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When you’re away from home, even something as simple as your bags getting lost by your carrier can seriously derail your plans.
However, more major issues, like getting injured can have major consequences. Whether you’re traveling for fun or for business, you need the reassurance of travel insurance, which can provide financial protection against any unforeseen event.
You can purchase travel insurance, but many travel credit cards provide coverage as a benefit. One such card is the Chase Sapphire Preferred. Here we’ll delve into the Chase Sapphire Preferred travel insurance in more detail.
Chase Sapphire Preferred Travel Insurance: What’s Covered?
Here are the main features of the Sapphire preferred travel insurance:
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Travel Accident Insurance
The Chase Sapphire Preferred travel accident insurance provides coverage for serious injury or death. This includes loss of speech, hearing or sight if you’re injured during a covered trip.
This cover is provided if the incident occurs when you’re a passenger on a bus, train, airline or other common carrier. The coverage has a policy limit of $500,000.
There are some exclusions, where you would not be eligible for cover. These include:
- War
- Illegal acts that are committed by the covered person
- Emotional trauma
- Physical or mental illness
- Skydiving or flying on non registered aircraft
Claims need to be filed within 20 days of the incident, and provide supporting documentation within 90 days.
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Baggage Delay
If your bags are delayed or misdirected by your carrier, it has the potential to derail your travel plans. The Chase baggage delay coverage can offset this and provide reimbursement for essential items that you need to buy while you’re waiting for your bags.
The coverage kicks in if your bags have been delayed for over six hours by your common carrier. You can receive up to $100 per day in reimbursements up to a maximum of five days.
There are some specific exclusions for this coverage including:
- Glasses
- Contact lenses
- Hearing aids
Additionally, you need to file a claim within 20 days of your delay, but you’ll have 90 days to provide supporting documents.
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Trip Delay
If your carrier travel is delayed for over 12 hours or you are required to make an overnight stay, this coverage could kick in and provide you with reimbursement for expenses related to the delay.
Eligible expenses include meals and accommodation, up to a limit of $500 per ticket. Trips are covered for durations of less than 365 days, but coverage is limited to one event per trip.
The covered events include:
- Labor strikes
- Extreme weather
- Equipment failure
- Skyjacking or hijacking
There are some exclusions for this insurance. For example if the covered reason was made public or known to the cardholder before scheduled departure, you’ll not receive reimbursement. Additionally, you must file a claim within 60 days with supporting documentation provided within 100 days.
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Trip Cancelation/Interruption
If your trip is canceled or cut short as a result of a covered reason, such as severe weather conditions, this insurance provides reimbursement for any non refundable, prepaid travel expenses such as passenger fares, tours and hotel bookings. The coverage limits are up to $10,000 per person and $20,000 per trip.
Trip cancellation and interruption are grouped together, but trip cancellation covers the period before your trip begins, while trip interruption takes effect once you have started your trip including being on your way to your point of departure.
The valid reasons for this coverage include:
- Quarantine orders from your physician
- Extreme weather which prevents starting or continuing your trip
- Accidental bodily injury, illness or death of the cardholder, a travel companion or immediate family member.
- Hijacking or terrorist attacks
- Jury duty or court subpoena which cannot be postponed or waived.
- Bankruptcy of the cardholder’s tour operator, travel agent or travel provider.
On the other hand, there are some scenarios where you will not be covered. These include:
- Change in financial circumstances
- Change in plans
- Pre-existing medical conditions
- Trips longer than 60 days
- Traveling against doctor’s orders
- War
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Travel & Emergency Assistance
As a Sapphire Preferred cardholder, you can also access 24/7 emergency assistance that you can use when you’re traveling. This service is available for the card member, spouse or domestic partner and any dependent children under the age of 22.
Chase provides referrals at no cost, but you will be liable for any expenses that are incurred if you use the recommended services. These include:
- Medical referrals
- Emergency messaging service
- Prescription assistance
- Legal referrals
- Emergency transportation assistance
- Emergency translation services
- Valuable document delivery arrangements
- Emergency ticket replacement
- Lost luggage locators
- Pre-trip assistance, such as information on local currency and exchange rates, health precautions etc.
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Lost Luggage
If your carry on or checked bags have been lost or damaged, this coverage provides reimbursement for you or an immediate family member.
This type of Chase Sapphire Preferred travel insurance provides up to $3,000 per passenger of coverage. The coverage is available for the cardholder and immediate family members. Additionally, family members can benefit from the coverage even if the cardholder is not traveling with them.
However, there are some stipulations, including:
- Limit of up to $500 per person for watches, jewelry, cameras, video recorders, and other electronics.
