How to save your travels with Amex Platinum Trip Insurance

Uh oh, you see the dreaded "DELAYED" notification come through, putting your connecting flight at risk. A worst nightmare is coming true as you're supposed to be going on vacation. 

This was me back in August, as my friends and I were scheduled (confirmed) on JetBlue to head to Cancun. Here's my success story on how the American Express Platinum card's Trip Interruption insurance saved the day (along with some quick action). 

Before we get too far, it's important to point out that trip insurance coverage starts at the planning and payment step of booking your vacation or trip. Read the terms & conditions of your card's insurance policy/coverage as well to familiarize.

In case the unthinkable happens, I highly recommend booking the entire trip on one card that offers trip insurance. Whether it's the Chase Sapphire Reserve (or Preferred) or American Express Platinum, put all of your charges on the same card to simplify the claims and reimbursement process. To further this point, American Express Platinum's insurance policy will actually only cover vacation purchases made on the card. If you use another card for an excursion or the hotel piece, they won't cover it. 

Where to find each Amex card's insurance policy guidelines

For my Cancun trip, I put our round-trip flights and all-inclusive resort stay on my American Express Platinum. Another nuance of the Amex insurance coverage is that round trip flights (outbound and inbound) must be booked with the card. You can't just have booked a flight out to your vacation destination on the card, and purchased your return flight on another credit card. 

If the trip starts to not go as planned, this is where you start documenting to the best of your ability. As JetBlue started to send me flight delay notifications (via text, app push notification, and email) due to weather in Boston, I took screenshots and made the mental note to not delete the texts and emails. 

I knew that inclement weather was a covered reason in the Amex Platinum's trip interruption/cancellation policy, so I kept taking screenshots of the app and saving communications as the delay got worse. I knew we were going to miss our connection, and was keeping all the proof for my insurance claim later. Our SLC-BOS flight ended up being 4 hours delayed, and we only had a 1.5 hour connection before our BOS-CUN flight took off so we would have misconnected.

If the delay or impact to your trip plans is significant enough to affect your trip, start looking at alternatives. Be sure to book your alternate travel plan with the same card. In my case, I was looking at other flights to Cancun. 

Our flight was supposed to land in CUN at around 11AM. My travel companions HAD to arrive the next day for pre-planned activities with a bigger friend group in Cancun, so I knew I had to start looking at options fast. I found a (very expensive) Delta flight, direct from SLC-CUN and it was the only option that would get us to Cancun in time. 

I booked the Delta flight on my American Express Platinum card for everyone, and saved the email receipts for my insurance claim later. We made it to Cancun on time, and enjoyed our vacation after a few stressful hours. 

Since none of JetBlue's texts or email notifications about the delay specifically named "weather" as the reason, I wrote in to them to get a Proof of Delay letter. This will need to be submitted in the insurance claim. 

For best results, your Proof of Delay letter should include the following: 

• Names of travelers
• PNR/confirmation code
• Date of travel
• Origin and destination
• Scheduled & actual departure time
• Scheduled & actual arrival time
• Delay reason

With documentation ready, I called American Express's Trip Insurance line (AIG) to file my claim. This process can only be started over the phone. They will help you with creating your claim, and email a link for you to submit all of your documentation. I've never filed a claim with Chase, but I imagine their claims process is similar. 

In total, I provided the following documentation for all travelers: 

• Confirmation emails for my original round trip airline tickets (with names, total cost and PNR/confirmation code)
• Confirmation emails for my alternative travel to get to Cancun (with names, total cost and PNR/confirmation code) 
• Amex credit card statements to prove I used the card to purchase all of the trip's airfare with my covered card
• JetBlue Proof of Delay letter 
  
  

All in all, it took about a month for AIG to review my claim and make a decision. My result of this claims process was that I was reimbursed the difference between the (very expensive) Delta tickets, and my original outbound JetBlue tickets. Despite the work, booking on my Amex Platinum card and going through the claims process was so worth it, since we were out about $2,000 to purchase the last minute airfare and save our trip. My friends were also covered since I booked their round-trip airfare on my card and they were traveling with me. 

If our trip was impacted even more by JetBlue's delay (e.g. we missed out on a full day of our paid hotel room or any activities), we likely would have been reimbursed for those nonrefundable items too.

Don't sleep on your credit card trip insurance coverage! You always hope that you won't need it, but when you do, you'll be glad to have it. This was my first time filing a claim, but it totally worked out!

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