Forbes Advisor evaluated credit cards that offered travel insurance advantages, including trip cancellation and interruption coverage, trip delay, lost and delayed luggage, rental car insurance coverage, and medical expenditure coverage. We also assessed the total rewards that these cards provided based on projected annual spending.
Sapphire Reserve by Chase
The Chase Sapphire Reserve® boasts, by far and away, the broadest travel insurance coverage of any card on our list. It is one of the few credit cards that provides coverage for all medical expenses in addition to travel interruption, delay, lost and damaged baggage, delayed baggage, emergency evacuation, and primary rental car insurance. This card normally offers higher coverage amounts than other cards, and for trip delay and luggage delay, the coverage begins to apply after just six hours of delay.
Rewards: When booking travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards®, 5 points are awarded for flights and 10 points are awarded for accommodations and rental cars once the first $300 is spent on travel purchases each year. Earn three points for every dollar spent on additional meals and travel, and one point for every dollar spent on all other purchases.
When you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first three months of creating your account, you’ll receive 60,000 bonus points.
Cost per year: $550
Other Benefits and Drawbacks: $300 in travel credits that are automatically applied when you make qualifying purchases help to offset the premium rewards card’s hefty annual fee.
The card grants Priority Pass airport lounge access, along with advantages at airport dining establishments. If you enroll, you’ll be able to dine and drink while traveling at more than 1,300 airport lounge locations throughout the world, saving you and your family the high costs associated with eating and drinking at airports. When you pay the application fee using your card, you can also receive a reimbursement for your Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee every four years.
United Airlines MileagePlus and World of Hyatt are two travel partners that accept Chase Ultimate Rewards points for 1:1 conversion. When applied to qualifying categories in Pay Yourself Back or the travel gateway for Chase, points are worth 1.5 cents each.
Infinite United ClubSM Card
With the exception of medical expenditure coverage, the United ClubSM Infinite Card is almost identical to the insurance features provided by the Chase Sapphire Reserve. This card is a good choice if you would prefer to have access to United Club lounges and pay a somewhat cheaper annual fee while preserving nearly best-in-class travel insurance benefits.
Rewards: Earn 4 miles for every $1 spent on United® purchases, 2 miles for every $1 spent on all other travel, eating, and qualified delivery services, and 1 mile for every $1 spent on all other purchases.
Offer: After making $5,000 in purchases within the first three months after account opening, receive 100,000 bonus miles.
yearly cost: $525
Additional Advantages and Negatives Membership in the United Club lounge is the Chase United Club Infinite Card’s most notable perk. When you book a same-day flight with a Star Alliance member airline, your lounge membership also grants you access to Star Alliance lounges. For each visit to the lounge, you may invite two visitors. It can be more affordable to use this credit card to gain access to a United Club lounge membership than to pay for one outright.
You’ll also profit from Premier Access, which gives you access to priority check-in and boarding, free first and second checked bags when flying United, and a credit for the application price for TSA PreCheck or Global Entry. Last but not least, you’ll have more access to United’s award space than non-cardholders, which might be a useful benefit when it comes time to redeem those points.
Credit card with Capital One Venture X Rewards
With a cheaper annual fee and still excellent travel insurance coverage, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card delivers premium credit card benefits. The Venture X’s travel protections have one major drawback: if a trip needs to be canceled, it will only cover transportation charges. In contrast, many other cards on this list will pay for all pre-paid expenses up to the coverage maximum. Additionally, it provides coverages for primary automobile rental insurance, trip delay, lost and damaged baggage, and delayed baggage.
Rewards: 2 miles for every $1 spent on eligible purchases; 5 miles for flights booked via Capital One Travel; and 10 miles for hotels and rental cars when booked through Capital One Travel. after making $4,000 in purchases during the first three months of account opening, you’ll receive 75,000 bonus miles.
yearly cost: $395
Additional Advantages and Negatives The Capital One Venture X card gives an annual travel credit of up to $300 and 10,000 bonus miles on each card anniversary in addition to strong rewards earning potential and respectable travel insurance protection. The Capital One travel portal is the only place to use the up to $300 travel credit.
After paying the application price using the card, cardholders additionally receive a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee credit and membership to Priority Pass or Capital One lounges.
What Credit Card to Choose for Travel Insurance
A credit card’s travel insurance benefits may not be sufficient, but knowing that you have them can provide you additional piece of mind. So, whether you obtain travel insurance through a credit card or not, keep the following in mind:
Which benefits from travel insurance are the most significant to you? Others will include trip delay, baggage delay, and an upgrade to primary coverage for the rental car insurance, while some cards may only give limited benefits like trip cancellation and secondary rental car insurance coverage.
How much protection is sufficient? Even if two credit cards provide cancellation protection, it might not be comparable. Consider the limits of your coverage and be aware that, depending on the cost of your trip, you might not have full coverage. Similar to this, not all types of rental cars may be covered by insurance.
When will protection take effect? Even if you have coverage, it may not always be applicable. Only covered reasons may be used to cancel a trip under trip cancellation insurance. Since liability insurance is often excluded from rental car coverage, the automobile is insured but you are not.
Finally, read the small print. When assessing a credit card’s benefits, this is crucial at all times, but it becomes much more crucial when failing to read the small print could mean the difference between the card’s benefits paying the cost of a trip cancellation or not.
