London, England -- (SBWire) -- 02/29/2012 --Leading travel insurance, airport parking and hotels provider Essential Travel reveals some of its weirder claims from UK holidaymakers:
- A bill of £23,000 medical expenses for a bad bout of Delhi Belly would have been more than a pain in the bum for one unlucky traveller had he not invested in insurance.
- The poor gent struck by lightening in South Africa luckily won't be struck twice as fortunately his insurance covered his medical costs of over £5,000
- Who said Americans are greedy? It was a Brit caught gobbling down his steak. Luckily he won't be choking on his medical bill of over £5,000 as his Essential Travel insurance meant that he didn't bite off more than he could chew...
- They say local grappa tastes like rocket fuel but one traveller in Turkey took that a bit too literally when they accidentally drank gasoline resulting in a hangover to the tune of over a £1,000
- A real life slip of the tongue almost ended in disaster in Turkey when one lady swallowed her tongue after an almighty sneeze. The £1,000 bill covered by her insurance wasn't to be sniffed at...
- A plucky young traveller in Mexico suffering from chicken pox managed to avoid the seven-year itch - probably the length of time it would have taken her to repay the £20,400 in medical fees had been without cover
- Getting a sun tan is one thing, but oiling up a medical bill for £2,550 to treat sunburn in the US would certainly have left this traveller with scars if she'd forgotten to take out her travel insurance
- Having insurance certainly took the sting out of the £4,800 medical bill one gent in the Dominican Republic suffered after receiving a nasty insect bite. Another traveller in Indonesia saved himself going ape at a medical bill of over £1,000 for a monkey bite
- The bill could have been worse than the bite for the individual suffering from a nasty dog attack in South Africa which luckily didn't set him back the £6,000 it cost to get him fixed up as he'd invested in travel insurance
Stuart Bensusan from Essential Travel said: "I think many people looking at some of our highest claim costs - and some of the reasons for them - will be extremely surprised.
Some of the cases may raise a smile, but there's a serious side too. In addition to the £23,000 Delhi Belly case mentioned above we've also seen payouts of £89,359 on bleeding lesions, £69,699 spent on Cellulitis in Canada and £59,135 on a bank injury in the USA. These were serious medical conditions not just requiring financial help but also the support and logistical assistance that our insurance provided for.
When you put this in to the context of a single trip policy costing from as little as £6.94 it really does highlight the unnecessary risk that people travelling uninsured may be subjecting themselves to."
Notes to editors
About EssentialTravel.co.uk
Established in 2001, EssentialTravel.co.uk is one of the UK's leading online travel essentials companies. The core products offered include competitively priced, fully comprehensive travel insurance; airport car parking; airport lounge access; airport hotels; car hire; and car hire excess insurance.
Essential Travel is now part of Thomas Cook UK & Ireland.
Unexpected Travel Insurance Claims Revealed by Essential Travel
Don't be caught short - diarrhoea claim tops £23,000. Essential Travel reveals some of its weirder claims from UK holidaymakers