Travel insurance included with credit card

There have been reports here on the forum of people with successful travel insurance claims with Chase and also some reports of those who found the claim process frustrating. I think this is fairly typical for most travel insurance carriers. The key is to know and understand the policy in advance. Read through the coverage. Pay attention to any requirements for purchase of trip elements and time frames for notifying about a claim. Keep your trip receipts, boarding passes, etc.

I have Chase Sapphire Reserve so slightly different coverage. I feel good about the coverage through Chase, but each person needs to do their own risk assessment.

Thank you, Carol. I have spoken to them already as well as looked through the 40 pp guide. Seems that all travel insurance policies are using pre-condition as a way of limit coverage (at least for case of cancellation due to illness).

Did you ask them specifically about coverage for cancellation in event of your parents’ illness? Do they have a provision for waiver of the “pre-existing condition” exclusion?

If not, you may or may not be able to get such coverage with other travel insurance. If you have already booked the tour, and paid the deposit, there is a time limit in most (or all) policies for qualifying for the waiver—-generally 2 or possibly 3 weeks from the date of the deposit. If it is too late for that, you could still pay extra for “cancel for any reason” coverage, but generally that does not cover the full amount of the loss, only a percentage.

Lola, I paid the deposit and I am to pay for the tour Jan 14th. The tour is in March. I am exploring to cover the trip in case something happens. If I pay with Chase Sapphire, I will have trip cancellation insurance included (it does have terms and conditions as any other travel insurance has - one of them is preexisting conditions).

As your reading has indicated, card coverage is likely to fall short if cancelation for preexisting coverage is a concern.

Lola mentioned third-party insurance which you'd buy separately from Travel Guard, Allianz, etc (or your tour operator may offer an option) may cover pre-existing conditions, depending on the policy's terms. Almost always, pre-existing conditions are only covered if the policy is paid for within 2-3 weeks of the FIRST payment made for the trip.

That clock has been ticking since you paid the deposit.

Read the policy carefully. Most do NOT include Medical Evacuation, or enough to cover a real Medical Evacuation. A true Travel Insurance Policy is usually better than anything a CC can offer.

In this case, Chase Sapphire Reserve offers evacuation coverage, Chase Sapphire Preferred (what the OP has) does not.

I paid the deposit and I am to pay for the tour Jan 14th

I would also read the terms very carefully to know whether, having paid the deposit on your original card, whether a new card would cover the trip. I've read fine print on some cards that say that you must pay for the "entire trip" using the card to get the insurance benefit. As an example, using miles to "pay" for flight can sometimes cause a complication in coverage, depending on which card you used to pay for the flights on which you earned those miles.

If you want coverage in case something happens that sounds like you want coverage for something that may happen before the trip. Not much insurance covers that eventuality. It sounds like cancellation coverage for any reason. Cancel coverage for any reason is not a regular thing with any travel insurance.