DJI is now offering aerial coverage for its Mini 2 and Mavic Air 2 drones, in case they develop a mind of their own and take off. The cost of replacing the exhausted drone is $ 225 for the Mini and $ 399 for the Mavic, which is in addition to the price of DJI’s extended Care Refresh warranty. Therefore, you will pay $ 50 for the Mini and $ 80 for the Mavic. If you already own one of these drones and the extended warranty, you are entitled to flyway replacements going forward.
The extended warranty also allows you to replace your drone if you damage it, twice a year, for $ 50 each. For air coverage, there is a one-time limit – if your replacement also disappears, you will have to replace it, although there is a two-year version of the warranty that costs more and covers three accidents and two air travels.
At half the price of a new drone, replacement costs are quite high compared to something like AppleCare Plus with Theft and Loss, which charges just $ 149 to replace a lost or stolen iPhone. DJI coverage doesn’t cover you if your drone is lost or stolen, only if it’s taken up in the sky, but it also costs less to start: adding theft and loss coverage to an iPhone 12 costs $ 219 or $ 269 for an iPhone 12 Pro, for example.
Of course, you would expect drones to simply not fly on their own in the first place. On the ad page, DJI states that “some accidents are unavoidable when flying in complex environments or in places with signal interference, strong winds or obstructed views.” If I were buying an expensive drone, I would expect it to know what to do in most of these situations (although the wind seems like a valid factor in a flyaway event).
It seems that DJI has made progress in that direction, however – searching Google for “flyaway drone” brings several stories from 2018 and before, but they seem to be less frequent today. Still, if you’re worried about losing your beautiful drone, it’s good to have more options, in case he decides to get rid of the shackles of Earth to visit the great drone factory in the sky.