American Express to Upgrade Travel Protections, Change Purchase Benefits for Premium Cardholders

Travel coverage is a big deal in the credit card world; benefits and travel perks like car rental insurance, trip cancellation insurance and baggage delay insurance, for example, are becoming standard across the industry. Cardholders and consumers are beginning to expect these travel benefits when they apply for premium credit cards, with good reason – card issuers like Chase include them across the board with their card offerings. Other issuers, like American Express (Amex), have been slower to catch up – these benefits can be costly for card issuers, so much so in fact that Citibank opted to remove them from their card offers – but Amex seems to realize how popular they are, and has a new trick up their sleeve.

Fortunately, American Express’s changes seem to be much more balanced than those that Citibank has announced. Looking to add value to their credit card offerings (and stay competitive), American Express will be rolling out some new changes to its portfolio: Expect to see travel benefits like trip cancellation and interruption insurance, along with several other updates, beginning on January 1, 2020.

What Changes are Coming to Amex Cards in 2020?

The expected updates to American Express card offers will center around two types of cardholder perks:

• Travel Protections
• Purchase Protections

Remember, these changes will only apply to travel purchases made using an American Express credit card after January 1, 2020. Insofar as travel protections, cardholders will be excited to see the following changes to their cardmember benefits:

• Trip Delay Insurance: When you use an eligible American Express credit card to purchase round-trip travel on a common carrier, and that flight is delayed by more than six hours due to a covered reason, you can be reimbursed for expenses like a hotel room and meals – up to $500 per trip – for the following cards:
  • The Platinum Card® from American Express
  • The Business Platinum® Card from American Express
  • Hilton Honors Aspire Card from American Express
  • Delta Reserve® Credit Card from American Express
  • Delta Reserve for Business Credit Card
  • Marrott Bonvoy Brilliant™ Credit Card from American Express®
  • American Express Corporate Platinum Card
• Trip Delay Insurance is available in the amount of up to $300 when your trip is delayed for more than 12 hours with these cards:
• • American Express Green Card
  • American Express® Gold Card
  • American Express Business Gold Card
  • Platinum Delta Skymiles® Credit Card from American Express
  • Platinum Delta SkyMiles® Business Credit Card from American Express

• Trip Cancellation and Interruption Insurance: When you use an eligible American Express credit card to purchase round-trip travel that is canceled for a “covered reason” – you can receive reimbursement of up to $10,000 per trip for non-refundable travel expenses. A maximum of $20,000 is allowed per eligible account, for each consecutive 12-month period. Trip Cancellation and Interruption Insurance is available with the following Amex card offers:
  • The Platinum Card® from American Express
  • The Business Platinum® Card from American Express
  • American Express Corporate Platinum Card
  • Delta Reserve® Credit Card from American Express
  • Delta Reserve for Business Card
  • Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express® Card
  • Hilton Honors Aspire Card from American Express

Note: A “covered reason” includes: call to jury, sudden illness or injury to you or an eligible traveler, inclement weather, and terrorist action. Round-trip travel is defined as travel that both begins and ends in the original city of departure, to one or more destinations. In this case, it applies specifically to flights purchased using an Amex card.

What Other Updates can we Expect to See from Amex in January?

Travel protections are not the only card benefits that will see an update; American Express cardholders can expect to see a change to their purchase protections in January, too. The first change will see a reduction to the extended warranty benefit that is standard across Amex cards to one year – at the time of this writing, warranties are extended by two additional years. Some Amex card offers that have no annual fee will lose extended warranty coverage altogether. An extended warranty applies to new purchases made with your American Express card; the issuer offers this as a perk to loyal customers, and adds an additional grace period to the manufacturer’s warranty. Additionally, all American Express cards that offer purchase protection will see this benefit reduced from 120 days to 90 days.

Finally, two benefits will be removed from American Express offers altogether on January 1^st of 2020. Say goodbye to travel accident insurance, which covers expenses related to accidental death and dismemberment while the cardholder is traveling, and bid roadside assistance (which features a hotline that can send a tow operator or locksmith to assist in an emergency) adieu. American Express has not yet begun to notify customers of these changes.