Sheri Howell, VP of Marketing with ⁠Medjet ⁠shares how a $99 membership could save you over $100,000 when you least expect it! Sheri tells real member stories of getting injured while skiing in the U.S. and getting sick while traveling abroad and walk us through how air medical transport works in those times of need. Medjet is NOT travel insurance and it’s NOT medical insurance, but it does help bridge the gap to bring you to the hospital of your choice and spring into action when you need it most.

⁠Medjet ⁠is the premier global air medical transport and travel security membership program for individuals, families, groups, and corporations.

• MedjetAssist: Covers medical transfers in cases of serious injury or illness, providing peace of mind for members knowing they can get home.
• MedjetHorizon: Extends beyond medical emergencies to cover situations like political unrest or natural disasters, adding an extra layer of security.

Sheri Howell is the VP of Marketing & Communications at Medjet. Prior to joining the team she spent 14 years at MTV, where she helped evolve the “little niche music television channel” into one of the most internationally recognized brands in history. She brings over 20 years of experience in brand strategy, consumer marketing and public relations to Medjet. Former clients and project partners have included Walmart, Intel, Sony, Sports Illustrated, Virgin Airlines, Verizon, Snickers, Gatorade and the Hard Rock Casinos & Hotels. Howell’s viral marketing content and integrated campaigns have earned Emmy, Clio, Webby, CES Global\ Media and NAACP Awards, multiple Telly Awards, and a nomination for the Titanium Lion at Cannes. Sheri is an alumnus of University of Washington, and City University of New York-Hunter College.

Medjet Interview – Episode Transcript

0:34

Welcome to this week’s episode of the Travel Squad Podcast. Today we have a very special guest joining us, Sheri Howell, the Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Medjet.

0:54

In this episode, we go over how a membership for as low as $99 could save you over $100,000 when you least expect it.

Medjet is a premier global medical transport, travel, security, and crisis response membership.

1:10

We learned a lot about medical transport in this episode, including how they arranged to bring you home from a hospital abroad, how many of their members end up using the service on domestic trips, and how it’s actually a lot more affordable than you might think.

We also talked about why this membership is a major benefit for corporations to offer their employees who travel for work purposes.

1:31

And Kim, you mentioned how specifically they can bring you home from a hospital abroad, but Med jet also builds between the gap of your travel medical insurance, which will life flight you in any situation to a hospital.

But sometimes that hospital really the terms and conditions of insurances, they just need to take you to a hospital.

1:51

It may not be a good one.

Once you’re at a hospital, Med Medjet will then transport you with that membership to a hospital of your choosing.

So that is also very important, bridging that gap between your travel medical plus having something to get you that treatment in the right spot.

2:09

And Medjet has been around for quite a while but is starting to gain a lot more traction and popularity.

They have become so popular as of late that big name companies that you have heard about are starting to write and recommend about such as Forbes, The Points Guy, USA TODAY, Travel and Leisure, Wall Street Journal, and so many more.

2:33

And so with that, let’s welcome Sherry to the Travel Squad Podcast.

Hello Sherry, Welcome to Travel Squad Podcast.

We’re so happy to have you joining us today.

I’m happy to be here.

Well, thanks for coming on.

We have a lot that we want to get into with Medjet membership benefits, who needs it, what it is and all that, but we like to start out every guest interview first by going way, way back.

2:59

What is one of your earliest travel memories that kind of ignited your passion for travel and LED you to where you are today?

Oh.

When I was.

Little we traveled back and.

Forth to my grandparents ranch so I loved airplanes and when I finally.

3:18

Graduated college.

And lived in New York.

I was working at MTV and we got to travel a lot.

And you’re finally making some money that you can spend your money on travel.

And I think my first.

Trip to Paris still.

One of my favorite.

Cities was where the travel.

Bug really really bit me.

3:33

So I mean, I lived in New York, but then you to.

Go to Paris, which is another really big city.

Just was like every big.

City in the world I need to see now.

Oh, I love that.

