Should You Use the AMEX Platinum Card to Book Airfare?

Trip cancellation coverage applies in situations where you cancel your trip before it starts. If you haven’t left yet, and you have to scrap your plans for a covered reason (such as an injury or illness), you can get some or all of your trip expenses reimbursed through trip cancellation coverage.

 

Trip interruption insurance, on the other hand, is about when something happens during your trip. Let’s say you’re on a trip and you suddenly have to get home to deal with a death or injury in the family. Trip interruption insurance will cover this situation, recompensing some or all of the remaining expenses in the trip.

With the American Express Platinum card, the maximum benefit amount is $10,000 per Covered Trip and $20,000 per eligible card per 12 consecutive months.

The coverage is written in legalese, so it’s difficult to parse when you have coverage.

You must charge the full amount of a Covered Trip to your Eligible Card or in combination with your Eligible Card and accumulated points on your Eligible Card or redeemable certificates, vouchers, coupons, or discounts awarded from a frequent flyer program or similar program.

Translation: Pay with your AMEX Platinum (or a mix of AMEX points/certificates). Then you’re likely covered.

Trip Delay Insurance

Trip delays are almost inevitable. Fortunately, the Platinum card offers protection if your trip is delayed by more than six hours due to a covered reason.

Booking the trip is easy. Avoiding delays is next to impossible. If a round-trip is paid for entirely with your Eligible Card and a covered reason delays your trip more than 6 hours, Trip Delay Insurance^‡ can help reimburse certain additional expenses purchased with your same Eligible Card, up to $500 per trip, maximum 2 claims per Eligible Card per 12 consecutive month period. Terms, conditions and limitations apply.

Covered losses include:

1. Inclement weather, which prevents a reasonable and prudent person from traveling or continuing on a Covered Trip (e.g. severe weather that delays the scheduled arrival or departure of a Common Carrier);
2. Terrorist Action or hijacking;
3. A Common Carrier’s equipment failure, as documented by the Common Carrier; or
4. Lost or stolen passports or travel documents.

Amex Platinum cardholders can receive up to $500 per loss and 2 claims per 12-month period. The same requirements apply to receive coverage.

You must charge the full amount of a Covered Trip to your Eligible Card or in combination with your Eligible Card and accumulated points on your Eligible Card or redeemable certificates, vouchers, coupons, or discounts awarded from a frequent flyer program or similar program.

Baggage Insurance Plan

If your luggage is lost, damaged, or stolen, the AMEX Platinum offers:

• $3,000 for your items while transporting them to the terminal or once in the terminal and aboard the common carrier.
• $2,000 for items once checked with the common carrier.

There’s also a $1,000 line item limit for expensive items like jewelry, electronics, wearable technology and photo equipment.

Unlike the other coverages, this one requires you to pay the entire cost of the trip with your card. Flights booked with miles will not qualify for coverage.

However, other loyalty programs (i.e., Non-American Express) do not qualify on purchases redeemed in part or full towards the fare or pre-arranged travel cost. An example would be Common Carrier Frequent Flyer Miles point redemption.

What’s Missing?

The Platinum Card does not include delayed baggage coverage, which would reimburse you for essentials like clothing or toiletries if your bags are delayed. That’s a noticeable gap compared to some other premium cards.