10 Credit Cards That Reimburse You If Your Flight Is Delayed

helpful commentary: the word "huge" doesn't require the "an" modifier in front of it. just "a". I've noticed it in this and the post on the airport hotel.

The big 3 domestic airlines also have (seemingly) easy ways to get delay/cancellation verification after the fact. I'm sure an airport employee in the midst of IRROPS would appreciate the time saved by not having to fulfill this request at the airport.

AA: Google "Email Request for Delay/Cancellation Verification for Trip Insurance AA"
DL: Google "DELAY/CANCELLATION VERIFICATION FOR TRIP INSURANCE Delta"
UA: Google "Flight delays and cancellations United"

Hey @Tiffany, with the coverage discussed above, does it require the purchase of a return ticket, or are you covered on one-ways as well?

I've only had to use it once. It was with Chase. They required a news article clipping or something like that to show it was caused by weather. Since it was just a typical thunderstorm that stalled over NYC area there was not much to find as far as news. I had to prove it to them. If I'd known about the "Military Excuse" I could of used that. Excellent advice.

Hi Tiffany, does the Citi Thank You Premier also over the same coverage as the Prestige? I was under the impression that it was, but wondered if you have any insight. Thanks!

@Tiffany - Any idea how this benefit works if you buy a ticket for someone else, but are not traveling with them, and their flight is delayed? Thanks!

@Jason

helpful commentary: Avoid prescriptive commentary about others' grammar because it usually neither useful nor correct. In this case, I would suggest learning something about English usage variants, because many English dialects (notably most British dialects) put "an" before any word beginning with H.

tl;dr: Don't be snotty, especially if you're wrong.

@Tiffany -- just got an email this morning that the Chase Ritz coverage has improved from 12hrs to 6hrs with the new benefits on that card. Might want to update the chart 🙂

As a sidenote, IHG card by Chase has a 6 hour delay threshold. While CSP has the 12 hour rule, they also allow for reimbursement of expenses for any length delay which results in an overnight stay. So it could be a mechanical issue on the last flight out of the night which results in being rebooked onto the first flight the next morning. Provided the airline doesn't cover your lodging/incidentals, CSP will.

@ Jerry -- One-ways should be covered as well, as long as they're part of a round-trip itinerary, great question.

@Sam - No the "British dialects" (otherwise known as English) do not use 'an' before all words beginning with 'h', only those with a vowel sound such as 'hour'.

Using 'an' before 'huge' is simply wrong.

@ Nancy -- I think it does, actually. The Costco cards may as well -- Citi has been expanding that coverage to lots of products.

@ LindaK -- You'll want to check the rules on each card. In most cases they cover you, when you're traveling, and your companions.

@ Nico -- Really? That's awesome! Can you forward it to me maybe? 🙂

@John Thank you very much
@Sam
Yes, I would say an hour, I wouldn't say a hour. "An" typically goes before a silent h. "A" before a pronounced "h".

The Ritz Carlton card just improved this benefit to reimbursement kicking in after 6 hours and 500 dollars per ticket. Got something via email this morning.

Wow, I never knew the Citi Prestige covered award tickets. I've been charging all my taxes and fees for award tickets on my Chase Sapphire Preferred. Although, I never had to file a claim (knock on wood).

@Nico -- will forward as soon as my video conference ends. Also, I thought the Prestige did not cover award tickets. Did that change or am I just crazy?

Whoops...that was @Tiffany

Wow, great tip on the Amex Platinum $250 coverage per traveler, did not know that!

Thank you for the helpful article. I pulled up the Guide to Benefits for the Citi Executive card and on page 11 they have an exclusion for award travel booked with Aadvantage miles.

https://image.info9.citibank.com/lib/fe9415707260037971/m/4/09_Citi_Guide_to_Protection_Benefits.pdf

@ Mike F -- Those are the terms as of 2014. They were updated earlier this year to remove the "paid in full" language.