I can totally see you fitting in in Paris too.

You, you fit the bill.

Thank you.

So I imagine, you know, traveling in places like Paris International and going to all of these big cities, there’s a lot of things that are great about travel, but that can also go wrong with travel.

4:02

We’ve done episodes in the past about staying safe, avoiding pickpocketers, health things.

Brittany here is our resident nurse who is a travel nurse when we’re traveling.

We brought you on to talk about Medjet.

Medjet is a very interesting company that when you need it, you need it.

4:21

But I don’t think a lot of people know really what it is or what the benefits are, maybe until it’s too late.

So can you tell us just a little bit about what Medjet is?

Sure, Medjet is a private membership program and it provides air medical transport if you find yourself hospitalized anywhere more than 150 miles from home.

4:42

We also have a membership.

That.

Provides 24/7 security and crisis response.

That’s actually before I even started working.

Here I discovered the.

Medjet Horizon membership and I had just gotten back from Bogota, Colombia and Mexico City by myself and really had no idea who my mom would.

5:00

Call if I just disappeared.

You know, while I was down there and now my mom would call Medjet.

Interesting.

So you know, as we’re preparing for this episode, I’m kind of thinking through what kind of travelers could really benefit from something like this.

And you said solo traveling in Columbia.

5:17

Is solo traveler one of the biggest type of customers that you all service?

No, we.

Really do all types of.

Travelers, we have thousands of companies and organizations that we protect including the NFL anytime they play their football games overseas.

5:32

We do thousands of families and individuals, anybody who travels, you know, for Medjet Assist, which is our medical transport membership that tends to.

Skew a little bit.

You know, over 50 I think over. 50 people are a lot.

More.

Acutely aware of their health.

5:49

And their vulnerability while traveling.

I think for families, it’s the parents that are a little bit more concerned about a child getting.

Really sick or really hurt?

In a foreign country and.

The toll it would take?

Being stuck.

There to be with your.

Child or you know, 32 two $100,000 to move the child home back to your own hospital.

6:10

Did you say $230,000?

Yes, it’s always.

Been in the range of 30 to $180,000 since I.

Got here six years years ago, but last year we.

Did one of our most expensive transports that was from Malawi and that one topped $198,000.

6:29

Since then, we’ve.

Had a couple over the. $200,000 Mark.

Well, I think you could just see right there with the actual cost of what it would be in an emergency to be life flighted out or have to go anywhere, the value of the subscription.

And you mentioned before you started working with Medjet, you had found out about the Horizons subscription.

6:49

You also just mentioned assist.

Can you give our listeners a little bit of background of what the difference is between the both of them and why somebody may want the Horizon versus just the assist?

Oh sure.

So Medjet Assist is our basic membership.

7:04

It comes with air medical transport benefits.

If you are hospitalized and require continued hospitalization, we move you to the.

Hospital of your choice.

At home insurance doesn’t do that.

The medevac benefits of travel insurance are really only geared.

To get you to the closest hospital.

Capable of treating you medjet.

7:21

Is what gets you to a hospital.

At home, just because you want to be treated at home, both the Medjet Assist membership and Midget Horizon membership do that portion of it.

The transport portion of it, Medjet Horizon is transport plus security and crisis response.

7:37

That’s a 24/7 line.

Staffed with security experts.

And it can be anything from.

Advice to.

Boots on the ground security extraction, if that.

Is what is required.

And that can respond to acts of terrorism, disappearance, like I said, like I said, Colombia, it can respond to natural disasters, things like hurricanes.

8:02

Political threat which?

There been a lot of calls from members, there’s a lot of demonstrations and riots going on in several countries.

It covers kidnap.

These are awful, so bear.

With me, kidnap for ransom if you’re the victim of a violent crime.

I don’t think I would wish dealing with the police in a foreign country in a foreign language after being traumatized on anybody.

8:22

It just it’s.

Very nice to have somebody.

Dispatched to help you deal with the process of that get you.

You know, safely on a plane back home if that’s what you want.

