As winter approaches, many of you will head to the slopes to do some skiing, snowboarding, or cross-country. Here in New England, Vermonters are getting ready for a great season and everyone is hoping for some early snow.
Does travel insurance cover skiing accidents?
It depends. I know you hate hearing that because it means searching the small print of a dozen insurance policies.
You can use a comparison site that lists policies side-by-side, and can see the coverage provided by each. Look for something called “hazardous sports coverage”.
The problem with this, however, is the different wording of each policy. A general term like “hazardous sports” is not specific enough. Does that mean jumping out of a helicopter on top of a mountain to ski down, or just hitting the green bunny slopes for some casual skiing.
What is the best way to find out what’s covered…quickly?
Here is how you look through all the policies and find out what skiing coverage they offer, without going crazy:
- Go to the product page You can do this through a comparison site (see How to Compare Quotes with a Travel Insurance Comparison Site)
- View the certificate You should see a button to click and read the certificate, or actual policy wording
- Do a search for “ski” Whether you are viewing the policy online, or need to download the PDF, you can search the document for and word. On a Mac, hold Command+F, type in “ski”, and it will search the page for that word and highlight it.
This should take you to the “exclusions” portion of the insurance policy. You should see a section about professional sports, motorsports, sky-diving, etc.
Read within this section to see if skiing is excluded. Some some policies state that all skiing is excluded. Others state that recreational skiing is fine, as long as you are skiing within official boundaries.
The specifics are important here, so check out a few policies. If you are buying the policy specifically for a skiing trip, take the time to read several policies.
If something is not totally clear, call the company and ask specific questions.
