Ask It: Credit Card Trip Cancellation Protection

Last week, we asked you about trip insurance. Overall, most people do not buy trip insurance for most trips. The primary exception is for international trips and cruises. Insurance is somewhat costly when you don’t need it and VERY costly when you need it and don’t have it. From emergency care in another country (where your own health insurance may not provide coverage) to the staggering cost of having medical transport back to the U.S. from another country, medical costs while traveling outside of the country can be high enough that without insurance, you might never be able to afford another trip.

Most people who commented mentioned that they don’t tend to get trip insurance for vacations to Walt Disney World or Disneyland. If they miss their flight or their flight is delayed or cancelled, although it can be a hassle to rebook or miss a day of a trip, the financial loss isn’t enough to make insurance a must-have. That said, even for domestic trips there may be some reasons to look into insurance, including lost luggage reimbursement. If an airline loses your luggage, you’ll be lucky to get enough to cover the cost of a luggage tag, let alone everything in your suitcase.

On social media every now and then, I see a post from someone on their way to a Disney Cruise where they’ve had their plane, train, or automobile delayed and they’re not sure if they’ll make the ship. On my most recent cruise, there was a family in our cruise Facebook group who made it on board with 10 minutes to spare. For me, especially on a trip where arriving too late means you literally miss the boat, I would be very nervous about not having trip insurance because showing up too late can mean a quick end–or an expensive detour–for your vacation.

The intrepid TouringPlans blog staff has been talking a lot about trip insurance over the past few weeks, and during our discussion, the topic of credit card coverage for trip cancellation came up. Every credit card has different policies and things that are covered (or, depending on credit card, not much that is covered). Yet, while we were talking, a number of us confessed that we don’t actually know what our credit cards cover when it comes to vacations. (I know I don’t!) We thought it would be interesting to open up this wholly unscientific survey to everyone, so this week our question is:

Does your credit card of choice for vacations cover trip cancellations?

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Got a good credit card with awesome coverage? Feel free to spill the beans in the comments. Until next week!