travel insurance/ Medjet vs. Chase Sapphire Reserve

For piece of mind over the last few years we have been using a combination of a yearly travel policy and a Medjet membership. We also use a Chase Sapphire card for all of our travel purchases as we receive double points for these.

I recently received an offer to upgrade to a Sapphire Reserve Card. In addition to other benefits, the list of benefits includes trip cancellation/interruption insurance as well as emergency evacuation & transportation.

Has anyone considered such an option rather than travel insurance/Medjet?

TIA

For us, the question is who has to request and approve moving us from a hospital abroad to our home hospital. As you probably know, since you have been using MedJet, the only requirements that medjet has are a) you are currently in a hospital over xxx miles from home and that you are medically stable enough to fly. That's very different from most policies where you have to show a medical need to travel and have both the medical staff at the remote hospital and the insurance company agree that evacuation is necessary.

What type of evacuation coverage (needed approvals) with the sapphire reserve card??

You may never need MedJet, but if you do...

For piece of mind over the last few years we have been using a combination of a yearly travel policy and a Medjet membership. We also use a Chase Sapphire card for all of our travel purchases as we receive double points for these.

 

I recently received an offer to upgrade to a Sapphire Reserve Card. In addition to other benefits, the list of benefits includes trip cancellation/interruption insurance as well as emergency evacuation & transportation.

 

Has anyone considered such an option rather than travel insurance/Medjet?

 

TIA

You would need to read the terms of ALL of those policies very carefully to determine if you are getting the same or different benefits, and if different, in what ways. Chances are it would *not* be identical.

But as for MedJetAssist, that has some unusual benefits, and if those are important to you, check very carefully if the new coverage you are considering is similar or similar enough.

For us, the key terms of MedJetAssist that are important to us include:

- Once admitted as an inpatient more than 150 miles from home, *we* would get to decide whether to be evacuated; it wouldn't depend upon beancounters or the local medical staff;

- WE would get to choose our own local (major teaching) hospital, where all of our medical records are (and sometimes it seems that "everybody knows our names" ;) ) or perhaps we'd decide upon a specialty hospital elsewhere (unlikely);

- It covers us for all travel more than 150 miles from home, so in addition to major vacations, it would cover us for almost all of our business travel or visits to friends/family.... all year.

Obviously, there is also some "fine print" with MedJetAssist, but none of the other policies we have or have considered include those top two features. Getting the year-long coverage for other trips is just frosting...

GC

We get MedJet on top of trip insurance which includes evacuation.

MedJet would give us more benefits on this so I see the two working hand in hand.

Keith

To add to the already mentioned specific benefits of Medjet, they will fly you from any hospital in the world to the hospital of your choice. If the patient needs to fly in international first/business, that's where the patient will be. If the only viable option is a private plane with medical equipment/personnel, that's how the patient will be flown.

Watch the testimonials here, then compare that to the specifics of what the credit card company will do for you. Does the credit card company simply reimburse you for expenses that you have to prove are justified? Or do they personally show up at the hospital in Bhutan (or wherever) to arrange for travel and if necessary, accompany you with medical professionals?

We wouldn't travel without Medjet working in tandem with travel insurance (never the cruise line version).

Thank you for all the thoughtful replies. Based upon the replies here I am thinking it makes sense to keep the MedJet membership.

I still may upgrade to the sapphire reserve. I will check the fine print, but I believe the travel insurance benefits will stack on the yearly policy I use.

There is a fair amount of discussion on the Celebrity board regarding other advantages to this card.

Just did a quick comparison of Chase Sapphire Preferred and Reserve benefits. Neither one had emergency evac/transport cover.

If I've missed something please advise.

Just did a quick comparison of Chase Sapphire Preferred and Reserve benefits. Neither one had emergency evac/transport cover.

 

If I've missed something please advise.

In addition to this and MOST importantly, Chase insurance is a trip CANCELLATION insurance and not an INTERRUPTION insurance. Once you started your trip - even if for just a day - Chase won't cover you.

BIG difference!

Also, we needed an evacuation from a small village in Nunavit without a hospital. MedJet would not assist us because:

1 There was no hospital there to admit us

2 They claimed they could not get a plane there even though there is a small airfield that has 2 different small commercial flights leaving from there (we used one of them).

Both very convenient excuses for MedJet.

Caveat emptor!

I think you did miss something. I have the Chase Sapphire Preferred card and their benefits clearly include trip interruption ( p. 12)

https://www.chasebenefits.com/sapphirepreferredVW17

The Chase Sapphire Reserve card does include evacuation up to$100k

The following information is a summary only. Please see your Guide to Benefits for complete details.

Benefit Overview

• Provides emergency evacuation and transportation if you are injured or become ill during your trip and it results in a necessary emergency evacuation
  
• Provides coverage when the covered trip has been purchased with an eligible Chase card or with rewards earned on an eligible Chase card and trip includes travel on a common carrier such as an airline, bus, cruise ship or train
  
• Coverage is supplemental to and excess of any valid and collectible insurance or other reimbursement
  

Sources I looked at must have been dated as no evac cover was noted. Thanks.

Agree Preferred does cover Interruption. So stated in my old fashioned 2014 paper booklet entitled "Guide to Benefits".