Chase has arguably long offered the best automatic travel protections of any card issuer. This has been especially true for Sapphire Reserve and Ritz cardholders who get what I often describe as “best in class” protections such as 6 hour trip delay coverage and emergency medical & dental. But even lesser cards like the Sapphire Preferred and many of their airline and hotel branded cards have very good travel protection benefits relative to competitors. Chase probably still has the best credit card protections, but in some cases they’re not what they used to be. One feature that many Chase cards offer is Trip Cancellation insurance. It used to be the case that if you paid for all or part of a trip to their card, you were fully covered for this benefit even for parts that were not paid for with your card. Now, that’s no longer the case…
Pay Partial: Less useful for trip cancellation insurance
One of the reasons I routinely use my Sapphire Reserve card to pay fees associated with award bookings is that many of the travel benefits are fully covered as long as you pay any part of the trip with your card. That’s still true except with trip cancellation insurance. With trip cancellation insurance, the new benefit guide claims that the traveler “is covered when You charge all or a portion of the cost of the Trip to Your Covered Card and/or use redeemable Rewards,” but it also states that coverage is limited to “the actual amount charged to the Covered Card and/or redeemable Rewards used for a covered travel expense.”
Previously, you could charge just the fees on an award booking to the card and you’d be fully covered for your whole trip even if you didn’t charge things like prepaid hotel stays, cruises, etc. to your card. Now, to get full coverage, you’d have to pay all non-refundable bookings with your Chase card. In many cases, that makes sense to do anyway, but not always. Maybe you could save money by buying discount hotel or cruise gift cards, for example. In the past, you could claim all of that, but now you’d be limited to just the amount actually charged to your card.
I believe that you are still fully covered for Trip Interruption as long as you use your card to pay for necessary trip recovery expenses (change fees, one-way rental car drop-off fee, etc.) since those expenses would add to the “amount charged to the Covered Card”.
I found similar language on all of my Chase cards that offer trip cancellation and interruption insurance: Ritz, Sapphire Reserve, Sapphire Preferred, Ink Business Preferred, United Gateway, United Business, IHG Select, IHG Premier Business, World of Hyatt, World of Hyatt Business, etc.
I wondered about the part that says coverage is limited to… redeemable Rewards used. When booking an award flight, would they somehow account for the value of the miles used? I called Chase to ask and was forwarded to their claims department. There, I was told that the “redeemable Rewards used” refers to paying with credit card points, and does not consider other rewards such as miscellaneous airline miles.
Pay partial: still effective for other travel coverage
The good news is that I did not find similar language on other travel protections. Specifically, with the Sapphire Reserve card at least, all of these protections are still fully covered when you pay partially with your Chase card:
- Baggage Delay Insurance
- Lost Luggage Reimbursement
- Trip Delay Reimbursement
- Travel Accident Insurance
- Emergency Medical and Dental
- Emergency Evacuation and Transportation
Not that bad
I believe that Chase’s changes only affect situations where parts of your trip are non-refundable AND where you didn’t use a Chase card to pay for that portion. So, for example, if you plan to book a non-refundable cruise with discounted gift cards, paying partially (or entirely) for the flight to get to the cruise with your Chase card won’t help to recover the cost of the cruise. That said, if the cruise has a change fee that you can pay instead, I think you would be covered for that as long as you pay for the change with your Chase card.
Other options?
I haven’t yet found another credit card option that offers full trip cancellation coverage when paying partially with your card. There are a few that offer full coverage if you pay with your card and/or with rewards associated with the card, but none that I’ve found that offer full coverage when only pay a small amount with the card or the card’s rewards. If you find one, please let us know! In the meantime, I’ll still use my Sapphire Reserve to pay partially for travel but with the knowledge that I’m no longer effectively covered for any losses above the amount charged to my card or paid with Ultimate Rewards points.
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I purchased partially 2 refundable “saver fare” tickets on Alaska Airlines and had to cancel due to a family emergency, with a Sapphire Preferred Card. Does this count for a refund?
If they’re refundable, why not just cancel and get the refund? Or are you asking if your other trip expenses are covered?
Do you know when this change took effect and whether it applies to cruises booked prior to the change? Thank you.
Most coverage is on a “claims” basis, which is WHEN the claim arises. Your claim would arise when the cancellation event occurs . . . as opposed to when you booked it. You can double-check this but that’s my sense.
In regards to covering airline miles: My understanding is that they still cover “redeposit fees” allowing you to cancel and redeposit your miles used in the setting of trip cancellation.
