Does paying the taxes and fees on award flights trigger trip protections?

Editor’s note: This is a recurring post, regularly updated with new information and offers.

Credit card perks like trip delay reimbursement and trip cancellation insurance can be invaluable when something goes wrong. So can perks like delayed and lost luggage reimbursement.

But what happens when you’re only paying the minimal taxes and fees on an award flight using your credit card? Will paying just a few dollars with your airline points or miles trigger your credit card’s travel protections? The answer is “sometimes.”

Let’s investigate to see if four popular travel rewards cards offer trip protections even when all you pay is the taxes and fees on an award ticket.

Chase Sapphire Reserve and Chase Sapphire Preferred

Two cards stand head and shoulders above the rest in this arena: the Chase Sapphire Reserve® and the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. Both cards offer excellent travel protections, such as trip cancellation and trip delay coverage and delayed and lost luggage reimbursement.

With these two cards, paying the full fare with cash, paying a portion of the trip — such as taxes and fees for an award flight — or using Chase Ultimate Rewards points as part of your payment will invoke your benefits.

Chase includes an online benefits summary for both cards. You’ll see this for trip delay/cancellation in the Sapphire Reserve’s benefits guide:

“The Cardholder and Immediate Family Members are covered when … the Cardholder charges all or a portion of a Trip to his or her Credit Card Account and/or Rewards programs associated with the Account.”

For baggage delay insurance on the Sapphire Preferred, you’ll see this in the benefits guide’s terms:

“… charges all or a portion of the fare to his or her credit card Account and/or Rewards programs associated with the Account”

Related: Your guide to Chase’s trip insurance coverage

The Platinum Card from American Express

Let’s also look at the trip cancellation and interruption insurances* offered by The Platinum Card® from American Express. The terms of the benefits guide state:

“To get coverage: You must charge the full amount of a Covered Trip to your Eligible Card or in combination with your Eligible Card and accumulated points on your Eligible Card or redeemable certificates, vouchers, coupons, or discounts awarded from a frequent flyer program or similar program.”

*Eligibility and benefit level varies by card. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for details. Policies are underwritten by New Hampshire Insurance Company, an AIG Company.

That means that booking a flight using points and miles and then simply using your Platinum Card to pay the taxes and fees should provide trip cancellation and interruption benefits.

Unfortunately, the same isn’t true for the card’s baggage delay reimbursement coverage.** The benefit guide’s terms state:

“An Eligible Payment is made to pay for the Entire Fare of a Common Carrier Vehicle ticket to the Eligible Card.”

For this benefit, you need to pay for the entire ticket on your Platinum Card. Using airline miles and then only paying the taxes and fees with your card won’t confer this benefit.

**Eligibility and benefit levels vary by card. Terms, conditions and limitations apply. Visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for details. Policies are underwritten by AMEX Assurance Company.

If you look at the fine print above, you may note that these two policies are written by two separate underwriters, which could be a potential explanation for the inconsistency.

Related: How to maximize benefits with the Amex Platinum Card

Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card

Similar to the Platinum Card, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card provides some benefits when paying just taxes and fees on the card but doesn’t provide others.

The Venture X card does offer trip delay reimbursement when paying just taxes and fees. As stated in the benefits guide:

“To be eligible for this coverage, You need to purchase either a portion or the entire cost of Your Common Carrier fare using Your Account.”

Thus, you can pay for part of your trip with your Capital One miles (such as booking through Capital One Travel) or other frequent flyer points or miles.

However, you won’t enjoy trip cancellation benefits when paying just taxes and fees on award flights. The terms of the benefits guide state:

“You, Your spouse (or Domestic Partner) and Your Dependent Children are eligible for coverage if You charge the entire cost of the Trip using Your Account, less redeemable certificates, vouchers, or coupons, or rewards program associated with Your covered Account.”

In short, Venture X cardholders can enjoy trip delay benefits but not trip cancellation benefits when paying just taxes and fees on award tickets. (This card does not offer delayed baggage coverage at all.)

Related: Capital One Venture Rewards vs. Capital One Venture X: Worth the extra $300 in annual fees?

Bottom line

Travel protections are very important. You never know when something might go wrong — a canceled flight, delays or even needing to cancel your trip because of a family emergency. Enjoying built-in travel insurance from your credit card could save you hundreds or thousands of dollars in these situations. Unfortunately, these perks don’t always kick in just because you paid for part of your trip on a certain credit card.

In order to enjoy travel protections when paying just the taxes and fees on award flights, aim to use one of the best premium credit cards that has “Sapphire” in its name.

Related: Chase Sapphire Preferred vs. Sapphire Reserve: Should you go mid-tier or premium?