And so those are, you know, the two different types of memberships. 1 is the medical transport only and the other is the medical transport plus security response.

8:41

Logistically, how would something like that work?

And of course, it’s always going to be case by case, but I’m thinking back to my parents because my dad is originally Lebanese, my mom is American.

During the Civil War, they were living over there, and of course they had to wait for the American Marines to do evacuations of American citizens to get out.

9:02

But as a hypothetical, in a war situation like that or civil unrest, how would you guys even get on the ground to help evacuate members should they need to?

Well, level 4.

Countries do not travel.

Countries are not covered.

9:19

If you should not be going to the Ukraine right now, any place that the US government says because they’re not going to help either for the most part.

And so, you know, don’t go to Iran, don’t go to Iraq.

Haiti.

Is a level 4 right now and we can’t in good conscience send a crew in.

9:35

If you’ve traveled.

And the government has said don’t go.

So this would be more for like a country where it was OK to go and then while you were there some civil unrest started to happen.

Correct.

OK, good to know.

And how long has Med Jet been around?

9:51

Can you tell us a little bit about the origin of Med Jet?

Oh sure, it began a.

Little over 30 years ago.

Actually, and it was.

Created to fill the gap.

Founders understood.

That there was a gap.

Between where insurance.

Evac left off, which is.

10:08

At the foreign hospital that they deem capable of treating you and where people wanted to be.

Which is.

Back home in a hospital that they know and.

Trust with doctors that.

They know and trust so understanding.

That there was that gap.

10:25

In the medical transport benefits they created, the Medjet program was the first of its kind in North America membership program strictly to get hospitalized members moved home and I like to say it was the first and the best.

And you’ve had significant growth in the last 30 years as well.

10:42

I, I imagine costs of getting home on your own is a primary factor fueling the growth, right.

So Medjet today, 30 years later, what kind of a sprawl do y’all have with like number of customers that have you seen it become more in demand in more recent years or or what’s fueling the growth of people interested in this service?

11:05

Yeah.

You know, COVID was really interesting in the one of the most difficult things about, you know, marketing or educating people to a product like Medjet is they think that they’re covered by insurance.

And I think a.

Lot of people don’t read their policy.

11:22

They.

Don’t understand their benefits coming out of COVID I think it was.

Twofold a lot of people.

We’re far more aware of the vulnerability of their health while traveling, as well as being able to call somebody to help in an instance like we had added pandemic.

11:41

Coverage literally right before.

COVID What are the chances of a global pandemic?

Right.

But yeah, so it’s.

Really nice to have somebody to call and I think that understanding that vulnerability coming out of COVID, you know you had all this pent up travel demand.

11:59

We actually kept our advertising budget where it was during COVID.

Because you had all these.

People home not able to travel, dreaming of travel and so you know they.

Got a lot better educated.

As what insurance covers, what programs like Medjet do, and I think really now understand the value.

12:20

Of what we do.

Coming out of.

COVID we broke every.

Sales record in our 30 year history for 18 months.

Straight, especially with the Horizon product, so.

People get it now.

I feel weird saying Congrats on the note that being that it was driven by COVID.

But that is great.

12:36

And you’re, you make a really good point that people are just more aware of the need for travel, health insurance or membership benefits like this and the things that really can go wrong when you’re somewhere else.

And we’re talking a lot about international, how much of this do members use benefits in the US?

12:55

Things can happen anywhere, right?

Yeah, it’s funny because I would say 98% of people purchase Medjet for the big international trip.

But because it also works.

Domestically, they end up using it back home.

I have a testimonial on our website and it’s the cutest woman and.

13:15

She.

Had taken her family to, I think it was India, and they had purchased, they were going to be gone so long that they purchased annual memberships.

And they got home.

Nothing happened.

They went skiing over the Christmas break, I think in Aspen, and she got whacked by a snowboard.

13:31

I mean, it just broke her in half, you know?

And so the last of her friends, her husband, had gone home, taking the kids home because they had to go back.

To school the last.

