Originally Posted by
ijgordon
What exactly are you looking to accomplish? Just trying to protect your airfare cost in case of cancellation? For what reasons do you have in mind?
Obviously a mileage ticket (in Main Cabin or higher) is fully refundable, but also you can usually purchase fully refundable tickets for a nominal up-charge (may only be ~$150 on domestic), which may not be much more than a good insurance policy with cancel-for-any-reason. So you could buy refundable and then get a more basic travel insurance policy.
So the issue is still COVID and the mandatory 5-day quarantine. I've already lost a $250 AA credit voucher (I mean AA was good about extending it for like 2 years, but ended up losing it anyway due to expiration), and a JetBlue credit as well (JetBlue would not extend more than 2 weeks which is nothing, IMO, but it is what it is).
Every travel insurance policy I've seen in the US (insuremytrip and squaremouth) will treat a credit/voucher as a "refund" and they will obviously not reimburse you, as that would be a double-dip (you'd get your say, $700 back AND a $700 travel voucher, which obviously isn't the intention for insurance to give you free stuff).
So if I have to cancel (we cannot get a CFAR policy in NY, contrary to what the ex-governor said 2 years ago), while pretty much all the airlines will issue a credit voucher, the probability is quite high, IMO, that I won't be able to use it before it expires.
I have no problem purchasing a fully refundable fare, but you cannot use that for the Amex Delta certificates, AFAIK.
So, in my situation I'd rather have a truly non-refundable/non-credit for the insurance to reimburse me my money, or I'll have to use award miles, since those can be re-deposited (although you run the risk of devaluation or something so that you may end up using 2-3x the miles when you try to rebook).