Ping Dave Smith

[Ed Pawlowski]

Preview of your Paris vacation

https://imgur.com/gallery/Kq2dCIk

[Bruce]

On Sat, 25 Mar 2023 00:59:34 -0400, Ed Pawlowski <e...@snet.xxx> wrote:

>Preview of your Paris vacation
>
>https://imgur.com/gallery/Kq2dCIk

Nobody strikes like the French strike.

[lucr...@florence.it]

On Sat, 25 Mar 2023 00:59:34 -0400, Ed Pawlowski <e...@snet.xxx> wrote:

>Preview of your Paris vacation
>
>https://imgur.com/gallery/Kq2dCIk

Hate to imagine the smell !!

[lucr...@florence.it]

On Sat, 25 Mar 2023 16:26:50 +1100, Bruce <Br...@invalid.invalid>
wrote:

Safe to say the most common age accepted for retirement is 65 - so
they are still doing okay.

[%]

French rifle for sale, never fired and only dropped twice.

[Dave Smith]

On 2023-03-25 12:59 a.m., Ed Pawlowski wrote:
> Preview of your Paris vacation
>
> https://imgur.com/gallery/Kq2dCIk

The trip is on hold. I am having trouble getting travel insurance. I am
sure that the strike will be over by then but the insurance issue may
not be resolved in time. I travel agent friend is adamant about the need
for insurance and does not want to book anything without it. It may end
up being a domestic trip, maybe to the west coast.

[Bruce]

Yes, since they're going from 62 to 64, kicking and screaming.

[Bruce]

On Sat, 25 Mar 2023 10:06:06 -0400, Dave Smith
<adavid...@sympatico.ca> wrote:

>On 2023-03-25 12:59 a.m., Ed Pawlowski wrote:
>> Preview of your Paris vacation
>>
>> https://imgur.com/gallery/Kq2dCIk
>
>The trip is on hold. I am having trouble getting travel insurance. I am
>sure that the strike will be over by then but the insurance issue may
>not be resolved in time. I travel agent friend is adamant about the need
>for insurance and does not want to book anything without it.

Your travel agent doesn't automatically become a friend, Dave Smith.
It's just a travel agent. Somebody who keeps a door open for you, also
isn't automatically a friend. They just kept a door open.

[Gary]

Why is travel insurance a problem, Dave?

[S Viemeister]

I assume it's because of the current situation in Paris. Those giant
piles of rubbish all over the city have been set on fire, there are
angry protests and lots of strikes.
Insurance companies don't like that sort of thing..

[lucr...@florence.it]

I thought it was more likely his heart problems, insurance companies
really back away from that.

[Dave Smith]

Yep. CAA will insure me but they want close to $600 for one week.
However, they all want me to wait until the results from my holter come
in. I am counting on everything being fine and the pulse issues were my
Fitbit screwing up. If the doctor advises me not to travel they will
not insure me. If I am cleared to go it may be a little too late for the
flight and hotel dates I want.

If I am okay but it is too late for those bookings I am considering
postponing it to September. My friend and his wife are also celebrating
their 50th and planning to go to Paris then. He was an airline pilot
who flew to Paris frequently and says the weather is great and the
crowds of tourists are gone.

[Dave Smith]

I need medical insurance in case something happens to me. My heart
issues make me a high risk. The first company rejected me pending the
results of recent tests. The second will insure me but if those test
results end up with advise not to travel that would be cancelled. It is
going to cost over $650 without deductible, about $550 with a deductible.

Things happen. My wife's cousin in his 50s when he dropped dead on the
steps to the Acropolis in Athens. It was an expensive ordeal to get his
body back. He could not be cremated there so he had to be embalmed and
in a casket and flown back. It costs thousands.

I have seen too many news stories about people having things happen
while overseas and then a lot of whining about how the government should
be helping them. My response is typically to think that while we do have
a government run health care system, it is not health insurance for
travellers, so they should have got insurance. If they gambled on their
health and lost, that is their problem.

[Graham]

On 2023-03-26 9:04 a.m., Dave Smith wrote:

> I have seen too many news stories about people having things happen
> while overseas and then a lot of whining about how the government should
> be helping them. My response is typically to think that while we do have
> a government run health care system, it is not health insurance for
> travellers, so they should have got insurance.  If they gambled on their
> health and lost, that is their problem.
>
>

There was a recent case in Calgary where a UK guy didn't get insurance
to visit his
daughter and soon after arriving, he ended up in the ICU. Predictable
request for help from his daughter.

[S Viemeister]

Ah, yes. I hadn't thought of that.

[lucr...@florence.it]

I would agree with him on that, having lived in Paris over a year.

[lucr...@florence.it]

One thing that has improved in Europe is that it is now common to
cremate bodies, so that definitely helps if it has to travel to a
different continent, one thing with ashes quite another dollarwise
with bodies.

[Dave Smith]

On 2023-03-26 12:26 p.m., lucr...@florence.it wrote:
> On Sun, 26 Mar 2023 11:04:10 -0400, Dave Smith

I have seen too many news stories about people having things happen
>> while overseas and then a lot of whining about how the government should
>> be helping them. My response is typically to think that while we do have
>> a government run health care system, it is not health insurance for
>> travellers, so they should have got insurance. If they gambled on their
>> health and lost, that is their problem.
>>
>>
> One thing that has improved in Europe is that it is now common to
> cremate bodies, so that definitely helps if it has to travel to a
> different continent, one thing with ashes quite another dollarwise
> with bodies.

