American Express says its travel insurance will cover Platinum cardholders for coronavirus

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• Ben says:

  30 Jan30 January 14:51

  Can the AMEX Platinum card insurance be extended from 90 days in one trip to 120 days ?
  If so, anyone know a number or email to contact other than trying to go through the generic Amex phone number ?

  • Rob says:

    30 Jan30 January 15:10

    No. Never heard of anyone getting any exceptions for anything.

  • BP says:

    31 Jan31 January 00:47

    Plat Business is 120 days. HSBC Premier insurance did let me extend to 3 months for a previous trip but the cost was something like £250 for 2 people.

    Currently on a 45 day trip using Plat Business as cover.

• xcalx says:

  30 Jan30 January 16:16

  “However, I spoke to Amex yesterday about this case. It told me, in writing, that they would settle claims for anyone who has to cancel a trip to China due to coronavirus.”

  Shame they failed to cover the swine flu back in2009

  I had arranged all the honeymoon travel and hotels for one of my sons. He had Amex plat supp card. They were already in the US when swine flu was first reported, then the FCO gave the do not travel warning. Amex said to contact hotel and airline as all flights from the UK were cancelled , explained to them that the flights were from the US to Mexico and were not cancelled still no cover.
  Total loss a little over £3000

  • Peter K says:

    30 Jan30 January 18:24

    Not as bad as that but I was refused treatment for swine ‘flu as I got the it just before they started handing out tamiflu like sweets to all and sundry. I rang the out of hours GP service and was told I did not sound ill enough (!) by the nurse and as I gave my temperature in F not °C the nurse said she did not know what that was so tough luck.
    2 weeks off work ill but thankfully no more than that.

    • bazza says:

      31 Jan31 January 00:14

      It was a known mild flu

      • BP says:

        31 Jan31 January 00:56

        I ended up in hospital in Thailand with Swine Flu. 5 nights and a speedboat ambulance from Koh Phangan to Koh Samui! Flu led to early onset of Pneumonia.

• James says:

  30 Jan30 January 16:33

  Anyone have any recent experience of the new Curve 1.5% fees and ‘financial transactions’ yet?

  I was able to put one through yesterday, with IHG card, and no fee, but now not working at all.

  • Benilyn says:

    30 Jan30 January 17:28

    That 1.5% is for govt/HMRC only at the moment no? Paying south England shouldn’t trip that right? Hope not…

  • TGLoyalty says:

    30 Jan30 January 22:47

    It is HMRC only right now. It’s important to read the T&Cs and notifications carefully about these things.

    • James says:

      31 Jan31 January 09:54

      Reading the HfP update I had read it as any payment that could only otherwise be made by debit card.

      But trying again this morning, it seems to be working again and no sign of the fee, so assume that is correct – great!

• Charlieface says:

  30 Jan30 January 18:02

  If your flight is cancelled, you can definitely get a rebooking. The airline should cover it. If they don’t the credit card company is jointly liable.
  If it’s not cancelled you would need to claim on insurance. If Amex won’t cover whether you fly or cancel, an FOS complaint is in order. It’s inadequate cover, and it’s probably also an unfair contract.

  • Charlieface says:

    30 Jan30 January 18:04

    That was a reply to stron

• BS says:

  30 Jan30 January 18:03

  OT: Using avios to upgrade a travel agent booking on BA, what happens to the e-ticket? Does it get reissued via TA? Or stay the same and BA just put you in a different bit of the plane? Will my work TA panic when they see any changes??

  Thanks

• Liam says:

  30 Jan30 January 18:41

  OT — I was on the phone to BA and asked them to check if there was any Avios upgrade availability for an upcoming flight. Obviously, as a regular reader of HfP, I know all about Reward Flight Finder, but hadn’t looked at it in this case. It turned out there was no availability for me, but the person I spoke to asked me if I’d heard of Reward Flight Finder and suggested I used that in the future to check. I was pleasantly surprised; I had no expectation that BA would be advising customers to use that site.

  • Matt B says:

    30 Jan30 January 20:18

    When I was on the phone upgrading a flight a few months back the guy at BA said good job on finding the F award. I mentioned i used RFF and he knew about it straight away, reckoned it saved him loads of wasted time from people who used to phone in and make him search everyday for lots of destinations.

    • Lady London says:

      31 Jan31 January 08:47

      have had that experience many times with decent airlines, not with Iberia. I feel the agent the alternative flights I’ve found, the agent seems almost surprised as they are all findable, then incredibly happy and relieved that this was a ‘no problem’ short call for them and they were able to make a booking.

      Iberia on the other hand…. You can find all the flights you like and be correctly entitled to them, but they just don’t seem to be given procedures that allow their agents to be effective and conformant with what various provisions allow a customer to book.

      I;ve had to change a lot of flights recently and I can almost hear the relief and optimism in the agent’s voice as my account details come up as the call begins and they know it’s me. It helps that I’m also nice…. except with Iberia of course who would make a saint toss someone through a stained glass window.

• Suzanne says:

  30 Jan30 January 18:46

  Can anyone share experience on how Amex Plat / AXA apply the excess? The terms are a bit ambiguous in stating £50 ‘of any claim’. In the event of a claim do they in fact apply a £50 excess per insured person where relevant, and per section of the policy being claimed against? Thanks

  • Jonathan says:

    30 Jan30 January 21:08

    On a cancelled holiday I got the full money back, no excess and didn’t have to prove/provide anything. All done on trust.

• Harry T says:

  30 Jan30 January 19:13

  @Shoestring
  Any new tips for acquiring some easy Avios?

  • BJ says:

    30 Jan30 January 19:33

    Tell many ‘friends’ about his place in the www.

  • Shoestring says:

    30 Jan30 January 21:25

    great fun, the points game – but the best tip is to see Avios for what they are: a currency – as such, there’s nothing dirty or infra dig about saving another currency: real money/ you have currency coming in and currency going out: your job is to optimise one (in) so that have plenty for the other (out), and obvs by saving currency going out, you’ll retain the use of more of it for the good things you want to do

    you can’t spend money twice

    so the extremely obvs things to do first would be the lowest hanging fruit/ getting your act together – mortgage, bills, tax breaks esp pensions/ ISAs, insurances etc – a lot of people could save £1000+/ yr by auditing expenditure and finding better solutions – doesn’t sound as exciting as a free 100,000 Avios but much easier to do for the same benefit

    obvs more fun to knock up the big/ small points/ currency wins and that’s where you can have some fun but I get just as much personal satisfaction making an easy £100/ 10000 Avios on cheap ins as I do (say) buying 9 months’ worth of Sky Sports for £14/ month this morning – or buying 20 lounges passes @$10 🙂

    • Harry T says:

      30 Jan30 January 22:22

      @Shoestring
      Good point! No point making an extra 10,000 Avios a year if you’re spending £200 too much for utility bills.

      • Lady London says:

        31 Jan31 January 08:56

        so in a sense the kind OT tips given by our Shoestring are indeed “on topic”, because Shoestring is a kind of “Avios facilitator” by mentioning other things that will leave you more currency for our hobby

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.