Red Pennant....or not !!

Good afternoon GTP

Thank you for your enquiry.

At present you ferry trip is not deemed at risk as you have only paid a £75 deposit with you final balance due 8 weeks before you travel, we would be delighted to call you on the 3rd January 2017 to complete your Red Pennant quote when our 2017 rates will be available, we can only cover now if your ferry has been in paid in full and at risk. 

With kind regards.

Kimberley 

So it seems the CC are quite happy for a member to lose the £75 deposit if they have to cancel for whatever reason never mind if they have paid a deposit to use a commercial site on the way to the ferry?

The Club is sensibly saying that it's not worth paying nsurance of £150+ to protect a £75 deposit for a ferry and perhaps a small deposit on an overnight site on the way to the port.

I agree with ET, unless you have paid an expensive crossing in full, plus paid  to pre-book sites, I would leave buying the RP till nearer the time.

We generally do not pre-book sites abroad, we have made a booking for a crossing in April/June, paid  the £75 and have another approx £40 to pay later.  This is mučh less than the £200+ that RP will cost, so we only take it out a couple of weeks before we travel.

Hi Kimberley....thank you for your reply...however the ferry booking was not the only reason for requesting an insurance quote. We are meeting up with friends at a 5* site which we all know well and can obtain better rates by booking direct rather than via the CC......which we have done. Subsequently the risk is much higher than the £75 ferry deposit. For my own information, I assume I would not be asked to pay the ferry balance if I did have to cancel...

Brittany ferries only ask for a £35 deposit and you have the option of changing the date?

The club should be able to arrange the insurance when taking bookings and the lack of that is almost beyond belief. If every one else can quote the club cannot be anything other than negligent in failing to compete.

Having said that Red Pennant is very good and personally apart from the C&CC insurance I would not use any other just because it was cheaper. You get what you pay for and some of the cheaper policies are simply very mean with their claims service.

The club should be able to arrange the insurance when taking bookings and the lack of that is almost beyond belief. If every one else can quote the club cannot be anything other than negligent in failing to compete.

Having said that Red Pennant is very good and personally apart from the C&CC insurance I would not use any other just because it was cheaper. You get what you pay for and some of the cheaper policies are simply very mean with their claims service.

It does seem a strange situation as when we book any kind of holiday/travel i am always asked the question 'Have you got/Can we arrange insurance for you'. It is another money raising exercise on the whole for the travel company. 

I have booked my ferry through the club, paid the full fare and was encouraged to get Red Pennant. Only to find like GTP they aren't able to process it due to it being after 1st January, at the very least they should tell you this on the 1st page. If it is there I apologise, but in that case it should be in bolder type!