Travel insurance - the process of changing itinerary due to injury

[Quickstatus]

Never made a claim on Travel insurance (TI) before

Context:
Travel party 5
Next travel sectors,: Shinkansen Nagano - Kyoto, Kyoto 3 nights, Shinkansen Kyoto - Tokyo and Tokyo -NRT
Flights: NRT-KUL-SIN-SYD (20Feb)

1/5 in travel party - fractured tibia requiring plaster and crutches and surgery back in Australia

Have medical certificate certifying fitness to fly, but did not say J seats required or when return flight should be undertaken. Everything in Japanese so unable to understand what anyone says.

Want to book earlier QF HND-SYD QF26 direct in the next few days. (JL/NH 2x price of QF for same day)
Ive asked TI to approve this which will cost circa AUD$6500 for 2 passengers (1 as escort)

What do other TI do?. Seems like mine is more reactionary than proactive - just acknowledging my claims and the information I sent. they have not said "Ok this is what we recommend"

Regards

QS

 

[love_the_life]

Maybe the question is whether they should travel without having sorted out such arrangements?

So should always have a spare $100K in case they need to go to hospital and pay it first? Not sure many people would be able to do that.

 

[love_the_life]

Is TI responsible for repatriating a customer or just the reasonable costs of the repatriation?.

That's the question.

 

[Quickstatus]

Wasnt there the recent TI story on Gofundme or something similar where upfront payment was requested for some huge medical bill and TI did not cover the upfront until later?

That's the question.

Seems like in my case TI prefers to pay a claim later rather than to pay direct to a service provider upfront...

 

[Pushka]

So should always have a spare $100K in case they need to go to hospital and pay it first? Not sure many people would be able to do that.

Not at all - I’d suggest that would definitely be a case of contacting the Insurance company and at that rate it is an emergency so they would want a say in the treatment.

However the arrangement I had in mind was having someone who could immediately alert the TI if I couldn’t.

 

[Quickstatus]

Not at all - I’d suggest that would definitely be a case of contacting the Insurance company and at that rate it is an emergency so they would want a say in the treatment.

However the arrangement I had in mind was having someone who could immediately alert the TI if I couldn’t.

TI are actually in a difficult position regarding influence of medical treatment and associated costs because they have no relationship with the provider, only the TI customer. In difficult retrieval repatriations they would engage an international medical retrieval service to act on their behalf.

 

[Pushka]

TI are actually in a difficult position regarding influence of medical treatment and associated costs because they have no relationship with the provider, only the TI customer. In difficult retrieval repatriations they would engage an international medical retrieval service to act on their behalf.

Yes, agree, my wording wasn’t really accurate about influence the treatment. They would try to manage the risk, ie cost, to them and that in turn may mean repatriation ASAP if safe to do so, to minimise overseas costs and let Australia’s health care system take on the burden once here.

 

[love_the_life]

Not at all - I’d suggest that would definitely be a case of contacting the Insurance company and at that rate it is an emergency so they would want a say in the treatment.

However the arrangement I had in mind was having someone who could immediately alert the TI if I couldn’t.

Oh I see. My mis-read.

 

[Pushka]

Oh I see. My mis-read.

I think I have the same bug today!

 

[Katie]

@Katie, can you assist here? Watashi wa nihon go o hanishi masen

I wouldn't ask my ex-wife to help

That NAATI link comes up with almost 70 JP to EN translators - two are certified as Advanced translators, the rest are certified translators. Looks like most are in Australia (not surprising, given NAATI is an Australian certification/accreditation).

If someone local is required, I can reach out to my contacts in the Women in Localization group there, as well as some translation vendors. Now that I think about it, I may know one or two translators on the ground there in Japan if you still need translation help, @Quickstatus.

 

[Quickstatus]

That NAATI link comes up with almost 70 JP to EN translators - two are certified as Advanced translators, the rest are certified translators. Looks like most are in Australia (not surprising, given NAATI is an Australian certification/accreditation).

If someone local is required, I can reach out to my contacts in the Women in Localization group there, as well as some translation vendors. Now that I think about it, I may know one or two translators on the ground there in Japan if you still need translation help, @Quickstatus.

Thanks very much . I would have thought the TI would have offered a translation service. Its all sorted now

 

[JohnK]

Agree but you still have to be able to have “someone” tell the Insurance company what the issues are. My only claimable experience with TID was extremely positive. And that was a real emergency involving multiple surgery and repatriation. And a translator.

Not everyone has a good command of the English language. Not everyone is aware of all the fine print.

Generally we pay a lot of money for travel insurance. If something happened to my parents during travel they would not be able ro communicate with Travel Insurance. They would need to let me know and all I should have to do is contact travel insurance and they organise everything from there.

What's the point of travel insurance? Collecting money and profiting as much as possible. Expecting old, frail people to make their own arrangements is silly and unprofessional. Or even not so old as is the case here. Should these people not travel?

Our biggest problem is we over insure for that piece of mind and insurance companies are laughing all the way to the bank.