Buy Dan Travel Insurance At Your Own Risk. Did You Know This?

[chillyinCanada]

"i. you or your Traveling Companion mountain climbing, bungee cord jumping, skydiving, parachuting, hang gliding, parasailing, caving, extreme skiing, heli-skiing, skiing outside marked trails, boxing, full contact martial arts, scuba diving below 120 feet (40 meters) or without a dive master, or travel on any air-supported device, other than on a regularly scheduled airline or air chartercompany; "

40 meters equals 131' (and 2+ inches). Is there a typo in the policy or has the typo occurred here in this thread only?

 

[Altamira]

I copied and pasted the wording directly from the DAN Travel Insurance policy page. I noticed the discrepancy but did not quiz them on that issue, so you would have to ask DAN that question. I suspect the policy was written by a non-diving U.S. lawyer that was not really thinking about the accurate conversion of meters to feet, or it could have been a simple typo that no one caught.

 

[KeithG]

In So California on the dive boats I've been on there is a dive master on the boat but not in the water unless you hire one to go with you-and pay for their seat (discounted rate i think). :whacky: I wonder how that would work. If you travel here it might be a good question to ask.

No brainer - I have not dove with a DM in the last 20 years.... Very few people do?

 

[Insta-Gator]

Anyone have experience with Insure and Go Travel Insurance? Their terms seem to be nearly identical to CSA (DAN) but at a significant savings. They have also removed the Terrorism exclusion from their conditions.


InsureandGo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Awards and recognition
InsureandGo was named in the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 list, which ranks Britain's fastest growing privately held companies by growth in sales over the previous 3 years. They were included in the list in 2005 and 2006.[27][28]

In 2008, InsureandGo was awarded twice at the Fast Growth Business Awards.[29] The company was named the T-Mobile Fast Growth Business of the Year and was also named Online Business of the Year.[30][31]

InsureandGo was voted Best Travel Insurance Provider For Customer Service and Most Trusted Travel Insurance Provider at the Moneywise Customer Service Awards 2009.[32]

InsureandGo was chosen as TNT Magazine's 'Favourite Insurance Provider' in their Golden Backpack Awards 2012.[33]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InsureandGo#cite_note-33

 

[Dizzi Lizzi]

No brainer - I have not dove with a DM in the last 20 years.... Very few people do?

Yep. Actually I thought it was routine not to have a DM until I went to hawaii. Also reading several threads on SB makes it seem that a lot of boats do have DM in the water, but perhaps that's liveaboards.

Tricky tricky all this insurance stuff. Sounds like if you vacation and decide to do a quick shore dive you would not be covered.

"GENERAL EXCLUSIONS
1. We will not pay for any loss under this Policy, caused by, or resulting from:
i. you or your Traveling Companion .. scuba diving below 120 feet (40 meters) or without a dive master,..."

What that means is that if you are on a dive trip, and are not diving with a dive master, and take a DCS hit or have other serious medical issues, you are going to lose all non-refundable travel expenses that you might have thought were covered.

Wake up DAN!

Anyway, thanks for the thread, I'm going on my first dive vacation and will explore this carefully.

 

[KeithG]

on close examination my policy carries the expected raft of exclusions including clauses about :
- emergency medical care exclusions
- trip cancellation or interruption exclusions
- emergency return exclusions
- accidental death or dismemberment exclusions
- air flight accident exclusions
- baggage exclusions
- car rental and physical damage exclusions

It does include a Subsistence Allowance of $300 a day for "accommodation and meals in a commercial establishment" (we have used this to pay off a hotel in Boston, but it did not cover our very nice supper...)

The key exclusions are a whole bunch of dangerous stuff as well as some stupid stuff ("abuse of medication OR alcohol" - is AND covered?). The dangerous stuff includes things like: sports for remuneration, any kind of motor vehicle competition, to a dangerous of violent sport such as BUT NOT LIMITED TO, off track snow sports, show jumping obstacles, rock climbing, parachuting, gliding, skydiving, bungee jumping, ... or ANY sport or activity with a high level of stress or risk involved.

