The Guide to Capital One Trip Cancellation Insurance

You’ve planned your dream vacation and invested thousands of dollars in prepaid reservations. Then, a family member becomes seriously ill or the cruise line that you’ve booked with declares bankruptcy. If you need to cancel a trip for an unexpected reason, you might lose a lot of money.

However, if you used your eligible Capital One card — such as the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card — to book your ticket, you can use the card’s trip cancellation insurance to request reimbursement for some of your prepaid expenses.

Before you book your trip, here’s what you need to know about Capital One trip cancellation insurance, including what the policy covers and how to file a claim.

Capital One trip cancellation insurance covers trips booked with an eligible Capital One card that are canceled for a covered reason. The list of covered reasons includes:

• Death, accidental injury or illness of you or someone in your immediate family.

• Financial insolvency of your airline, cruise ship, bus line or other common carrier.

Capital One will require you to have a physician verify any death, bodily injury or illness that is preventing you from completing your trip. Certain types of injuries, such as those caused by participating in sports or while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, are excluded.

To be eligible for trip cancellation insurance, you must book the entire cost of your trip with your Capital One credit card. You can also use Capital One Miles or coupons, as long as the cash component of your trip is booked using your card.

» Learn more: Who benefits the most from the Capital One Venture Card?

When you book a trip with your eligible Capital One card, coverage applies only to you, your spouse or domestic partner and any dependent children under 19 years old who live with you. Children under 25 are also covered if they’re considered full-time students.

If you’re an authorized user on someone else’s Capital One account, you and your family members will be covered as long as you use your card to pay for the trip.

Capital One trip cancellation insurance covers up to $2,000 per person toward nonrefundable common carrier tickets. Common carrier tickets include tickets from airlines, ferry lines, bus lines and other forms of scheduled transportation.

Note that Capital One’s benefit covers a much smaller set of prepaid expenses than trip cancellation policies provided by other cards.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and Chase Sapphire Reserve®, for example, cover additional prepaid travel expenses charged by an eligible travel supplier, including tour operators, hotels, car rental agencies and excursion providers.

The Capital One trip cancellation insurance covers none of these types of prepaid expenses.

» Learn more: Guide to Capital One travel insurance

If you need to file a claim with Capital One’s insurance, you’ll initiate it by calling the card benefit administrator at 1-800-825-4062. They’ll ask for preliminary details of your claim over the phone and then send you a series of forms to complete.

Once you’ve received your claims forms, you’ll need to provide all requested information, including proof of loss, and return it to the benefits administrator at:

cbsi Card Benefit Services

550 Mamaroneck Avenue, Suite 309

Harrison, NY 10528

Alternatively, you can initiate your claim by sending a written description of your loss to the benefit administrator or submitting your claim online at Eclaimsline.com.

Capital One’s trip cancellation benefit only covers the cost of your nonrefundable common carrier tickets under a limited set of circumstances. For more comprehensive trip cancellation insurance, you might want to consider a standalone travel insurance policy.

A travel insurance policy usually offers an expanded list of covered reasons that may cause you to cancel a trip and reimburses other prepaid expenses like hotels, rental cars, booked tours and other travel arrangements.

You can use an insurance comparison site like SquareMonth to find a travel policy that best fits your needs.

Capital One’s trip cancellation insurance is nice to have, but many will want more than just an airfare reimbursement if they need to cancel their trip — not to mention that the covered reasons for cancellation are quite limited.

If you want more coverage, consider using a credit card that offers more robust travel insurance benefits or buy an additional travel insurance policy.