There is nothing better than knowing you are covered in the event of an emergency when you travel. In everyday life, this means auto, home, and health insurance. When you are on the road, this means travel insurance. Travel insurance may be available on each plane, train, or trip you take. If you have a Chase Sapphire credit card, you actually have built-in travel insurance that you can use when you charge your purchases to the card, which is similar to the benefits you get with the Chase Freedom card. Here is what you need to know about the insurance that comes with the Sapphire card.

Who is covered?

Chase has a very wide definition of covered persons. Not only the primary cardholder, but also immediate family members are covered. Even if the primary cardholder is not traveling, family members are eligible for coverage.

Immediate family members are the spouse or a partner, children, and grandchildren, siblings, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, nephews and nieces.

Types of travel insurance available

Trip insurance is one of the built-in benefits of the card. While trip insurance is available for plane or train tickets as long as you pay extra, Chase Sapphire cardholders get trip insurance free. Once you charge your hotel and travel purchases to the card, you are automatically locked in with travel insurance and return protection. For this reason, the Chase Sapphire card should be your go-to card for any and all travel related expenses.

Chase offers the following on the Sapphire card:

• trip cancellation/trip interruption coverage
• trip delay coverage
• trip accident insurance
• lost luggage protection 

Trip Cancellation and Trip Interruption

If you get sick or can not make your trip or have a trip interrupted for a covered reason, you can get your travel arrangements refunded through your Chase Sapphire card.

The situations where you may be able to get a refund include:

• illness
• death
• injury
• bad weather.
• other unpredicted events on or before travel date (see details)

If you need to file a claim, you can recoup the portion of the trip that you have not yet taken.

Trip Delay

Trip delay is a coverage of up to $500 for any delays on your route that was caused by weather, labor strikes, highjacking or equipment failure. You will be reimbursed for additional expenses.

Lost Luggage

This policy covers your checked-in baggage and carry-on baggage and personal property in it that was lost, damaged or missing 

In order to be eligible, you need to report lost or damaged items to the carrier right after exiting the carrier and keep the proof of the report for reference.

Limits

Here are the limits of coverage:

• Lost Luggage: up to $3,000 per each covered person per trip
• Trip cancellation/Trip Interruption: $20,000 max per occurrence ($10,000 max per person) and $40,000 max per 12 month period
• Travel accident: up to $500,000 maximum, limitations apply

How Refunding Works

To claim for a refund you need to file a claim within 20 days after the event or as soon as reasonably possible. You need to send the claim and supporting documents to the Benefit Administrator at Chase.

The Chase Sapphire credit card will refund you by the method that you paid. If you paid in dollars for the trip, you would be refunded the dollar amount. If you paid by accumulated airline or hotel miles, your miles will be returned for your usage at a later date (sometimes you will be paid a dollar value of rewards used). Another good feature of this card is that there is no foreign transaction fee. If you had to convert your payment to a foreign currency, you receive the money back without any additional fees, which can save you quite a bit of money when you travel.