- You must immediately report the loss or damage to your common carrier and obtain a report, which is needed to support your claim.
- Claims must be submitted within 20 days, and submit any supporting documents within 90 days.
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Auto Rental
The Chase Sapphire Preferred also provides auto rental coverage as a collision damage waiver. If you pay for the entire rental cost with your card and decline the rental car company’s collision and insurance, you’ll have up to $75,000 of coverage for collision damage and theft for rental cars in the U.S and many other countries.
The auto rental insurance is primary, which means you don’t need to purchase supplemental cover. The coverage is available for rental periods of up to 31 days with covered costs including:
- Physical damage to or theft of the rental car
- Towing charges to remove the vehicle to a repair shop
- Valid loss of use costs, which are incurred by the car rental company.
The cardholder must be listed as the primary renter and add any additional authorized drivers to the rental agreement. Some vehicles are not eligible for this coverage. These include:
- Motorcycles, motorbikes or mopeds
- Antique vehicles
- Recreational vehicles
- Trucks
- Limousines
- Vans built for more than nine passengers.
You must report the incident immediately and submit a claim form within 100 days. Any additional supporting documents must be received within 365 days of the incident. Even with a mid annual fee, the Chase Preferred card is considered as one of the top cards for rental car insurance.
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Roadside Assistance
If you’re taking a road trip, you can enjoy roadside assistance for your own vehicle or a leased vehicle via your Sapphire Preferred credit card. These include services such as
- Fuel delivery
- Battery boost
- Lockout assistance
- Flat tire service
However, you will be liable for any associated charges or expenses.
Coverage is not available if you’re driving off road areas or in areas not regularly traveled. Additionally, cover is not available for any commercial vehicles or heavy trucks/trailers.
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What’s Not Included?
Overall, the Chase Sapphire Preferred travel insurance is quite comprehensive with no obvious major holes within the coverage, makes it one of the best cards for travel insurance. However, as with any type of insurance, you will need to read through the fine print to be sure of the requirements and any cover exclusions.
In most cases, you will need to make your travel purchases with your card and you can enjoy automatic coverage, but it is always worthwhile to double check.
How Do I Claim with My Chase Sapphire Travel Insurance?
To file a claim with any of these coverages, you need to call the appropriate phone helpline detailed on your paperwork. You should have received a benefits guide with your Chase Sapphire Preferred card, but if you are unsure, you can call the general Chase helpline to get the appropriate contact number.
The Chase representative can guide you through the claims form and will advise you of what supporting documentation is needed to prove your loss. This could include reports from your carrier, proof of the lost, damaged or stolen items, receipts for purchases that relate to the loss, etc.
Once your claim has been approved, you could receive reimbursement in as little as five days.
Chase Preferred vs Reserve Travel Insurance
The Chase Sapphire Preferred and Sapphire Reserve are often a little confusing as both cards are quite similar. However, when it comes to their travel insurance, the differences are quite minute. The key differences between the two travel insurance packages include:
- Trip Delay Reimbursement: While the Chase Sapphire Reserve coverage kicks in after a six hour delay, Preferred customers will need to experience a delay of 12 hours before they can claim reimbursement.
- Travel Accident Insurance: The coverage limit is the crucial difference with this type of insurance. Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders can benefit from up to $1,000,000 in coverage, while Preferred cardholders have a $500,000 coverage limit.
- Roadside Assistance: While both cards offer roadside assistance, Preferred customers are liable for the related expenses. On the other hand, Reserve customers are covered up to $50 per incident with a cap of four claims per year.
Chase Sapphire Preferred vs Amex Platinum Travel Insurance: What’s the Difference?
The Platinum Card From American Express offers a fairly comprehensive travel insurance benefits package, but there are some similarities and differences with the Chase Sapphire Preferred.
- Trip Cancellation/Interruption: Both cards offer this coverage with a $10,000 per person and $20,000 per claim cap.
- Trip Delay: Amex offers trip delay coverage with up to $500 per trip of coverage, which is similar to Sapphire Preferred. However, Preferred customers need to experience a delay of 12 hours or more, while the Amex coverage kicks in after six hours.
- Baggage: Amex offers coverage for lost, damaged or stolen bags, but there is no baggage delay coverage.
- Rental Car Coverage: Both cards offer similar levels of rental car coverage, but the Amex is secondary coverage.
- Travel Accident Insurance: While Amex does have a global assist helpline which can help with repatriation of remains, emergency transport and other issues, the Amex Platinum does not have a formal travel accident insurance policy.
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