krzysz

I have a curiosity question. I once wondered what happens during medical diversions if a passenger who gets sick doesn't have a valid health insurance for the country where the plane gets diverted. For example, a European is flying to the US, gets sick over Canada but has no medical coverage for Canada. The feedback I received was that the treatment is then covered by the airline's insurance (all passengers are insured by the airline for the duration of the trip). I am wondering though what happens during airport transfers - are passengers still covered by the airline's insurance then? What happens if a passenger has a long layover and decides to leave the airport for some time and gets sick outside or has an accident - who covers the treatment then? If it is the airlines' responsibility to get you safely from point A to point B even if there is an airport transfer between A and B, you could perhaps imagine that their medical insurance would cover airport layovers, too?

I am posting this question in the AA forum because I will have a long layover in MIA travelling from Europe to South America and I am wondering whether I should purchase US health insurance for this particular day.

salesflyerguy

If a passenger purchased trip insurance wouldn't that cover it? Or even if a ticket is purchased on a credit card that offers these benefits?

FlyerChrisK

While I'm not sure what your trip insurance options are, the ones I've seen in the past allow me to specify several countries that I will be visiting. In your case, including the US on that list seems feasible?

dstan

Since this thread is really about the limits of personal and airline health insurance, I think we'll probably get more responses in the Travel Products forum, which includes many threads on travel insurance.

If that doesn't work out, please send an Alert using the red triangle button and perhaps the thread can be moved to the more general TravelBuzz Forum.

dstan
AA Forum Moderator

SeamusSA

Really? never heard that before - got a source?

If you purchase a trip insurance policy it would cover you for the duration of your trip, including stopovers, no? Though I guess when applying for the travel policy you would need to include transit locations in the list of countries in the itinerary.

krzysz

A discussion of the topic on FT is the source. Besides, ones I was flying from CPH to HEL on SK and saw a flight attendant change a life vest under one of the seats. According to this attendant, if the life vest were faulty or missing, the passenger sitting next to it wouldn't be covered by the airline's insurance.

Yes, but the point is about stopovers in the US. Quite often in the countries outside of the US there are different types of travel insurance: some of them explicitly cover the whole world but exclude the USA due to the high medical costs and you need to buy a more expensive insurance to have the USA included. In any case, my question was more theoretical than practical: am I covered by the airline's insurance during an airport transfer? An interesting variation of this question is what happens when you fly on a flight with a single flight number that involves a transfer at a US airport. For example, AA sells a BCN-MIA-DEN flight under the same flight number even though you have to deboard and clear security at MIA. I suppose this should count as a single flight for insurance purposes.

Segments

Sounds like the flight attendant was referring to the life vest as a piece of safety equipment and therefore airline liability insurance in case of an accident. I wouldn't rely on this providing health insurance to a passenger who became ill and had to be diverted.

The airline insurance policy wouldn't likely cover you during a layover as an accident would not be under their scope of control.

alphaod

You could always check your domestic insurance.

I know mine covers medical emergencies anywhere in the world.

emma69

Agree with the other poster - it would refer to their liability insurance, not health insurance.

I would get travel insurance that covers you in the US - if nothing else, if you were in the airport, and rushed to a US hospital, I wouldn't want the stress of it all ("but the airline should cover me", "says who?" etc.)