Hi,
This just happened. I was unable to claim my flight delay. This was just a small amount. Can you imagine this happen on your around world trip in business class when you need medical insurance?
On all my credit cards I have to purchase the full ticket on the card in order to activate the insurance on the card.
My current solution is to upgrade ticket only, at least I have purchased a full fee economy ticket on my credit card. Or purchase third party insurance.
Has anyone encountered the above before? Is there other ways to get both? Any card that has insurance included in the annual fee? Redeem full ticket vs upgrade which is worthwhile?
Credit card insurance is a minefield. Always read the ‘eligibility and activation’ clause before assuming any cover. Most cards I have encountered require you pay either the full return fares or a high portion thereof.
Some eg. Amex allow you to use their points…an extract from there T & Cs
‘Cover is effective when You pay the full fare for a return Trip on the
American Express Explorer™ Credit Card or with American Express
Membership Rewards® points or with Travel Credit.
The Trip must commence and end in Australia. Cover is not
activated until a return ticket has been purchased (i.e. if You only
hold a one-way ticket, You are not covered under these benefits).’
Some don’t eg. ANZ credit… an extract
‘Interstate Flight Inconvenience Insurance
Interstate Flight Inconvenience Insurance is available to
participating cardholders whilst they are on an interstate
Australian holiday of up to 14 days provided the participating
cardholder charges the entire cost of their return interstate
flight fare (but not necessarily the associated taxes, airport or
travel agent’s charges) to the participating cardholder’s
participating credit card account.’
and NAB credit extract…
‘You (or the accompanying NAB Cardholder) had purchased on a NAB Card 100%* of your return interstate airfares prior to the commencement of the trip.’
Your solution by purchasing a ticket then upgrading using points is worthy but needs to be compared to simply taking out a travel insurance policy for that travel. If you are in good health it can be a cheaper option.
I personally have never been in a position to rely on credit card cover for travel insurance and have paid for private cover. My advice is to look closely at the cover you require then check to see if your cards are appropriate.
I use my NAB qantas card, it only requires $500 of prepaid spend to activate it which can be anything from airfare taxes to hotel, prebooked taxis etc.
I have lots of credit cards, Citibank, ANZ, NAB, and Amex all qualify me to get cover for award flights for various reasons. Read the policy
typically if you use the points earned on that card you would get the insurance cover from that card - but not always.
You do have to do some due diligence each time to make sure you are covered. For my last trip I actually had qualifed for cover with both AMEX and ANZ. The benefit to me was differeing cover for cancellations, so I had good options.