Of her friends was coming to say goodbye and she’s crying.

She’s like, I can’t believe I’m stuck.

Here I can’t believe like.

13:48

I’m going to be here for another month.

I want to go home.

And her friend goes, too bad you don’t have that medjet thing.

And she’s like.

Well, we do.

We bought an annual membership.

Why?

And she’s like, because it works domestically.

So they called us and we got her moved home and she.

Was so elated so.

14:03

Yeah, 98% buy it for the big international trip, but honestly about 50% of our transports every year are domestic.

It’s also why we cover so many businesses is they understand that it can suck to get, you know, stuck in a hospital.

Three states away.

From your family as much as it does halfway around the world.

14:21

I have heard rumors that when you are brought back from another country for medical reasons, they can often be on a private jet.

Is that a rumor or is there any truth to that?

There’s a lot of.

Truth to that, most of our transports are air ambulance and each.

14:37

Of those if you’re hospitalized.

A nurse and a paramedic, a critical care flight nurse and a paramedic will.

Show up at your bedside.

In the foreign hospital.

They will.

Gather all of the medical.

Reports.

All of the information they’ll deal with the.

Discharge and they will pop.

You in an ambulance?

14:52

To go to the airfield, they’ll.

Load you into a air ambulance that has.

It’s basically a mobile ICU.

And they will not leave your side.

We might change pilots out, but they will not leave your side until you are checked into your.

Hospital bed.

At home and they have transferred all of the medical reports and anything that happened on the flight to the new attending physician.

15:14

So it’s very white glove, it’s very bedside to bedside.

I’m just wondering what’s the longest flight you guys have done?

Any of the ones from.

Australia, Asia especially, because.

Right now we can’t fly.

Over for Russia or the.

Ukraine.

So those have gotten very expensive and a little bit circuitous.

15:32

So those are probably.

The longest ones, I will say that you know for some of those longer hauls, if we can safely and comfortably transport somebody via commercial carrier.

Let’s say that you broke your leg.

You broke a hip.

If it doesn’t require an air ambulance for.

15:47

Stability we will put you.

In a flatbed business class.

With a critical care flight.

Nurse, not just an.

Escort but a critical care.

Flight nurse I always.

Say that’s faster with better.

Snacks but.

We will do that if.

16:02

It’s safe and it makes sense and.

It’s quicker, otherwise it’s a.

Flying ICU, the longest ones.

Gosh, the one from Malawi was interesting because it actually was much.

Quicker because of the crew.

Timeouts and everything.

There was one crew was dispatched to go get them and then there was another one that took the person from Malawi to Turkey and they did what’s called a wing to wing transfer where they just on the tarmac moved the person from one flight to another and then took off from there.

16:31

So those.

Could take a while they.

They’re small planes.

They have to land.

They have to.

Refuel.

They have to.

Change.

Well, everything that you’re talking about sounds amazing.

And I think as people are listening, they could really see the value of that in an emergency versus you’re right.

Like let’s just say you’re hiking in the Swiss Alps and they you fall break a lake, yeah, maybe you’re air flighted out and sure, maybe the hospitals are good there.

16:52

But you hit the nail on the head.

Somebody wants to be home.

This will get you back to the US.

And it sounds like as a membership, something like this would be expensive.

But as I’m on your guys’s website, I’m putting in family.

So for me and Brittany, and it will ask you how many years you want to subscription, just putting in a year to include international travel and this is with the Horizon, so crisis response around $600.00 for two people for a year and with everything that you get, I find that to be extremely reasonable.

17:24

So what you’re saying sounds like really, really high end, but it’s really affordable.

Yeah, I mean, I come from the entertainment business and you know, when I got here, I would explain to all of my friends, you know, what Med Jet does, especially the.

17:39

Security stuff, because that’s.

I know that that’s the one and I would always make them.

Guess I I would.

Influence the.

Jury a little bit.

In that, you know, it’s like this and it’s security response.

And how much do you think that cost?

Now keep in mind, we’ll pay $3000 a year to belong to the Soho House.

