Your bank card may pay you for a delay too: card travel insurance explained

Travel insurance usually comes with the higher tiers of Visa and Mastercard cards: names such as "Premier", "Gold", "Platinum", "Infinite" or "World Elite", and many cards sold with travel or premium bank accounts. Basic debit cards usually include little or no travel cover. Some American Express cards include it too.

Cover varies a lot between banks and countries, even for cards with the same name. The only reliable source is your card's insurance notice (the "notice d'information", "condiciones del seguro" or "insurance policy document"), usually on your bank's website or app.

Depending on the card, travel delay cover can include:

• Flight delay: a refund of meals, drinks, hotel and transport after a minimum delay, often around 4 hours, sometimes less or more.
• Cancellation or overbooking: the same expenses while you wait for another flight.
• Missed connection: costs caused by missing a connection, sometimes including a new ticket, which EU261 does not cover when you had separate tickets.
• Delayed baggage: emergency clothes and toiletries.

Most cards refund expenses with receipts, up to a cap. A few pay a fixed sum.

The two are different:

• EU261 compensation (€250 to €600 per passenger) is a fixed amount for the time lost. The card insurer does not take it away.
• The airline's duty of care (meals and hotel while you wait) comes first. If the airline already paid for your hotel, the insurer will not pay for it again. But if the airline gave you nothing, or refuses to pay back what you spent, the card insurance can cover it.
• Extraordinary circumstances such as storms or air traffic control strikes usually do not stop the card insurance from paying, because it is a separate contract.

In practice: claim the compensation and the care costs from the airline, and claim from the card insurer for what the airline does not cover, or for the costs you can't wait months to get back.

• Payment: the trip usually has to be paid, fully or partly, with the card.
• Minimum delay and how it is measured (departure or arrival).
• Caps per person and per trip, and whether family members travelling with you are covered.
• Exclusions, for example strikes announced before you booked.
• Deadline to declare, often a few weeks after the trip.
• Proof required: usually a written confirmation of the delay from the airline, your boarding passes and the receipts.

1. Keep every receipt on the day: meals, hotel, taxi, new tickets.
2. Ask the airline for a written delay confirmation at the desk, or download it from its website afterwards.
3. Contact the card's insurer, not your bank branch. The phone number and claim form are in the insurance notice.
4. Send the documents the insurer asks for, and keep copies.

At the same time, claim your compensation from the airline: check the amount with our free check and use our free claim letter. If you are stuck now, see stranded overnight.

If your card doesn't include travel insurance, a separate travel insurance bought with your trip can cover the same costs. Compare what is covered before buying: some policies exclude delays under 6 or 12 hours.