Travel Insurance -- Mooney Related

[donkaye]

I wasn't going to post about this, but in the interest of possibly helping others in unexpected situations I will.

I was supposed to teach at the PPP in Henderson last month and was looking forward to it.  Shirley likes to travel with me so we were all ready to go with bags loaded into the plane.  Then the unthinkable happened.  I had gotten into the plane as usual and set up both headsets.  At this time I told Shirley that it was OK to come aboard.  There has never been a problem with this in over 30 years.  This time there was.  She slipped off the wing, fell backwards, and hit her head on the ground--hard.  Additionally, somehow (maybe on the flaps) she sustained a severe leg wound requiring many stitches.  I don't want to go into any more detail other than to say thank goodness the SJC Airport fire department was only a few hundred feet away.  I rushed to them with horn blaring.  They were there in a couple of minutes and performed miraculously including calling for an ambulance.  Shirley was in the hospital 4 days and is now, 4 weeks later, well on the road to recovery.

So what does this have to do with travel insurance.  Well, 4 months ago we made plans to go to Hawaii the 1st week of May.  Up to a week before I thought that was a possibility.  Knowing what I know now, it was never a possibility.  The tickets were expensive (in the thousands of dollars) and not refundable.  However, over the past several years I have always purchased travel insurance.

While there were reasonable hoops to jump through, Allianz, the insurance company, came through with full coverage for the tickets.  You can be sure I will always buy travel insurance for future commercial travel.  You never know when you might need it.

[GeeBee]

I hope Shirley is recovering well.

Travel insurance for big trips, especially in the age of Covid is a good idea. I've found however that not all policies are the same. Read carefully before you buy. Some of them are really good, some are next to worthless. When going international, if you are on Medicare, make sure you buy health insurance as well and make sure it has provisions to get you back home. When I worked as an airline pilot I saw the best and the worst. The best was a nurse that rode with you in first class to handle your compound fracture. The worst was some poor soul in coach in a half body cast.

[donkaye]

3 hours ago, GeeBee said:

I hope Shirley is recovering well.

Travel insurance for big trips, especially in the age of Covid is a good idea. I've found however that not all policies are the same. Read carefully before you buy. Some of them are really good, some are next to worthless. When going international, if you are on Medicare, make sure you buy health insurance as well and make sure it has provisions to get you back home. When I worked as an airline pilot I saw the best and the worst. The best was a nurse that rode with you in first class to handle your compound fracture. The worst was some poor soul in coach in a half body cast.

Alaska Airlines I guess partners with Allianz, so there wasn't a choice.  While I thought this time we were covered, a few years ago we were denied coverage in a different situation.  We were headed to the Kona airport a couple of hours early on the Big Island when traffic was stopped by an accident ahead.  There was only one other route to the airport and it consisted of going a much longer way.  Of course everybody needed to go that way on a 2 lane road.  Of course, again,  that road was being worked on so traffic moved at a snails pace.  When we finally got to the airport, the plane was still there, but Alaska told us we needed to be there 45 minutes early.  We missed that deadline by 10 minutes.  Even though we were 1st Class, they denied us boarding along with a whole bunch of other people  I complained that we had made our reservations months ahead of time based on when we coupled get 1st Class and there was no way we could get that again on a day's notice.  I don't know how they did it but they got us that 1st Class for the next day.  Meanwhile we had the terrible experience () of having to stay in Hawaii an extra day.  Even trying to get to Kona was an experience, since no Uber and only taxis were available when planes came in.  No planes, no taxis.  Ultimately, someone going to Kona took pity on us and drove us to a hotel that actually had a room.  It was expensive and with a lot of conditions because of Covid.  I thought that experience should be considered "trip interruption" and be covered.  The insurance company thought otherwise, and in reading their policy after the fact, they were probably right.  This time we fell right into the reason for having insurance and all was covered---without any argument.

[katzhome]

Glad Shirley is recovering.  We had good experience with Allianz as well post-Dorian for a trip to the Abacos.  I used to not be an advocate for trip insurance, but these days I am.

[Pinecone]

You are not stuck with the airlines captive insurer.  All of them will insure you directly.

www.tripinsurancestore.com is a good place.  They know their stuff.

On thing is, their insurance is not a group deal like the airlines or cruise companies, so age plays a BIG factor in the cost of the coverage.

For USAA members, you can log into your account, search for travel insurance, and get a link to a special page with Travel Insured.  Slightly different plans and better rates.

Medical evacuation is EXPENSIVE.  Halifax to DC was $29,000 in 2014.  I know the hard way, as my mother had to be med evaced. International can run into the many hundreds of thousands.

MedJet is an option for just the medical evac.  If you have an issue at least 150 miles away from home, they will transport you to the hospital of YOUR choice.  Most coverage only gets you to the "nearest suitable hospital."  And they use dedicated med evac aircraft, staffed with professional medical staff.

On thing, I don't typically insure the full cost of the trip.  I have paid for it, I budgeted it, and while I will be unhappy if I do not so, it is not a huge financial burden.  So I insure for $500 - $1000.  And that keeps the insurance cost down to $60 -$80.

[PT20J]

My rule is not to insure for anything that I can afford to take the financial hit for, even if painful. That said, I have quite a bit of insurance and travel these days has gotten crazy expensive. Travel insurance for an expensive trip certainly seems prudent.

Glad to hear Shirley will be all right. Sue caught her left foot on the flap and fell forward and banged up her knee on the wing walk a while back. Fortunately nothing too serious, but I know the feeling.

