We hate to think about it, but it is a fact of life that sometimes you will have to cancel a much anticipated trip. Did you know that some credit cards provide trip cancellation, trip interruption/delay or lost and delayed baggage insurance free of charge?
Only a small number of credit cards offer any form of travel protection and they do not publicize this benefit much. In addition, the terms and level of benefits differ between cards.
We have found that the Chase Sapphire Preferred VISA card provides particularly generous benefits. This card provides $10,000 of trip cancellation and interruption coverage per traveler (max $20,000) for non-refundable travel expenses, airfare and hotels. Eligible reasons for trip cancellation include injuries and illnesses to you, your travel companion, as well as immediate family. The card also provides auto rental insurance that is primary over your own personal coverage. The card, which comes with the normal benefits of cash back or miles, costs $95/year and typically offers additional benefits to sign up for the card.
The Sapphire Card also offers a more comprehensive card – the Chase Sapphire Card – that costs about $800/year. The card offers more benefits including additional mileage points for charges, access to airport clubs, hotel offers and travel refunds. The Chase Sapphire Reserve Card even provides up to $100,000 in emergency evacuation coverage and emergency medical and dental (up to $2,500).
Chase also offers the United Explorer card that provides less insurance and costs more at $150/year. While we don’t recommend the Explorer Card, the United Club Card at about $700/year provides $10,000 trip cancellation and interruption coverage and United Club access, plus other perks. It provides $1 million of emergency evacuation coverage. We tend to use the United Club Card because using the cards gets us enough points to earn Gold Status with United. Gold Status gives us premium economy seating at no extra cost.
Most other travel cards do not provide any medical, dental or emergency evacuation coverage.
Note that cards that provide insurance may have differing definitions of immediate family and other terms, such as what constitutes a trip delay. Most cards also have preexisting condition exclusions, although that is also common in trip insurance policies. Even if you have a preexisting condition, you may still be covered, but need to check with the credit card company.
Lastly, the amount that you can receive back for a cancellation is limited to $10,000 per person or to the amount charged on the card, if less. So you would need to charge your whole trip on the card to get the most benefit from the credit card travel insurance.
In general you have up to a year after the trip date to submit any claims.
If you are not sure whether your credit cards cover trip cancellation insurance, just call them and ask.
While having trip cancellation insurance via your credit card is a very valuable benefit, there are other reasons why you may still want to purchase trip cancellation insurance. We will cover that in our next newsletter.
Happy Traveling!