Insurance for a reward flight
Feb 7, 2019, 8:07 pm
#16
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 306
Also to claim any sort of trip interruption for health reasons, most insurers require the medical condition to be severe enough that you would be hospitalized and deemed unfit to travel. In addition, they would send you straight home in Y to minimize their losses. The only exception I've seen is if you get sick prior to your trip starting and then you become well enough to travel before your trip was originally scheduled to end, then the insurers will typically pay to fly you to where you should be in Y.
Feb 9, 2019, 6:00 am
#17
Suspended
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Kan@da
Programs: Anything with sweet spots
Posts: 1,790
You will need to examine the terms and conditions with extremely careful scrutiny on what are covered events and what are NOT,and never assume anything.
For example, most insurances do NOT cover trip interruption / cancellation caused by airlines own schedule changes, unless it is due to Airport Strikes. (happened to our trip last May when Italy aircontrollers went on strikes that caused airport closures, therefore all flights canceled between Sicily and FCO and MXP).
With your itinerary so complex, in the sense of using different programs on different segments, even on the same segment (your wife with lap infant on Aeroplan while you on United), you would be dealing with a nightmarish when something happened and you need to continue your trip.
I sincerely hope you have stopovers between each portion that you redeemed with different programs, and not just a layover. A stopover of a day or more, has some built in cushion in case the incoming flight had some issues whether delayed or outright canceled You may still have time to scramble for an alternative.
A layover even 10 hours, you might be SOL.
This is the peril of using multiple tickets. We are very accustom to such and would build in enough cushion on each portion but a lot of people dont pay enough attention to such.
May want to explore some general travel insurance as well - those would have broader list of covered events.
For example, most insurances do NOT cover trip interruption / cancellation caused by airlines own schedule changes, unless it is due to Airport Strikes. (happened to our trip last May when Italy aircontrollers went on strikes that caused airport closures, therefore all flights canceled between Sicily and FCO and MXP).
With your itinerary so complex, in the sense of using different programs on different segments, even on the same segment (your wife with lap infant on Aeroplan while you on United), you would be dealing with a nightmarish when something happened and you need to continue your trip.
I sincerely hope you have stopovers between each portion that you redeemed with different programs, and not just a layover. A stopover of a day or more, has some built in cushion in case the incoming flight had some issues whether delayed or outright canceled You may still have time to scramble for an alternative.
A layover even 10 hours, you might be SOL.
This is the peril of using multiple tickets. We are very accustom to such and would build in enough cushion on each portion but a lot of people dont pay enough attention to such.
May want to explore some general travel insurance as well - those would have broader list of covered events.
All of our stopovers are 3+ days. There is only one instance where we have a layover that involves inboud and outbound not being on the same ticket and I'll try to have insurance that covers that.
I believe some of Manulife's policies also have a "same class" rider. Just google "trip interruption" "same class"
Feb 9, 2019, 8:06 am
#18
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: YWG
Programs: Free Agent
Posts: 1,478
"protect your miles" with Manulife has an option for 'same class' of service on misconnect etc. As has been mentioned, you need to review the policy options (and parse the wording) carefully... and pay accordingly.
Feb 9, 2019, 12:28 pm
#19
Suspended
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Kan@da
Programs: Anything with sweet spots
Posts: 1,790
"protect your miles" with Manulife has an option for 'same class' of service on misconnect etc. As has been mentioned, you need to review the policy options (and parse the wording) carefully... and pay accordingly.
Feb 9, 2019, 5:27 pm
#20
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: YYZ
Programs: TK*G, Marriott Gold, Hilton Diamond, IHG Plat
Posts: 678
I went through the Certificates of Insurance of almost all major CCs and found:
If you only want to rely on CC for trip cancellation (at least change fees, redeposit fees), trip interruption etc. on point flights,
MR - Amex plat/gold/colbalt, etc. (but won't cover flights booked using miles transferred to AP/BA)
AP - TD/CIBC AP CC
AP, Avios, etc. - BMO WE which explicitly covers points flights if you charge full taxes/fees on it.
Other interesting findings:
RBC BA CC - will NOT provide coverage for Avios flights!
Scotia passport Visa - for regular cash bookings, only requires 75% or more of the trip cost charged to the card
The best annual AI travel insurance in terms of coverage is Blue Shield (used to be sold through AP.com till it was replaced by Manulife)
It's the only one that covers everything by default except for a few specified exclusions.
Other policies, especially CC policies, only cover specified events.
If you only want to rely on CC for trip cancellation (at least change fees, redeposit fees), trip interruption etc. on point flights,
MR - Amex plat/gold/colbalt, etc. (but won't cover flights booked using miles transferred to AP/BA)
AP - TD/CIBC AP CC
AP, Avios, etc. - BMO WE which explicitly covers points flights if you charge full taxes/fees on it.
Other interesting findings:
RBC BA CC - will NOT provide coverage for Avios flights!
Scotia passport Visa - for regular cash bookings, only requires 75% or more of the trip cost charged to the card
The best annual AI travel insurance in terms of coverage is Blue Shield (used to be sold through AP.com till it was replaced by Manulife)
It's the only one that covers everything by default except for a few specified exclusions.
Other policies, especially CC policies, only cover specified events.
Feb 9, 2019, 7:01 pm
#21
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: YYZ, HKG, MFM
Programs: AC35K, AS MVP, WS Gold, ITA EP, Marriott Plat, Hyatt-Explorist, IHG Diamond
Posts: 2,019
I went through the Certificates of Insurance of almost all major CCs and found:
If you only want to rely on CC for trip cancellation (at least change fees, redeposit fees), trip interruption etc. on point flights,
MR - Amex plat/gold/colbalt, etc. (but won't cover flights booked using miles transferred to AP/BA)
AP - TD/CIBC AP CC
AP, Avios, etc. - BMO WE which explicitly covers points flights if you charge full taxes/fees on it.
Other interesting findings:
RBC BA CC - will NOT provide coverage for Avios flights!
Scotia passport Visa - for regular cash bookings, only requires 75% or more of the trip cost charged to the card
The best annual AI travel insurance in terms of coverage is Blue Shield (used to be sold through AP.com till it was replaced by Manulife)
It's the only one that covers everything by default except for a few specified exclusions.
Other policies, especially CC policies, only cover specified events.
If you only want to rely on CC for trip cancellation (at least change fees, redeposit fees), trip interruption etc. on point flights,
MR - Amex plat/gold/colbalt, etc. (but won't cover flights booked using miles transferred to AP/BA)
AP - TD/CIBC AP CC
AP, Avios, etc. - BMO WE which explicitly covers points flights if you charge full taxes/fees on it.
Other interesting findings:
RBC BA CC - will NOT provide coverage for Avios flights!
Scotia passport Visa - for regular cash bookings, only requires 75% or more of the trip cost charged to the card
The best annual AI travel insurance in terms of coverage is Blue Shield (used to be sold through AP.com till it was replaced by Manulife)
It's the only one that covers everything by default except for a few specified exclusions.
Other policies, especially CC policies, only cover specified events.
My flight from YTZ-YUL-YOW was cancelled due to freezing rain, I had to buy a last min train ticket to Ottawa, which cost $100, I called BMO insurance and I was told that they will not cover the cost of the ticket.
Feb 10, 2019, 6:38 am
#23
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: YWG
Programs: Free Agent
Posts: 1,478
Insurance = peace of mind for when things are FUBAR