it referred to as an annual multi trip policy lasts as the name suggests for a year from the day you decide you want it to start.

When buying an annual holiday insurance you will usually be asked when you want it to start so it is important to make sure that it starts to run before you are due to pay the final balance on your trip so that the cancellation cover is in force. As a rule if you are planning to take two or more trips abroad within twelve months you may well find you get better value by selecting an annual holiday insurance. If you are not sure then check when you buy it if there is an option to upgrade your single trip policy to an annual holiday insurance at a later date. Many annual holiday insurance policies also include up to 17 days wintersports cover.

There are hundreds of different travel insurance policies on the market to chose from so it is worth doing some research rather than just accepting the one offered by your Tour Operator or Travel agent. You can buy travel insurance from your local supermarket or bank, a newspaper or from a high street broker or you may prefer to use an online travel insurer via an aggregator site such as Moneysupermarket. All of these outlets have an obligation to provide you with a copy of their policy wording before you commit to the purchase. They should also offer you a copy of the Key Facts about their product. Wherever you decide to buy your travel insurance be sure to look carefully at the limits of the various sections offered to make sure you have the best travel insurance for your particular needs.

In Europe you will be able to use your EHIC card to cover the cost of emergency medical treatment in a State Hospital but there may be additional costs such as those for prescribed medication or physiotherapy or even for new flights home if you are too ill to travel as booked. Always insist on a minimum level of £2 million medical expenses cover in Europe and at least £5 million if you are travelling farther afield. If you are planning to ski or take part in other winter sports the best travel insurance will provide you with at least £2 million personal liability cover as even a minor accidental collision on the slopes could leave you facing a foreign law suit for damages and loss of earnings.
When it comes to cancellation costs check whether the sum offered applies to each insured person or the whole insured group and if it will be adequate for the trip you are planning. Some insurers will allow you to top up this cover to the level you need.

Buy online or over the phone?

Let’s face it, we have all, at some time or another sat in a telephone cueing system waiting to speak to a company, listening to dreadful hold music, interrupted intermittently by the annoying voice telling you the call is important and will be dealt with shortly…
One point for online travel insurance.

Ever been buying travel insurance online, answering all the questions, only to find you cannot get any further through the process due to some annoying error? You end up going around in circles as the website designers have not thought through all of the elements of the site and you are apparently stuck in some online Bermuda triangle…

One point for call centre travel insurance.
Most online travel insurance providers offer a discount (or incentive) to buy travel insurance online, often as much as 10 or 15 percent off the price of call centre travel insurance. Two points to one in favour of online travel insurance.

There is a certain comfort, or security if you will, of buying your travel insurance from a real person, knowing you can ask a question and get an immediate answer. Two points each.

And so it can go on, back and forth between the two methods of purchasing… The truth is, both routes to buy travel insurance have pros and cons. The best route for you is directly linked to the complexity of your individual case. Some things to think about before choosing:

• Do you have any pre-existing medical conditions?
  
• Do you have special requirements from your travel insurance, such as not returning to the UK or a large group of people travelling?
  
• Do you need specialist assistance to guide you through the application and payment procedure?

If the answer to these or similar questions is yes, whilst some travel insurance companies do have arrangements in place to handle online, it may be easier to discuss with someone at their call centre.

If not and you are reasonably comfortable to buy travel insurance online, you can get some great discounts, it is often quicker and you will be spared the need to listen to dreadful hold music.
Whatever your favoured method to buy travel insurance always remember;

• To be completely honest with the insurance company.
  
• Make sure you read the documentation within 14 days of buying, as this is the maximum amount of time you will have to make changes or cancel the cover if it is not suitable, without some financial penalty.
  
• To take the documents on holiday with you so you have emergency telephone and policy numbers in case you need to use it. But, make sure you write down the claims handlers telephone number and leave it in the UK in case you lose the documents abroad!

Lastly, Holidaysafe.co.uk do not increase the cost of travel insurance if you do want to buy via our customer service centre, which incidentally is in the UK!

Christmas gift ideas - Annual Travel Insurance

With the Christmas season fast approaching our attention begins to shift to gift ideas for our loved ones. For some an easy task, but for most finding the ideal gift is a battle involving internet searching, browsing through crowded shopping malls and carefully placing hints for ideas from the people themselves.

Most people will not consider a financial services product as a gift this holiday season, but what better gift could there be than a gift that keeps on giving for the whole year. Annual holiday insurance cover, or Annual Multi-trip travel insurance as it is often know, could be the ideal gift for an individual, couple or family who travel abroad on holiday. Not only would you be giving them a gift, but you would also be giving and getting peace of mind that your loved ones are covered for the next twelve months. Annual holiday insurance comes in a wide range and variety of cover, but in the main the policies cover trips and holidays for a twelve month period as long as each holiday does not exceed a certain length, most are thirty one days, but some policies exist that allow for up to ninety days per trip.

Perhaps annual holiday insurance is not the most suitable type of product for your loved ones, that’s not a problem, there are many other types of travel insurance policies that exist. Perhaps you have a student relative taking a gap year or long trip away next year – what about backpacker travel insurance? Backpacker travel insurance (sometimes known as gap year travel insurance) can cover trips from one to eighteen months in duration and has options to include activity cover and return home cover during the trip.

Regardless of the person or the trip plans they have there is a suitable travel insurance policy available. What’s more you can buy travel insurance online, meaning that you do not need to venture to the over-populated shops, battle to find a parking space and can save your ankles from the over eager person with the trolley!