| The TripAssure Guide to Cancel For Any Reason |
TripAssure Travel Protection plans are designed to protect your travel arrangements, your belongings, and most importantly, you. One of the most frequently asked questions is how the Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR) benefit works. The TripAssure Complete plan includes this coverage benefit at no additional cost, so long as the requirements are met. TripAssure has compiled these highlights to help guide you through the CFAR coverage benefit requirements and highlights.
Act Today, Don’t Delay
This item is listed first because once a trip is booked, the clock starts ticking. From the initial trip deposit date, travelers have 15 days to purchase the TripAssure Complete plan with CFAR. The initial trip deposit date is the earliest time any payment toward the trip was made. After 15 days has passed, the plan may still be purchased, but it will not include the CFAR coverage benefit. This is one reason that not offering TripAssure travel protection at the time a trip is booked is a disservice to yourself or your clients.
Don’t Skimp, Insure It All
Another requirement for the CFAR benefit is that the full trip cost must be insured. This should include all pre-paid travel arrangements that are known expenses at the time of booking. If additional travel arrangements are made after purchasing a plan, the plan can be updated with the new trip cost, and the difference in plan cost will be paid at that time. It is important to note, that when an additional arrangement is added like this, travelers are required to update the trip cost within 15 days of booking that additional arrangement. The full trip cost requirement is for CFAR, however, this is not required for the standard Trip Cancellation benefit alone (we explain the difference later in this post).
Last Chance To Cancel
CFAR coverage benefits are effective from the initial effective date of the plan until two days before the trip. This is because the last opportunity to cancel using CFAR is at least two days before the trip. So the last minute cancellation is removed, but two days is pretty close. The standard Trip Cancellation benefit does not include this limitation, so there are still protections in place for claims covered under the terms of the plan. It is only that CFAR is no longer available when the trip is that close.
Get (Most) Money Back
A Cancel For Any Reason claim does not reimburse all of the trip cost. CFAR is able to reimburse travelers up to 75% of the pre-paid and non-refundable cancellation penalties. This is different from the standard Trip Cancellation benefit which is explained next (finally).
CFAR vs Trip Cancellation
Understanding the requirements for CFAR also helps distinguish that benefit from the standard Trip Cancellation benefit.
Trip Cancellation can be described as ‘cancel for a covered reason’. Each TripAssure plan uses the same list of covered reasons for this benefit. The reasons tend to be things that are unforeseeable and out of your control: medical emergency of yourself or immediate family, weather delays, mechanical failure of a common carrier, or mandatory evacuation, to name a few. A Trip Cancellation claim requires the covered reason be documented. Contrast that with CFAR, whereby no documented reason is necessary.
Trip Cancellation is available to those booking travel protection at any time up to departure. There is no time sensitive period of 15 days from deposit like there is with CFAR.
Travelers may choose the amount of trip cost to insure for the standard Trip Cancellation benefit. That insured amount will set the upper limit for reimbursement, but insuring the full trip cost is not required. It is usually most practical to insure the full trip cost in order to make sure the travelers can be made whole again if they cancel, but insuring less does not void the Trip Cancellation benefit.
Trip Cancellation also affords for cancellation any time before the trip begins. There is no requirement that the cancellation must be two days or more before departure as CFAR does. This means travelers are able to cancel for a covered reason, all the way until departure.
The reimbursement percentage is higher for the Trip Cancellation benefit. Whereas CFAR can only reimburse up to 75%, the Trip Cancellation benefit is able to reimburse up to 100%. The standard Trip Cancellation benefit is the way for travelers to be made financially whole again if they need to cancel.
Lastly, and importantly, a TripAssure Complete plan with CFAR will include the standard Trip Cancellation benefit as well. This means travelers should choose which benefit to claim if they are cancelling their trip. If the reason is a covered reason, claiming Trip Cancellation can result in more reimbursement than CFAR which should only be used if the claim wouldn’t fit the terms of the standard Trip Cancellation benefit.
This information is meant to be a summary guide for the Cancel For Any Reason benefit available in the TripAssure Complete plan. For specific terms of coverage, please always refer to the plan documents. TripAssure agents are also eager to help. Please contact us with any questions.