The Chase Sapphire Preferred and Sapphire Reserve cover prepaid, non-refundable travel when a covered reason forces you to cancel or cut a trip short. Chase's page says you can be reimbursed up to $10,000 per covered traveler and $20,000 per trip. We compared the Guide to Benefits for each card, dated June 2026, and the trip cancellation and interruption sections are identical on limits, covered reasons and exclusions. Only the claims phone numbers differ.
What the Coverage Pays
Coverage is limited to the lowest of three amounts: $10,000 per covered traveler, $20,000 per trip for all covered travelers (with $40,000 per twelve months per account), or the amount you charged to the card or paid with redeemable rewards. Purchases made with rewards are reimbursed in dollars.
The coverage reimburses non-refundable prepaid travel expenses charged by the travel supplier, change fees on a trip that has not been canceled, and redeposit fees from the rewards program. Event tickets and prepaid fees to theme parks or museums aren't covered unless they are part of a travel package. On a trip interruption, it also reimburses the cost of returning a rental car to the nearest rental agency. If the trip is interrupted for necessary medical treatment, it pays up to $250 for ground transportation to the departure airport, terminal or station, or from the arrival point to your home.
Who and What Qualifies
You and your family members are covered travelers when you charge all or part of the trip to the card or pay with redeemable rewards, and they don't need to travel with you. The guides define a family member broadly, from a spouse and parents to grandparents, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews. A trip means prepaid arrangements booked through a travel supplier that last no more than 60 consecutive days.
Cancellation coverage begins on the initial deposit or booking date and ends at departure. Interruption coverage runs from departure to the trip's completion date.
Covered Reasons
Chase's guides list specific events. The main ones are:
- Death, injury, illness or physical disease of the covered traveler or a traveling companion, when a physician advises canceling or interrupting.
- A family member's death, or an illness or injury that's life-threatening, needs hospital care or needs care from you, verified by a physician.
- Severe weather that stops you reaching a carrier, keeps you at your lodging or shuts down your carrier or lodging, and a named storm warning within 50 miles.
- Changed military orders, jury duty or a subpoena that can't be postponed, an uninhabitable or burglarized home, and a quarantine ordered by a doctor or government.
- An organized strike affecting public transportation, plus certain terrorism events within 25 miles of your home, airport or lodging.
The terrorism and weather triggers carry distances and timing rules, so read the section for your card before you rely on one.
What Isn't Covered
The guides exclude a change in plans or financial circumstances, a trip booked for medical treatment, and pre-existing conditions: an illness or injury for which medical advice, diagnosis, care or treatment was recommended or received in the 60 days before your initial deposit or booking date, whichever came first. They also exclude missing visas or passports, a supplier's insolvency, and border closures, supplier cancellations or a reluctance to travel caused by an epidemic or pandemic. Anything that happened before you booked isn't covered, and Chase says the benefit does not apply if you simply decide not to go.
Coverage is secondary, so it pays only what's left after any other insurance or reimbursement you're owed. If the supplier gives you a credit voucher, no benefit is payable for that portion until the voucher expires.
How to Claim
Tell the travel supplier right away, because a refund you could have received but forfeited is not paid. Then start the claim at chasecardbenefits.com or by phone within 20 days of the cancellation or interruption, or as soon as reasonably possible. Chase's Reserve guide lists 1-800-350-1697, and the Preferred guide lists 1-800-350-1362. Submit the requested documents within 90 days. Expect to need your itinerary, proof of the reason, your card statement and the supplier's cancellation policy.
Where the Two Cards Differ
The cancellation coverage is the same, but delay coverage isn't. Chase's guides pay trip delay on the Reserve after a common carrier delay of more than 6 hours or an overnight stay, and on the Preferred after more than 12 hours or an overnight stay, up to $500 per covered traveler per trip on both. Our guide to DOT's delay cause rule explains where that coverage fits when an airline delays you. For a comparison with other cards, see our credit card travel insurance roundup.
