If you fall ill abroad, who arranges and pays for your journey home?

Who decides how you get home?

Your insurer or its assistance company. Salama and Liva give the decision on the means of transport and the destination to the assistance company or the insurer.¹² Daman gives it to its Assistance Company’s medical team.³ AIG and Mastercard need an order from the assistance department or a physician who certifies the need, and the transport must take the most direct and economical route.⁴⁵ Orient’s medical advisers decide whether transfer is in your medical interests, and the treating doctor must certify you fit to travel.⁶ GIG Gulf needs its prior approval for every benefit.⁷

Orient names regular airline or road ambulance, and GIG Gulf names ambulance, train or scheduled flight. Both keep air ambulance for very serious, urgent or critical cases, and GIG Gulf limits it to transport within one continent.⁶⁷ Allianz Partners flies you in the class you originally booked unless another is medically necessary, once you are confirmed stable to travel.⁸

What happens if you book your own flight home?

You may get nothing back.

• Salama. You pay for transport arranged without the Assistance Company’s prior approval.¹
• Liva. Services it did not approve and arrange are excluded, unless notice was impossible for reasons beyond your control, and then it pays only what it would have provided.²
• Orient. Repatriation costs it did not authorise are excluded.⁶
• Allianz Partners. It must make all arrangements in advance. If it did not, it pays only what it would have paid.⁸ Not following its medical team’s decisions can end cover for the consequences.⁸

Call the assistance line before you book any transport home.

Where will you be taken?

To a suitable hospital nearby, your country of residence or your country of citizenship, depending on the policy. For a UAE resident of another nationality these are different places.

• Liva names your country of residence or citizenship, for repatriation and for remains.²
• GIG Gulf can take you to a better equipped hospital, a hospital closer to your country of residence, or your country of residence. It returns remains to the country of residence or citizenship.⁷
• Allianz Partners names your primary residence or a location in your country of residence.⁸
• Mastercard names the nearest suitable hospital, your current place of residence, or both.⁵
• Daman meets transfer costs for remains to your usual country of residence.³
• AIG and Mastercard return remains to the country of origin.⁴⁵
• Salama’s remains clause names both the country of citizenship and the usual country of residence.¹

Does repatriation come out of your medical limit?

In some policies. AIG and Orient pay evacuation from the medical limit, and so does GIG Gulf on the Smart plan.⁴⁶⁷ Mastercard has one maximum of USD 500,000 for evacuation and return of remains together.⁵ Allianz Partners holds evacuation, repatriation and return of remains in one transportation limit, separate from medical: USD 60,000 Schengen, USD 250,000 Standard and USD 550,000 Premium.⁸

Salama and Liva print separate figures. Salama’s is USD 150,000 Traveller, USD 50,000 Pearl and Family, and EUR 30,000 Schengen.¹ Liva’s is USD 1,000,000 on Holiday Travel and Executive Travel and EUR 30,000 on Schengen Travel, with a USD 50 excess.² GIG Gulf’s Schengen plan pays EUR 30,000.⁷ Daman’s limits are in its Schedule of Benefit. Ask Daman for them.

Does your policy pay to bring remains home, and for a funeral?

Return of remains, yes. Funeral costs depend on the policy.

• Salama: USD 15,000 Traveller, USD 10,000 Pearl and Family, EUR 5,000 Schengen.¹
• GIG Gulf: USD 10,000 Smart, EUR 5,000 Schengen.⁷
• AIG: USD 10,000 Platinum, USD 7,000 Gold, USD 5,000 Silver.⁴
• Orient: USD 10,000 Travel Secure Plus, USD 7,000 Travel Safe Plus and Travel Family Plus, USD 5,000 Lite Plus.⁶
• Liva: USD 1,000,000 on Holiday Travel and Executive Travel, EUR 30,000 on Schengen Travel.²

Salama, GIG Gulf and Daman exclude burial, interment, cremation or funeral costs.¹⁷³ Orient prints a funeral costs line, and Liva’s remains benefit includes funeral expenses abroad.⁶²

What does a Schengen visa need?

Cover for repatriation for medical reasons, urgent medical attention, emergency hospital treatment or death, with a minimum of EUR 30,000. This is a rule for visa applicants in Visa Code Art 15, not a term of your policy.⁹

Consulates word it differently. Germany’s leaflet says 30,000 euro and repatriation.¹⁰ Art 15 does not state repatriation as a sum on top of the EUR 30,000.⁹ Italy’s Dubai checklist requires an emergency repatriation flight and repatriation of mortal remains.¹¹ More is in the Schengen visa insurance guide.

The small print

• Conditions for Salama’s benefit. It applies to an acute accident or sudden illness that is not pre-existing.¹
• Mastercard sub-limit. Children, the cardholder’s parents and a domestic helper are limited to 25% of the USD 500,000 maximum.⁵
• Clause names. Salama, Section A, 2 and 7. GIG Gulf, Chapters C and E and Procedure A. AIG, Section 2. Liva, Section B, 13 and 14. Allianz Partners, G. Emergency Transportation Coverage. Orient, Section 1. Mastercard, Travel Medical Benefits. Daman, Section 2, Personal Assistance, 4 and 5.