Free Travel Insurance from Your Credit Card

Easy Access to Valuable Travel Benefits, Airfare Booking Strategies

Several credit cards provide free travel insurance coverage, whenever the card is used to purchase travel.

Try to pay for your travel reservations with a card that offers free travel insurance coverage, ideally one that also offers a good reward rate on travel purchases.

The best overall option is the Sapphire Reserve Card, especially if you are comfortable buying your tickets through Chase rather than directly with the airline. The Amex Platinum Card earns more valuable rewards on direct airfare purchases but provides less comprehensive insurance benefits. The Sapphire Preferred Card is another good option, but not as good as the Sapphire Reserve.

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Trip cancellation and interruption insurance. This is what many people think of when they think of travel insurance. If you need to cancel or interrupt your trip, you’ll be reimbursed for any non-refundable travel expenses you paid with the card or for any cancellation fees. It doesn’t cover your costs to get home or make alternative arrangements.

You can’t just cancel your trip for any reason. It only covered for the listed reasons, typically sickness of you, a family member, or travelling companion, a death in the family, severe weather, a terrorist event, or jury duty. You won’t be covered because you decided to change your plans, got a new job, can no longer afford the trip, or because you are worried about an unsafe environment at your destination. You’ll also be declined if the cancellation or interruption was due to a pre-existing condition.

"Primary" rental car coverage. Covers damage to your rental car, in lieu of a "Collision Damage Waiver". Unlike the "secondary" insurance that comes with most other credit cards, the Sapphire card's "primary" coverage doesn't require you to involve your personal auto insurance company. So, if you simply damage the rental car, your regular insurance rates aren't likely to be affected.

Does not cover damage that you do to other people or property. That's called liability insurance and is normally covered in North America by your personal auto insurance. Internationally, liability coverage is sometimes included in the car rental rates and sometimes needs to be purchased separately. Car rental insurance from credit cards, including from the Sapphire card, also does not cover medical issues or the theft of objects from the car. Guide to Car Rental Insurance.

Trip delay coverage. If your flight (or other transportation) gets delayed more than typically 6 or 12 hours, covers "reasonable" expenses associated with a travel delay (such as meals, lodging, toiletries, and medication), up to a total of typically $500 per ticket. You aren't covered if the delay was announced prior to departure and you won't be reimbursed for any prepaid arrangements that you miss due to the delay, just for the expenses accrued while you are waiting.
Baggage delay insurance. Like trip delay insurance, but it kicks in when you arrive, and your bags don't. Covers purchases of essential items such as clothing, toiletries, and phone chargers, usually of up to $100 per person per day, for a maximum of 5 days.
Lost luggage insurance. Covers bags that never show up and any damage to your bags or their contents during transport. You'll only be compensated for the "depreciated" value, not the replacement value, and only up to a cap of around $3,000, with a separate, lower cap for jewelry, electronics, and other expensive items.
Emergency medical and dental insurance. Covers emergency medical expenses, due to illness or accident, while you are travelling, up to a cap of typically $2,500.
Emergency evacuation and transportation coverage. Covers the cost of an emergency evacuation due to an injury or illness. Evacuations usually need to be approved by the benefits coordinator ahead of time.
Travel accident insurance. If someone dies, is dismembered or loses their sight, hearing, or speech on a trip, you'll receive an extra insurance payout.

Good credit cards with travel insurance benefits

More than a dozen credit cards offer extensive travel insurance benefits. But we concentrate on a handful of credit cards that are broadly available and also offer great travel reward rates. Ideally, you want to get both good coverage and good reward points from your travel purchases.

