Emergency evacuation & transportation with Chase Sapphire Reserve

Quick insights

• The Chase Sapphire Reserve^® credit card provides emergency evacuation and transportation insurance to help you get to the nearest medical facility should you suffer a serious qualifying illness or injury while traveling.
• Use of this coverage will be coordinated through the card’s claims benefit administrator and may cover up to $100,000 of qualifying transportation and evacuation costs.
• The benefit also covers eligible family members who are traveling with you. 

Suffering serious illness or injury while traveling is never a part of anyone’s itinerary, but it is a possibility. Should it happen, you may benefit from having emergency evacuation and transportation insurance if you’re not able to get to a location where you can receive care. In this article, we’ll cover what this insurance is and how to use it if you have a Chase Sapphire Reserve card and have charged any portion of your trip to your account or rewards program.

Breaking down emergency evacuation and transportation with Sapphire Reserve

In the event you need medical care and can’t get to a nearby hospital on your own, emergency evacuation and transportation insurance can provide coverage. In most instances, it will provide transportation to the nearest hospital or medical facility or if after being treated at a local hospital your medical condition warrants transportation to your residence to obtain further medical treatment or to recover.

It is important to note the medical care you receive for your injuries or illness is covered by a different part of your travel insurance included with the Sapphire card. Travel accident insurance covers the cost of medical care while traveling abroad, while evacuation and transportation insurance covers costs associated with getting you to a location where you can receive care. Both types of coverage are included with the Sapphire Reserve card and cover up to a specified amount.

For medical evacuation to be covered, transportation must be:

• Recommended by the attending physician 
• Arranged and approved in advance by the card’s benefit administrator

It’s recommended that you call the benefit administrator as soon as you can if you have an accident or other type of loss. The administrator will send the claim forms you need to submit, and you’ll be expected to return the completed forms within 180 days of the occurrence.

Also keep in mind that for any part of this coverage to kick in, you must book at least a portion of your trip using the Sapphire Reserve card.

What’s covered

This benefit covers the emergency transportation or evacuation of you or an eligible immediate family member to the nearest location that can treat you. Transportation can be by way of commercial air travel, air or land ambulance or a private motor vehicle. Insurance will cover eligible necessary expenses associated with your transportation up to $100,000.

There are other provisions to this coverage that you may not have considered. They include:

• If you are hospitalized for more than eight days, the card benefit administrator can arrange to have a friend or relative travel to be by your bedside.
• If your original plane tickets cannot be used for your return flight, you may receive reimbursement for the cost of your airfare back home.

Should the worst-case scenario happen, and you or an eligible immediate family member die while traveling, this insurance also covers the cost for repatriation of remains. It will cover up to $1,000 worth of expenses for returning your body or remains to your home country, as well as expenses for embalming, cremation or a coffin.

What isn’t covered

As with all insurance, you may want to read the terms and conditions because there are situations not covered by medical evacuation and transportation insurance. For example, the duration and location of your trip could matter. If your trip is less than five days, more than sixty days or takes place 100 miles or less from your residence unless you live in New York, it falls under the card’s coverage exclusions.

Other exclusions include:

• Medical care that is considered a non-emergency, experimental or investigative in nature or deemed not medically necessary
• Travel for the purpose of receiving medical treatment
• If you sustain injuries while participating extreme sports like auto racing, skydiving, scuba, hang gliding or parachuting
• Injuries sustained while traveling to certain countries which may be determined by the U.S. Government to be unsafe like Afghanistan, North Korea, El Salvador, Iraq or Vietnam

Consult with the card’s benefit administrator to help determine what will and will not be covered if you are unsure.

Additional travel benefits with Sapphire Reserve

Those who travel frequently may be enticed by the benefits that come with the Sapphire Reserve card beyond medical evacuation and emergency transportation coverage.

There are a host of other cardmember benefits that may appeal to the frequent or even occasional traveler, including:

• Travel insurance that covers baggage delay, lost luggage reimbursement, trip cancellation and trip interruption insurance
• A $300 annual travel credit 
• Complimentary Priority Pass Select membershippriority-pass-memebership
• Reimbursement of the application fee for Global Entry, TSA PreCheck or NEXUS every four years

Please note that the Sapphire Reserve card has an annual fee.

How to get a Chase Sapphire Reserve card

The Sapphire Reserve credit card typically requires excellent credit history, so having a credit score of 750 or above may increase your approval odds. If you're considering applying, you can do so online, by phone or in person at a local Chase branch. As a reminder, if you apply, the card’s application process triggers a hard inquiry which may temporarily affect your credit score.

In summary

Accidents and illnesses happen. And because you can’t plan for these things, they can happen while you’re in the middle of the trip of a lifetime. Having a Sapphire Reserve credit card provides you with emergency evacuation and transportation insurance should you suffer an eligible qualifying serious illness or injury that requires medical attention while traveling. To get this coverage you must book all or part of your trip with the Sapphire card, but in doing so, you as well as your immediate family members can be covered.