MasterGeek

I am looking for a travel insurance product that will refund Aeroplan cancellation & change fees if I have to cancel my award flight reservation before departure or change it during the trip due to illness or other usually covered reasons.

I paid the fees & taxes of the redemption using a non-Aeroplan credit card, so I am not covered by the card's trip cancellation/interruption benefits.

Any recommendations ?

Thanks

beep88

Most standalone trip interruption insurance will do (1-way economy fare, or change fees and charges to your next destination as stated in your trip itinerary, or home).

Randomly quoting from TD Per Trip plan:

- While on your trip – We’ll cover your trip home or to your next destination if your plans change due to an unexpected covered cause
- Includes reimbursement for meals, accommodation, taxi fare, and other expenses if your trip is delayed or interrupted due to a covered cause

https://www.tdinsurance.com/system/a...on-landing.pdf

Low Roller

Have you looked at the Manulife policies that are advertised on the Aeroplan site? Apparently they will reinstate your aeroplan miles if you have to cancel within 22 days. But I don't know any of the specifics or if the cost would be worth it.

yultraveler

Aeroplan sells insurance through Manulife. Might be another option worth exploring: https://www.aeroplan.com/en/use-your...insurance.html

Edit: Low Roller beat me to it.

tcook052

Perhaps but OP is not only asking about trip interruption but trip cancellation which isn't covered by most insurance providers as there's no fare that can be insured on an award ticket as there would be with a revenue ticket.

Going the Manulife route through Aeroplan is the best choice as has been pointed out. Good luck!

yyznomad

And furthermore, you can purchase the Manulife travel insurance online which is integrated into the AP booking process (just like the RBC(?) insurance you can purchase during the ac.com booking process) as well (and one can opt out during the process).

MasterGeek

I thought about the Manulife insurance offered in partnership but my itinerary is a bit complex and I'm not sure if it will be fully covered by the Manulife/Aeroplan insurance plan (currently reading the insurance policy to check for exclusions...)

My upcoming trip is a franken-RTW J of 9 stopovers made up of a mix of Aeroplan, United, Avios, Alaska, Etihad one-way tickets.

Example: My wife and I are both booked on the same SQ SIN-SYD award flight but she's ticketed using Aeroplan to take advantage of the low lap infant fee and I am ticketed using United because I had some spare UA miles from a Marriott Travel Package transfer. We are planned to stay 3 nights in Sydney then flight to Queenstown, NZ (one of the long stopovers in our trip) on a Virgin Australia flight ticketed through Etihad. If one of us gets sick on our way to Sydney we'd like the insurance to cover extending our stay to Sydney until we feel better and see a doctor and have the insurance also pay for the Etihad change fee or replacement ticket to continue on our journey to Queenstown.

tcook052

Then I think it's good to review the insurance terminology as trip interruption is basically any event that causes a you to have to unexpectedly end the trip and return home such as a death in the family.

Trip cancellation is the complete cancellation of the journey prior to departure.

Trip delay is something unexpected delaying your planned travel such as adverse weather or labour action or an illness to one of the travelers which would require an unplanned pause in the original itinerary. If it's not a serious medical emergency and you wanted to resume your trip you could and change fees would be covered as would out-of-pocket accommodation and meal expenses where the illness occurs.

It is important to read the fine print of the policy to familiarize yourself with the terminology and I based my answers on Manulife policies I'm familiar with.

beep88

>> insurance terminology as trip interruption is basically any event that causes a you to have to unexpectedly end the trip and return home

Or one way economy fare to the next destination to re-resume the original itinerary, or to catch a cruise after you eventful day excursion, etc.

MasterGeek

Happy

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.

Merlin666

I just burnt most of my my aeroplan miles for a multi-stop trip, and paid with WestJet credit card that supposedly has some trip interruption coverage. I assume/hope that any travel oriented credit card would provide sufficient coverage.

beep88

I am not aware of any insurance for the general public that covers onward travel in original class of service. It'll probably be too expensive.

tcook052

Most but not all however as Manulife does have misconnection coverage.

B407

You would want to check the contract and possibly call and confirm. Usually you have to charge the whole trip to the credit card. If you redeemed using points and rely on credit card insurance, most cards require that the loyalty program you redeem from is the one tied to the credit card in order for the trip to be covered.