Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2013

Froggitt

We have an ongoing policy with First Direct One Account for £15 a month that includes USA travel and our declared pre-existing conditions. Plus there's phone insurance, car breakdown etc included.

stoneman

dodger1 wrote: »

The importance of insurance. Recently taken ill at McCarran airport. Medics were called and I was transported to the Desert Springs Hospital which is four miles away.

I was dehydrated due to extreme diarrhea and some sickness. I was at the hospital for a total of eight hours undergoing tests to see what the problem was. Final diagnosis was gastroenteritis. Here are the three bills for the tests etc

Ambulance trip to hospital (four miles)............$1,014

Emergency evaluation by doctor....................$962

Tests plus anti sickness drugs (8 hour stay)....$18,730

So for a four mile trip an evaluation and a few tests and drugs $20,706 !!! I wasn't allowed to fly for two days and my own out of pocket expenses came to over £900. Thankfully I was covered and everything has now been paid.

Just a heads up really as I expect most savvy USA holiday makers will already know how ridiculously expensive hospital care in the States actually is.

Tracy was treated at Desert Springs for a kidney infection. Rehydration, tests, antibiotic drip, we were there about 6 hours. Cost came to just over $2,000. (but we did make our own way there)
Insurance paid up and didn't even bother asking for the £100 excess.
We get quite good cover by booking everything with our Amex cards but also take out another policy at £75 a year with Cosmos insurance.

Georgiegirl256

luci wrote: »

Which bank is that with?

Barclays. I'm not sure if there is different levels that cover different things? Maybe it's worth me checking out. I know that he gets RAC cover (the top package) and mobile phone cover, and I'm sure there's other things too.

gracie10

Georgiegirl256 wrote: »

Barclays. I'm not sure if there is different levels that cover different things? Maybe it's worth me checking out. I know that he gets RAC cover (the top package) and mobile phone cover, and I'm sure there's other things too.

our account is with Barclays and all my travel insurance is included. Think with my account I pay £17 a month.

Georgiegirl256

gracie10 wrote: »

our account is with Barclays and all my travel insurance is included. Think with my account I pay £17 a month.

Just been upstairs to his office to get him to check his account again. Sure enough, it does only cover European travel, but there were loads of different options to upgrade, add things on etc, he just doesn't read things properly! Got him to phone up and add the Worldwide Cover on, and it's no extra cost, although we did lose a couple of extras that we'd never used, so sorted now.

nvh

hey, I have free internet and the missus is asleep so i'm allowed to sneak on without getting shouted at - obviously the main purpose i'm on the computer is for online banking tho

re: insurance, couple more things I picked up on from wifey being ill a month or two ago

1) sometimes (depending on length of trip to the US), it is cheaper to get annual instead of single trip - we are here for a few weeks so it was cheaper to get the multi-trip option

2) we took out insurance in March (as that's when our annual 'renews'), and the missus fell ill initially in May - I stupidly assumed as we'd taken out the insurance before the illness we would be covered, but on reading the terms, discovered a pre-existing condition is anything prior to a trip commencing - we would be covered if the docs said she wasn't well enough to travel, but cover whilst away was a different issue

Our existing insurers (a cheapo "£40" a year company) wanted an extra £800 to cover the conditions (which as they're so recent, we would be daft not to cover when travelling to the US)... shopped around and got full cover, for both of us, for a year (cheaper than single trip) and conditions covered for £250 by these guys --> https://www.avantitravelinsurance.co.uk/

(PS - thanks for the sobering post dodger! I'd felt slightly narked at the £250 cost of insurance to cover conditions, but seeing that makes you realise it could be totally worth it!!!)

(PPS - Chicago was awesome... definitely worth stopping by and also a good way to morph over the timezones - Denver (so far... and its early days!) just smells of weed - though it's only a base!)

Froggitt

I used www.flexicover.comfor declared medical condition insurance before we had the First Direct package. Was good value IIRC.

silvercar

luci wrote: »

Which bank is that with?

NatWest Black account. I do pay £24 a month, but for that get 4 iphones insured and worldwide 5* defaqto rated travel insurance for anyone in the family under 25 and in education, travelling together and separately. We also pay with our AmEx for some extra travel delay protection.

vegasvisitor

Georgiegirl256 wrote: »

What have you got planned for during the day? Any excursions?

Not excursions as such - we will have a car for a week so we will be out an about in it. We'll go out to Red Rock, might even do the loop round onto Blue Diamond from there. One time we went there was this old style place with a petting zoo, but it was closed because there were fires out there that day. Might go try see it again.

We also thought about Roos'n'more, but we'd need to go in the morning, and it's open the day we move to Platinum (the Sunday) so it's not a very convenient day if we don't get checked in.

We'll be out shopping a fair bit - Charleson Blvd, North Rainbow, Meadows Mall, Outlets (near downtown and south strip), Henderson shopping. We'll also stop into Red Rock resort, Green Valley Ranch, Silverton and some others off strip for buffets during the day when out in the car.

As this is our 13th trip, we've done quite a lot already - Hoover dam twice, Laughlin (might go back there if the weather's not great, we could also go to London Bridge at Lake Havasu City - although we sort of thought we'd do that on a drive from Phoenix on a future trip).

2 more days at work :T

luci

Georgiegirl256 wrote: »

Just been upstairs to his office to get him to check his account again. Sure enough, it does only cover European travel, but there were loads of different options to upgrade, add things on etc, he just doesn't read things properly! Got him to phone up and add the Worldwide Cover on, and it's no extra cost, although we did lose a couple of extras that we'd never used, so sorted now.

That was the reason I asked which bank it was with. I thought it might have been the Nationwide FlexAccount which has a free European policy, but you can upgrade it to worldwide for £20 a year.

I was going to suggest you ask if you could upgrade it, but see you are all sorted.

The Nationwide FlexPlus is a good packaged account. For £10 / month it gives worldwide travel insurance, cover all the mobiles in the house including iPhones and a few other benefits.