As I posted the other day, we’ve booked an Antarctic cruise for late 2027. Thankfully, most of the payment, whether that’s through Chase Ultimate Rewards points or cash, is not due until August 2027. The cruise is also fully refundable (minus $100 per person credit) until then.

The booking process made me think a bit more about travel insurance. We’ve had a family annual policy with Allianz for many years that generally costs around $450 per year. I have let it expire from time to time and then bought it again closer to our next trip. If I know we don’t have any international trips for a few months (or years in the case of 2020/2021), I let it lapse and repurchase just before the next big trip as there’s no penalty for doing that or discount for auto-renewal. In the past 10 years or so, I have made three separate claims on these policies and all were paid without too much hassle. I don’t worry too much about domestic travel (although it of course covers that too) as those trips tend to be more easily cancellable/changeable with how flexible domestic airlines have become since Covid.

The policy only covers about $2,000 per person for trip cancellation, but that is usually enough coverage for us since we book major international trips with points and miles. Even if we are using cash, there’s usually the ability to cancel for a credit like in the case of our return from New Zealand next month in Delta One. We’ll definitely use up a Delta credit with no problem.

One potential issue on the New Zealand trip is Eichardt’s Private Hotel in Queenstown. We have a three night stay booked with Hilton points (200k per night!) at this Small Luxury Hotels property, but there is a 60 cancellation policy. The reason for this is there are only eight rooms in the entire hotel and it would be hard for them to fill the room on short notice as the rates are high and you would obviously need to be in New Zealand already. For award stays, any cancellation within that window incurs a one night penalty at the cash rate. You might say that’s no big deal, but the cash rates there are often $2,000 per night or more. Of course, our Allianz policy would likely cover us as we have up to $4,000 between us for trip cancellation.

Many people use credit cards with good travel protections instead of travel insurance like Chase Sapphire Reserve, but I doubt that this would protect you in the case of cancelling a stay at Eichardt’s since it was booked with points. The good thing about having a separate annual policy is that I don’t need to micromanage which card I use for each booking and can just use either the best earning card or one where I’m working on a sign up bonus.

When it came to the Antarctic cruise, I was considering booking through a travel agent or as part of a group cruise. If I did that, I would possibly have to book a separate travel insurance policy as the Allianz cancellation coverage would only cover about 15% of the cost (before we even consider flights and an extra night in Buenos Aires). That’s why I decided to ultimately book through Chase Travel and use my Chase Sapphire Reserve. While I could still use the CSR in booking through a travel agent (assuming they did not charge a credit card fee) and get the $10,000 per person cancellation coverage, I could also earn 8x points on any paid portion of the trip plus use Ultimate Rewards to cover some of the cost without losing the coverage (as it acts like a cash booking). When we went on the one trip that was beyond our annual policy in terms of cancellation cost (our Kenya safari), I paid with CSR even though there was a credit card fee, just to make sure we had extra travel protections and coverage.

Single trip policies for Antarctic cruises usually price at a percentage of the trip cost. Seabourn wanted something like $1800 for theirs which is a major additional cost in top of an already expensive trip. Independent coverage would have been a bit less, but I think between the Chase coverage and my Allianz policy, we should be covered to about 90%. I will just self-insure that gap rather than pay for yet another policy.

While everyone gets excited to book trips, you should not forget about insurance, whether it’s through your credit card or a separate policy or both. Many of us have elderly family members or kids who could have an issue while we’re away and it’s important to have the peace of mind to be able to cancel or interrupt trips if there is an emergency.

Another consideration is evacuation insurance. If you are overseas and need to be medevac’d home, you will need some sort of coverage for that. What many people don’t realize is that the Amex Platinum card comes with incredible evacuation insurance and you do not even have to use the card to book the trip. It is part of a suite of cardholder benefits called Premium Global Assist and as long as you coordinate everything through them, it will be covered. I remember reading a blog post about 10 years ago when somebody had a heart attack in Singapore or Hong Kong and Amex covered their medical evacuation back to the US completely which would have cost something like $500,000. Given that we will be in one of the most remote places on Earth next year, I’m glad we have this coverage available. If you don’t have an Amex Platinum, many single trip policies do also include this coverage but there are usually limits.

Travel insurance should be an important consideration when you book an expensive and/or exotic trip. Don’t wing it and hope things will be OK or you may find yourself setting up a GoFundMe to get yourself home.

If you have questions about this post, let me know in the comments or send me an email at emptynestermiles@gmail.com. If you are thinking about opening a new credit card, please use one of my links. I also recommend using CardPointers to track your credit card spending discount offers.