Originally Posted by
simonsmith
I have been good will upgraded from J to F on a return journey when I spent the whole out bound attending a very sick man with a subdural haemorhage and asking for a divert. It was not an operational upgrade. i was met by the station manager and thanked and informed about the patients condition etc ; It was a very nice gesture so hopefully you did not deny anything like this to some one.
This can be a bit of an issue if you check with your insurance company( I assume that you are a doctor).I did tend to a very sick person on a flight to the United Kingdom a few years ago.This was not on EK by the way. I did the appropriate treatment for the patient and the patient was admitted in a hospital soon after arrival and made a full recovery.
I contacted my Medical Insurance Company as soon as I landed and asked for their opinion in case things had gone wrong.I was informed that as long as I did it as an emergency case on humanitarian grounds I would be okay. However they were very clear and said that they would not cover me if it was a fee paying service(i.e if I had a monetary gain out of it)
I was just getting to know flyertalk at the time (Yes I admit, I did spend more than 2 years lurking) and checked with them regarding the legal position of upgrades/free ticket vouchers etc.
Their legal postion was very clear. If you accept an upgrade then It 'could' be considered as material gain and you would not be covered in case things go wrong.
I was contacted by the station manager of the airline (It was not EK) and was offered vouchers for my next trip. I did spend most of the flight sorting out the passenger anyway and it did seem fair at the time. However I had to refuse the offer as I was concerned about the legal implications in case things go wrong