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Suggested by another poster that this warrants a thread of its own.
What insurance policies guarantee to fly you home in the same class as booked?
Recently there was a possibility that I would have needed to come home early from a holiday following a fracture. The insurance company would have flown me in business only because their medical team had assessed that I needed a flat bed.
There must be many cases when people need to ask their insurer to bring them home early for non- medical reasons eg a situation at home. Recommendations of insurers that will guarantee to book you into the original class of booking would be useful.
Did you have a business ticket originally booked? If so then maybe
Why did they not send you on business anyway if that is what they assessed?The only guarantee is that there are no guarantees
I remember a GB Airways A321 flight from VLC to LGW years ago with a flat bed for one passenger at the back, I don’t think GT had much availability though.
Transplanting in advice given in daily chat thread on this:
JDB: If this was Amex Platinum, it is unusual in specifying that travelling companions will only be covered for economy flights. While it doesn’t specify for the victim of an accident/illness that needs to get home and can’t use their planned tickets, economy is the default. Neither HSBC, NatWest Premier, Nationwide Flex Plus and I’m sure many others have this restriction. I know it’s heresy on HfP, but the Plat insurance isn’t a very good policy vs the competition.
Thegasman: From personal experience, HSBC will pay for First where that was the original booked class. This applied for me (patient) & wife, who actually travelled back separately to me in the end. I’d mirror JDB’s opinion that HSBC Premier>Amex Platinum travel insurance.
Paul: I had a skiing accident a few years ago and Amex flew me home but only because I was with my 15 year old son. The wanted me to continue the holiday! They rightly did not book me in club Europe but paid for 3 seats in Y so that I could stretch out leg.
Despite this, BA were utterly dire at SZG and there was some grief getting it sorted.JDB: I was looking at the NatWest Black policy and I don’t know if that is different from Premier and that Black policy says nothing about sending you home in economy and in respect of accommodation if one needed to stay on through illness/accident they say they will pay for the same standard. As they don’t specify re flights it would seem unfair to impose Y. Amex Plat is the only one of five packaged policies I have looked at that specifies economy. Unfortunately nobody reads these things to discover the gaps/pitfalls until the s@it hits the fan.
Did you have a business ticket originally booked? If so then maybe
Why did they not send you on business anyway if that is what they assessed?The only guarantee is that there are no guarantees
We ended up taking our original flights, in business. The point I wanted to discuss was the conversations I had with them suggested that the only reason they would consider booking business flights was for medical need of a flat bed. The fact our original flights were in business seemed irrelevant.
Just checked – it’s NatWest Black reward worldwide policy.
That’s really disheartening Tracey. I guess they would say that their responsibility is to get you home, not necessarily in the style you are accustomed to. I think I’d have a freak out if I had to sit for a long haul flight in a tightly back Y cabin. So that’d be another incident for insurance to cover.
That’s really disheartening Tracey. I guess they would say that their responsibility is to get you home, not necessarily in the style you are accustomed to. I think I’d have a freak out if I had to sit for a long haul flight in a tightly back Y cabin. So that’d be another incident for insurance to cover.
They were a few times during our holiday when we thought of requesting to come home, at the back of my mind was the thought that they may try and put OH in economy and say the cabin crew can assist me if required.
This is an issue that crosses my mind every time I look at insurance policies. Not sure I’ve yet found the perfect one. But one observation – it has struck me recently when looking at business class flights, at least on long-haul, that even the cheapest fares seem to have some degree of flexibility, albeit at a cost and sometimes a fairly high cost. Not sure whether that’s a post-pandemic improvement or has always been the way, and I haven’t looked at every major airline of course, but it just struck me that I don’t often seem to see completely, totally, 100% non-changeable fares any more. So for an insurance claim, presumably in most cases it might be a claim for the rebooking fee and fare difference to change an existing ticket, rather than a whole new booking – which might help negate the ‘same cabin’ issue?
I am not sure which insurers guarantee repatriation in the same cabin as originally booked. I suspect it would be on a case by case basis due to the possible permutations.
There are two separate entities involved with evacuation/repatriation requests arising from medical incidents. 1. Your insurer/underwriter (eg Amex Plat/AXA) and 2. their appointed medical assistance company (eg Inter Partner Assistance for Amex/AXA) which generally operates 24/7 with a number to call.
Your medical assistance company deals with the acute medical situation and makes a *medical* recommendation re fit to fly including cabin class of travel substantiated by clinical reasoning. That recommendation would then be passed on to the insurer who checks this against policy wording. Once verified, the insurer would authorise the request and instruct the medical assistance company to proceed with arrangements (including flights, transport to the airport.. etc).
In terms of OHs, insurer would normally only authorise to travel in business with the patient if OH was needed to act as a non-medical escort (eg to assist with eating/drinking, medications, mobilising… etc). Medical requests are likely to be covered under a different section of the policy to non-medical requests (eg. situation at home when only like for like replacement plane tickets are needed).
Of course, there is always the “patient request” card when you ask the medical assistance company to pass your request of OH travelling in the same cabin because of X to insurer. The insurer would make that final call as the ultimate paymaster.
