Amex Canada: Travel insurance questions [Consolidated]
 

This is about the annual multi-trip basic medical emergency travel insurance available to holders of a Canadian Amex card: How are there premiums calculated?

Do they just look at age, gender and province, or will the rate be more expensive in the next year if one had a claim?

In other words: Is it worth submitting small claims, or will the future rates go up more than one would get back that one time?

Several Amex cards cover up to 15 days, so if your trip is less than 15 days, you do not need to buy addtional emergency travel insurance.

the rate is just go by those info you had listed above. Rate does not go based on your claim history, they still the same. They will only exclude any health condition that you already have at the time you purchase the insurance. I had the 31 days multi-trips over the last few years and it work great and a piece of mind.

Thank you!

Yes, I understand that, and that is OK.

Canada Platinum - Is award ticket covered by Flight Delay Insurance?
 

The certificate of insurance says:

I guess my question is, for the Platinum card, where the "card reward program" technically is the AMEX MR program. In this case, can I transfer my MR points to say Aeroplan miles, redeem a ticket, and be covered until this policy?

No; the card reward program is presumably referring to the use of MR points to cover the price of a ticket directly. There would be no way for Amex to know that the Aeroplan miles used for a particular ticket had been transferred originally from Amex, as opposed to earned directly through one of the CIBC/TD cards, transferred from another partner, etc.

No if you use Aeroplan points (or points of any airline FF programmes) for your ticket.

If you purchase a ticket through Amex Travel Service and pay for the trip with your Amex Reward Points (1,000 pts. to $10) in whole or if in part but charge the balance to your Amex Plat card, you will be covered. The same for Cancellation and Interruption coverage.

In case of a claim, you will be required to submit a copy of the Amex statement and itinerary/e-ticket as proof of purchase with your Amex card as well as the type of fare, etc. That was the case when I had to "trigger" a claim about a year ago when my flight was seriously delayed.

CIBC Aerogold and TD Aeroplan Visa are the only two credit cards that offer you some travel insurance when flying on an Aeroplan reward ticket.

Thanks guys. That's what I thought too.

My experience has been the opposite. Twice I have made claims (both luggage delay) for which the flights were booked on aeroplan reward tickets and I was told both times that so long as the taxes were paid for by the card in question, then you were covered. Needless to say, both claims were paid in full.

You were really lucky both times. If you read the policy, Aeroplan reward flights are not covered. So next time, don't count on it and so you know. Don't be surprised if your claim is rejected!

Wording on baggage delay insurance is less stringent . For trip cancellation and trip interruption insurance:

"Note: Trips will not be covered for Trip Cancellation, if purchased with points from a reward program other than the Membership Rewards Program."

So one may argue that for OTHER travel-related insurance, trips redeemed through other points programs may be covered. And there are numerous reports that reward flights are covered for delays. YMMV.

The flight and baggage/hotel burglary insurance requires the "Full Fare" of the air ticket be charged to the Amex The Platinum card or through redemption of the "Card" reward programme.

Both "Full Fare" and "Card" are defined terms in the policy.

"Full Fare - means 100% of the airline ticket price, including taxes, was charged to the card. Full fare is extended to include airline tickets obtained through the redemption of points from the card reward program when applicable taxes have been charged to the card. Full fare is also extended to include free hotel/motel stays obtained through the redemption of points from the card reward program."

"Card -means The Platinum Card®,American Express® AeroplanPlus®* Platinum Card, or The Business Platinum CardTM from American Express."

However, the way I read the "key words" being 100% of the air ticket price. Part of the air ticket is in effect paid with points of a FF programme, only the taxes and scam charges are paid by the Card. Therefore, not 100%.

I have also seen posts here that claims of flight/baggage delays when travelling on an airline FF programme reward tickets had been successful.

Personally, I do not want to risk and always use my CIBC Aerogold to pay for the taxes and scam charges because CIBC Aerogold (and now the new TD Aeroplan Infinite/Privilege Visa also) is very specific about inclusion of the insurance coverage when travelling on FF points. In my case, Aeroplan.

YMMV. :)

Just went through this 30 minutes ago
 

I just filed a claim because most flights ex-HND were canceled yesterday due to weather.

I bought our tickets with Amex and got $1000 trip delay insurance. Nice meals and stay at Tokyo Shangri-La by the way.

When I was done filing the claim with the agent, I asked him. If these tickets were AP tickets paid for with points and only used the Amex to pay for the taxes and fees, would I be covered?

The answer was very clear: YES

There are two kinds of travel insurances that Amex would cover:

1. Trip interruption insurance (for non-refundable trips)
2. Flight/Baggage delay insurance

1 would be covered only if one pays for the tickets with money, or MR points, but not AP points

2 would be covered whether the tickets were paid with money, MR points, or AP points. In other words, a AP ticket would be covered for 2 as long as the fees and taxes were paid for by an eligible Amex card.

This is consistent with my experiences with past claims with AP tickets.

I would not use CIBC VS to pay for tickets as they only cover up to $500. My Shangri-La hotel stay alone was JPY74750 a night!

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing! ^

Somewhat OT information for those who have AeroplanPlus Platinum Amex - this card specifically excludes coverage for FF programme reward tickets, including Aeroplan.

https://www.americanexpress.com/ca/e...platinum-card/

Go to Footnote at the bottom, items 11, 12 and 13.

Thanks for sharing!