My father had been the sole survivor when his plane was shot down over
Denmark. He had wanted to be buried alongside his crewmates. Our plan
had been to fly to Germany and rent a car, go to Denmark and then roam
around Europe for a week and end up in Paris. It was way cheaper to
rent the car in Germany. The problem was that we could not take the
ashes through Germany unless it was handled by funeral homes... one here
and one there. However. We could take them to Denmark. We needed a
sealed urn, the death certificate and certificate of cremation, and it
had to be in carry on luggage. My brothers flew to Hamburg to get the
car. I flew to Copenhagen on my own.

Thank goodness it was just ashes. I would hate to arrange to haul a
coffin that far.

[Bruce]

Oh, the joys of unbridled capitalism.

[Bruce]

The weather's great? It's sort of northern European weather with its
ups and downs. It's not that far from the UK.

[Bruce]

On Sun, 26 Mar 2023 13:26:30 -0300, lucr...@florence.it wrote:
>
>One thing that has improved in Europe is that it is now common to
>cremate bodies, so that definitely helps if it has to travel to a
>different continent, one thing with ashes quite another dollarwise
>with bodies.

This is one of the weirdest posts this year, so far.

[Hank Rogers]

Those piles of trash are probably why he wants to go there in the
first place. :)

[itsjoan...@webtv.net]

On Sunday, March 26, 2023 at 10:04:16 AM UTC-5, Dave Smith wrote:
>
> Things happen. My wife's cousin in his 50s when he dropped dead on the
> steps to the Acropolis in Athens. It was an expensive ordeal to get his
> body back. He could not be cremated there so he had to be embalmed and
> in a casket and flown back. It costs thousands.
>

Many, many years ago a former boss's son died while working for the Embassy
in West Germany. It took a full month for his body to be returned to the USA.

[dsi1]

I don't know how things are in Canada but the US has a huge backlog of applications for passports.

https://www.npr.org/2023/03/24/1165796741/summer-travel-passport-demand-state-department

[Dave Smith]

We had a big backlog when things started opening up and people started
travelling again. There were huge lines and some people waited all day
to get into the passport office. My wife just renewed hers a couple
weeks ago. She only had to wait about 15-20 minutes and she got her new
passport in about 10 days. The CAA office is right across from the
passport office and when I was there the other day there were only a
half dozen people in line.

[dsi1]

To bad the US doesn't have the Canadians processing American passports.

[lucr...@florence.it]

If a body is involved it has to be a special coffin, lead lined and
sealed, so you can imagine the expense.

In the 70s when I took my mothers ashes from here to the UK there was
no problem whatsoever. A simple declaration.

[Dave Smith]

Then you would be paying more and for shorter periods of validation. I
didn't say they were always faster. They were really backed up but that
backup has cleared.

We had to renew back in 2018 when we went to Georgie. I renewed for 10
years and suggested my wife to the same. She opted to get the 5 year
passport, so this year she had to renew while mine is still valid.

[Dave Smith]

On 2023-03-26 7:24 p.m., lucr...@florence.it wrote:
> On Sun, 26 Mar 2023 13:31:30 -0400, Dave Smith
>

>> Thank goodness it was just ashes. I would hate to arrange to haul a
>> coffin that far.
>>
> If a body is involved it has to be a special coffin, lead lined and
> sealed, so you can imagine the expense.
>
> In the 70s when I took my mothers ashes from here to the UK there was
> no problem whatsoever. A simple declaration.

I think I ended up smuggling my father's ashes into Denmark. I had the
sealed urn, death certificate and cremation certificate. When I went
through customs they asked why I was going to Denmark I said I was going
to a funeral. I didn't tell them I was carrying the guest of honour. He
asked if I was bringing anything into the country that I was not taking
back I said no. I had been in transit for close to 24 hours and just
didn't want the hassle.

[Janet]

In article <k8ausm...@mid.individual.net>,
firs...@lastname.oc.ku says...

>
> On 26/03/2023 13:27, Gary wrote:
> > On 3/25/2023 10:06 AM, Dave Smith wrote:
> >> On 2023-03-25 12:59 a.m., Ed Pawlowski wrote:
> >>> Preview of your Paris vacation
> >>>
> >>> https://imgur.com/gallery/Kq2dCIk
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> The trip is on hold. I am having trouble getting travel insurance. I
> >> am sure that the strike will be over by then but the insurance issue
> >> may not be resolved in time. I travel agent friend is adamant about
> >> the need for insurance and does not want to book

anything without insurance.


I should hope not. I don't travel to France without full
travel insurance, and I'm only next door.
Strikes and delays have affected European airports ever
since covid...including France. We got caught out in both
Schiphol and Lyons airports last September.

> >> It may end up being a domestic trip, maybe to the west coast.
> >>
> > Why is travel insurance a problem, Dave?
>
> I assume it's because of the current situation in Paris.

More likely because of Davids combined health issues and
age, sending premiums sky high.

I recommend a search for insurers specialising in
"travel health insurance for the elderly and at risk".

Janet UK