Skip

[rbp]

Insurance is a bet that something is going to happen 
The insurance company is betting nothing is going to happen
The irony is that you hope the insurance company wins

[flyboy0681]

Glad your hunny is doing well. Although I wrote very briefly about it back in January when it happened, I too fell off the wing. While deplaning I missed the step and fell flat on my back. My immediate reaction was to move my legs around and flex my hips, which were fine. The incident resulted in immediate spasm of all my lower back muscles, which eventually cleared up about four weeks later, but not without considerable discomfort. I have a friend who is an orthopedic surgeon and I visited him to get everything checked out. Only through the grace of God did I not break something, especially since I have severe osteoporosis (T -2.5).

As for insurance, last month I learned the hard way that it is a necessity. Exactly 24 hours before my wife and I were to depart for a week in St Maarten, I got a call that my 93 year old dad was in the hospital. American Airlines wasn't terribly sympathetic to my woes. Lesson learned and for now on I will purchase coverage for the non-refundable portions of trips, which isn't terribly expensive.

 

 

[mike_elliott]

Back in the day, my dog taught me to leave my flaps in TO position when exiting the plane. It prevents people from stepping on them or catching the edge when exiting. It made it easy for him to jump up on the wing and position himself for the flight in the rear seat. People will step on the flap in spite of it saying NO STEP if in the up position I have found. Not so much in the TO position. Advice for electric flaps as there is no hydraulic pressure on any seals that may be close to 70 years old.

Glad you have her patched up Don.

[PT20J]

20 minutes ago, rbp said:

Insurance is a bet that something is going to happen 
The insurance company is betting nothing is going to happen
The irony is that you hope the insurance company wins

That is a point often missed. I often hear people lament that they have paid thousands in premiums and never had a claim. Funny, though, they never say that about their health insurance. 

[Rick Junkin]

5 hours ago, GeeBee said:

When going international, if you are on Medicare, make sure you buy health insurance as well and make sure it has provisions to get you back home.

I carry EA+ through AOPA for this, and it also covers domestic travel greater than 150(?) miles from home. I have the optional coverage for ferrying of my airplane home if I'm unable to fly it after an illness/accident on the road. Well worth the peace of mind for a couple hundred bucks a year. You can buy it directly from EA+, you don't have to go through AOPA.

https://www.aopa.org/travel/emergency-assistance-plus

Cheers,
Rick

[RobertGary1]

1 hour ago, rbp said:

Insurance is a bet that something is going to happen 
The insurance company is betting nothing is going to happen
The irony is that you hope the insurance company wins

It’s a hedge 

[rbp]

53 minutes ago, Rick Junkin said:

I have the optional coverage for ferrying of my airplane home if I'm unable to fly it

I'll do it for the price of an airline ticket

[rbp]

2 minutes ago, RobertGary1 said:

It’s a hedge 

yes, if you consider your airplane an investment. if you consider the payment to be a transfer of risk, then its insurance 

[Rick Junkin]

4 minutes ago, rbp said:

I'll do it for the price of an airline ticket

Our airplanes will be very similarly equipped by the middle of July. I'll let you know when I'm traveling so you can be standing by the phone for my distress call. 

[rbp]

3 minutes ago, Rick Junkin said:

Our airplanes will be very similarly equipped by the middle of July. I'll let you know when I'm traveling so you can be standing by the phone for my distress call. 

lets hope it never happens 

[dzeleski]

Damn I hope she is doing better!

One thing to note is that if you have a high quality credit card used for travel many of them have pretty good travel protection built in but you need to use the card for the entire trip.

https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/amex-platinum-travel-insurance-guide

[GeeBee]

The thing about evacuation is health insurance will not pay unless evacuation is needed to save your life. I have a friend who suffered a compound fracture while hunting north of Yellowstone. The cost just to turn the rotor on a heavy Bell is 25,000, then time plus treatment. His bill was 55,000. Fortunately the doctors said he would not have made it down the mountain on mule, so they covered him. The flip side is a recent case of a UGA student who was found comatose in Cozumel. Mexican doctors said she had a brain bleed and would come around. Through donations they evacuated her to Tampa, where it was found by better doctors she had an inoperable tumor. Without evacuation she would have died quickly, as it was she had time With her loved ones, which to a cancer patient is priceless. Make sure you can get home to good doctors.

[Fly Boomer]

7 hours ago, PT20J said:

My rule is not to insure for anything that I can afford to take the financial hit for, even if painful. That said, I have quite a bit of insurance and travel these days has gotten crazy expensive. Travel insurance for an expensive trip certainly seems prudent.

Glad to hear Shirley will be all right. Sue caught her left foot on the flap and fell forward and banged up her knee on the wing walk a while back. Fortunately nothing too serious, but I know the feeling.

Skip

Flaps up or down?  Every time I get up onto the wing, I look at the flap and wonder it's safer up or down.

[PT20J]

48 minutes ago, Fly Boomer said:

Flaps up or down?  Every time I get up onto the wing, I look at the flap and wonder it's safer up or down.

Flaps were up. I've tried it both ways. I wish the Mooney had Cherokee flaps and the Cherokee had the Mooney step. Maybe the Bonanza has the best arrangement. The Mooney flaps are pretty weak. I've always thought it humorous that rigging is supposed to be within 1 degree. They probably flex a lot more than that under air load. 

[Fly Boomer]

1 hour ago, PT20J said:

Flaps were up. I've tried it both ways. I wish the Mooney had Cherokee flaps and the Cherokee had the Mooney step. Maybe the Bonanza has the best arrangement. The Mooney flaps are pretty weak. I've always thought it humorous that rigging is supposed to be within 1 degree. They probably flex a lot more than that under air load. 

I like the argument that flaps down reduces the likelihood someone will step on it, but I don't know that it's any safer for someone getting onboard or getting off.