One of the best perks of using a Chase credit card for booking airfare is that if your flight is delayed for 12 hours or more you are eligible for reimbursed out of pocket lodging and meal expenses!
I wrote about this here, but at the time Chase would only reimburse you up to $300 per ticket. Starting a few months ago, Chase upped their reimbursement amount to $500 per ticket! This is a great perk of the card which many times gets brushed under the rug.
Once I realized this benefit, I decided to only use my Chase Sapphire Preferred card when booking airline reservations as this card still receives 2x points on airfare purchases. Although not as many points at using my American Express Business Gold Rewards card (where you earn 3x points on airfare purchases), having this benefit outweighs the point difference.
When I used to travel every week for work, travel delays happened quite often — just my luck right! Fortunately, any additional hotel or food expenses was put right on my corporate Amex card and I was never spending money out of my own personal pocket. Now, when traveling on my own dime I like the insurance coverage. Last year I was actually able to use this coverage on a trip home from Florida. There was a massive blizzard in NYC and I needed to spend an additional night in Florida. Of course I wasn’t complaining as the sun was far better then the snow, and my relatively expensive hotel night was reimbursed!
Some things to know:
- You actually have to book your airfare with the credit card, not just be a cardmember
- You must provide receipts when making your claim
- If you book with points, you are covered as long as the taxes/fees are paid for with an eligible Chase card
To learn more about many of these credit cards listed above, check out this page. I have many of the cards listed out, including full blog posts on the perks, sign up bonus, benefits, etc.
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Why do you believe Ink cash has this benefit? The Chase website at https://creditcards.chase.com/ink-business-credit-cards/rewards/compare-business-cards does not list it as having it….
I called Chase a couple of days ago because I was scheduled to fly out of ATL, and was told that this coverage did not apply, since I only put the taxes/fees of my flight on my Ink Bold.
@tiffany and tim – when I called to inquire I received a different response. However, I’ve actually never used the insurance on an award ticket. Anyone else have a successful experience with getting reimbursement when paying only taxes with your chase card? What if you tell chase the flight only cost $5 or whatever the taxes were?
Have had similar experiemce as Tiffanyon award tickets. Looks like good cover for revenue travel mostly.
You’re not completely correct about having to book the airfare with the credit card. From the guide to benefits:
Lost luggage insurance and baggage delay insurance apply provided that “some portion of the fare for transportation has been charged to your Account issued by Chase” or if “free flights have been awarded from frequent flier or Rewards programs, provided that all of the miles or Rewards points were accumulated from a Rewards program sponsored by Chase”.
So it seems to apply to award bookings through United, Virgin Atlantic, Southwest or Korean. I’d be tempted to pay for the taxes with the Chase SP, and make sure at least some of the points/miles had been transferred from Chase UR, though, as the wording is a little loose.
Similar terms are found on the Chase Freedom Visa Signature guide to benefits too.
I was under the impression that the United card has superior travel benefits vs the other cards. Is this true?
I used the lost baggage coverage for a bag lost on an award ticket on AA and LAN. I paid the taxes with my Sapphire card. Chase paid for the additional $ not reimbursed by LAN, in this case $900. I felt the process went quite well. LAN, well that’s another story……
@Karl M, I’ll add that when I called, I specified that I transferred UR to Avios to book the ticket, but they said that the ticket was still ineligible for protection.
So is the amount going up again, or is it the same $500 that it was several months ago?
@Hua – It is the same $500 that it changed to I believe in the November 2013 time period.