17:56

Just, you know, just to drink.

Really expensive drinks, so really.

How much do you think?

And they always guess like 10,000 dollars, $15,000.

And when I say $600.00, well for an individual it’d be flick, you know, around $450.

They’re flabbergasted.

So it really is.

18:12

Credibly affordable.

One of my.

Favorite sort of subject?

Lines in in e-mail marketing is $99 versus $200,000 because we have short term Medjet assist memberships that you know cost $99.00 for an 8 day protection and that can come in really handy.

18:28

It has the same benefits as an annual membership.

And if you’re looking at a $200,000 medical transport because you really just want to get to your home hospital, that’s a pretty good bargain.

I would encourage anyone listening who’s intrigued by this to really go to Medjet assist because you said it just now.

18:45

You know, you can even get short term, but you can really pick and choose what you want.

Do you want to international and domestic or just domestic, 90 days of travel at a time abroad versus like 180 or full 365?

19:01

If you’re living, you can really cater it to get a much better price than what we said, which I still think is outstanding.

I do notice, of course, if you do an annual subscription, two years, three years, five years, which seem to be the option, it will limit you to so many days abroad.

19:19

Of course, you get to choose that.

So as I’m looking at the 90 as a great example, obviously if I’m somewhere and something happens on day 91, it wouldn’t come into play because I was gone longer than that.

But let’s just say I come home literally for one day and then the next day I’m gone.

19:36

It reeks back in and you have your coverage.

You just can’t be away from your home address for longer than 90 days in that exam.

Correct, you have to touch.

Base in your home country, at least once every 90 days you could travel.

What is that like 360?

Days a year you just have to touch back every. 90 days you know we.

19:55

Have a lot of expats.

Own we have a lot of snowbirds, you know people who own a house down in Mexico, Costa Rica, they.

Go for five.

Six months at a time.

That’s we have an expatriate 180 that allows 180 consecutive days Expat 3. 65 is for people.

Who are going to move away for a year and not come home at all?

20:13

We have student and faculty membership that cost the same amount as an annual family.

It just.

Allows a little bit of.

You know extra up to 140 consecutive days.

If your.

Child’s going to study abroad with a bona fide program.

Or if you’re going to go, you know, faculty teach somewhere, some free extra days.

20:31

I can see it also being useful for someone planning around the world trip for say a year they’ll be gone, or someone like Brittany who likes to go to the very edge of the cliffs for pictures when she’s hiking in the middle of nowhere.

It always makes my heart she will go to the edge of the Cliff and I’m always worried something’s going to happen to her.

20:47

So I’m about to be having a Medjet membership here pretty soon just for situations.

Oh my gosh, I’m too terrified.

Of flights to get that.

Close we just went hiking in Iceland and did that waterfall trail and some of those drop offs are My son was laughing at me so hard because.

I literally was like.

21:03

Leaned over.

Almost.

Sideways so that I could.

Keep touching like the side.

Of it I know.

Exactly what you were talking about.

We were just in Iceland in July and we did that exact same.

Yeah, I was the lady that was like this.

How would someone go ahead and sign up and be a member?

21:22

I mean, I mentioned the website.

Is there anywhere else to enroll or would it just be on magicis.com?

It’s really easy to enroll online.

Underage 75.

We don’t ask any health questions.

There’s no preexisting condition exclusions.

So we don’t have that kind of window that travel insurance has.

21:39

Sometimes we have to sign up, you know, 10 days after putting your first deposit down, you can sign up up to the day.

Before you leave.

And you can sign up online@magicis.com or you can call our Membership Services department, mostly during working hours, 8:00 to 6:00 Central time.

21:58

We have a very robust.

Membership services department, every phone call could be a transport and no phone call goes unanswered here.

So you can call, you can ask questions, there’s somebody here.

And since you mentioned calling, if somebody was to call and need to be evacuated for a medical emergency and life flighted out, how would something like that work?

22:19

Just a quick call, where are you?

