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Insurance company or credit card purchase insurance? Which is best?

Posted by (Hawaii) on

Hola!
My husband and I are planning a trip to Spain in the spring and we are finding it difficult to decipher what is covered by insurance and what isn't covered in the time of COVID. Insurance companies seem very willing to book the insurance but not as clear about coverage if someone (else) gets sick and the tour is interrupted.

Do you know what company will cover extended stays in a hotel due to illness? We are very careful about traveling safely and are triple vaccinated, so the question is primarily our due diligence effort.

There is an expensive Chase Reserve card that seems to cover everything but we aren't sure that is the best option. We are looking at possibly using our Hawaiian Airlines Mastercard by Barclay since we would gain mileage points for any purchases. We wouldn't have even made the inquiry but found ThePointsGuy online who did a review and says he never buys trip insurance because the purchases are each covered by his particular credit card. This will be our first time leaving the country since 2017.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts!
Alohas,
S.

Posted by
4699 posts

Credit cards don't cover pre-existing conditions. The Points Guy is young and may not have any. Just a thought. There has been EXTENDED discussion here on the Forum recently regarding trip insurance . Just do a SEARCH- there are numerous opinions/posts.
Good luck!

Posted by
8375 posts

I have read the entire benefit and insurance book for the Chase Sapphire Reserve card and at no point does it list that pre-existing conditions are a reason for denying coverage. I use this coverage for the travel portion of my trip, including trip cancellation or interruption. My regular health plan covers urgent or emergency care overseas and I do purchase an annual Medjet membership for evacuation (and peace of mind).

The trick is to read everything. Know what you are purchasing in advance for yourself, not just what someone (however well meaning) says on this forum. That includes me 😀. Always do your own due diligence on insurance.

Here is how I breakdown the ChaseSapphire Reserve fee of $550.
You receive a direct credit for the first $300 of travel expenses. Now, that leaves $250 in actual costs. I find that the travel insurance benefits and lounge access features would be worth $250 to me. However, I received over $850 in cash back on this card in 2021. The annual fee looks like a shocker when you first see it, but this card remains a good deal for me. New customers also receive ultimate reward points worth at least $600.

Posted by
4518 posts

Chase has great travel cards. Carol gave a nice summary of their top card, she didn’t mention the car rental insurance which is also tops.

Bonuses recently for the Sapphire cards were 100,000 or over $1200.

Posted by
3595 posts

I would call and check on the any issue that seems unclear. Maybe ask for an email response so that you have something in writing. Cc’s do include a surprising amount of insurance. We have pretty much stopped buying rental car coverage, for example, because it’s a benefit of several of our cc’s. We, in fact, have had occasion to file a claim on a Chase card; and we had no problems with it..

Posted by
4699 posts

I did read my Chase Sapphire Visa small print of benefits a few years ago and it did exclude pre-existing conditions at that time. Since I had a vested interest in knowing this, I read it carefully, and then purchased other travel insurance . However, I would be OVERJOYED to know that this issue has been changed, so I will dig thorough it all again. Thanks for the heads up, Carol!

Posted by
4518 posts

Pat: Here are the current benefits for the Chase Sapphire Reserve card. I know people will see this as shilling for Chase but they really do provide great travel benefits. The car rental insurance covers any ordinary sedan for weeks in any country, no Italy or Ireland or New Zealand exclusions common on other cards. Noting that I checked again last year and there's no problem using cheaper local car rental companies where all rentals include basic insurance (Iceland: Blue Car Rental, New Zealand: Ezi Car Rental), that insurance won't void the Chase policy which then covers only the deductible.

https://www.chasebenefits.com/sapphirereserve2

Posted by
2 posts

Thank you very much to everyone who replied to my post! I’m still learning how to look up previous posts, so I appreciate your patience in explaining what you know.

The Chase Reserve card has won top endorsements from other places besides this forum (and is not to be confused with the Chase Sapphire, as I discovered that I had been), so thank you for posting that validating remark. The coverage of those two cards actually look quite different from one another, especially in the area of pre existing conditions.

On previous trips with Rick Steves we have had tremendous guides and I expect they will be helping us with any concerns that we may have along the way. We have decided to go ahead and buy the insurance listed on the webpage with Travel Guard.

Thanks everybody!

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