How my travel credit card saved me $1,388

In 2020, I was looking forward to leaving Los Angeles for a socially distanced vacation in San Diego. I had stocked up on food, hand sanitizer, wipes and masks.

To stay safe and distant, I had booked two cottages near the beach with my travel credit card. My friend and his significant other would stay in one, and my roommate and I would take the other. That was the plan, until one friend tested positive for the coronavirus and had to isolate at home.

When the unexpected happens, a credit card’s trip cancellation or trip interruption insurance may help you recover the cost of nonrefundable expenses. In my case, trip cancellation insurance saved me $1,388. As you make travel plans in the vaccination era, get to know how these benefits can protect your travel fund.

Visa and Mastercard offer these benefits, and insurance companies underwrite them.

Trip cancellation insurance may reimburse prepaid, nonrefundable travel expenses like airfare, hotels, cruises, tours and passenger fares, depending on the card’s terms. Trip interruption may reimburse the unused portion of your trip for certain covered reasons. Terms vary.

To qualify, you must pay for eligible travel expenses with the card that offers the benefit. If you use credit card rewards to pay for a trip, purchases may still be covered, depending on the card. With Chase, for example, a spokesperson confirms that trip cancellation insurance covers qualifying purchases booked with rewards earned on an eligible credit card.

Benefits like these may also change on credit cards, so to avoid unwanted surprises, review your card’s terms and conditions prior to booking a trip. predominant cause for trip cancellation and trip interruption claims on eligible Mastercards, said Ralf Riehl, director of loyalty solutions for Mastercard, in an email .

“In specific regard to COVID-19, these benefits do not provide coverage for fear of traveling to a specific destination, even for fear of illness or quarantine,” he said.

The terms I qualified for cited coverage that includes “sickness experienced by you or your traveling companion which prevents you or your traveling companion from traveling on the trip.”