Insurance: Credit card travel insurance

It all starts when you prepare for your trip: the right card for the right expense. You might be tempted to pay for everything with the same card, just to make sure you’re covered… Think again.

You need to be familiar with the fine print of credit card insurance policies to know which card to use to pay for which expense. Especially when you use miles or points to pay for your trip.

The best way to insure a trip paid for with Aeroplan points is to book it with an Aeroplan credit card that offers travel insurance.

Indeed, other “non-Aeroplan” credit cards generally require that the entire air ticket be paid for with the credit card. This assumes that points have not been used.

In my case, when I booked my plane tickets, I had 3 Aeroplan-affiliated credit cards in my wallet:

• The American Express^® Aeroplan^®* Reserve Card
• The TD^® Aeroplan^® Visa Infinite* Card
• and the American ^{Express®Aeroplan®*} Card

I usually pay for my Aeroplan expenses with the American Express^® Aeroplan^MD* Reserve Card Express^MD. It provides $1,000 coverage for flight and baggage delays.

This time, however, my choice fell on the TD^® Aeroplan^® Visa Infinite* Card. It offers $500 for flight delays and $1,000 per person for baggage delays.

Why did I choose this card? The lure of profit perhaps: by paying for my trip with this card (in this case, the Aeroplan taxes), I earned 1.5 Aeroplan points per dollar spent. This would have been “only” 1.25 points with the Amex.

But above all, it’s an opportunity for me to put the insurance provided by TD Bank to the test. In fact, it recently became my main bank!

Cards offering travel insurance and affiliated with the Aeroplan program provide coverage when travel expenses are paid with Aeroplan points.

Here are the rules for the TD^® Aeroplan^® Visa Infinite* Card:

TD Visa Infinite Aeroplan Card insurance covers both baggage delay and flight delay.

In my case, my luggage was delivered late, but within 6 hours. So only flight delay insurance will apply, up to a limit of $500.

The TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card brochure details the conditions under which expenses are covered by the card’s insurance, provided by Allianz.

My delay was a mixture of conditions 1 and 2. There was an equipment failure (frozen toilets) on the common carrier (Air Canada). This was caused by the aircraft being parked on the tarmac overnight. Indeed, the weather conditions were violent, with temperatures below -20 degrees Celsius.

For the car rental, I chose another card: the BMO Ascend World Elite Mastercard. It offers one of the best rental car insurance coverages.

What’s more, with all travel expenses such as car rentals, you earn 5 points per dollar spent. Enough to cover foreign exchange fees of 2.5%!

A discount is also available with contract number 3717122 (National Car Rental) or 7014883 (Alamo Rent A Car). Sometimes, this discount can be up to 25%.