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19/05/2005: "Top-up Insurance is a Lucrative Earner"
Advantage is making "hundreds of thousands" of pounds a year through its insurance arm - a source of revenue set to grow as DIY packaging gathers pace. Insurance services director Roger Smith claimed the consortium had already sold thousands of top-up insurance policies since they were launched a few months ago.
"We are charging £1.75 per person to cover non-bonded elements of travel such as airlines and hotels," he said. "Unlike the Abta policy, it is not designed to be 'sold' as an ancillary. This is about protecting our members, Abta is telling people to mark it up to £5. I find this difficult to do as it's basically there to protect the agent. It's tricky to explain why an extra £5 per person is being added. Every little counts on price these days, so £1.75 is more palatable."
The top-up policies, which are now a compulsory part of self-packaged holidays for Abta members, are available through new website advantage4sure.com. They can be bought by any agent - not just Advantage members. Smith added: "It is designed for agents doing a lot of dynamic packaging, which at the moment is more hype than reality for the bulk of them."