@Gary – that all sounds normal, but of all the packaged policies cited above (Amex Plat, NatWest Black, Nationwide FlexPlus, HSBC Premier), Amex Plat is the only one that specifies economy travel for the travelling companion(s) in the policy.
Amex Plat is the only one that specifies economy travel for the travelling companion(s) in the policy.
I would have thought Amex Plat is making their default position re companion(s) clear (likely to be the same for most other insurers, although left unspecified).
If the medical recommendation was for a patient to fly in business accompanied by a non-medical person (usually partner or parent would be that person), I doubt Amex Plat/AXA would decline a business seat for the companion based on the policy wording as they would be liable if something happened to the patient inflight.
Amex Plat wording also doesn’t quite make sense for cases involving children if the child medically requires a business seat. The policy wording would mean the child is to be separated from parent.
@Gary – someone posted yesterday that HSBC paid for first and I checked yesterday with Nationwide who said they will pay for first or business (if that was originally booked) as long as you assign your ticket to them. Many people will return early or late for medical reasons that don’t require companion assistance so all would be stuffed in economy; thanks Amex. I wouldn’t be willing to travel back long haul in Y so would be left with a huge bill if I were to rely on this policy.
I know there are plenty of Amex Plat fans here, but on any objective analysis, the insurance is weak in many respects vs competitors. The structure/exclusions/wording are terrible as well. Remember this policy left everyone in the lurch during covid if you travelled to the many ‘all but essential’ countries.
I am not sure which insurers guarantee repatriation in the same cabin as originally booked. I suspect it would be on a case by case basis due to the possible permutations.
There are two separate entities involved with evacuation/repatriation requests arising from medical incidents. 1. Your insurer/underwriter (eg Amex Plat/AXA) and 2. their appointed medical assistance company (eg Inter Partner Assistance for Amex/AXA) which generally operates 24/7 with a number to call.
Your medical assistance company deals with the acute medical situation and makes a *medical* recommendation re fit to fly including cabin class of travel substantiated by clinical reasoning. That recommendation would then be passed on to the insurer who checks this against policy wording. Once verified, the insurer would authorise the request and instruct the medical assistance company to proceed with arrangements (including flights, transport to the airport.. etc).
In terms of OHs, insurer would normally only authorise to travel in business with the patient if OH was needed to act as a non-medical escort (eg to assist with eating/drinking, medications, mobilising… etc). Medical requests are likely to be covered under a different section of the policy to non-medical requests (eg. situation at home when only like for like replacement plane tickets are needed).
Of course, there is always the “patient request” card when you ask the medical assistance company to pass your request of OH travelling in the same cabin because of X to insurer. The insurer would make that final call as the ultimate paymaster.
That is exactly what happened, albeit we decided to stay abroad and to come home on our original booked flights, thereby saving the insurers ££££.
The question that all this raised is what happens if you need to travel home on a different flight for an insured reason eg a need to be back in the UK as a result of a close relative dying or similar. Should the insurer be obliged to transport you in the class of travel you originally booked or can they insist you travel in Y?
I would add that BAH were incredibly helpful, rearranging hotel stays at no cost to us and refunding car hire.
@Tracey most policies provide for return home in the event of a (defined) family member bereavement and a host of other reasons, but only Amex specifies Y. You mentioned earlier re NatWest saying it would have been Y if you had to return on a different date than originally booked, but I think in the absence of stating a class, they might be hard pressed to justify downgrading your class. Insurance is supposed, in the broadest sense, to put you back in the position as if the insured event hadn’t occurred. Travel insurance doesn’t offer like for like for lost/stolen personal effects, but that’s because they only expect to be secondary insurers and allowing for wear and tear still puts you in the same position. The NatWest position they advised you is also at odds with the policy wording agreeing to keep you or put you in the same standard accommodation. If NatWest were to stick to that, it certainly makes the HSBC and Nationwide policies look attractive.
@Tracey most policies provide for return home in the event of a (defined) family member bereavement and a host of other reasons, but only Amex specifies Y. You mentioned earlier re NatWest saying it would have been Y if you had to return on a different date than originally booked, but I think in the absence of stating a class, they might be hard pressed to justify downgrading your class. Insurance is supposed, in the broadest sense, to put you back in the position as if the insured event hadn’t occurred. Travel insurance doesn’t offer like for like for lost/stolen personal effects, but that’s because they only expect to be secondary insurers and allowing for wear and tear still puts you in the same position. The NatWest position they advised you is also at odds with the policy wording agreeing to keep you or put you in the same standard accommodation. If NatWest were to stick to that, it certainly makes the HSBC and Nationwide policies look attractive.
Certainly in conversations with them, one part of the insurance team didn’t know what the other had said, so it could well play out differently in practice.
Even now, having had an email from the medical team confirming they will cover medical bills, the expenses team are asking for my GP to complete a form. This is going to prove difficult as I haven’t needed to engage with my GP at all, so the surgery will be unaware of my accident.
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