Originally Posted by
RichardInSF
Most award tickets now have some sort of fee attached that you have to pay. If you use the card to pay the fee, my impression was that counted to put you under the insurance umbrella. But now that I think of it, I'm not sure where I got that idea from! Anyone know? Plus, does it vary by country?
Back in the day (and perhaps still today), the US Diners Club card specifically had this as a benefit: the travel coverage terms and conditions specifically mentioned that award tickets were covered as long as all of the fees and taxes were charged to the card.
With Amex, it's generally been the opposite. There generally is language that says something along the lines of "the entire cost of the ticket must be paid with using the Card." Although this doesn't specifically exclude award tickets, it does implicitly, as most of the "cost" of the ticket is paid for with miles.
I always thought that DC got it right and Amex wrong on this issue: especially for cards that are targeted specifically to frequent fliers, why would you exclude award tickets? Of course, the answer is to keep costs down.