We’re going to get the closest jet over to get you out of here.

Well, for clarity, we don’t do.

Life Flights.

We don’t do medical evacuation.

So, you know, we’re not the people who are going to, you know, use the.

Helicopter to get you.

To the hospital but once.

22:35

You reach the hospital.

And you know you’re going to be stuck there, but you know, you’re admitted inpatient.

They want to keep you.

Then people call us.

I mean, people call us on the way to the hospital.

And just to let.

Us know what’s going on and sometimes the transport team will start looking at where you know where all of our.

22:51

Affiliates have their aircraft.

And things like that.

But the. 2nd that you are admitted inpatient is when your benefits.

Really, really take effect.

And from that moment when they make the call and say I’ve been admitted, I want to be brought home.

How long does it typically take for your team to get into action and bring them back?

23:11

Honestly, it really.

Varies.

And primarily, you know, you have to be stable for transport.

So we do need to connect with the attending physician.

We need to get a medical report.

The air ambulances are flying ICU’s but it’s not like they have surgical capacity of course.

So you.

Really want to make sure that it’s safe to put somebody up in the air, you know, that can take some time.

23:30

So it’s very difficult.

I mean, we had a.

Pro athlete, A baseball player that bought.

Med.

Jet for a trip abroad.

That he and his wife were taking they took a really quick trip down to Miami the weekend prior to they were their big trip and he slipped on the pool deck, popped one of his quad tendons and as he tried to catch himself, he popped the other one so.

23:52

He literally like could not.

Walk.

Yeah.

Professional athlete.

So, you know, he called us.

We actually had him home.

That day, later that day, it was very, very quick.

Something that’s more complicated and.

Further away, that really is.

Going to, I mean, you know, this guy had two torn things.

24:07

He couldn’t walk.

He wanted surgical repair by his own orthopedic surgeons, something much further away.

Is is difficult to put?

A time stamp on, but as soon as we humanly can.

That’s amazing.

Are there any new benefits or planned rollouts coming in the next few months or year that you have envisioned for Net Jet?

24:26

Not in the next couple months.

OK.

We’re always looking the beauty of.

Having a call center and every phone call like I’m the head of marketing and if membership.

Services is busy.

The phone call overflows into and either I’ll pick up the phone, the CEO will pick up the phone, the CEO and I love it because you can talk to people.

24:49

And so we really do, you know, try to understand how our members are traveling, what they need.

We were the first company to add transport for COVID during COVID members.

Who tested positive for COVID?

And were hospitalized and we were the first company of our kind that was moving them home.

25:07

That’s really great to hear.

You know, we heard a lot of stories of companies that were restricting benefits and making sure you knew what was not included.

So it’s good to hear the other side companies that actually care.

We added them at, no additional.

Cost, so we are always.

25:23

Looking to see how we can better serve our members, better provide for our members security and you know.

It’s really interesting to me because I think Kevin mentioned earlier that I’m a nurse and recently I’ve been seeing an uprise, at least in California and San Diego, of COVID cases.

25:41

And I’ve heard recently of people going on vacation and catching COVID and having to isolate.

So with Medjet would you be able to then transfer home and do your isolation at home?

No, that’s not a sustainable business model.

There were actually, you know, there was a company that that discovered that during COVID you have to be hospitalized no matter what the situation is the COVID benefits.

26:03

Were if you were hospitalized.

And required continued hospitalization.

Just because you had COVID?

Didn’t mean that we would not transport you.

OK.

In the beginning.

Obviously they were very, very.

Strict once we.

Had to get outfitted with the.

26:20

Isolation pods that were required, it took a minute for the crews to be trained on proper use of that, but once that was in effect, then we were allowed to bring a hospitalized patient home despite.

The fact that they tested positive for COVID.

26:36

Even though you couldn’t get back into the country.

If you tested positive.

Because they were, you know, medically contained medically.

Supervised etcetera, but just testing.

Positive.

You can imagine you can’t send a private plane for every one of those people.

Right.

Of course, yeah.

