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--- category:travel [2012/08/17 11:25]
neil [Australia] Added Mel air blog post
+++ category:travel [2013/04/18 19:20] (current)
neil fixed some links
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 ====== Travel ======
-  * [[http://www.ozbargain.com.au/cat/travel|Click here]] to view Travel deals recently submitted on OzBargain
+Recent [[http://www.ozbargain.com.au/cat/travel|travel deals]]:
+{{rss>http://www.ozbargain.com.au/cat/travel/feed 5 10m }}
 ===== Accommodation =====
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 ===Price Comparison Sites===
   * [[http://www.hotelscombined.com/|hotelscombined.com]] -- Search & compare over 900,000 global hotel deals from over 30 merchants on one site.
+  * [[http://www.ihotelsdiscounts.com/|ihotelsdiscounts.com]] -- Search and Compare hotel deals worldwide all at once.
   * [[http://www.kayak.com | Kayak ]] -- Hotel and flight search engine based out of the US. Sometimes different sites offer different prices for the same hotel.
   * [[http://www.myhotelpower.com/|MyHotelPower.com]] -- Search & compare global hotel deals all around the world.
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   * **Melbourne**
-    * [[http://www.thatsmelbourne.com.au/Gettingaroundthecity/Visitorassistance/Pages/TouristShuttle.aspx | Free City Tourist Shuttle]]. Free service operates daily every 30 minutes between 9.30am and 4.30pm, excluding Christmas Day. More details here:
+    * [[http://www.thatsmelbourne.com.au/Gettingaroundthecity/Visitorassistance/Pages/TouristShuttle.aspx | Free City Tourist Shuttle]]. Free service operates daily every 30 minutes between 9.30am and 4.30pm, excluding Christmas Day.
     * [[http://www.metlinkmelbourne.com.au/route/view/1112 | Free City Circle Tram]].
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 Some credit cards offer this plus your travel insurance offers something, but these only cover the excess you have to pay. In places like the US the insurances offered by the companies by default, are the minimum required.
-The following lifted from an overseas site may give you some insight
+The following lifted from a number of overseas sites may give you some insight, but its not legal advice. Hopefully it just helps you get a better understanding into what is a confusing and complicated area and you do need to rely on your own research and assessment.
-In the USA, CDW, theft and third party liability (also know as Supplemental Liability Insurance or SLI) are not normally included in the rental price if you book your car when you arrive and can be purchased separately although it does tend to be expensive. Cars can be rented without insurance but this would be risky and is not something to be undertaken lightly, particularly in the USA where court awards of damages can be staggeringly high.  Excess charging is not common in the USA and the hirer is normally responsible for damage to tyres, windscreen, undercarriage and roof of the car
+In Australia many times third party insurance is mandatory for registration, and covers third party injury claims. In the US its not always the case and liability is not capped as it is here. Different states have varying minimum requirements.
-You don't have to take out CDW excess insurance – it is completely voluntary but it may make good sense. You can buy it from the car rental company or you can purchase it in advance from an independent insurance company. If you know you are going to take out an excess insurance policy it might be worth comparing the offerings of the independent brokers and the car rental companies. There may be fairly significant price differences. As with all types of insurance, always read the policy details as the CDW excess insurance of some insurers may still exclude the most commonly damaged parts of the vehicle – windscreen, tyres, roof and undercarriage.
+Cars can be rented without this insurance but this would be risky and is not something to be undertaken lightly, particularly in the USA where court awards of damages can be staggeringly high.
-Rental companies in the US are required by law to have insurance. But this is limited depending on the State.
+You don't have to take out excess insurance – it is completely voluntary but it may make good sense. You can buy it from the car rental company or you can purchase it in advance from an independent insurance company.
+If you know you are going to take out an excess insurance policy it might be worth comparing the offerings of the independent brokers and the car rental companies. There may be fairly significant price differences. As with all types of insurance, always read the policy details as the excess insurance of some insurers/car rental agencies, may still exclude the most commonly damaged parts of the vehicle – windscreen, tyres, roof and undercarriage.
-Loss Damage Waiver (LDW) – sometimes also referred to as Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) - covers the costs of damage to the rental vehicle in the event of an accident.
+Rental companies in the US are required by law to have insurance. The limits are often expressed separated by slashes in the following form: "bodily injury per person"/"bodily injury per accident"/"property damage". For example, California requires this minimum coverage:
-Supplemental Liability Insurance (SLI) – provides coverage in the event of an accident causing bodily injury or property damage to someone other than the renter and passengers.