WTF? Stress? Risk?

These are weasel words. Do NOT despair. I read my policy and then personally confirmed that scuba diving was considered neither stressful nor risky. My conversation was recorded by the Insurer (as per policy) and is on official record.

P.S. my policy does have a "return of a pet" clause....$500 to get Fluffy home. And I have NO coverage if I am driving a 4wheel drive, so I flog a 2 wheel compact in places it should not be taken...

P.S. P.S. I also confirmed that my policy would NOT cover any training scuba dives. It was limited to stuff I was already trained for. Further probing revealed that this exclusion was targeted at DSD.

 

[Lorenzoid]

In So California on the dive boats I've been on there is a dive master on the boat but not in the water unless you hire one to go with you-and pay for their seat (discounted rate i think). :whacky: I wonder how that would work. If you travel here it might be a good question to ask.

To what kind of diver would it really matter whether DAN travel insurance would exclude a dive injury in SoCal? For a dive injury, DAN accident insurance would cover it. Most of us conscientious divers (the kind who even think about insurance) have long had DAN accident insurance or something similar. So, as I posited above, claims on a travel insurance policy due to a dive injury would likely be for so-called "trip interruption." What kind of costs would a foreign diver visiting California be faced with forfeiting due to trip interruption? My guess is minimal costs. Is there really anything like, say, liveaboards or dive resort packages that a foreign diver might have forked over a lot of cash in advance for? I know there are a few liveaboards, but do they really get a lot of foreign divers?

 

[undrwater]

The dive park does.

 

[KeithG]

To what kind of diver would it really matter whether DAN travel insurance would exclude a dive injury in SoCal? For a dive injury, DAN accident insurance would cover it. Most of us conscientious divers (the kind who even think about insurance) have long had DAN accident insurance or something similar. So, as I posited above, claims on a travel insurance policy due to a dive injury would likely be for so-called "trip interruption." What kind of costs would a foreign diver visiting California be faced with forfeiting due to trip interruption? My guess is minimal costs. Is there really anything like, say, liveaboards or dive resort packages that a foreign diver might have forked over a lot of cash in advance for? I know there are a few liveaboards, but do they really get a lot of foreign divers?

The answer is Yes. And this is not just about about diving. For me it is mostly about travel.

A few years ago we experienced a snow storm in Toronto. On the same day my work buddy (bitch!) successfully flew out of YYZ on his way to Italy for his honeymoon. Our "local" flight to Charlotte on the same day (scheduled a few hour before his flight) never happened. This was just a few days before Christmas.

Upon official flight cancellation I was about 3 deep in the desperate line of travelers to re-book. I listened to many tales of woe and misery. Most were "yes we can re-book you, a week from now" (it was christmas, no empty seats any where...). This was for naive trailer park peeks going on a elcheapo Caribbean crusie out of Lauderdale. They were screwed.

When I got served, I asked if we could be bumped from the Saturday flight onto the Sunday flight from Charlotte to Belize City (this was Friday evening). WTF? I was the first happy customer they had seen. We got confirmed seats. And told them to toss the local flight from Toronto. I would drive. We went home, called the liveaboard and confirmed we would be 1 day late, arranged a water taxi and then called the travel insurance to confirm they would pay for it. Then went to bed.

Driving, flying, water taxi had me wound so tight that once I finally got to the boat the first thing I asked for was "a beer". To their credit the boat crew was focused on getting us into the water ASAP. Manana. We splashed the next day...

P.S. This small 1 day delay included a $700 water taxi as well as hotel fees and unused plane tickets (in substitute for a 12 hour drive in a snow storm)

 

[Edward3c]

Its so much easier in the UK:

EXCLUSIONS:
9. Any expenses arising from the insured person's failure to comply with the current safety recommendations of the Insured Person's diving association.

Therefore I'm covered to 50m providing I'm with a suitably qualified buddy and have done an appropriate risk assessment.