Credit Card Travel Insurance

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Did you know most major travel credit cards come with built-in travel insurance? If you like to pay with plastic AND get points for travel, check your travel credit card's fine print to determine what insurances and protection features are included. See below for some ways I've *almost* used my credit card's insurance...

As an example, here's what's included in my card {TD Travel Rewards Infinite}: - Trip Cancellation Insurance {covers $1,000/eligible person up to $5,000/per trip} - Trip Interruption Insurance {covers $5,000/eligible person up to $25,000/ trip} - Travel Medical Insurance {8-day trips if under 65, 2-day trips if 65 or older} - Common Carrier Travel Accident Insurance - Auto Rental Collision/Loss Damage Insurance - Delayed and Lost Baggage Insurance - Emergency Travel Assistance Services

What About Other Travel Insurance? Normally, I make sure I have one or two travel insurance policies going at one time to make sure there are no coverage gaps. For example, for short trips I rely on my travel above credit card's insurance, but since it only covers me for 8-days, for longer trips I default to my medical plan's built-in 6-month travel medical insurance.

A Lost Bag and a Loophole Recently my husband booked two tickets through his Business Travel Rewards Visa {with same features as above}---one for himself and one for his business partner. Upon arriving at their destination, my husband's business partner's bag didn't. It turns out that even though my husband booked his business partner's ticket with his card, the lost bag insurance only applied to him, his wife {me} and any offspring {non-existent}. Therefore, the loophole is unless you book the ticket yourself, or are a spouse or child of the ticket purchaser, you won't be covered if your bags are lost aside from making a claim to the airline. Air Canada did provide a $100 sorry your bags didn't arrive for a few days kick-back, but that didn't help much.

Swine Flu Debacle A few years ago myself and 13 other girls were about to leave for Mexico on a triple-bachelorette when swine flu broke out. Travel plans had to be changed. Aside from lending my trip styling skillz to select the destination and most appropriate trip style for 14 girls {an all-inclusive in Los Cabos}, a travel agent made the booking and she was thankfully able to get each of us a refund given the circumstance. But, I'd booked the flight myself. Knowing my credit card had travel iterruption insurance, I thought getting my money back on the flight would be easy-peasy, but I was wrong. I had to submit a form and wait three weeks for my credit card's insurance provider to make a determination on my case, but I was supposed to leave in 3 weeks so wasn't willing to risk the uncertain wait. Thankfully I was able to re-route my Cabo flight to Vegas.

Insurance is a strange concept. We need it, but it doesn't always pan-out to protect us. Either way, we have to have it and seem to learn more about its intricacies when something goes awry. When you travel, make sure you have the appropriate insurance---whether from your travel credit card or a purchased policy---to protect you from harm's way.

Travel App Tuesday :: Room 77

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Room 77, the world's first hotel room search engine, allowing you to find the best room based on your preferences. Although the company is still in its infancy, they launched an iPhone app at the same time as the site to crowdsource hotel room pictures and details to grow the results. Keep the Room 77 app on your radar. Why? It puts power in your hands. For example, say you're checking into the central and swanky Sofitel Los Angeles and you want the scoop on finding the best rooms at the hotel. Simply find it in the app {either before your stay or while you're checking in} and learn helpful tidbits like "the hillside rooms offer views of the Hollywood hills" or "each floor has rooms in a variety of categories, so even standard rooms can be found on higher floors."

Room 77 has excellent hotel {room} inventory for major cities like LA, New York and London. Because they only recently launched, they are in an intense growth period working on sourcing the details for other major cities in the US, Canada the rest of the world. The app and website already offer curious travelers {which is pretty much all of us} details and pictures about specific rooms in each hotel they feature, so I can't imagine how valuable this app will be when it grows to incorporate hotel room listings worldwide.

Trip Styler Tip :: On your next trip down to Seattle, check Room77's app or website for 15+ hotels {and hundreds of rooms} already listed.

Details

• Free
• Works with iPhone, iPod Touch & iPad

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Other Travel Apps Every Tuesday we feature a new travel app. Don’t forget to peruse the other 70+ travel apps we’ve reviewed from travel first aid, to luxury and boutique hotel finders, to border waits and trip itinerary management. Here are the most recent:

• mileBlaster
• HipMunk
• Mad Libs
• Travel Etiquette
• Jetsetter

Simply The Best {Flight}

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Booking a flight takes time and money: time to research the best flight, money to seal the deal.

Recently a member of the TS community asked me about tips and resources for booking the best/cheapest flight without spending hours of research. After giving my two cents---and recently going through my own research process for flights to Australia and New York---here are my top 5 tips for finding the best flight.

5 Commandments for Booking the Best Flight 1 - Know thy destination/price range {5-10 mins} - get a sense of which airlines fly there from your departure point{s} and the price range by doing a quick search on Kayak - don't rule out smaller airports near you

2 - Know thy budget/path {5 mins} - how much money do you want to spend on your flight? - are you willing to spend more for a direct flight? - would you rather spend less for multi-leg, all-day journey? - consider the airline alliance with which you collect points, sometimes the 'best' flight might be $75 more

3 - Seeketh and findeth the best options {up to 15 mins} - knowing which airlines fly to your destination and how you'd like to get there, start looking for seat sales and deals on the airlines' websites, facebook groups and twitter feeds.... Trip Styler Tip :: if you choose only one place to look for seat sales, go to the sale section of the airline's website

4 - Followeth thy rules of flight booking {up to 15 mins} - booking your flight on a tuesday night or wednesday morning are your best bets for fare deals - avoid flying friday and sunday {unless you absolutely have to} - know that last-minute flight deals are a usually a myth - booking 15-30 days in advance usually posts the best price

5 - Findeth the best online resources {3 mins} - see a list of Trip Styler's go-to travel website here - don't forget about discount airlines---some of which are not indexed by travel meta search sites like Kayak

Related How to Save on Airfare Fight or Flight The Airfare Dance {When to book your flight} The Chicken or the Egg {Booking your flight or hotel first?}

[photo by @tripstyler, taken on a runway at Wilson Airport in Kenya]