On 2007-07-13, Matt Barrow wrote:

Typically, on renewal (annually). If you were originally claiming 50
hours a year, and somehow managed to put in 250 hours, you could
call your broker and have him update/modify the policy.

So does the pilots estimate of the hours per year they expect to fly
affect the premium? Auto insurers often ask how many miles drivers
expect to put on in a year, but it never seems to affect the rate, and
the brokers often tell me it makes no difference whether my actual
milage turns out to be more. These estimates are apparently just used
for later aggregate analysis.

I can see how an insurer would value air time logged in the
*past* (which I assume is already factored into the rate quote
for the following term). Do pilots update their insurers
mid-term to get mid-term rate reductions?

Experience.

You're way out of your element here and setting yourself up for a
thumpin'.

Whatever concept I'm missing, feel free to explain it to me like
I'm a two year old. I'm a noob. Give me whatever thumpin' I need
to understand you. AFAIK, my knee-jerk analysis of it tells me
only logged airtime in the past can work to reduce my insurance
bill.

That's already been explained to you.

Not exactly. Past experience is favorable, yes, I got that; that's
intuitive. But the part where *future* air time to be logged after
the policy begins counts as favorable experience is apparently the
reality I'm still having trouble grasping (it has not been explained
well enough here). Suppose someone with 250 hours claims in advance
that they will fly 1000+ hours over the course of the upcoming policy
year. Would their net rate (not effective hourly rate) be less than a
pilot that claims they will fly 150 hours over the policy year?

As for the two year-old noob, you apparently have a hard time
grasping the reality of how these things work. Did you read the PDF
from Columbia about insurance?

Yes, I found the information quite useful. In fact, that's what
prompted my earlier comment that there is very little competition here
(only nine insurers), and thus more incentive for providers
overestimate the cost of the risk that's being transferred. Nothing
in that PDF countered any of the points I've made, except perhaps the
statement that whether a pilot flys on a regular basis is a factor.
The PDF does not elaborate on where that line is drawn. I would
consider a pilot that flies every weekend to be flying on a regular
basis, since half a week is not enough time to forget things. Some
pilots go years without flying, and then decide to fly again. So the
question is: where do most insurance companies draw the line?

I see hours/days in the future as risk, and I'm surprised to hear
that an insurance company would not hold the same view.

Why don't you call an insurance broker and he will offer you good
advice.

Since there's a good probability he'll make money, he'll be more
than happy to spend hours explaining things to you than most people
that have bought car insurance have already figured out at the
fundamental level. As mentioned, these points have already been
explained. Deal with it.

If I've exhausted you, I certainly don't expect you to continue with
this thread. Feel free to bail. My questions remain open for anyone
with an urge to answer.

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