Weapons Baggage Insurance

[hockeydadnu27]

Flying to SMM3gun first time with guns. Santa is bringing me a Pelican case # 1750 for Xmas. I plan to fit all 3 guns in one case. How about additional baggage insurance on that checked gun case??? Is it a good idea? How much does it cost?

How do i purchase the insurance? Suggestions? Ideas? from experienced flyiers who have flown with guns.

Thanks

Louie :

[blkbrd]

It depends on the airline.

Go to there websight and check, you may have to call there customer service for all the details.

[JFlowers]

Last time I flew with firearms on USAirways, their rule was 2 or 3 longarms or 5 handguns to a case, but no mixtures allowed. Even the USAirways agent thought that was a rather stupid rule. But this was pre-9/11.

[Detlef]

in general, it is usually (except for mandatory insurance like home & car liability)simply not worth purchasing any insurance. Think about it, someone with a lot more information than you (the insurance company) already did the risk-reward calculation for you, and they decided they can -on average- make money by selling it to you! Simply put, the fact that it is available to you is an excellent hint that you should NOT buy it.

More specifically, extra baggage insurance is often expensive, comes with large deductible and low upper limit, and with difficult to fulfill conditions ("...police office must be present at time of theft to qualify..." and shit like that). So, at least, check out carefully what you pay and what you get, and under what conditions.

The NRA has some nice firearms insurance policies for you that they broker, they also apply while traveling. Even your homeowners or renters policy may cover your guns while traveling.

After I had looked at all these things, I never again bought extra insurance, and I travel with guns a lot....

--Detlef

[bgary]

Actually, there *is* a side benefit to buying airline insurance... that is that they pay a *lot* more attention to your bags, when they are insured.

I would not insure my guns thru the airline for their full value - I have other insurance for that. But, I sometimes buy a "little" insurance on the bags that have the guns on them.... just to make them pay attention. Their procedure for "special handling" is the same whether you buy $100 worth of coverage or $10k worth.

Bruce

[davidwiz]

In one of his articles on 3-gunning, MV said that it was worth the insurance b/c the airline keeps a real close eye on the bag, making sure that it is handled with kid gloves and gets to where it needs to be.

[Garrett]

Like others have said, the airline usually takes much better care of your stuff if you buy a little insurance. It usually runs around $10 for $1000 worth of coverage. I find that the $10 is a cheap price to pay.

Often when I do this, I end up having to pick my gun case up at the airline's baggage office, and show them my baggage claim ticket. I feel a lot better about that than just having the case dumped out onto the carosel where anyone could come along and grab it. Even worse, sometimes they will offload my rifle case in the "oversized" baggage claim area. This is often not anywhere near the regular baggage claim carosel. Meaning that it would be that much easier for someone to just pick it up and walk off with it.

[blkbrd]

I hate to burst your bubble but airline bagage handlers do not know if your rifle case is insured or not, and they dont care.

Most airlines will hand carry rifle cases to the luggage office anyway, insurred or not, and they dont know that a pistol case is inside your checked bag anyway.

[bgary]

and they dont know that a pistol case is inside your checked bag anyway

They do *these* days.

All airlines require that you fill out the little declaration tag when you tell them you are checking a gun. *Most* airlines (I haven't flown all of them, but all the ones that I *have* flown do this) put some little 'flag' on your passenger record and/or your baggage tag. United, for example, puts an "FFFFFF" on the baggage tag that goes on the bag with the gun. F = Firearm. Alaska does something similar. Most of them do.

Then (generally speaking) they send you to have your bag screened by TSA. Note that when TSA has scanned the bag that has a firearm in it, they put a "highligher" mark on the luggage tag, in a different color than the highlighter they use for other bags. This, again, is a little "flag" that says "we already know there is a gun in this one, so don't raise an alarm if it shows up in some other screening.

They have other tricks, too. Bottom line is, don't fool yourself. They are *very* aware of which bags have guns in them.

Bruce

[Sac Law Man]

Each Bag is automatically insured for $2500. I believe this is standard w/ all airlines. You can insure up to a max of $3500. So, $10 will get you the extra $1000.

[BigDave]

Most homeowner's insurance cover's property while it is anywhere in the world. Depending on the carrier, the typical limit for loss due to left of firearms is $2500 per occurance, subject to your regular deductible. You can, at an option, increase this limit.

or...

You can insure your firearms on a personal articles policy (PAP). Here, you schedule (list) what firearms you want to insure and what amount you want each gun insured for. Rates are typcially $1-$2 per $100 of coverage. The big difference is the coverage. Personal Articles policies are typcially all-peril coverage where homeowners personal property is named-peril. The big benefit with the PAP is that you're covered for mysterious disappearence (MD). MD is not typically a named-peril and therefore not covered. The difference between theft and MD can be a bit fuzzy.

I use a PAP to cover my guns since I travel with them frequently. The piece of mind is worth it to me.

[Flexmoney]

Dave,

That PAP coverage would likely be for the whole year?

[Detlef]

Bruce, you have just listed what airlines and TSA do when there's a firearm in the bag. I would check very carefully (and I haven't lately...) if airlines *really* handle your bag differently when insured. I seriously doubt it, unless insured for a huge amount it wouldn't seem to make financial sense becaue extra handling costs extra money, on each of the bags, while not handling them specially only costs money on claim cases. I am not in the air traffic business, and I do not know how they would even organize teh special handling of insured pieces. A dedicated handler costs at least $10/h...

As for *only $10*....and *well spent*, this is my calculation: I have flown internationally and nationally about 100 times with guns. I have only had one (non-gun) bag damaged (a 747 must have run it over, from the looks...), never was anything lost. If I had spent $20 for each one of those flights in extra insurance (2 bags), I would have spent $2000, enough to rebuild my most expensive Limited gun. Thus far, I am ahead. As I've said before, this is really not a surprise because the company offering this insurance has much more data than myself, and has decided that they can make money doing this. I'll continue to go with their risk assessment (and not buy it)!

--Detlef

[rishii]

I asked a buddy who works the checkin counter at a major airline about addional insurance his exact quote is "it's a waste of money". if you pay the insurance, you bag is handled the same as all the other bags, there is no extra effort to watch your bags and ensure they get to where your going, all your doing is giving the airline extra money, for no increase in service.

he also said that at his airline, each bag you check in is already insured between $2500-$3000, but if you need to make a claim, they will ask for recepts for all items your claiming.

[Detlef]

thanks, that settles it, I guess...

As a rule of thumb, buying insurance is good to cover catastrophic events (think 25% of your net worth and up), the financial impact of losing your gun is not a ruinous event.

--D.

[BigDave]

Dave,

That PAP coverage would likely be for the whole year?

It could be if you wanted it to. I believe (you'll have to check with your own agent/carrier) you can also take out the policy for a specific period of time.

Say, for instance, you knew you were heading to Area 2 on 11/14-18. Take out the policy on 11/1, pay the months premium, and then after your match, cancel the policy. This is often done with liability policies when people rent public halls for weddings, parties and such.