Does Travel Insurance Cover Airfare?

There are a few ways that travel insurance covers a traveler’s airfare for short- and long-term travelers. While at least some airfare will likely be purchased prior to your trip, if something happens along your trip then you may have to purchase emergency airfare to return home. A traveler who wants to ensure they won’t have a lot of additional airfare costs, will want to know “Does travel insurance cover airline tickets?“

Depending on the type of trip you’re taking (which we’ll get into in a minute), travel insurance covers airfare like this:

• Trip cancellation – the cost of your airfare will be reimbursed up to 100% if you have the cancel your trip for a covered reason.
• Trip interruption – the cost of unexpected – and often last-minute – airfare to return home will be reimbursed if you have to interrupt your trip for a covered reason. It’s important to note that many travel medical and even annual travel insurance plans include some coverage for trip interruption.
• Reissue fees are covered up to a certain amount with some travel insurance plans if the travel supplier cancels your flight.
• Some travel insurance cover the cost of reclaiming your earned travel reward miles is covered if you have to cancel your trip for a covered reason and you purchased your ticket with your rewards.
• If you miss your scheduled cruise or tour departure because the airline flight is delayed a defined number of hours, your travel insurance provider will cover the cost of additional flights to help you catch up to the ship in the next port.
• If you were evacuated in an emergency medical rescue and are now fit to fly home, your travel insurance provider will cover the additional airfare to transport you home – on a commercially available flight or a medically staffed flight according to your current condition.
• Some travel insurance plans include security and political evacuations, which means your emergency airfare out of a troubled region will be covered by your travel insurance provider if the situation warrants getting you to safety.

Each coverage listed above may have a maximum limit on how much the travel insurance company will pay. For example, some travel insurance plans will put a limit on the trip interruption coverage, so if you’re trying to get a family of six home from Italy due to an emergency, you may not have enough. Select the coverage links above to see the limits placed on individual plans.

What type of trip you’re taking matters

The type of trip you’re taking also matters. If you’re taking a vacation or business trip – something with a definite destination and a definite return date – then you’ll buy a trip protection plan to cover that trip. The airfare you buy to take that trip, and any emergency airfare you need if you have to return quickly home will be covered under the cancellation portion of your plan.

If, however, you’re taking an open-ended, round the world trip, you’ll likely buy a one-way ticket and then continue buying the airfare you need to each subsequent destination as you go. In that case, you’ll buy a long-term travel medical insurance plan or an annual travel protection plan and you won’t have the same level of cancellation protection. Depending on the plan, however, your airfare to return home quickly will be covered under the trip interruption portion of your plan.