Chase Sapphire Reserve Travel Benefits

[Anonymous]

I am absolutely disappointed with Chase claims. I hold a chase sapphire reserve card for the past few years. I booked my round trip tickets using my card with Emirates airlines. When I was in my home country my father passed away which made me to cancel my return trip and rebook a week later, incurring a change fee and the fare difference. I thought the loss I incurred will be covered under card benefits as listed on their webpage: https://www.chase.com/card-benefits/sapphirereserve/travel

My change fee was refunded by Emirates. But Chase's claims department denied my claim for the fare difference saying it is an ineligible expense. When I mentioned about how the expense is listed on the website as covered, i was told that the agency who handles the claims are a third party and they dont go by what is on Chase website. I called up Chase customer service, but they denied to help saying they dont handle claims. I feel cheated.

Am I over reacting in this? Does the website not indicate they will cover this expense? Please let me know your thoughts.

[mikesonthemend]

Sorry about your father.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I am absolutely disappointed with Chase claims. I hold a chase sapphire reserve card for the past few years. I booked my round trip tickets using my card with Emirates airlines. When I was in my home country my father passed away which made me to cancel my return trip and rebook a week later, incurring a change fee and the fare difference. I thought the loss I incurred will be covered under card benefits as listed on their webpage: https://www.chase.com/card-benefits/sapphirereserve/travel

My change fee was refunded by Emirates. But Chase's claims department denied my claim for the fare difference saying it is an ineligible expense. When I mentioned about how the expense is listed on the website as covered, i was told that the agency who handles the claims are a third party and they dont go by what is on Chase website. I called up Chase customer service, but they denied to help saying they dont handle claims. I feel cheated.

Am I over reacting in this? Does the website not indicate they will cover this expense? Please let me know your thoughts.

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Are you contesting that you should have been covered under the Trip Cancellation/Trip Interruption provisions?

[Anonymous]

I am trying, but have no hope. I am supposed to receive a call from the Chase floor manager (as I escalated the issue) within 48 to 72 hours to talk to me regarding this, but, I feel he/she is going to repeat the same thing as the previous Chase staff, "We do not handle claims. You need to talk to the claims department". How much ever I try to tell them, the problem is how the claims departments decision is AGAINT CHASE WEBSITE info, for some reason, they do not (or pretend not to) understand this fact. The claims department have a blank statement "We do not go by what is mentioned on Chase website as we are third party. Ask Chase".

Not sure if I can do anything else in this case.

[Anonymous]

I read the Cancelation /Interruption section carefully and it appears to suggest that you are only covered if either event occurs BEFORE leaving your stated point of departure. In your case you had already left your departure point. I would suggest reading the Benefits Guide you got from Chase rather than the website.

[TheConstant]

@MaizeandBlue

"...or after departure" is literally right in the Trip Interruption section.

@OP

Sorry for your loss. I wish you the best of luck with getting your deserved resolution. I'd file with BBB if Chase doesn't acknowledge the agreement. I'd also opt-out of the arbitration agreement (you have until sometime this month) that Chase has snuck upon its card users, to help with leverage if needed.

[Anonymous]

Sorry for your loss.

Unfortnately, it is not covered. Per benefit guide (https://www.chasebenefits.com/sapphirereserve2):

"

If you or an Immediate Family Member are forced to temporarily postpone a Covered Trip due to a Covered Loss and a new departure date is set, the Company will reimburse:

1. unused Non-Refundable land, air and/or sea arrangements

2. Change Fees

"

Emirates reimbursed you change fee already, so there is nothing for Chase to reimburse.

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for your input. I really appreciate it.

@FortifiedHM. You are spot on. It does not say they will cover the fare difference, although the webpage indicates "

expenses including passenger fares, tours and hotels." BUT, under the expenses not covered, in the same pdf document page 50, it does not say that the fare difference will not be covered.

My questions here is , how worthy is this so called "Travel Benefit" when it covers only the change fee, which is usually refunded by the airlines in cases of emergency.

[SpaethCo]

First off, I'm incredibly sorry for your loss.

With the announcement of the reduction of Citi benefits, it triggered me to do a bunch of research into what coverage is actually provided by other credit cards.  What's particularly frustrating about the loss of benefits with Citi, is they had the clause that included:

"Additional costs to get the Covered Traveler home if the Trip is interrupted, as long as new arrangements are within the same class of service as the original booking, such as economy or business class."

I don't think I can paste links as a new forum member, but if you google "Travelers Beware! Don’t Get Stranded by Chase Travel Insurance" you'll find a blog post where another person ran into a similar issue to what you are facing.  This issue isn't limited to Chase, in scanning the VISA Infinite coverage as part of the City National Bank Crystal card, or US Bank Altitude Reserve, the rest of the cards don't seem to have a provision for alternate transportation that a typical travel insurance policy would provide.  About the only thing they cover is the non-refundable portion of your initial travel expense, which in the case of airlines is just the ticket change fee (because even cancelled tickets still have credit value).

This credit card Faux-surance is worse than have no benefit at all, because most people are going to think they're covered until they're in an unfortunate situation like the one you're facing.

Again, I'm terribly sorry you're going through all of this.

[Anonymous]

@SpaethCo, Thank you!

I see this as a cheap business trick. Advertise the card as the BEST travel card with all benefits. But when a situation arise, deny the claim for the reason that is not clearly stated, although the claim category will likely be the most commonly occuring one, in my case, the fare difference. 

I am more irritated that I have still not been contacted by the floor manager, even after reminding them yesterday, for an explanation. 

I feel very helpless!