@ Nico -- Yep, changed in April! https://onemileatatime.com/citi-prestige-changes-2019/

According to the benefits document, the $500 for the Citi Prestige trip delay protection is also per "covered traveler," or per person. According to their definition in the benefits document:

Covered Travelers which means, you, your Family Members, and
Traveling Companion(s) traveling on the Trip.
Family Members means your children, spouse, fiancée, Domestic
Partner and their children, including adopted children or
step-children; legal guardians or wards; siblings or siblings-in-law;
son-in-law or daughter-in-law; parents or parents-in-law;
grandparents or grandchildren; aunts or uncles; nieces or nephews.
Traveling Companion means any individual(s) for whom you have
paid to travel on your or your Family Member’s Trip.
Domestic Partner means a committed relationship between two
unmarried adults, in which the partners, (1) are each other’s sole
Domestic Partner, (2) maintain a common residence, (3) share
financial obligations if both are employed, (4) are not married or
joined in a civil union to anyone else or are not the Domestic
Partner of anyone else, and (5) are not blood related.

@Tiffany -- thanks for the reminder. That's huge. I've been booking award tickets with a different card because I missed that change. Back to the Prestige for all types of tickets now....except when I'm traveling with a posse....

I forwarded you the text of the Ritz email. Thanks again for the article today -- if I knew about the Prestige covering award tickets, I had forgotten and I definitely didn't know about the Platinum card covering $250 per person -- nor that it kicked in after 4 hours. I recently booked some trips on my Biz Plat and that knowledge will help if something happens. Awesome!

Does this coverage extend to missed connections too? For instance, last year my flight was delayed in Baltimore for 2 hours for de-icing, which meant I missed my connection in Houston (the last flight for the night), and had to get a hotel until the next day (over 12 hours). So one way to look at this is that it was a 2 hour delay of the original flight, but another is that my entire trip was delayed by over 14 hours.

Just called AmEx and they definitely said the Platinum does not include coverage.

@ Kevin -- Hmmm, it's part of the "delay/cancellation" coverage that you can opt in to, but it looks like they might be discontinuing enrollment. I've had it on my card for years, so didn't think anything of it.

Good catch, and let me make that more clear while I research.

@Tiffany 🙂
Can you explain some of these coverage when you buy tickets with UR/MR/TYP.
I know these are "bad" redemption. I'm mostly thinking of a TYP redemption on American for 1.6CPP. Is it the same 3 hour coverage?

Wow - this couldn't have been timed any better.

Last night I was stranded in YYZ, and I thought I charged my taxes &fees (award ticket) to my prestige (3 hr for reimbursement)- low and behold I charged to my premier ( 12 hr for reimbursement)....icing on the cake was my delay was 11 hour and 35 minutes.

Thanks again to OMMAT and Tiffany.

P

My Chase Marriott card also has the trip delay coverage (after 12 hours). Regarding weather delay, what I did last time was to take screenshots of the weather map showing the storms right above EWR and ATL [yes, both cities had bad weather]. I was stuck in EWR waiting to fly to ATL on DL. When I applied for the reimbursement, I sent that screenshot, and my request for reimbursement was accepted immediately.

@ Ricky -- In most cases this coverage is based on "trip delay" not "flight delay," so I think you'd be covered in that case.

The Citi Premier also has trip delay coverage

I used the trip cancellation insurance on the Prestige card for one-way tickets we had booked for a domestic flight in Turkey. Due to the coup attempt, we could not get to Turkey, and hence couldn't use our one-way, intra-Turkey, tickets. Got reimbursed the full amount of the ticket cost (which wasn't all that much given that Turkish domestic flights are pretty cheap).

Note, for the Prestige card, there seems to be language in the T&Cs that will limit you to the amount spent, so if you only pay taxes & fees on an award ticket, that's the most you can claim. Maybe Tiffany can verify this. We had booked our international flights out of Turkey using an AA award (1-way) and paid the taxes & fees with the Prestige. We had to pay AA $225 in redeposit fees in order to change the award origin from Turkey to another European destination. I don't think I can claim the redeposit fees.

Tiffany, very helpful article, thank you.

Can you confirm that using my Citi Prestige card to pay for the $2.50 in taxes for my AA award ticket entitles me to $500 in expense reimbursement for any delayed over 3 hours?

