One of the benefits of paying for travel with a Chase Sapphire card is the excellent travel coverage in case something goes wrong. After charging your trip to the card, you’ll receive coverage for trip delays, trip cancellation/interruption, delayed baggage and lost baggage.
One additional coverage you’ll get from the Sapphire Reserve & Ritz Carlton cards is emergency evacuation coverage. When paying for a trip, you’ll get $100,000 worth of coverage if you need to be transported due to medical reasons. This isn’t a reason to keep the card, but it’s nice to know I have it if needed when I use the Sapphire Reserve to pay for flights.
If we’re going on a big trip, I will purchase a separate travel insurance policy that covers our expenses in case of delays and evacuation coverage. And yes, you do need to buy medical insurance coverage when traveling outside of the USA.
It’s a good thing we did because I found this tidbit hidden in the fine print when looking through the Chase Sapphire Reserve’s emergency evacuation and emergency medical & dental coverages.
Benefits paid will not exceed Reasonable and Customary charges. In addition, benefits do not apply to any expense resulting from:
Care received in Afghanistan, Myanmar, El Salvador, Iran, Iraq, Kampuchea, Laos, Lebanon, Nicaragua, North Korea, Vietnam, Yemen, and any other country which may be determined by the U.S.Government from time to time to be unsafe for travel
According to the US Department of State, there are four categories. Vietnam is in Category 1 (exercise normal precautions), and Laos is in Category 2 (exercise increased caution.) I can’t see how those countries are excluded, but category 3 countries (reconsider travel), like China, aren’t excluded.
You can do nothing if the coverage from a credit card excludes where you are traveling. However, knowing this makes reading the fine print more important when purchasing travel insurance.
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8 comments
Ridiculous to include Vietnam and Laos on the list.
I’m guessing it’s the landmines? Still, that’s something that is far more impactful for the local population (11 killed, 44 injured in Laos in 2021) than some random tourist.
Using a humanitarian crisis we created as a cop out for two entire countries is a pretty bad look for Chase.
I feel like this post promises clarity but doesn’t deliver it. It needs to say exactly what they read in terms of an exclusion. It doesn’t say exclusion it doesn’t say not covered it just quotes a part of the policy that says care received in the following countries. Please edit this further to make it more clear. Thank you!
I’ve added the part saying the following charges are excluded. Thanks for pointing that out.
Kampuchea? They mean Cambodia, right? They stopped using that name in ’89… What am I missing?
This was copied and pasted from the Sapphire Reserve “Guide to Benefits.” Should someone tell them?
But I was just about to hop into my time machine for a trip to the late 1970s country of Kampuchea! Darn you Chase!
Care received in Afghanistan, Myanmar, El Salvador, Iran, Iraq, Kampuchea, Laos, Lebanon, Nicaragua, North Korea, Vietnam, Yemen, and any other country which may be determined by the U.S. Government from time to time to be unsafe for travel.
Vietnam is level 1.
France is level 2.
So, Chase is just being racist and banning minorities and has nothing to do with what the US State Department has to say.