Oct 20 2011
Taking you straight to the best attractions Cyprus has to offer, this title is fully illustrated with coverage of all the major sights from Nicosia to the harbour at Kyrenia. It provides all the insider tips every visitor needs, whether you are bathing in the Paphos beach sun, exploring the Troodos mountains or discovering the ruins at Salamis.
Price:£12.99
Oct 1 2010
You see, not every type of airline flight insurance plan offers identical coverage.Knowing what one policy excludes versus what another policy includes will help you make an informed decision.
Did you know that within the overall category of air flight insurance, there are two specific main types? The first kind will offer basic levels of protection. Loss of limbs, sight, and life are covered under this provision.
A second and more comprehensive type is available too.This one covers the points mentioned in the first type, but it also includes valuable benefits such as repatriation, evacuation, and trip cancellation
So you can see where it is important to gain a good understanding of the type of coverage a specific flight insurance policy offers before you buy it. You will want to carefully read all details and terms of any airline flight insurance policy before making your purchase.
The destination you are traveling to may provide another exclusion. For instance, if you are planning on traveling to a country that is deemed to be high risk, then your air flight insurance policy will probably not be in effect. A high risk country may be one in which battles are taking place, or in which the U.S government has issued an official travel warning. your travel insurance provider can offer you Custom plans.
By researching different flight insurance policies online, you can make side-by-side comparisons of plans to get a clear understanding of how they differ in terms of exclusions. This way, you can find the perfect policy for your needs. A few minutes of research can save you a lot of money when it comes to selecting the correct plan.
Airline flight insurance offers you valuable protection in the event of an accident during a flight.But in order to make the most of it you must first fully understand the exclusions that come along with any plan.
Aug 28 2010
Traveling to Africa isnt necessarily a bad thing, but there are places that are high risk within the country. Among those places is Ghana, and so before traveling to the place, know the requirements they need, they might require you to have some type of travel insurance before you could go into their country. Alarming isnt it?
If you want to get a Schengen visa, they will give it to you but you must first have a travel insurance policy to show them. You are not required to be part of the Ghana healthcare system if you are going to be residing their on a part-time basis, or in other words if you are going to reside there for three to six months. The European Union evidently altered some policies back in 2006, so it affected those that were on the way to Ghana in those days. Getting travel insurance isnt easy, but there are some insurance companies which have policies specially for Ghana. There are actually companies in Ghana that provide this insurance directly to you. There are different types of travel health insurance you may want to consider, such as backpacking travel insurance or adventure travel insurance.
The coverage for some travel insurance include accidental death, trip cancellation, loss, damage of luggages or theft, above all medical insurance. As the economy has changed, lots of travel insurance companies have been giving coverage for the financial failures of a travel agent, or in some cases the airline. Many people were getting anxious a couple of years back, when some airlines were boasting about their merges with other airlines so it made sense that it would be drawn up into the travel insurance policy.
Talk has it that in certain cases, these companies were losing big time when 9/11 hit, and it seems that since then the American economy has suffered. People these days are being more careful with how they spend their money, and those people who dont spend much for travel, prefer not to travel at all.
Jul 31 2010
It is difficult to get an insurance that covers depression. Although there are a few companies who offer mental health insurance, many of them do not. The challenge for travel insurance is to offer you coverage that your primary wont.
Life insurance policies could give you coverage for your trip, but you should ask if your premiums would also increase because of it. Because depression has many forms, it may be necessary to get documentation for your primary care physician or your psychiatrist in order to make the determination of benefits and costs as a result. These are some things to consider before getting travel health insurance, whether it is one way travel insurance, or emergency travel insurance.
There is another policy referred to as Critical Illness insurance that may be offered, so just make sure that you ask which one meets your needs. When you call them, make sure to ask if you are also covered the same way while traveling. This will be significant just in case something happens when you are out of town. Depression itself may be lifted from traveling, but when you are dealing with Major Depressive Disorder, or something like Manic Depression it is very different. They will have to get specific with you, but its simply to make sure that they can get you the coverage you may need while you travel.
With depression, some travel insurance companies list it a bit differently. So you might as well search for something known as medical excess when looking for the right policy. Medical Excess is usually dealing with things that are not basic health problems. So this could not be used for cold or flu. This would require special medical attention or something that requires serious medical treatment. When calling for information, make sure to ask about medical excess, and ask what that company covers.
Jul 9 2010
Senior travelers usually arent aware that Medicare doesnt cover for them while they are traveling. Our elders who have gone before us and provided us with wisdom from the past shouldnt be left with no proper information. We should be doing better than that, to tell them in advance that if they are on a vacation that their insurance does nothing for them.