So if you have a flight delay and then end up buying a new flight that is 12+ hours after your delay, does the purchase need to go through 12+ hours after (for the CSP for example) or just the replacement flight?

I bought tickets with CSP for an evening flight that was cancelled due to mechanical reasons. Airline paid for hotel that night and we were rebooked for same flight next day, causing us to miss the first night of our prepaid accommodations at our destination. CSP (or rather their insurance agent Broadspire) refused to reimburse us for missed prepaid accommodations because the cause was mechanical (but apparently would have paid for a weather related delay).

@Pat: That doesn't seem right, unless they're arguing that it was made known to you in advance or that somehow the mechanical issue was not an equipment failure. The T&C document states: "A Covered Hazard includes equipment failure, inclement weather, labor strikes, and hijacking or skyjacking."
Later on, it also states: "You are not covered for any Covered Hazard delay that was made public or known to you prior to the departure for the Covered Trip. Also, prepaid expenses are not covered."

Are those coverage amounts per pax or only for the card holder?

I have what may be an outlier of a question.

What if I purchase a ticket with my Citi Prestige. Either an Award ticket and pay taxes and fees – (In this case Southwest), or a paid ticket on Jetblue where I have Mosaic Status (and can cancel/change for free), and cancel/change my flight and deposit the $$ into my travel bank.

Can I use the $$ in the travel bank and still receive the insurance benefits of my Citi Prestige?

I love the ancillary benefits of the Citi Prestige, and it’s already come in handy for me once while I got stuck in a 16 hour delay in Chile. So I try and use the card as much as possible when booking airfare.

Having so many cards makes it difficult to remember which card paid for each flight. Is there any hint on the boarding pass, or an easy way to check?

@gobluetwo: Where have you seen information that the Chase IHG card comes with Trip Delay protection. I've seen a couple of people mention this now, but it doesn't show up anywhere in the benefits booklet of my Chase IHG mastercard, and none of the promotional materials for the card mention it. It comes with Trip Interruption insurance and Baggage Delay insurance, but I don't see anything about flight delay coverage.

@juan search your email for the flight # on your boarding pass. Your email receipt should have the last 4 digits of the card you used (So long as you have them all in your wallet, or have access via mobile apps/mobile web to your CC portals)

Outside of a hotel, what expenses does it cover? Food? Drinks? Uber if needed? Thanks.

@Tiffany: Nice chart, but could you update the Chase cards to show 12 hours OR overnight? They'll cover anything that drags you through an overnight, even if it's less than 12 hours.

I wonder if the newly announced chase reserve card will also have trip protection?

@Mipaho - Can't find it myself now. I may have conflated the baggage delay rule with trip delay. Good catch.

Thanks for a a great article. We just missed our connection in CLT last night due to weather and looks like our hotel stay should get reimbursed by Citi AA Plat card!

Is there a limit to what is covered? Could I theoretically go sit at an airport bar drinking nice Scotch and get reimbursed?

I would guess hotel, meals, cabs, travel fees... Anything else I'm missing or do the T&Cs say something specific?

After reading your article I tried to claim hotel and dining expenses after my UA BOS>DEN flight was cancelled in July due to "air traffic control conditions", meaning a large part of the east coast was shut down due to a storm. It was a one way flight since my wife and I had travelled separately to the east, and were flying home together. The claim was denied because they said it had to be a round trip ticket. When I get home I'm going to see if that's actually what my printed terms and conditions say. Watch out for that fine print.

The list is very helpful but would like to see CSR included, also include other travel benefits like hotel & cars. Is there is a list like that somewhere? for ex. Citi Prestige is only 2nd (instead of primary) insurance domestically but is primary for international rental.

Recently used the Trip Delay benefit as our flight home (from Europe) was cancelled due to air traffic controller strike. I had booked United Award flights but paid the taxes/fees on my United Visa card.

We called Chase before making arrangements to get home to see what was covered. I saved the webpage showing the airline cancelled our flight for that day, which was sufficient for my claim. In addition, my statement showing 2 round trip award flights were paid on the card, and all receipts were submitted online.

