Amex Platinum: Travel delay protection

[Anonymous]

First of all Happy November everyone! My credit history is fairly new less than 9 months old so I'm still learning about the benefits of using credit cards. I was approved for the Amex Platinum in September and planned to use on my upcoming trips to Europe. I have learned that unlike most travel cards the Amex Platinum doesn't include delayed insurance coverage. Do I need to buy my own travel insurance to have this coverage then? Am I safe just purchasing coverage for delayed baggage and flights?  and  I do have a USAA Visa Signature card that includes such coverage, but it's not going to help me meet my minimum spending for Amex. Any advice is greatly appreciated! 

[wasCB14]

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@Anonymous wrote:

First of all Happy November everyone! My credit history is fairly new less than 9 months old so I'm still learning about the benefits of using credit cards. I was approved for the Amex Platinum in September and planned to use on my upcoming trips to Europe. I have learned that unlike most travel cards the Amex Platinum doesn't include delayed insurance coverage. Do I need to buy my own travel insurance to have this coverage then? Am I safe just purchasing coverage for delayed baggage and flights?  and  I do have a USAA Visa Signature card that includes such coverage, but it's not going to help me meet my minimum spending for Amex. Any advice is greatly appreciated! 

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Trip delay and baggage delay insurance are nice benefits for people who fly often on their own expense, but not necessarily worth buying separately if those are the only things you need covered. It's hard to give you advice without knowing the cost and complexity of your itinerary and the insurance details and quote.

Trip cancellation and emergency medical evacuation are the more important things that you probably should have covered.

I don't know what USAA offers in the way of trip cancellation protection, but I know Amex Platinum does not offer it. Whether you should buy it depends on whether you're doing mostly award or revenue travel and the complexity. If USAA (or some other card you've not mentioned, listing them would help) offers some reasonable coverage, and you can still meet minimum spend on Platinum, then using a non-Amex card may be best.

Amex Platinum comes with an excellent policy for emergency medical evacuation, and you don't even have to use the card to book your travel for it to apply. So you don't have to do anything further there.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for responding.  I don't start working again until March. My plans  consist of visiting South America this month and flying to Europe in January. Visiting the Amex insurance site they have options where you can select different coverages such as medical and flight delay. So if I understand how Amex benefits work. The Platinum already includes medical evacuation? So the main gap to fill is just baggage and flight delay? Flight delay is honestly my biggest concern over anything. I have never filed any claim with any credit card company so this is all still new to me, and would rather not buy a whole travel insurance package if the Platinum already includes most of the coverages. Thanks in advance! 

[wasCB14]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thank you for responding.  I don't start working again until March. My plans  consist of visiting South America this month and flying to Europe in January. Visiting the Amex insurance site they have options where you can select different coverages such as medical and flight delay. So if I understand how Amex benefits work. The Platinum already includes medical evacuation? So the main gap to fill is just baggage and flight delay? Flight delay is honestly my biggest concern over anything. I have never filed any claim with any credit card company so this is all still new to me, and would rather not buy a whole travel insurance package if the Platinum already includes most of the coverages. Thanks in advance! 

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Platinum includes medical evacuation as a basic benefit. You get it as part of the $550 AF and just need to call them when you need the service. Imagine them chartering a specialized jet and having some medics fly with you. It can easily cost $100k. This is an underrated strength of Amex Platinum, and most competing cards are a distant second in this respect. Note that Amex needs to arrange the evacuation; you can't just make your own arrangements, call them, and expect them to reimburse you.

If you want trip or baggage delay coverage, or trip cancellation coverage, those are not included as basic benefits in Platinum. Amex sells them, but you have to go out of your way to buy them and pay extra for coverage.

How much of this upcoming travel have you already paid for with Platinum? What other cards do you have?

[Anonymous]

I have only paid for flight from LAX to Medellin Colombia. About $780 for the flight. But I intend to go from Lima Peru to Rio de Janeiro Brazil next month then from there to Europe.

Due to the holiday season I feel a bit unease of not having some kind of delay insurance since tickets might be overbooked.

Thank you for your help and advice