Chase has probably offered the best automatic travel coverage of any card issuer for a long time. This is especially true for Sapphire Reserve and Ritz cardholders, who receive what I like to call “best-in-class” protections, including 6-hour travel delay coverage and emergency medical and dental coverage. But even minor cards like Sapphire Preferred and many of its airline and hotel brand cards have very good travel protection benefits compared to their competitors. Chase may still offer the best credit card protection, but in some cases it may not be what it used to be. One feature that many Chase cards offer is trip cancellation and interruption insurance. Previously, it was common for this benefit to be fully covered if you paid for all or part of your trip with your card. That’s no longer the case…
Partial payments: Possible but rarely useful for trip cancellation or interruption insurance
One reason I regularly use the Sapphire Reserve card to pay for fees associated with award bookings is because many travel benefits are fully covered if you pay for a portion of your trip with the card. With the exception of trip cancellation and interruption insurance, this is still the case. The new benefits guide asserts that for trip cancellation and interruption insurance, travelers are “covered when you charge all or part of the cost of your trip to an eligible card and/or use redeemable benefits.” However, the scope of compensation is as follows. Limited to “actual amounts charged to the Eligible Card and/or redeemable benefits used toward Eligible Travel Expenses.”
Therefore, if you use a Chase card to pay taxes and fees on an award reservation, you will be covered for trip cancellation or interruption, but the maximum amount of coverage is limited to the amount charged to your card. I would argue that if you paid $5.60 to book an award ticket, it’s not worth your time to make such a request.
I found similar language on all Chase cards that offer trip cancellation and interruption insurance. Ritz, Sapphire Reserve, Sapphire Preferred, Inc. Business Preferred, United Gateway, United Business, IHG Select, IHG Premier Business, World of Hyatt, World of Hyatt Business, etc.
I wondered about the part where coverage is limited to redeemable benefits that are used. Is the value of the miles used somehow taken into account when booking award tickets?I called Chase and asked, and was redirected to the billing department. There, I was told that “available benefits” referred to paying with credit card points and did not take into account other benefits such as airline miles.
Partial payment: still valid for other travel coverage
The good news is that I couldn’t find similar language in other travel insurance policies. Specifically, at least with the Sapphire Reserve card, all of these protections are fully covered, even if you partially pay with a Chase card.
Baggage Delay Insurance Lost Baggage Coverage Travel Delay Coverage Travel Accident Insurance Emergency Medical and Dental Emergency Evacuation and Transportation
What other options?
If you pay partially by card, I have yet to find a credit card option that fully covers trip cancellations and interruptions. While there are a few that offer full coverage when you pay with a card or card-related benefits, we haven’t found one that offers full coverage when you only pay a small amount on a card or card benefits. Please let us know if you find it! In the meantime, I will continue to use Sapphire Reserve to pay for a portion of my trip, but I am aware that I am effectively not covered for any losses beyond the amount charged to my card or the amount I paid with Ultimate Rewards points. I understand.
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