Chase covered our expenses: lodging (apartment i booked since I figured same cost as a hotel), subway tickets, taxi to airport, meals, and toiletries. It took a few months but they also had to translate receipts. Happy with the experience overall. Great benefit to having the card! They paid my entire claim minus $50 for alcohol and tips paid to restaurants.

Quick question on this benefit. Does it work only if I book directly with the airline? Or will it work even if I bought tickets with third party sites like Expedia?

I have many of the cards on this list. HOWEVER, the "insurance" you mention, is quite misleading. I have found out the hard way that most likely, the trip cancelation, trip delay, etc that one experiences is most likely not a "covered event." Imagine being told your car comes with a full bumper to bumper warranty and every part is covered, however, if you drive it off the dealer lot, you won't be covered. This is about how pathetic the coverage is on the "benefits" these cards give you. For example, on my Altitude Reserve card from U.S. Bank (very similar to Chase Sapphire Reserve) notice the terms and conditions for Trip cancelation and delay coverage:

"The Trip Cancellation or Interruption must be
caused by or result from:
1. The death, Accidental Bodily Injury, disease or
physical illness of You or an Immediate Family
Member of the Insured person; or
2. Default of the Common Carrier resulting from
financial insolvency."

"Trip Delay Reimbursement - What is not covered?
• Any delay due to a Covered Hazard which was
made public or made known to You prior to
Your departure.
• Covered Hazards means equipment failure,
inclement weather, strike and hijacking/skyjacking."

For any realistic scenario, your delayed or canceled trip will not be covered and compensated by these "benefits." It doesn't specify what "advance notice" means, and the "covered hazards" are the least of the reasons for a delay. For a recent experience in Dec '21 my BA airline return flight from Europe to the US was canceled. BA only gave days notice and they stopped their route to the city I'm in. So with a delayed itinerary, my return flight went from 12 hours long to now 30 hours, requiring an overnight stay in another city, food, transportation, etc expenses. I can't get the airline to email me the reason for the cancelation (credit card requires this) but I'm sure they will related it to COVID, not skyjacking...lol! This is a realistic situation that one would think a realistic delay would be covered with a trip delay benefit on their credit card. However, it isn't. Basically, these benefits (I've read the T&C of many of these cards) are a joke. Its not really a benefit at all, just something to mislead people into thinking a $4-600 card should be in their wallet.

I wish people would actually report on the realistic experience they should expect from these instead of just generalizing. At the end of the day, 99% of trip delays, cancelations, interruptions are not covered.
The ones that might be covered are not handled by the credit card company (U.S. Bank) nor Visa (even though its an "Infinite Card" from them). You will for sure get a "run around" by multiple 3rd party administrators, with each one pointing the finger at a different entities to handle the claim. It is a scam and a racket! Finally, their requirements to file an eligible claim are so high that chances are you won't have the full amount of paperwork to substantiate any claim.

SO in conclusion, it doesn't matter what your CC claims you have for coverage. You are 99.9 % NOT covered. Read the fine print in their terms and conditions (they have a long PDF for this) and in the unlikely event that you might think you are eligible, the classic finger pointing, call transfers, disconnects, not accepting responsibility, 3rd party incompetent entities, you will pull your hair out trying to make a claim and it will probably be denied on a technicality. SO DON'T GET THE CARDS YOU SEE THINKING YOU ARE COVERED> YOU'RE NOT!

@ Jerry -- One-ways should be covered as well, as long as they're part of a round-trip itinerary, great question.

@ Nancy -- I think it does, actually. The Costco cards may as well -- Citi has been expanding that coverage to lots of products.

@ LindaK -- You'll want to check the rules on each card. In most cases they cover you, when you're traveling, and your companions.

@ Nico -- Really? That's awesome! Can you forward it to me maybe? 🙂

@ Nico -- Yep, changed in April! https://onemileatatime.com/citi-prestige-changes-2019/

@ Mike F -- Those are the terms as of 2014. They were updated earlier this year to remove the "paid in full" language.