I’m concerned or skeptical about the “redeemable Rewards used” part.
If I book a flight with points, and pay the small fee (9/11 taxes, etc) with my CSR, and I have to cancel for a covered reason, what happens to those points? (Let’s say I’m not able to cancel in advance — I’m in a coma for 3 days.)
What if SOME, but not all of the points were transferred from Chase? What if it’s a mix of transferred points and points I earned in other ways? How do they know “which points” I’m using?
Am I only getting my fee of ~ $6 back and nothing else?
I might be wrong but I think someone answered that question below. The points being covered are Chase points used to book on the Chase travel portal . . . and NOT Chase points transferred to a loyalty program.
PS – Greg just wrote in a comment that he will tweak the article to emphasize this issue only affects non-refundable fares. Separately, I guess a question is: which airline loyalty program (other than Etihad) is not going to credit back your points should you cancel an itinerary?
If you’re in a coma for three days, are lost points really going to be top of mind? But, I suspect the loyalty program would be sympathetic to your situation.
Thanks Lee!
Most points of course you can cancel up until right before the flight, of course, so I was trying to think of a scenario where you are unable to cancel and lose your points.
I believe Iberia is also non-cancelable for partner awards.
It would be nice to have a lawyer familiar with contract language review the terms for the premium credit cards.
Greg, I read Frequent Miler’s past article comparing trip protection benefits from various premium cards. I was quite happy with Venture X considering most of the benefits kick in if you “pay partial” on the table. I almost never pay cash for flights – I only pay taxes. Am I covered for each of venture X’s travel protections when I only pay the taxes with the card? This is clear as mud to me.
I do t know off the top of my head. I’ll put it on my to do list to research!
Given these changes, can it still be argued that the CSR has “best in class” travel protections? Might there come a time when the opportunity cost of using the CSR exceeds the cost of a robust (or superior) stand-alone travel insurance policy?
Let’s say someone spends $20k per year on airfare and hotels. The CSR gives 3X and alternative cards give 5X. The differential is 40k points. Throw in a transfer bonus of 25 percent to Air France (because it’s one of Greg’s favorite currencies) and we have 50k points. While perhaps higher than others, I typically redeem for more than 2.5cpp on Air France. So, we’re talking $1250. Now, add in the net annual fee of the CSR of $250 (which will go to $300 next year) and we’re at $1500 (or $1600).
Might one obtain stand-alone travel insurance for less than that?
I’m not trying to convince anyone of anything. I’m trying to broaden the scope of perspective. (Greg, such a discussion might make a great article topic.) Good luck to all.
Absolutely. In fact, I’m about to alter this post slightly to make it more clear that this is not a problem for most situations. If I understand things correctly, you’re still fully covered for anything that you paid for with your card AND for any trip corrections you need to make (change fees, etc.) as long as you pay for those corrections with your card. So this really only applies to situations where you pay for non-refundable stuff with a different card and/or with points or gift cards or whatever.
Fair enough. I still believe that *some* people might want to consider the opportunity cost issue.
Just thought of a couple more groups of people this sucks for in particular:
1) Ritz cardholders. I have a Ritz card and thus far I’ve been holding my nose and using it to book cash flights even though there’s a significant opportunity cost on the points earned. Having to book everything else on it will just widen the opportunity cost.
2) US Bank Altitude Reserve cardholders. Want to book a rental car using your realtime mobile rewards? Better hope your trip doesn’t get canceled/interrupted.
why will the net annual fee of the CSR go from $250 to $300 next year?
Another super-useful post, Greg. TY.
Is the coverage also applicable to cruises?
Yes. Make sure to check your card’s max coverage amount because some cruises will surely cost more than that.
So to make sure I understand correctly, I redeemed an award flight and paid $5.60 tax. If my flight gets cancelled or delayed for some reason and need to stay overnite, I will need to pay for hotel stay and meals out of my own pocket and my chase S P will longer cover my stay and meals?
No, Trip Delay should still cover you in that example.
Thanks for your reply Greg. I pay all my award taxes with my CSP just in case of any interruption due to delay or cancelled flight I can have my hotel and meals covered. Glad to know I am covered in time of needs.
How were you made aware of these changes? Don’t the credit card issuers need to notify you in advance of such changes? I ask because I did not recall seeing anything in my emails or postal mails about changes to the Ritz card.
