Chase Sapphire Travel Insurance Benefits Review
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Is travel insurance on the Chase Sapphire cards good enough? Here's what's covered and how it compares to other policies.
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The Chase Sapphire cards are a couple of the best travel reward cards. In addition to a great reward program, they also offer valuable travel insurance benefits.
Chase Sapphire Preferred®
You've booked a vacation and you want to be sure your investment is protected. After all, you never know if you need to cancel a trip or if the airline loses your luggage.
If you used your Chase Sapphire card to pay for your trip, you already have some travel coverage. Is it enough? Take a look at some of the benefits and how they compare to a standalone insurance policy.
- Trip Cancellation & Interruption
- Trip Delay
- Lost or Delayed Baggage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver
- Travel & Emergency Assistance
- Travel Accident & Death Insurance
- Emergency Medical Care
- How Coverage Compares
But first, let's cover the latest promotions for Chase cards.
Chase Sapphire Preferred®
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Chase Sapphire Reserve®
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Travel Insurance You Didn't Know You Had
Trip Cancellation & Interruption
If you need to cancel your trip, both the Preferred and Reserve cover you and your immediate family members (even if you're not traveling with them).
The benefit reimburses non-refundable, pre-paid costs, such as flights, hotels, and tours. The trip must not be more than 60 days, and must have been pre-booked before leaving home.
The coverage is up to $10,000 per person and $20,000 per trip, up to a total of $40,000 in a 12-month period.
Covered circumstances include:
- Accidental bodily injury, loss of life, or sickness
- Severe weather
- Change in military orders
- A terrorist action or hijacking
- Organized strike affecting public transportation
- Jury duty or court subpoena that cannot be postponed
- Uninhabitable accommodations
- Imposed quarantine for health reasons
- Financial insolvency of the travel agency, tour operator, or travel supplier
- A change in plans or financial circumstances
- A pre-existing condition
- Traveling against advice of a physician
- Bodily injury exceptions, such as from car racing or professional sporting activities
- War
- Trips longer than 60 days
Check the benefits guide for the full list of covered and not covered reasons.
Trip Delay
Chase Sapphire will reimburse you and your immediate family for qualified expenses up to $500 per person if your flight, train, or cruise is delayed.
The Preferred benefit covers delays more than 12 hours (or overnight), while the Reserve covers delays more than 6 hours (or overnight).
Qualified expenses include:
- Hotels / lodging
- Meals
- Toiletries
- Medication
- Other personal use items
Trip delay insurance covers trips up to 365 days.
Lost or Delayed Baggage
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Lost Luggage
When your checked or carry-on luggage is lost or damaged by the common carrier, Chase Sapphire benefits will reimburse you.
Both the Preferred and Reserve cover up to $3,000 per passenger (up to $500 per person for jewelry, watches, and electronics).
Baggage Delay
If your baggage is delayed for over 6 hours after you arrive, you can be reimbursed for essentials, such as toiletries and clothes. Both cards cover up to $100/day for 5 days.
Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver
Both cards offer primary, not secondary, collision and damage insurance for most rental cars in the U.S. and abroad. You must pay the entire car rental fee in full and decline the rental company's collision and damage insurance. Rental must not exceed 31 days.
Covered losses are:
- Physical damage to the rental car
- Theft of the rental card
- Valid loss-of-use charges assessed by the rental company
- Customary towing charges related to a covered loss
Sapphire Preferred covers up to the actual cash value of the car. It does not include expensive and exotic cars. See all the excluded brands in the full benefits guide.
Sapphire Reserve covers up to $75,000. Exceptions include vintage cars, certain vans, trucks, motorcycles, limousines, and recreational vehicles.
Travel and Emergency Assistance
When you need emergency help on your trip, the Chase Sapphire benefit team can provide assistance free of charge. This includes:
- Referring you to English-speaking doctors or hospitals
- Referring you to English-speaking attorneys or U.S. embassies or consulates
- Arranging for emergency transportation home or to a hospital
- Translation assistance over the phone or helping find local interpreter
- Transporting vital documents you may have left at home
- Arranging for delivery of a replacement ticket
You WILL have to pay for the cost of these services. But the assistance and referrals are free of charge.
Travel Accident & Death Insurance
If you or immediate family members suffer death or dismemberment during your trip, both Sapphire cards provide travel accident insurance coverage.