Sapphire Reserve Guide	We recommend that most people get the Sapphire Reserve as one of their two main credit cards. One of the reasons it that it has the best travel insurance of any card and a very good travel reward rate. The trip cancellation maximum is $10,000 per person and $20,000 per trip, it provides primary rental car insurance, and its trip and baggage delay coverage kicks in at 6 hours. It is also the only card with emergency medical coverage ($2,500 max). Benefits Page. Benefits Guide PDF. One of the nice things about the Sapphire Reserve’s travel insurance is that it will cover travel expenses where you made any part of the purchase with the card. For example, if you use the card to pay for the taxes and fees of an award ticket, the Sapphire Reserve will pay for any lost mileage or cancellation fees.
Sapphire Preferred Guide	If you decide on the Sapphire Preferred instead of the Sapphire Reserve, you’ll pay less in annual fees and get less in extra benefits, but you’ll still get essentially the same travel coverage. The main difference is that trip and baggage delay requires a 12 hour delay, rather than 6; and you don’t receive the emergency medical coverage. As long as you book through Chase, you'll get the same 5x Ultimate Rewards per dollar as with the Sapphire Reserve. But if you book directly or with another travel website, you'll only earn 2x points, rather than the Reserve's 3x points. Benefits page.
Amex Platinum Card Guide	If you are comfortable using your reward points for frequent flyer tickets, the Amex Platinum card offers the most valuable reward rate on direct airfare purchases (5x Membership Reward points) and provides trip cancellation and interruption, trip delay, and lost luggage insurance, with some important caveats. Trip delay kicks in at 6 hours. It does not provide baggage delay, primary rental car, or emergency medical insurance. Benefits page. The most important caveat is that the Platinum Travel Insurance only covers expenses for which you purchased the transportation to and from your destination with the card or by using your Membership Reward points. If you buy a one-way ticket or return to a different location than you started, you don't have coverage. As long as you pay the taxes and fees with your card, you should have coverage for award tickets. While the card has a great reward rate on airfare, it doesn’t have a good reward rate on other types of travel. While it might complement another card, it doesn’t make a great standalone card for your travel purchases.
Altitude Reserve Guide	The Altitude Reserve is a great lower cost travel rewards option that earns the equivalent of 4.5% cash back on travel. It comes with trip cancellation and interruption (but only $2,000 per trip max), trip delay (6 hour minimum delay), lost luggage, and emergency evacuation coverage. It does not cover baggage delay or emergency medical. Benefits Guide PDF.
Fairwinds Visa Signature Webpage	This relatively obscure card that is primarily targeted towards people in Central Florida (but is available regardless of where you live) offers up to 7.5% cash back on travel and includes trip cancellation and interruption ($2,000 per person max), trip delay (12 hour minimum delay), and lost luggage coverage. It does not cover baggage delay or emergency medical. Unfortunately, you need to use your card or its associated points for the entire cost of the trip and the card has a $249 annual fee with no offsetting credits. Benefits page.

The no-longer-available-to-new-signups offers a great reward rate on airfare and online travel agencies, but it no longer provides a trip cancellation or other important travel coverages. If you have the card, make sure that the potential extra rewards you might earn outweigh the lack of free insurance.

The Amex Platinum card gives you emergency evacuation coverage, just by having the card. You don’t have to use it to buy your airfare. So, you can use it along with any other coverages. Even better, there is no cost cap.

Comparison chart

Chase Premium	Other Chase	Amex Premium	BOA Premium Rewards	Altitude Reserve
Covers award flights
Yes	Yes	Yes
Trip Cancellation & Interruption
$10,000	$5,000 ($10,000 Sapphire Preferred)	$10,000	$2,500	$5,000
Trip Delay (max. amount)
$500	$500	$500	$500	$500
Trip Delay (min. hours)
6 hours	12 hours	6 hours	12 hours	6 hours
Baggage Delay (max. amount)
$500 ($100/day)	$500 ($100/day)		$500 ($100/day)
Baggage Delay (min. hours)
6 hours	6 hours		6 hours
Lost / Damaged Bags (per passenger)
$3,000	$3,000	$3,000	Yes	$5,000 ($2,000/bag)
Travel Accident (Death and Dismemberment)
$1,000,000	$500,000		Yes	$1,000,000
Emergency Evacuation
$100,000	None	Unlimited (Platinum only)	Yes	$10,000
Emergency Medical
$2,500	None
Auto Rental Coverage
Primary	Primary*	Secondary	Secondary	Primary

* For Sapphire Reserved and some other Chase cards. On Ink Preferred, rental must be for business purposes.

# Trip cancellation and interruption insurance only covers expenses that were paid for with the card. With Chase, you need to pay for any portion of the cost, including award ticket fees. With Amex, the entire cost of the trip needs to have been purchased with the card or with Membership Reward points. So, if you want your Platinum Card's trip insurance to cover non-refundable hotel and other travel expenses, you need to charge them to your Platinum Card and not use a card that earns more valuable rewards on non-airfare spending.

†Amex's travel insurance requires round-trip travel. You can purchase each segment separately, but all segments must be purchased with your card and you must wind up in the same city you left from.

‡Chase only covers family members on the same itinerary as you, not other travelling companions. Amex covers both family members and travelling companions