Let down by travel insurance, why not hedge your ‘bets’?
It’s widely accepted by the finance markets that ’selling risk’ is a good thing. In fact the practice is so widespread it is recognised as one of the contributors to today’s credit crunch. Unlike major lenders and insurance brokers, we cannot spread the risk in the same way and have to rely on industry backed insurance schemes (ATOL, etc.) and our own insurance policies, which we now learn do not usually cover us in the event a ‘business failure’. So when the accepted methods for spreading risk fail, where do we turn?
One option (not to be taken seriously of-course) could be to bet on your travel provider failing before you complete your holiday. This way, even if you can’t claim money back from ATOL, your travel agent, or your credit card, you can always take a payout from your betting shop as partial compensation for your losses.
So if you’re still thinking of that oversea trip, perhaps a check of the latest odds of your carrier going into administration may be prudent.
These were paddypower.com’s odds as at 16:00 on Saturday 13 Sept; although they will no doubt have changed by the time you travel - they changed while I was writing this blog!
| Airline | 13 Sept (16:00) | 14 Sept (12:00) |
| Alitalia | 1 - 4 | |
| SkyEurope | 2 - 1 | 7 - 2 |
| Spanair | 9 - 1 | 16 - 1 |
| Air Berlin | 11 - 1 | 20 - 1 |
| LOT | 14 - 1 | 25 - 1 |
| Vueling Airlines | 14 - 1 | 25 - 1 |
| Clickair | 16 - 1 | 25 - 1 |
| Olympic | 16 - 1 | 25 - 1 |
| Aeroflot | 16 - 1 | 33 - 1 |
| Air One | 18 - 1 | 25 - 1 |
| Germanwings | 18 - 1 | 25 - 1 |
| Scandinavian airlines | 20 - 1 | 25 - 1 |
| JetBlue | 20 - 1 | 25 - 1 |
| Jetstar | 20 - 1 | 33 - 1 |
| Malev | 20 - 1 | 25 - 1 |
| Flybe | 20 - 1 | 33 - 1 |
| Aer Arann | 20 - 1 | 25 - 1 |
| United Airlines | 22 - 1 | 25 - 1 |
| Czech Airlines | 33 - 1 | 33 - 1 |
| Aer Lingus | 40 - 1 | 50 - 1 |
| BMI | 40 - 1 | 50 - 1 |
| Qantas | 50 - 1 | 66 - 1 |
| Virgin Atlantic | 66 - 1 | 80 - 1 |
| easyJet | 66 - 1 | 80 - 1 |
| Lufthansa | 100 - 1 | 100 - 1 |
| BA | 100 - 1 | 100 - 1 |
| Air France | 100 - 1 | 100 - 1 |
| Ryanair | 100 - 1 | 100 - 1 |
* Odds applies to the next airline to officially go into administration as published on the Paddypower.com website.