+    $15,000 for injury/death to one person
+    $30,000 for injury/death to more than one person
+    $5,000 for damage to property
-Also note that although frequently not explicitly stated, US car rental companies are required by respective state law to provide **minimal liability coverage**. This covers costs to a third party in the event of an accident. In most states it is illegal to drive a car without liability coverage therefore this must be included in the cost of rental.
+This would be expressed as "$15,000/$30,000/$5,000".
-Taking California which is the most likely rental destination for Aussies. This is around $US15K, hence its good to take out the supplemental CDW/SLI from the car rental company OR
+Now Car rental agencies, Supplemental Liability Insurance (SLI) – provides coverage in the event of an accident causing bodily injury or property damage to someone other than the renter and passengers, which increases the minimum that by law they are required to cover. As you can see in the Californian case, the minimum is woefully inadequate.
-buy a policy from a car rental insurance company. It depends on the length of the rental. You can buy 1 year policies for around $160, which gives you far greater coverage vs $20 a day from the car rental companies.
-Credit card coverage/ Travel insurance policies often only cover the excess upto $5000. Now if you have a liability - say a few cars damaged in a pile up, plus human medical costs etc the $5000 which may have been adequate for a parking lot scrape, isnt that great. US customers can tap into their domestic car insurance policies. Australians can't. It can be a big money trap.
+Loss Damage Waiver (LDW) – sometimes also referred to as Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) - covers the costs of damage to the rental vehicle in the event of an accident. Note the words **waiver** as the car rental companies are only waiving the excess **they** charge for an accident. In essence since they are not insuring you, they are saying they wont charge you for damages to their car, waiving their right to claim.
+BUT note that although frequently not explicitly stated, US car rental companies are required by respective state law to provide **minimal liability coverage** as per the California example. This covers costs to a third party in the event of an accident. In most states it is illegal to drive a car without liability coverage therefore this must be included in the cost of rental.
+Hence its good to take out the supplemental CDW/SLI from the car rental company OR
+buy a policy from a car rental insurance company. It depends on the length of the rental. You can buy 1 year policies for around $160, which gives you far greater coverage vs $20 a day from the car rental companies. Plus the annual policies are multiple use and the ones that cover the USA will often cover other areas of the world,
+You might say that you have Credit card coverage/ Travel insurance policies that cover any excess.
+BUT this is excess that the car rental company will charge you for damage to their vehicle, not to others, and often this will only cover the **excess** upto $5000.
+So you crash the Rental car into someone else. The Travel Insurance covers the car rental company's excess charge of $4000, but where are you with the liability for the repairs on the other car plus injury to the occupants and with the basic coverage covered above $5000 to cover the other persons vehicle is pretty low.
+SLI as offered by most companies increases this to more acceptable rates, you do need to scope out what this covers as it can vary according to the company. But this SLI does cost and thats where looking at third party coverage helps, as this may be far cheaper.
+US customers can tap into their domestic car insurance policies for this "third party" liability. Australians can't. It can be a big money trap.
+Where as independent insurance from a third party broker gives you much higher coverage in all aspects. This limit isnt discussed here as it depends on which one you go to. It can be as high as a million dollars coverage.
 See
 [[http://www.insurance4carhire.com/index.asp?subRefID=0&curID=1&langID=1&refID=1351]]
 for some good info. Although they now do not sell to anyone outside the EEU
+also
+[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damage_waiver]]
 One company that does is [[https://www.questor-insurance.co.uk/vehicle-hire-excess-insurance.aspx]]
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 ===== Tips and Hints ======
-NZ currency exchange.
+**NZ currency exchange.**
 Best place to get good rates on AUD to NZD is using KiwiBank found in post offices in NZ. Rates are much better than in the bigger banks and with the currency exchanges.
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 Some details can be found here. http://www.kiwibank.co.nz/personal-banking/international-services/foreign-exchange/fast-branches.asp
+**THAILAND currency exchange.**
+If you visit Bangkok, a shop, superrichthailand, near Central world shopping centre offers the best rate.
+You can check it online here: http://www.superrichthailand.com/editor/rate.html
+Just be careful, there is another shop on the same street which has similar name, superrich: http://www.superrich.co.th/rate.php (actually has same AUD buy rate as at 18/03/2013)
 ===== OS Shopping tips List by country - USA ======
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 More discussions here
-*  [[http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/70643]]
+  *  [[http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/70643]]
+  *  [[http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/70497]]
-*  [[http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/70497]]

Last edited by neil on 2012/08/17 11:25

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