Traditional medical needs and hospital coverage are not offered by Medicare, and when traveling outside the country this can make for an even worse situation if an emergency arises. In case of a medical emergency where you may need medical evacuation it may cost you $10,000 up to $100,000 which is a huge amount especially for an elderly person. With a population that is living on a fixed income it really doesnt make a lot of sense that they would go without travel insurance. There are several varieties of travel health insurance plans available, including some cheap travel insurance plans such as senior citizen travel insurance.
For short trips, coverage would also be less expensive, nevertheless it still is a must have. Even if you are traveling to Canada or Mexico it will be of significant advantage to have travel insurance. If you dont frequently travel, then single trip coverage could be ideal for you.
Theres also a policy available for senior citizens that will provide them with coverage throughout the whole year and they can have more than 1 trip within a 90 day period. When searching for the right policy, it would be a good idea to let the insurance company know where you will be going since there might be restrictions for places considered as high risk.
The leanest policy anyone on Medicare can get is simply going to cover trip cancellation and medical insurance. But in the end, it would all depend on where you will be traveling and what you will be doing when you get there.
Jul 1 2010
In relation to travel insurance there is coverage for trip cancellation, medical coverage, medical evacuation, and then there is insurance for extreme sports. There is backpackers insurance and theres even insurance for scuba diving, and for the daredevil theres a coverage for extreme sports. Other types of travel health insurance include winter sports travel insurance and skiing travel insurance.
There are some extreme sports on the list that may surprise you, but for the people that do them, they are typical activities for everyday. Scuba diving, BMX biking, skiing, and surfing are only some. These things arent usually covered by your standard health insurance, so before taking part in any extreme sport, check out your options in travel insurance. What is so intriguing is that these policies do not cover professionals; they only cover those who are doing these activities just for fun. It is surprising in a way because one would think that it is more risky for someone who does it only for fun compared to someone who has been doing these things all the time. The thing to remember here is that for professionals, it is their job so they view it a little bit differently.
The coverage for extreme sports only works if you are traveling out of the country, so if you are sky diving in your backyard today, dont expect it to be covered. Normally, if you are participating in an activity like this near your own home, those companies will require you to get one of their accident policies to cover themselves if something happens to your equipment and so forth. Either way, make sure you ask about what their coverage is.
These policies may also vary depending on what activity you will participate in, your age as well as how many children you have. These kinds of policies can range anywhere from $64 and up, and normally cover you for up to $50,000.
Jun 23 2010
The SkyTeam alliance got together in New York yesterday to shake hands, kiss babies, and generally feel good about things. See, they were celebrating the alliance’s ten year anniversary with a meeting in New York. While I couldn’t be there, I did get 15 minutes on the phone with Leo van Wijk, the SkyTeam Chairman. (You might remember him from his days running KLM.) Leo had a lot to say, so let’s stop dawdling. Here’s my latest Across the Aisle interview.
Cranky: One of my big questions is always, how do you measure yourself against other alliances? What do you look at to say, this is how we want to prove that we’re the best alliance out 
there?
Leo: There are two dimensions. One is global coverage. How many destinations can you open to your customers globally? That’s easy to measure. The second one is of course, the quality of the service, which is more difficult to compare and also not easy on an alliance basis to really get reliable feedback from the customers. We work on interviewing the customers and trying to get their feedback but it is, so far, next to impossible to compare them on an objective basis with the other alliances. You can only have the individual preferences of the customers which may be very much determined by where they live and what level of service is available by the various airlines in their hometown.
But generally speaking we recognize that SkyTeam, in terms of global coverage, the number of destinations, is lagging somewhat but not much, behind Star. They have a larger number of carriers but to some extent they’re overlapping, which is something we try to avoid. We look to only attract members where they add something to the existing network, so it’s complementary not overlapping.
Passengers carried, Star is bigger. There’s no doubt about it. In terms of quality of service, it’s extremely difficult to get a good picture. All in all, we see our position as a very clear number two, just behind Star and significantly ahead of oneworld.
Cranky: When you hear from your customers and you look at what Star is doing, what are your priorities? How are you going to become number one?
Leo: Our mission is to be the leading alliance. You become the leading alliance by offering a better level of service, consistency, and seamlessness in connections. Alliances are about connections. For every customer, generally speaking, a direct service with one carrier is preferred over a stopover or a transfer. But once that is not available, and in many cases, that is not available if you fly complex international and intercontinental itineraries, the ease of connectivity and the level of service consistency is the key differentiating factor.
While in the last decade, we have invested primarily and focused on trying to reach global coverage, now that we have achieved that to a large extent . . . I think for the next decade going forward, the competition between the alliances will be in the area of service consistency and seamlessness in connections and transfers.
Cranky: Do you have any specific projects in particular to help facilitate that?
