I am headed to Namibia in May of this year. Does anyone have an opinion on travel or medical evacuation insurance? My first thought is just to buy med evac and not travel insurance. I am using Gracy Travel and have until Feb 10th to buy travel insurance through them, which I believe is through AIG. I would appreciate knowing what you experienced African hunters think. Thanks.

I use Global Rescue. I generally don't purchase travel insurance as it is quite expensive. I wouldn't go into the bush without medevac insurance. If you get hurt or sick out there you are in serious doo doo and they will come and get you home.

http://www.globalrescue.com/

Cheers,
Andy

quote:

Originally posted by adrook:
I use Global Rescue. I generally don't purchase travel insurance as it is quite expensive. I wouldn't go into the bush without medevac insurance. If you get hurt or sick out there you are in serious doo doo and they will come and get you home.

http://www.globalrescue.com/

Do you screen the Global Rescue staff for sexual preferences to ensure that you would not be rescued by a gay crew member?

quote:

Originally posted by MJines:

quote:

Originally posted by adrook:
I use Global Rescue. I generally don't purchase travel insurance as it is quite expensive. I wouldn't go into the bush without medevac insurance. If you get hurt or sick out there you are in serious doo doo and they will come and get you home.

http://www.globalrescue.com/

Do you screen the Global Rescue staff for sexual preferences to ensure that you would not be rescued by a gay crew member?

Mike,

You should apologize to our new member for hijacking his thread for the purpose of making a veiled personal attack.

Cheers,
Andy

I've bought policies from both MedJet and Global Rescue, although I'm fortunate enough not to have ever actually used either service.

Global Rescue is a little more expensive, but of course they can/will rescue one from a mountaintop or the deep African bush if necessary. So my approach has been to use MedJet when I expect to remain close to civilization and go for Global Rescue when I'm going to hunt a ten hour drive from the nearest landline.

I always pass on travel insurance. It costs several thousand dollars to insure my typical hunt and that's a pretty heavy price to pay to protect myself against unlikely events. Of course, I'm not much for insurance in any case, so maybe it's just me.

1sttimer,

check out Travel Guard. I have no idea why anyone would travel without some type of travel insurance, and evac insurance for that matter. It is not expensive. What is expensive is getting stranded, luggage lost, hospitalization, et al. There are a number of companies out there that offer temp policies comvering just a specific trip, others cover for a year.

+1 Global Rescue

SCI members have access to a wide range of Travel and/or other protection insurance options

Take a looksee at what is on offer:

SCI Insurance Programmes

Cheers, Peter

Thanks for the help. These are some good threads to follow up with the exception of the gay preference comment for one member. Not sure where he is coming from.

Balla Balla - good suggestions and just another reason to be a SCI member. I wonder what all those naysayers of SCI do for this kind of service? Probably just put on their "macho image" and fend for themselves as seems it's their sytle.

Global rescue for me and I had a chance to visit one on one in depth with them at SCI Reno.
Also SCI members, while you are checking out the SCI programs, check out the gun insurance coverage that they have available.

Larry Sellers
SCI Life Member

quote:

Originally posted by Balla Balla:
SCI members have access to a wide range of Travel and/or other protection insurance options

Take a looksee at what is on offer:

SCI Insurance Programmes

Cheers, Peter

I can see not insuring a six or seven grand PG Namibia hunt, but if you're going on a 21 day ele, lion/leopard/buff that will approach at least six figures, not insuring it is simply bad business. Particularly if you're going to add a side trip or two. Break your leg or get injured in a car wreck a week before your departure date and lose a hundred grand. That's possible.

You can design your own policy by using the Travelguard link at this page: http://www.shakariconnection.c...ellation-policy.html

And you can dowload your firearms import forms etc here: http://www.shakariconnection.c...ort-regulations.html

If you are flying through JNB, get travel insurance as there is a good chance of baggage pilferage. And an almost certainty that some or all of your bags will be delayed.

Last time through, I had video camera etc in a checked bag, with a TSA combo lock on it. Got to JNB, no sign of bag. Bag shows up at Vic Falls 2 days later, locked. However, camera gone. TSA denies claim (bag was not in their control at all times!!!) Airline denies claim (small print, no coverage for jewelry, electronics...). Travel insurance paid claim, but only because I had gone to the trouble of filing a report with the airline, as well as with the SA Police at JNB.

You don't need medassist on a PG hunt in Namibia. You are unlikely to get injured, and you can get medical treatment within a matter of a few hours from most locations within Namibia. The medical facilities in Windhoek are OK. Zim is another story.

If you're going through Amsterdam, don't forget you'll need the Dutch consent and you can also download that form from the same link above.

For those who say Medivac insurance isn't necessary for a PG hunt, I disagree.