There are two parts to this insurance:
- Common Carrier Travel Accident Insurance: covers loss of life or dismemberment when you're riding, entering, or exiting a common carrier (such as a plane, train, bus, or cruise).
The Preferred covers up to $500,000, while the Reserve covers up to $1,000,000.
- 24-Hour Travel Accident Insurance: covers losses that happened between the departure and return dates of your airline ticket, for trips up to 30 days. Both cards cover up to $100,000.
Emergency Medical Care
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Chase Sapphire Preferred® does NOT cover include medical coverage. You're taking a big risk if you choose to travel without medical benefits. This is one of the biggest reasons travelers choose to buy a standalone travel insurance policy.
Chase Sapphire Reserve® does include medical coverage in the following amounts:
- Emergency medical and dental care: If you are at least 100 miles from home, you can get reimbursed for qualified emergency medical and dental care for you or immediate family members up to $2,500.
- Emergency evacuation: The Reserve also provides coverage for emergency evacuation up to $100,000.
Evacuation can be really expensive, anywhere from $100,000 to $1,000,000. So just note that the Reserve evacuation coverage may not be sufficient if you really need it.
If you're still unsure, read our comparison piece for the two Chase credit cards.
How to File a Claim
To file a claim, call your benefit administrator ASAP. You can call the number on the back of your card and ask to speak to the benefit administrator. The administrator will send you a claim form.
You will need to provide documentation such as:
- Copy of the travel itinerary
- Copy of credit card statement showing the travel charges
- Documents supporting confirmation of trip cancellation
- Written confirmation of baggage delay or loss from the airline
- Copies of receipts for claimed expenses
Take note of how long you have to report a claim. Generally they are:
- 20 days to provide written claim notice for trip cancellation and lost or delayed baggage
- 60 days to report trip delay and 100 days to file claim form
- 60 days to report the incident for auto rental collision or theft
- 20 days to provide written claim notice for travel accident
- 90 days to report emergency medical or dental claims and 180 days to file claim form (for Reserve holders)
How Coverage Compares
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So how does the Chase Sapphire travel insurance compare to standalone policies? Let's take a look.
- Standalone insurance
One option is to the buy standalone insurance from travel insurance companies. Websites like travelinsurance.com or insuremytrip.com will allow you to compare plans and prices from many companies. The cost can be as low as under $20, depending on how much coverage you want.The price for standalone insurance is usually based on your total trip cost. So the price for a trip with $10,000 in pre-paid expenses will cost a lot more than a trip with just $2,000 in pre-paid expenses. The good thing about Chase Sapphire trip cancellation/interruption is that it covers up to $10,000 per person and $20,000 per trip. But if your trip is very expensive and costs more than that, you may want to get another insurance to cover the rest.
For a trip with $2,000 in pre-paid expenses, you can get a plan that costs under $100 and includes trip cancellation, baggage loss, and emergency medical and evacuation.
- Airline insurance
Many airlines offer trip insurance based on the cost of the trip. But it usually costs more than standalone insurance. For United, the cost is 7% the cost of ticket ($20 minimum). Delta is anywhere between 9% and 10% of the trip cost ($49 minimum). American Airlines is similar. So for a trip that costs $2,000, the insurance cost will be $189.We find that the coverage (especially the baggage coverage) is usually not as good as Chase Sapphire's. However, the airline insurance will cover emergency medical care and evacuation, whereas the Sapphire Preferred does not.
Bottom Line
Chase Sapphire offers a range of valuable trip benefits. Many of these benefits are comparable to a standalone travel insurance policy. Frequent travelers can save a lot by using a Chase Sapphire card instead of buying their own travel insurance. But note that the Sapphire Preferred does NOT provide medical and evacuation coverage. If you want to be truly safe or you do a lot of adrenaline activities on you trips, you might considering getting standalone medical travel insurance.
If you decide to use your credit card, remember that coverage is determined by the terms, conditions, and exclusions of the policies applicable to your card.
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Write to Amber Blevins at feedback@creditdonkey.com. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for our latest posts.
Editorial Note: Any opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author's alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any card issuer. This site may be compensated through the Advertiser's affiliate programs.
Editorial Note: This content is not provided by Chase. Any opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author's alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by Chase. This site may be compensated through the Advertiser's affiliate programs.
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