26:52

You wouldn’t require a, you know, a mobile.

ICU it really is for people who are.

Hospitalized and require continued hospitalization.

One thing I want to ask, you mentioned earlier in the conversation about businesses having this benefit.

Do you see your everyday standard corporation investing in this or you mentioned sports?

27:15

That makes total sense.

What other types of businesses are coming on to the membership?

Anybody who sends salespeople, executives more than 150 miles from home.

Duty of care.

Is a serious responsibility of any corporation and business.

27:34

Travel accident policies have a lot of the.

Similar restrictions that travel insurance policies have in that you know if they are going to provide medevac, it’s to the nearest.

Acceptable facility?

Well, what’s acceptable to?

The insurance company may not.

27:50

Be acceptable at all to.

The employee and.

That really creates a great.

Area on whether you’re providing duty of care.

I hate this story but there was a school.

In Connecticut, that sent kids.

Abroad they were protected by.

28:05

Travel insurance and one of the girls on the trip.

Got bit by a tick.

And contracted tick borne encephalitis, which they did not check for in the Chinese.

Hospital that they took her to after she started.

You know, spiking a fever and things like that.

28:22

Getting back into U.S. healthcare, it’s probably the first thing they would have.

Tested for.

And so understanding that the family.

Sued the school for 40. $1 million.

For failure to provide duty.

Of care and it got appealed and upheld.

28:38

That’s 41 million.

Dollars.

So that’s the level of exposure that a.

Company can have as well, so anybody who’s sending people traveling, whether it’s international or more than 150 miles from home are the types of companies that join Medjet.

28:56

That makes sense.

And you said salespeople, but I work in marketing as well.

I work for a marketing agency and because we went fully remote after COVID, we’re now trying a lot more to have in person client visits.

And so it’s not just salespeople now, it’s the solutions experts that are visiting clients.

29:14

And I think that probably after COVID, a lot of other like conferences and trade shows are picking back up.

Those companies sound like good candidates too.

Yeah, anybody who’s responsible for sending a traveler away from home is the type of company that should look into Medjet, and that’s everybody.

29:33

Companies, individuals alike, because you’ve given so many different situations and examples of where things could go awry.

And as travelers ourselves, we’re thankful nothing has ever gotten too crazy.

But you just never know what’s going to happen in life, and Medjet seems like the perfect program for that, especially to give you the Peace of Mind to get back home to where you want to be.

29:54

Yeah, well, the beauty of the Medjet membership.

If it is purchased for.

An employee through work is it works for personal travel as well.

We don’t disseminate between personal or business travel.

I mean classic story of once you.

Get it, You get it.

I have a neighbor who runs one of the.

30:11

Largest lift production.

Companies in the world.

I mean like those giant.

Lifts like warehouse lifts the.

Giant lifts that move the containers in the shipyards, things like that.

And you know, for months it was like.

What is it exactly that you do?

Like what does Medjet do?

30:27

And it wasn’t until they had an employee on a vacation that had an issue down in the Caribbean that he called me And he was like, OK, what is this thing like?

And, and he’s not a member, but can you help?

And we do do.

Fee for service.

And you know, I was like, well, of course we can.

30:44

But had you purchased Medjet for your employee like I encouraged you to, then we’d be going and getting him for free, but it wouldn’t be the family paying.

And I think it was the following Monday that he signed up almost every one.

Of his staff that traveled because it’s a great perk.

31:02

In that it’s a very legitimate business expense, but it also works for personal travel.

A lot of the businesses will purchase it for the employee and then the employee.

Is allowed to call.

Us and add their family at the extra $100 or something to cover the rest of the family.

31:19

That’s a great benefit that businesses could list in their benefits package.

Exactly.

That’s awesome.

Oh, I have one more question.

Medjet is not insurance, it’s a membership and the benefits come from being a member, right?

31:35

So on insurance, when you have a claim, your premiums tend to go up.

You use the service, next time the renewal comes around, you expect a spike.

Is there anything like that with Medjet?

