Travel Insurance: Trip Cancellation Insurance Explained

Trip cancellation insurance is a key component of travel insurance offers, but many people do not understand exactly what it covers. This moneyland.ch guide explains what trip cancellation insurance is, and what to consider when getting this insurance.

Which costs does trip cancellation insurance cover?

Trip cancellation insurance reimburses you for the cost of tickets and bookings for trips that you are prevented from taking because of certain hazards.

How is trip cancellation insurance different from trip interruption insurance?

The difference between trip cancellation insurance and trip interruption insurance is that trip cancellation insurance covers you up until you leave on your trip, while trip interruption insurance covers you from the time you first leave on your trip. In Switzerland, trip interruption insurance is often called travel assistance insurance.

The interactive travel insurance comparison on moneyland.ch lets you compare either trip cancellation insurance, trip interruption insurance, or offers that combine both.

When does trip cancellation insurance cover my losses?

Each trip cancellation insurance offers has its own list of covered situations. Depending on which insurance provider and offer you use, you may be able to claim insurance benefits if you are prevented from taking a trip due to one of these hazards.

The hazards that may be covered by trip cancellation insurance can be divided into three categories: Events that prevent you individually from taking a trip, events that affect the travel service provider (the airline, for example), and events that affect your travel destination.

Hazards that affect you individually may include:

• An accident.
• An unexpected illness (you, a family member, or your pet are taken ill ahead of the trip).
• Transportation failures (your train to the airport is delayed by a technical problem, for example).
• Pregnancy or maternity complications.
• A death (of a family member or pet, for example).
• Damage to your property (your home is burglarized or damaged by a fire or natural hazard, for example).
• Unexpected loss of employment.
• Unexpected new employment.
• You are unable to take leave from work due to your replacement failing to show.
• Your travel documents are stolen.

Hazards that affect an entire airline or other common carrier may include:

• A strike.
• A bankruptcy.
• A natural hazard that makes travel unsafe (a volcanic eruption, for example).

Hazards that affect a travel destination may include:

• An epidemic.
• War or civil unrest.

It is important to understand that the insurance generally only covers trips that you are forced to cancel due to unexpected and unforeseeable events. For example, if the Swiss authorities or the World Health Organization issue a warning against traveling to a certain country, and you book trips to that country after the warning is issued, you generally will not be able to claim on insurance if you are forced to cancel the trip due civil unrest or an epidemic.

You can use the filters in the interactive travel insurance comparison on moneyland.ch to find offers that cover the hazards you are concerned about. 

Does trip cancellation insurance cover cancelled or delayed flights?

No. Trip cancellation insurance only covers losses when you are prevented from making a flight or taking a trip. It does not pay out benefits when the airline or other common carrier is at fault.

If an airline cancels a flight, then the airline has to compensate you as per your airline passenger rights.

You can insure yourself against unexpected costs that result from a trip delay or cancellation, such as needed meals and hotel stays that are not provided by the airline, by getting trip delay and cancellation insurance. This insurance covers the cost of refreshments and accommodation when a flight is delayed or cancelled by the airline. is included in many Swiss travel insurance offers, and also comes as a complementary benefit with some Swiss credit cards.

Does trip cancellation insurance cover the cost of rebooking?

Some trip cancellation insurance offers pay out benefits towards the cost of rebooking fees. Some pay out benefits towards the difference between the original cost of your trip, and the possibly-higher costs of the rebooked trip.

Can I get trip cancellation insurance on its own?

There are some Swiss travel insurance providers that offer stand-alone trip cancellation insurance that is not bundled with trip interruption insurance. However, these offers still include other travel insurance coverages. To find these insurance offers, select the “Trip cancellation insurance (before travel)” option under “Type of insurance” in the moneyland.ch travel insurance comparison.

Does trip cancellation insurance cover the full cost of a trip?

Trip cancellation insurance does not normally have an insurance deductible. However, the amount you can claim towards the cost of your lost travel bookings is limited to the policy’s sum insured. The sum insured varies broadly between offers. You can sort offers based on how high their limits are using the “Cancellation individual, max. amount” and the “Cancellation family, max. amount” sort options in the interactive travel insurance comparison.

How much does trip cancellation insurance cost?

The premiums charged for single-trip insurance vary between airlines and booking platforms, and also depend on how many people are traveling. You can find examples of how single-trip insurance premiums compare with annual insurance premiums in the basic guide to travel insurance.

In almost all cases, multi-trip travel insurance offers bundle trip cancellation insurance with other kinds of travel insurance. You can compare the premiums charged for Swiss permanent travel insurance offers using the interactive travel insurance comparison on moneyland.ch.

If a credit card includes trip cancellation insurance as a free benefit, then you should check the overall costs of using that credit card and compare them to the value you get from the complimentary insurance. The moneyland.ch credit card comparison accounts for many different costs.

As with all insurance, the cost is only part of the equation. The most important thing is that the insurance actually covers the situations you want to insure yourself against. The moneyland.ch travel insurance comparison includes useful filters and sort options so that you can compare only offers that actually include the insurance you need.

Which Swiss credit cards include trip cancellation insurance?

If you have a credit card, it can be worth checking whether trip cancellation insurance is already included as a complimentary benefit for cardholders. To find out whether a credit card includes trip cancellation insurance, click on the “Details” button for that card in the interactive credit card comparison on moneyland.ch and look at the information in the “Insurance: cancellation & assistance" field.

You can find more detailed information by consulting the terms and conditions published by the card issuer. If your credit card already gives you sufficient trip cancellation and trip interruption insurance, then getting additional travel insurance may not be necessary. 

With some Swiss credit cards that include this benefit, you must pay for the trip using the credit card in order to be covered by the insurance. Others only require you to cover part of the cost using the credit card (51 or 60 percent, for example). However, there are a few credit cards that let you benefit from this insurance simply by being a cardholder, without having to use the card to pay.

Do I need trip cancellation insurance?
There is no way to know for sure whether an unexpected event might occur that will cause you to have to cancel or delay a trip. But as a general rule, the more money you spend on tickets and travel bookings, the more important it is to get insurance.

If you only take occasional, low-cost trips, the risk of having to cancel may not be high enough to justify the cost of getting travel insurance.

More on this topic:
Compare Swiss travel insurance offers now
A basic guide to Swiss travel insurance
Trip interruption insurance explained
Credit card insurance benefits explained