Leo: One that’s very important but not easy to achieve in the short term is co-location at airports. . . . we’re working very hard at this point in time to have a program where we try to build co-location situations, which means all the SkyTeam airlines, or a large part, in one and the same terminal at major international airports.
From there . . . is it a home base of the one carriers, or is it an important business city? For instance, like in London where we have no home carrier in SkyTeam, we jointly operate a facility in Terminal 4, operate a joint lounge, which kind of creates the connectivity and the seamlessness that we’re looking for. So we have used the Terminal 4 London/Heathrow situation as a showcase and a template for future development.
Cranky: And what have you found with London? Is the facility working well? Is there anything you’d change?
Leo: I would say that the lounge and the new standards that we’ve introduced, we’re all very happy with. The joint check in service as a first step is quite good, but what we have not been able to achieve at this stage but we will be able to introduce at a later stage, is to have joint IT applications for check-in, E-services, etc where currently the level of development and interchangeability between SkyTeam partners is not fully at par. So that’s an area where we certainly will focus our attention to focus that further.
Cranky: Here in the US, Delta is branding its premium customers under the SkyPriority name, but that doesn’t translate to people who get benefits throughout the alliance. Is there an effort to standardize the definition of elite or from the alliance perspective do you just have to deal with what the airlines give you?
Leo: One of the complexities in operating in the different parts of the world is that the situations are not necessarily identical. So you have to allow for flexibility to adapt to the local circumstances and the competitive circumstances, but generally speaking, within SkyTeam we have aligned the various frequent flier groups and it is one of the elements for new members that is mandatory to align your frequent flier program . . . to the SkyTeam standard.
So whether you are with Air France/KLM or Vietnam Airlines as our newest member, . . . they aren’t identical . . . because of local circumstances, but the basic setup is identical throughout SkyTeam.
Cranky: You mentioned Vietnam Airlines. A lot of activity is in Asia lately – you have China Eastern coming in, Vietnam just joining, of course you already have China Southern. It would seem there is some overlap there. I know you said you’re trying to avoid that, so what is the strategy in Asia right now?
Leo: Well, between China Eastern and China Southern, there is very little overlap to be honest. China Southern has its main hub in Guangzhou, in the southern part of China whereas China Eastern has its main hub and stronghold in Shanghai. They jointly have a number two position in Beijing so collectively we will see that they have a network that covers all of China.
It is not so different as what we’ve seen in the US with . . . Delta which has a total coverage with multiple hubs in the US and Air France/KLM having a dual hub situation in Europe where KLM covers the northwest part of Europe and Air France the southwestern part of Europe and they’re highly complementary. That’s the same case in the Chinese market which is rapidly growing and geographically as big if not bigger than the US and Europe. I don’t see it as an overlap. They’re very much complementary.
Cranky: So where do you see the biggest holes in terms of coverage right now?
Leo: We did not have a partner in Southeast Asia. With Vietnam Airlines in, the region is covered very well but we can see further additions in Southeast Asia. Clearly the Indian subcontinent . . . is a market where we have not positioned ourselves yet so that’s a white spot we’re strategically focusing on. The two other areas where we feel we can improve our competitive position is in Latin America and Africa.
We have a good position with Kenya Airways in Nairobi, basically the only real hub in Africa. But we believe that with the further growth of the African market, additions to the position in SkyTeam in Africa are certainly, maybe not necessarily the highest priority, but certainly something strategically we’re looking for.
Cranky: What about Australia? I know there’s not much of a presence there yet, but with Delta and V Australia working together and a lot of talk about what Virgin Blue is about to become, is that an area that you’re keeping an eye on as well?
Leo: No, not really to be honest. It is a market that is very difficult to get access to. It is clear that the only real operator with a market position that is of interest is Qantas and they’re in oneworld, so . . . . But there are different ways to deal with access to Australia and Australian markets. So we’re looking at ways to enhance our position not necessarily by finding an Australian partner because that’s not necessarily there, but there are different ways to deal with it.
Cranky: One last question before I let you go. How important are the antitrust agreements and joint ventures to SkyTeam? Do you expect to see more of that between other carriers?
Leo: Yes. Going forward I think that where the differentiating factor is going to be the seamlessness of the service and the effectiveness of the cooperation. We have seen mergers within the different continents, Air France/KLM and Delta/Northwest, we might see more. . . . I don’t beleive that we’ll see mergers between different continents because of the complexity and the manageability of that on the one hand.
At the same time we have proven that if you can operate under antitrust immunity in joint ventures with an intense form of cooperation, [that can] provide a very good alternative. . . . that is probably the model going forward – to intensify the cooperation within the alliance between carriers on different continents rather than seeing mergers.
Cranky: Thanks very much for your time
Leo: My pleasure
