Credit cards provide many types of insurance coverage that most people never know about. For example, I didn’t realize that the American Express Gold Card has purchase protection until I needed to file a claim when our dog ate the zipper off my wife’s backpack.
When I looked into the best and worst travel coverages offered by the premium travel cards, the one card that came out on top was the Sapphire Reserve. Several readers were quick to point out that I left out one travel coverage the Sapphire Reserve has which can save your life – Emergency Evacuation and Transportation coverage.
Here’s a brief explanation from the Chase website.
If you or a member of your immediate family are injured or become sick during a trip far from home that results in an emergency evacuation, you can be covered for medical services and transportation up to $100,000.
The card provides $100,000 of coverage if you pay for any portion of your trip with the Sapphire Reserve. You can find a complete description of the benefit in the Chase Sapphire Reserve benefit guide (which is that booklet that came with your card and you immediately threw in the trash. Thankfully, Chase publishes an updated version online).
If you weren’t aware, medical evacuations are expensive and are not always covered by insurance. If we’re on a big trip far away from home, I usually ensure that our travel insurance includes this coverage, often for $500K or more. Insurance companies can offer such coverage because the chances of needing it are unlikely. However, when we’re on a Caribbean cruise, I’m not worried about getting flown around the world. I just need to get back to Florida and $100K of evacuation coverage should be plenty to cover any emergency.
To be honest, I don’t use the Sapphire Reserve to book travel only because of the Emergency Evacuation and Transportation coverage. However, knowing it’s there makes it easier to justify keeping the Sapphire Reserve instead of downgrading to the Sapphire Preferred.
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