Plainsgame hunters aren't immune to ... Car crashes, appendicitis, compound fractures, Heart attacks, puff adders, zebra bites, plane crashes, malaria, Leopard attacks, gunshot wounds and falling off cliffs ... to name a few.

Medivac insurance isn't only for Africa. If you travel in the US on business, they take you back to your hospital of choice. So if any of the above happen while visiting your 3rd cousin in Oklahoma (Most of those mentioned above are actually likely for a trip to Oklahoma ) they will fly you back to Austin, LA, New York etc. You get the point.

With the number of cancellations I have seen in the past 6 months, I have to say that trip cancellation insurance is a great idea.

They even offer the option to cancel for any reason for 1.4 x the normal premium.

One suggestion regarding luggage pilferage-- the gentleman above, I'll bet, had luggage with the double zippers, and a combo lock through that. This provides zero security, and zero evidence of tampering. All you have to do is shove a pencil/pen/whatever through the zipper, rifle through the bag, then a quick zip-zip with the zippers and there's no visible indication of the bag having been opened.

You should ALWAYS fix the zipper pulls in place with a cable tie, to a fixed part of the bag. This necessitates cutting the wire tie-- and that's immediately obvious when you collect the bag. Use brightly colored ones; they'll help you pick out your bags.

I had two cameras stolen from my carry-on in Vic Falls this past August, after South African Air demanded that our two carry-ons be placed, at the very last minute, in the hold of the plane. They did the very same thing to our zippers as described above. Only when we were in Jo'burg and getting ready to check back in with Air France did we notice the theft. Unfortunately, I think that they would have popped the zippers whether the double zipper pulls were secured to a fixed part of the bag or not. How could you prove you had done it? No one was willing to take reponsibility. Next time my bags will be covered in the Pac-Safe mesh wire covering when traveling in Africa.

With any luck at all, you may never need medical evacuation insurance, but I would very strongly recommend that is one of the first precautions you should consider when traveling any distance away from home. Last summer, my wife and I made our 15th African safari. The preceding 14 had gone without any significant problems. However, all that changed in a few terrifying moments.

About 5:00 am on 1 August 2008 my wife, our PH, and I were traveling south on the N1 near the town of Mokopane en route back to Johannesburg to catch a flight to Cape Town. A truck driver on the other side of the highway apparently fell asleep at the wheel. In the darkness all we could see were his headlights, 100 feet away, headed directly for us. Fortunately, our PH swerved quickly enough to avoid a direct head-on collision. Our vehicle rolled and bounced in the air for nearly 200 yards from the point of impact. Our PH was thrown from the vehicle and sustained significant injuries. My wife and I both stayed in the vehicle. After we stopped rolling I was able to climb out of a window but my wife was trapped in the vehicle until the rescue people arrived more than an hour later. I suffered abrasions and strained muscles but my wife was severely battered and abraded, she also broke several bones in her foot. The rescue people transported us to the Voertrekker Hospital in Mokopane. X-rays were made of her foot and it was determined that several bones had been broken. Since the Voertrekker hospital does not have an operating theater, she was transported to the Limpopo Medi-Clinic in Polokwane for orthopedic surgery that was performed that afternoon. Three phalanges were so badly shattered that they could not be restored and the bone fragments had to be removed. She also required three metal pins to be placed in the foot in order to stabilize it during recovery. They will need to be surgically removed in a few months. She will be using crutches and wheel chair for an undetermined amount of time. She also required surgery on her thumb to remove shattered glass. The driver of the truck that hit us and the driver of the vehicle behind us were both killed in the accident.

The day after the accident, I placed a call to our medical evacuation insurer MedJet Assist. I told them that we needed their help. I gave them the name of the attending physician and hospital where my wife was recuperating. From that moment on, they took charge of the situation. They called me two to three times each day to see how she was progressing and when she might be released from hospital. A day prior to her release, a flight nurse arrived to accompany us on the flight home. The flight nurse was fantastic. He had made all the arrangements to expedite us through the airports, customs and immigration. MedJet also provided us with three first-class tickets for the flight home. Our flight nurse was with us from the time we left the hospital in Polokwane until the time we arrived at our home in Southern California.

I can't say enough good things about MedJet. They are courteous, competent and thoroughly professional. I don't know how we could have managed the trip home without their assistance. I estimate that they spent at least $30,000, bringing us home. They have my total, unqualified, recommendation.

RancherJack,

Hell of a tough break. Hope that your wife makes a full, complete and speedy recovery. Same with the PH.

I have MedJet coverage for my whole family, in case of problems for me on safari or any of us on vacation or business travel, etc. Never used it, hope I don't have to.

Elephant hunting is my passion,and I have to say that with as many close calls or heart quickening events in the bush chasing eles, I've had as many or more on the road in Africa.

JPK