Trip, Travel and Dive Accident Insurance

The Northern California Rainbow Divers (NCRD) make every effort to ensure that NCRD-sponsored events are safe and enjoyable. We choose dive operators whose safety, service and performance records are exemplary in the industry.

Despite our best planning and intentions, however, the unexpected sometimes pops up for trip participants, such as personal accident, illness or unfavorable changes in medical conditions, family situations, work-related demands, a death in the family, and so on. Sometimes flights are delayed, causing missed connections, or checked baggage may fail to show up at the planned destination. These and many other personal reasons may result in trip disruption, cancellation and/or unanticipated personal expenses.

Additionally, dive trips may be subject to scheduling or itinerary changes due to variations in weather, political tensions, natural disasters or other events beyond our control.

NCRD takes no responsibility for these situations and urges strongly that you purchase travel insurance to cover losses that may result from these types of personal situations and world events. This is good advice for any vacation regardless of whom you book with or wherever you go in the world. And, the better news is that travel insurance is very inexpensive compared to the price of your trip.

Many trip operators, including NCRD and our contracted vendors, have policies that prohibit the return or refund of any monies for trip cancellation or interruption resulting from adverse personal or world situations. But more than policy, our non-profit club has a basic inability to refund monies that have been committed or paid to vendors to secure a member′s place on a trip. So, please take a serious look at the following information and see if purchasing trip insurance makes sense for you.

Major Medical Insurance

If you do not have adequate personal medical insurance, you really should buy some before spending your money on luxuries like dive trips. However, if your medical insurance does not cover diving injuries, you can buy supplemental medical insurance from Diver′s Alert Network or PADI (see section entitled "Insurance Providers" below).

Specialized SCUBA-Related Insurance

If you are diving, NCRD highly recommends dive accident insurance to cover emergency medical evacuation, chamber recompression treatments and other procedures that may not be covered by your regular medical insurance. Other types of SCUBA insurance policies may cover lost or damaged dive gear and other equipment, such as flooded cameras or drysuits.

General Travel Insurance

There are different types of travel insurance policies. One may reimburse your trip costs if you end up cancelling or interrupting your trip due to illness or some other covered event. Other types of travel insurance cover lost, stolen or broken items such as a digital camera, mobile phone, or other personal items. And finally, some travel insurance policies cover lost or stolen baggage while enroute to and from your destination.

You may already have some type of travel insurance coverage and not know it! One place you might look for insurance coverage is in the terms of your credit card agreements. Credit card companies often include insurance coverage of some type as an account benefit. Another place where you may already have coverage for some events is in your household or renter′s insurance policy. Household policies often include provisions for loss of or damage to personal items while traveling. Therefore, you may wish to check your coverage with these sources before buying additional insurance.

Next, we′d like to add that insurance companies are almost always for-profit companies. On average, they pay out less than they take in. That means in the long run, buying insurance you don′t really need (because you can afford to suffer the loss yourself) may end up costing you money. Whether or not the peace of mind that an insurance policy might give you is worth the price is a personal decision. We ask only that you consider for a moment all the risks associated with joining an NCRD trip and what you can do to mitigate them. Insurance is one tool available to you.

Finally, if you are at all interested in covering pre-existing medical conditions, the most comprehensive travel insurance is available only if your trip insurance policy is purchased within a very short time of the date of your initial trip invoice or deposit. Typically this short period is 14 or 21 days, depending on the specific provider, and the countdown begins as soon as you make your first payment or trip deposit, so it′s important not to delay your selection and purchase of a policy! If you have questions about coverage or pre-existing coverage waivers, please contact your specific trip insurance provider (see section entitled "Insurance Providers" below).

Insurance Providers

The following organizations offer travel insurance of various types. Before choosing a policy, make sure you understand not only what′s covered and what isn′t, but also the circumstances under which payment will be made. Make sure you understand, for example, whether or not the policy covers cancellation costs and not just trip interruption. Pay particular attention to the policy′s definitions of "family" and other relationships and how they apply in your circumstance.

There is an internet website that helps you compare travel insurance coverage from the top 15 leading companies without having to investigate each one individually. Please note that this comparison is for general travel insurance only and does not include specialized insurance such as diving accident coverage.

NCRD does not endorse any particular insurance company over another or suggest that you limit your consideration to the providers listed here. These references are supplied only as a service to our members for their consideration.

Questions?

Email the NCRD Trip Coordinator at trips@rainbowdivers.org.