Chase sent emails a while ago about enhancements coming in October to their travel coverage. I didn’t have a chance to dig into the details until very recently
So does this take effect retroactively? Like if you bought/paid for an award ticket back in July, you’re still covered under the old conditions? or do the new ones kick in?
Great question. Seems like you ought to be covered under the old terms but I don’t know if that’s really the case
Great information, Greg.
It’s worth mentioning that these new terms are similar to Chase cards’ “extended warranty” benefit, in which partial payments qualify the cardholder for the coverage, but only up to the amount charged with the qualifying Chase card(s). I recently had to navigate such a situation with a partial Sapphire Reserve purchase; my only saving grace was that I was able to demonstrate that the Amazon credit I’d used for the majority of the item’s purchase price traced back to gift cards purchased with a different Chase card that includes the same extended warranty benefit (the Ink Business Cash).
That in mind, in *theory* one might be eligible for the full amount of a trip cancellation/interruption claim if the other, non-Sapphire card used had the same cancellation/interruption benefit, such as the Ink Business Preferred. (To be clear, that’s not a recommendation, just something to consider if some finds themselves in that scenario after the fact!)
As for the other benefits that continue to offer full coverage despite partial payments, it seems that they are a different animal. Their benefit amounts do not have a 1:1, dollar-for-dollar relationship with the full purchase price of the qualifying Chase card transaction. That’s in sharp contrast to the “reimbursement of a prior Chase purchase” model associated with both trip cancellation/interruption insurance, and extended warranty protection. Hopefully that’s an indicator that the other travel protections are unlikely to see a similar change in their terms and conditions.
Yep. Good points
I don’t see that verbiage with the Amex platinum after doing a quick perusal of the benefit terms
I may be misreading it, but here’s the relevant language for the Platinum card’s benefit (found here):
This part makes it sound like you’re covered if you pay-partial:
But this part makes me think that coverage is limited to the amount charged to your card:
For Trip Interruption, though, I think Amex does cover you for additional expenses you incur. So maybe Amex is the best bet!
Upgrading from my CSP to the CSR became much less useful.
Are you sure you’re reading it right?
When they say coverage is limited to “the actual amount charged to the Covered Card and/or redeemable Rewards used for a covered travel expense,” I read that as referring to the cost of e.g. the nonrefundable hotel as the “actual amount charged.”
Otherwise this would be a massive devaluation beyond just award flights.
With your reading, if you bought a $99 flight and paid for the whole thing with your Chase card and also booked a $500 nonrefundable hotel, then you’d only be able to get $99 of the hotel cost covered.
If you pay for the $500 hotel with the card too then you would be covered for $599. In the past you would have been fully covered even if you didn’t pay for the hotel with your card
Hmm. So how about this: you pay for a $99 r/t flight and a $200 hotel. You take the outbound, stay at the hotel, spend $250 on meals, and rent a car for $75. Then, on the return you’re delayed at your connection and incure a $400 hotel bill.
What’s the basis on which they figure your maximum coverage? Everything you spent, in total, on the trip including food and car rental? Only the flights? Would the hotel you purchased and used at the destination contribute?
What if the delay happens on the outbound and you don’t even know how much you’ll spend on the entire trip?
Trip Delay coverage is what you’d use in that case. That’s not affected by this change
Ah, I misread it to be all the trip-related coverages. Trip delay is where my main interest lies, so this isn’t as big a deal for me personally as I thought at first glance.
None of the complications in my comment above apply in the case of trip cancellation. Basically, if you book something covered on the card and you have to cancel that something for a covered reason, they will refund the cost of the thing that you booked up to the amount you paid. That doesn’t sound as unreasonable as I first thought.
“They will refund the cost of the thing that you booked up to the amount you paid” (or the coverage max, whichever is lower) – so long as you paid for it with the Chase card. What changed for trip cancellation is that if you split the cost between a Chase card with travel protections and another card (e.g. deposit for your trip on the Chase card, remainder on a non Chase card), you used to be eligible for full reimbursement from Chase, now it is partial.
That sucks, but the way the post is written is confusing: “When you pay $5.60 to book an award flight, I’d argue that it’s not worth the time to file such a claim” makes it sound like $5.60 is the most you could be reimbursed.
But really all that’s going on is that you need to make sure you put all your nonrefundable expenses on the same card you paid the $5.60, and then everything is covered. Annoying, but not a showstopper in most cases.
Correct. I’ll update that part to make it more clear.
Clearer
Both “clearer” and “more clear” are perfectly acceptable.
Tolerable but not grammatically correct.