Credit Card Mileage Award Trips Can’t Be Insured

by Steve Dasseos on March 30, 2011

Hi Steve,

We’ve purchased travel insurance through you in the past. I was hoping you could provide me some information.

My wife and I have booked flights to travel to Italy for two weeks in May 2011. Since we booked the trip, my grandfather has been diagnosed with advanced-stage cancer and it is unclear at what rate is health will deteriorate.

My wife and I are concerned about our travel plans, and want to know if a trip cancellation, trip interruption travel insurance plan will cover us in case my grandfather’s health takes a turn for the worse right before or during our trip.

1) Is there a policy that will cover us, even though my grandfather has already been diagnosed with the cancer?

2) Is it too late to take out such insurance if the flights were booked on Jan. 8, 2011? If we took out the insurance now, could we still be covered for other expenses (hotels, etc.) that are not yet booked?

The flights were actually “paid for” with Visa credit card points on January 8, 2011. We didn’t pay cash for the trip. We’ve only “paid” in Visa points. The market price for the flights is $1,446.39 per person. No other expenses for the trip have been paid yet (no hotel reservations, train tickets, etc.).

Thanks, Daniel

Here’s what I told Daniel:

“Hi Daniel,

I’m sorry to hear about your Grandfather. I hope his doctors are able to help him.

Unfortunately, you cannot insure against losses due to your Grandfather’s illness for these reasons:

– Jan 8th is your initial trip deposit date since that’s when your flights were arranged. Today is past the deadlines to get the waiver of the pre-existing medical condition exclusion.

– Since the tickets were free, they have no insurable value. In other words, there’s no way to insure the $1,446.39 per person market price for the flights.

I suggest you call Visa to find out the procedure & cost to put the miles back into your Visa account in case you need to cancel your trip.”

I hope what I told Daniel this makes sense to you. If not, call us at 1-888-407-3854 and we’ll help you figure it all out.

I hope this makes sense. If you want the right travel insurance advice, call us at 1-888-407-3854 and we'll help you figure it all out.

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