Travel Insurance and fishing charters

[Malcolm Crane]

Whilst I've been a member of this forum for quite some time I haven't made a habit of posting, but in light of a recent experience I think it's worth sharing some thoughts.

I was booked to go on the first Shoalwater trip this year with Nomad and was very keen to revisit the area. As some of you may be aware the weather wasn't kind, cyclones and fishing don't mix well, and after doing everything they possibly could to try and achieve a result for us Nomad was forced to cancel the entire charter. This cancellation finally occur ed literally hours before 5 of us were due to fly out of Sydney to Hamilton.

Only two of us on that charter had taken out travel insurance (with AIG as recommended strongly by Nomad.) I must admit that I was extremely sceptical that the policy would be honoured, as the charter hadn't even left port, there were no accidents involved, no sickness etc... I was fairly confident that I would recover my lost airfares and the pre-paid accommodation in Hamilton, but as to the the charter component paid to Nomad I wasn't that sure of.

However, 8 days after lodging the claim with AIG I received as a direct deposit to my account the full amount I had outlaid in total for the trip. I was pretty impressed (not to mention relieved!)

I can't recommend strongly enough that if you are going on a charter with someone like Nomad or LPB that you do take out comprehensive travel insurance. It'll cost you no more than a decent popper, and with the vagaries of weather today could be the best purchase you can make towards the trip.

If you don't take the precaution you stand to lose not only airfares & accommodation costs but maybe even the cost of the charter itself. Organisations as reputable as Nomad & LPB will do all they can to move you to another charter if they have to cancel due to weather, but bear in mind that they have no obligation to do so, nor do they have the obligation to refund. Also, future dates may not work for you.

So, if you are booked for a trip in the future and haven't already covered yourself with travel insurance you should really look into it and do it. It's cheap and based on my experience it works, its painless and I'll never go on a charter without it.

cheers,

Malcolm

[Graham Scott]

Hi Malcolm,

Couldn't agree more. I see it from the other side, charter operator, and we PLEAD with people to take out insurance for trips longer than 1 day. If we have to cancel a trip we have normally spent a lot of money already prepping for that trip plus our loss of income itself. If clients don't have travel insurance it puts us in a really bad place. Are we going to be tough buggers and say "stiff shi.. we're keeping your money" which we are entitled to do. Or give back all the money and cop the loss. To date we have always given back the money.

So PLEASE get travel insurance for fishing trips.

Also check what you buy, many insurers have tightened up lately, AIG sounds excellent.

[Brock Arifovic]

Malcolm,

Thanks for the heads up. It would be bad enough to have a such a fishing trip cancelled then to find out that you can not get some of the money back. When is your next trip mate?

[Malcolm Crane]

Hi Brock,

next trip is Bugatti - around April 4 or 5 I think.

Further to what Graham mentioned with travel insurance, I'm sure most of us going on a fishing trip don't really take into consideration just what it means to the charter operator if there is a cancellation due to weather. We just want to make sure we get to go fishing (after all we've paid for it)and sort of expect that the operator will fit us into to another trip at another date. Most operators will, as Graham says, because there is pressure and expectations to do so. But if they have to cancell a trip with say 12 people going and then reschedule them later in the year, the loss to them is pretty major. Have a run of bad weather and a few cancellations then the bottom line of their business is going to be pretty heavily impacted. We need these guys to stay in business!

[Greg Burt]

Thanks Malcolm, good to hear from you again. Your experience takes the doubt out of the whole thought process of travel insurance, then it just comes down to a gamble for some, Yes or No .
 Have you got the Musky Lures ready for Bugatti? catch you at Hamilton on the 4th
   Bun

[Brock Arifovic]

See you both on the change over on Nomad

[Chris Young]

G'day Malcolm

Good to see you posting...must admit I didn't really think about insurance until your shoalwater trip was cancelled
I have since taken out insurance on Bugatti (like 2 days after your trip was canned) I was wondering if anyone insures their gear on these trips, after all some of us travel with about 10-15k worth on a normal trip, if said gear doesn't turn up your f@#$%^, what then happens to the trip... NO GEAR to fish with?

Thoughts....

[Brandon Khoo]

Chris, I think the reality is that if your gear doesn't come off the plane on the same day, you're in big trouble. If I am travelling with someone, I tend to try to split the gear across the bags. If this happens on our trip, it isn't an issue as Nomad carry decent gear and I am sure we can scrounge up some gear from among the rest of us.

[Malcolm Crane]

Hi Chris,

Looking forward to seeing you at Bugatti - also the tussle: muskie Vs Kong!

Travel insurance is a no brainer as far as I'm concerned, but it becomes more complicated if you start thinking of insuring your gear. This is where the insurance companies really make you jump through flaming hoops. They will want receipts for everything you want to specify in the policy, and the cost really starts to escalate. I tried it once and it was a pain to try to organise and ended up becoming too pricy to seriously consider. Now I just make sure my reels are in my carry-on, and just cross my fingers with the rods.

In a worse case scenario you'll be allright anyway. You're going to Bugatti in April and if your baggage ended up in Kabul you'd still be OK on Nomad. You'd end up using their RippleFishers and Stellas and just have to come to grips with using Herus instead of FullScales!

I lost everything about five years ago on a flyfishing trip to Weipa. My bags turned up the day I was leaving to go home. I ended up having the most productive trip in Weipa that I'd ever had, using spare rods and reels the guide had. I was humbled to have to admit that his flies actually were better than the ones I'd been tying for months.

So my feeling is take out travel insurance, but take your chances with the gear.

 

[Chris Young]

I'm of the same opinion with insuring gear, I try to spread it out in a couple of bags so if one bag goes missing I still have some gear to fish with ie I carry fly rods in with my clothes.. but this won't help with popping will it??
I got some quotes on gear before my most recent trip, one company wanted to insure my gear as combo's , but they travel separately....grey area the cost was way more per outfit than the insurance on the entire trip, even if I did insure with them and something went missing I could see a major sh%^fight in trying to get them to pay out.

Heru's instead of Full Scales Malcolm ...could you imagine what would happen???

Muskie vs Kong ? mmmm, I've been working on this one, got some new stickbait proto's waiting for a Bugatti battle

[Brandon Khoo]

 

[Greg Burt]

Don't worry Crusty, Brandon would have enough Kongs for you to borrow

[Brandon Khoo]

Oi - he can bring his own!!   

[George Pang]

Guys, all my gear is insured under my home and contents. Its covered throughout Oz and NZ, so long as its not broken during intended use.

I had my sage fly rod ?munched by a dingo (seriously!) on fraser island, they paid up no probs..

[Brandon Khoo]

George - you're going to have to tell all of us this story at Bugatti! Were you trying to catch a dingo on a fly?!