InReach tracking during an SOS rescue with a Safety plan

I am subscribed with the Safety plan that charges for tracking points, I have turned off tracking on my InReach mini to avoid paying the 10 cents per tracking point.

When watching a video about how rescue works with an InReach either the Garmin rep or GEOS rep stated that your InReach will track you during the rescue so that SAR knows where you currently are. And that makes a lot of sense.

My questions are is: will I have to enable tracking on my InReach for this to happen or will InRead override my settings and send tracking information? If the latter, will this result in me being charged 10 cents per tracking point? I'm sure that I'll happily pay the tracking fees when my life is in danger but I'm mostly just curious how this works.

Thanks

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Garmin-Andrew over 4 years ago +1 verified

I confirmed that when an SOS is initiated tracking is automatically started but SOS messages and tracking points sent during an active SOS are not charged to the user.

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0 twolpert over 4 years ago

I don't actually know the answer to this. I do know that the iR devices are in a special SOS mode once you press the button. I would expect that tracking would be active in this mode regardless of your settings. However, I don't know that for a fact. You should call tech support.

I will, however, point out that you're better off with tracking enabled when you are in the back country, especially if travelling alone. If you are injured to the point where you cannot press the SOS button, the track points provide a starting point for SAR (once somebody at home reports you overdue).

0 nublar over 4 years ago

Yes when you trigger SOS mode it starts tracking you and yes you have to pay for each tracking point. When you disable SOS mode, it will go back to your default tracking settings.

+1 Garmin-Andrew over 4 years ago

I confirmed that when an SOS is initiated tracking is automatically started but SOS messages and tracking points sent during an active SOS are not charged to the user.

0 richardkorry over 4 years ago in reply to Garmin-Andrew

Thanks for the information and verification. Great to know.