Travelling by air with a bike - insurance

weapons
weapons Posts: 367
edited November 2010 in Road buying advice
Does anyone have any recommendations for a travel insurance policy that will cover a bike worth around £3500? I'm travelling with my bike by air for the first time in 2011 and am looking for a policy which will cover it. Standard insurance only seems to cover baggage up to around £2500, so will I need a specialist insurer?

Many thanks.

Comments

  • sungod
    sungod Posts: 16,522
    is the bike insured at home? if not i'd just get m&s 'premier' home contents insurance (or contents+building)

    you need to declare any item over £4000 and i think for 'valuables' there's another rule you need to follow

    gives unlimited cover home contents plus property - bikes/laptops/watches/whatever - away from home - worldwide

    policy has few rules/exclusions vs. others i looked at

    i declared the posh bike for £6000, the total cost for this plus unlimited home contents and other bike was only a bit more than my hsbc content policy which had a cap on values and didn't give cover on stuff away from home - bye bye hsbc, hello m&s

    all the cycle-specific policies gave worse cover and were more expensive for the bike than m&s for bike+contents

    two days after the policy started a car had me off, about £1500 damage, m&s settled the claim in 3-4 working days, really can't recommend them enough

    btw i got a bikeboxalan case for mine, just came back from my first trip with it, worked well, a few marks/gouges on the case, bike perfect
    my bike - faster than god's and twice as shiny
  • weapons
    weapons Posts: 367
    Awesome thanks - bike is already insured with M&S premier home insurance so I guess it will be covered abroad too in case of heavy handed baggage handlers (but will check!).

    Also have use of a bikeboxalan too so that's reassuring!
  • Pokerface
    Pokerface Posts: 7,960
    weapons wrote:
    Awesome thanks - bike is already insured with M&S premier home insurance so I guess it will be covered abroad too in case of heavy handed baggage handlers (but will check!).

    Also have use of a bikeboxalan too so that's reassuring!

    Your bike will be covered with M&S. And even if there is damage, it's unlikely the ENTIRE bike would be a write-off.

    (I bought the M&S policy to cover me and my bikes on a trip, then cancelled the policy free of charge when I got home. Had free bike insurance while I was away!)