She will tell you she does not need anyone. She has flown to London forty times. She will also, afterwards, tell you how nice he was at dinner. Between those two sentences sits a service that families ask for more and more: a licensed protection officer who travels with an older parent, from their own front door to the family at the far end and back, and who sends a message home every evening.
The parents in question are not patients and they do not want a nurse. What they need, and what the family at home needs, is a capable adult beside them who handles the airport, the luggage, the forms and the stairs, notices when something is wrong, knows the city and the clinic if it comes to that, and is interesting company at dinner. This is how that works.
Door to door, same cabin
The officer collects your parent at home, handles the airport at both ends, with fast track, a wheelchair or a buggy where it is wanted and no fuss where it is not, and sits beside them on the flight. Not in another class: an officer three rows back in economy is no use at the moment your mother feels unwell at altitude or a connection is missed. At the far end there is a car at the kerb, a hotel that has been told what matters, an adjacent room, and a first evening without a single decision to make. Then the officer either returns, waits for the journey back, or stays for the visit, as much or as little as your parent wants.
The three journeys families ask about
The first is the visit: a parent in Riyadh, Moscow, São Paulo or Lagos flying to see a daughter in London, a son in Geneva, grandchildren in New York, when the family at the far end cannot always meet the flight and the parent will not admit the airport has become hard. The second is the pilgrimage, a wedding or a funeral: journeys with crowds, heat, long days and emotion, where a capable, patient adult beside your parent matters most, licensed where the journey happens, Arabic-speaking where it should be, and female where the family prefers. The third is the appointment or the season: a father who still sees his specialist in Geneva, a mother who winters in Dubai, parents taking the waters in Germany, with a driver, a residence that has been looked at and, where the stay is medical, the same discretion as any treatment abroad. See medical travel protection.
A friend, not a minder
The officer is chosen for temperament as much as training: well-mannered, well-dressed, patient, and someone your parent will enjoy at dinner. Your parent chooses how the officer is introduced and the officer never takes over. For a mother, a female officer who reads as a younger friend is often the right answer, through the flight, the hotel and the days away. Where possible the parent meets the officer before the journey. Most parents are glad of the company by the second evening; the trick is to frame it correctly, as something the family arranged so that the airport is easy and the family stops worrying, not as supervision.
Health, without pretending to be a clinic
Medication reminders, a clinic chosen in advance, the pharmacy that is open, and a plan for the night it matters. We are not a medical provider; the officer's job is to make sure a medical provider is reached, to speak the language when it is, to call the family and to stay with your parent through the appointment or the admission. Where a journey genuinely needs a nurse we say so and arrange one through licensed medical partners, with the officer alongside.
A word every evening
A message or a call to the family every day, in English, Arabic, Russian, Portuguese or Spanish: where they are, how they are, what tomorrow looks like. More often if you prefer, and immediately if anything changes. For most families this is the part they value most, because it is the part they could never get from an airline assistance desk, which ends at the gate and knows nothing about your parent.
What it costs
A licensed close protection officer is from EUR 950 per day in Europe, the market base, and from USD 900 per day elsewhere, for twelve-hour cover, plus the officer's travel at cost: the same cabin as your parent and an adjacent room. A journey-only assignment is quoted as the days of travel; a stay is quoted against the rhythm you want; a season is quoted as a programme and costs less per day. Airport assistance, drivers and any clinic arrangements are passed through at cost. Seven days' notice for a journey; more for a pilgrimage, a wedding or a season away, because the best officers are booked early. See private travel.
A parent who should not travel alone?
Tell us who is travelling, where and when. We reply with a plan for your parent and one figure for the family, under NDA from the first message.
See senior travel protection