This was published 7 years ago
Readers' travel tips: Beware of travel insurance provided with credit cards
Read the fine print when it comes to travel insurance provided with credit cards.
MAN OH OMUDSMAN
Beware the travel insurance provided with credit cards. I was forced to lodge a complaint with the Financial Ombudsman against a bank's insurer for unconscionable and deliberate processing delays after four months.
After lodging with the FSO, I received a notice from the insurer advising that it intended to pay. Never forget the FSO is there when your insurers are not.
Sara Cullen, Brighton, VIC
TIP OF THE WEEK
My husband and I recently travelled through China by train with our trip booked through a Beijing-based company called china-diy-travel.com and could not recommend it highly enough.
It supplies translations of departing stations for your taxi, what you require, and even further translations to assist if luggage is lost, if you miss the train or need to book a later train.
This is a great help as there is little English around stations or on trains. At its suggestion we bought two children's tickets for our sleeper (four-berth with a door) which meant that we had room for our bags and space to move. It also meant that the door remain closed all night with no one else coming and going.
We were advised by china-diy not to use the dedicated windows at stations which "are automatic distributions for Chinese citizens who can get tickets using their national ID cards". The e-ticket provided by china-diy should be presented at any ticket window (which always has a queue) with the passports of those travelling (children travel on parents' passports so we had no problem with our phantom children).
Tickets for the train are then issued, you find the correct waiting room and wait for the train to arrive. You are then swept along with the dozens of Chinese also on that train. Everyone takes their noodle cups and uses the hot water available at the end of the carriage to make dinner. We took ours from Sydney but there are plenty available in the many small supermarkets around the cities.
Lesley Abelitis, Dover Heights, NSW
T FOR TWO
My husband and I have just returned from eight days in Hong Kong. We consider ourselves fortunate that we stumbled upon The T Hotel. The hotel is to train young people in the hospitality industry – they may be in training but their service and the food were very professional.
The tariff is reasonable, (a 3½ star cost for a close to five-star standard), the food excellent, the rooms large, modern and clean and the staff couldn't be more helpful. This hotel is in Pokfulam, which is not in the main area but there is a bus stop outside the hotel and the hotel runs a shuttle to the city three times a day.
Carolyn James, Como, NSW
IN EXCESS
If you are planning a trip in Australia make sure you take local travel insurance that includes hire car excess. Recently, we watched some people, in a queue ahead of us, hiring a car and they opted to take the extra cover, which literally doubled their cost from $500 to $1000 dollars for 10 days.
Our pre-purchased insurance for two people cost less than $100 and covered excess and much more. Good to be cautious and money wise.
T. Podmore, Cremorne NSW
IDYLL THOUGHTS
With reference to The Tripologist's advice (Traveller on Sunday, November 6) to D. Jay of Seaforth, NSW, on islands for day trips from Palm Cove, we stayed on Fitzroy Island, which is about a 40- minute trip out of Cairns. It was very much like Green Island with a lovely resort and it also has a choice of great walks and a turtle sanctuary!
Mignonne de Witt, Box Hill South, VIC
LOCK, STOCK AND CABLE
My husband and I have travelled extensively in Europe by rail. We always take a ski lock with us to secure our cases on the luggage rack by putting a ski lock cable through the handles and rack for added security.
When arriving in an unfamiliar city, we often connect all the cases with a ski lock cable to wait while one of us gets our bearings, it's so hard to keep several cases supervised in busy stations.
Chris Gill, Belrose, NSW
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