We recently read this plea for help on a discussion board: “Have a trip scheduled leaving Friday and have terrible flu. Does credit card travel protection cover the flu?”
Unfortunately, unless you are hospitalized with it probably not.
Trip cancellations with your credit card are limited to injury, illness, or death of you, a close family member (spouse, child, or parent usually) or your traveling companion.
As limited as credit card trip protection is for cancellations due to illness, trip cancellation with your travel insurance plan may not help you when you have the flu either – again, unless you are so ill you are hospitalized.
With your travel insurance protection, the illness must be disabling enough to make a reasonable person cancel, delay or interrupt their trip and the medical condition must be verified by a medical doctor.
- For pre-trip cancellation benefits, this means the physician must advise the cancellation of your trip prior to your scheduled departure.
- For trip interruption benefits, the medical condition must result in medically imposed restrictions certified by a physician at the time of loss (meaning, on your trip) and preventing your continued participation in the trip.
If you cannot be examined by a medical doctor before you cancel your trip, some travel insurance plans allow you a 72-hour window to accomplish the examination, but the result must still be the same: the physician must certify that you are too ill to travel. As proof of the loss, you will be expected to show the physician’s report, so be sure to get a couple of copies.
You can read more about illness and injury coverage for trip cancellations and see which companies and plans include this coverage. Consider ‘cancel for any reason’ coverage when you trip is very expensive or there is a risk from which you’d like to protect yourself (such as when all the kids are sick at home and you have a business trip).
