High Altitude travel insurance (5000 mts)

Hi  and a very warm welcome to the online community

That sounds like a great trip you've got planned but, as you've found, it can be more difficult to find travel insurance when you have a cancer diagnosis. 

I don't know whether you've looked through the Recommended Travel Insurance thread yet as it's where the majority of recommendations from other forum members are. Clicking on the link I've created will take you directly to it if you haven't seen it. 

Most people recommend that you phone the travel companies rather than try and do online quotes as sometimes they can refer to the underwriters to see if they would cover you when an online quote might just give you a straight refusal.

I do hope that you can get travel insurance and that you have a wonderful time. Do come back and let us know how you get on.

x

Many thanks for the welcome and information link. I will come back in case any knowledge gained is of use to others. 

Shazz

After several days of stress, All Clear were finally able to agree to covering me for trekking up to 4800mts. This was achieved by my oncologist giving verbal agreement to fully support my trip. However, the nurse I spoke to suggested I ring my Doctor's secretary and get a letter signed by the Doctor stating that he had no issues with my trip (It helped that I've been walking and climbing the local mountains).

For anyone else thinking of joining an adventure trip with high altitude trekking, my insurance cost £1500 whereas others without pre-existing conditions can get it for £200!

Thank you for your support. I hope my outcome will help others get the right insurance.

Shazz

I'm glad that you were able to get insurance at and thanks very much for taking the time to come back and let us know.

I hope you have a lovely trip!

Thanks for sharing Shazz. I’ve booked a trip to climb kilamanjaro in January and need insurance to cover high altitude trekking up to 6000 meters, medical and repatriation costs and trip cancellations. I had a malignant melanoma at least ten years ago and have had no further issues since then. I have always used All Clear but I’m worried they won’t cover an altitude above 4800 meters after seeing your post. I’ll give them a call tomorrow. If they won’t cover me, can anyone suggest who to try next?

Hi Phoenix77 and a very warm welcome to the online community which I hope you'll find is an informative and supportive place to be.

Like you, I've had melanoma, although mine was only 5 years ago. I haven't had to get insurance for trekking up to 6000 meters but I have found payingtoomuch.com good for covering both mine and my husband's pre-existing medical conditions.

I don't know if you've had chance to look through the 'recommended travel insurance' thread yet as it's where the majority of recommendations from other forum members are. If not, clicking on the link I've created will take you straight there. You might also want to look at this thread as it includes a link to a Travel Insurance Directory. 

Do come back and let us know how you get on

x

Hi Latchbrook, thank you so much, I’ll take a look now. I contacted All Clear this morning and they said they could insure me so referred me to a broker but I after 20 mins of holding i gave up. I’ldefinitely let you know how I get on.

Hi Latchbrook, after lots of calling various insurance companies I’m pleased to say that I managed to get cover for my trip!!

He’s a summary of what I found as others may find this useful:

* All Clear would not provide cover over 3000 meters and suggested called Biba. (The British Insurance Brokers Association).

* Biba referred me to Avanti. They said they couldn’t provide cover over 4000 meters. 

* Payingtoomuch.com said the highest one of their insurers could cover was 2500 meters, the rest would only cover up to 2090 meters.

* Staysure would only cover under 2500 meters.

* Goodtogoinsrance.com only covered up to 3000 meters.

i then rang BIBA again and explained the issues I was having as it seemed there were no insurers on the market that would cover high altitude trekking upto 6000 meters regardless of my pre-existing conditions. They searched the system again and found one insurer that had no altitude limit. They referred me to higos.co.uk. Deborah was amazing and gave me the following two options: 

* Single trip - £122.48

* Annual multi trip - £158.83 (which covered worldwide, except the USA, Canada, Mexico)

I chose the annual policy in the end. 

Due to having asthma and a malignant melanoma years ago I had to undertake a separate medical screening which cost £62 on top of the quote for the insurance itself which made the total cost £220.83 but it was still much less than I was expecting to pay.

Thanks for all of your advice

Great news Phoenix77 and thanks very much for taking the time to report back. I'm sure others in future will find this all really helpful.

I hope you have a great trip!

x