No, we don’t have any claim forms.

We don’t have any out of pocket.

31:51

Once you join, if you’re transported, we handle everything.

It is the same.

Price year after year.

I mean, unless we have like a little price increase, but.

That would be for everybody across the board.

It’s the same price.

It does go up a little bit and we.

Do ask some health questions after age 75, but other than that, no, there’s no claim penalty.

32:10

There’s there’s not any claims.

I can’t tell you how many phone calls are transport team or the executive team gets from members that are trying to wade through just the ocean of.

Paperwork.

That is the travel.

32:25

Insurance claim from like the hospital and maybe some emergency evac, you know, not our stuff.

But the.

Airlift to the hospital and they’re looking for the bill and we try to explain to them that there isn’t a bill there.

There is no bill.

32:41

We handled everything and they’re just they’re.

Flabbergasted, but it really is.

It’s zero additional cost to member if you’re transported and now we don’t keep track.

And is there any limit on God forbid you have more than one case in a year?

32:57

Is there any limit to how many times you can use the benefit?

Yeah, it covers 2 transports per.

Year, let’s say.

That there’s a family and this is off.

I hate examples.

I really do because it’s just, they’re just so awful.

So But let’s say there’s a family of five, right?

And they have a van accident cruising around Iceland and all five of them need a transport.

33:18

We would do that.

That would be 5 transports in one year, but they’d be out of their transports for that year, whereas.

If the husband.

Went on a vacation and he injured himself and he got transported and then one of the kids went on vacation, they injured themselves.

33:33

They got transported then.

That would be two separate.

Instances and you’d be done.

For the year.

Got it.

I was going to say you’ve made subscribers and members out of us three.

I can assure you of that and I’m sure a lot of our listeners just as well.

But as we’re kind of getting to the and this, is there any last little bit that you wanted to say about Medjet that we haven’t touched based upon?

33:56

You know, I think.

The biggest?

Challenge to getting people to really understand it is everybody understands travel insurance, they understand that it comes with medical evacuation benefits, but again, that is only to the nearest.

34:11

Acceptable facility if you read.

The fine print and they will only move you further if it’s quote UN quote medically necessary and good luck proving.

That if you.

Just want to go home because you want to go home.

So you know, really I would just encourage.

People to.

34:27

Think about.

What type of travel?

Protection you might need in the worst case scenario and look into Medjet because it’s been in business.

For 30 years it.

Is an incredibly successful program, successful business and that.

34:42

Is for a very good.

Reason.

Sounds like it.

Is there anything like looking way ahead into the future of Medjet that you wish for it?

Like, for example, you partner with major health insurances and it’s included in every policy, or every person in America or the world has a policy.

35:00

Well, they’ve already told me that we can’t get people from the moon.

That’s coming soon.

Space travel is right around the corner, I could tell you that.

Or the ocean.

They did just send the first billionaire up for like a moonwalk.

I don’t know if they did or if it’s planned, but you’re right.

35:17

So the the disclaimer will be earthly evacuations, not celestials.

Yeah, I do wish.

That more companies would look into it.

I don’t know about you know, packaging it because it’s very different from insurance.

35:32

So that’s not something that we.

Actually could do, but.

Individuals and corporations really, again, you know, just for them to be.

Better educated about where their.

Insurance coverages fall off and Medjet begins.

I’m glad we can help spread the word and educate people out there.

35:51

You definitely educated us today.

Why?

Thank you.

Sherry, thank you so much for joining us on this week’s episode.

You have taught us so much.

You’ve really given us a lot to think about when we travel to destinations where we might be doing a little bit of crazy activities or risk a activities or you know, being the accident prone followers that we have out there.

36:12

I think that you have taught our listeners a lot in this episode.

So thank you.

Thank you so much for being with us today.

And Squati, thank you all so much for tuning in.

We hope you learned some interesting facts today that got you thinking about travel.

Do a little bit harder.

Make sure to follow us on all the socials at Travel Squad Podcast and tag us in your adventures you.

36:30

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