Missed Connection Coverage

Although airlines are required to some degree to compensate you due to travel delays - what about when your flight arrives later than scheduled and the cruise or tour you were supposed to be on has departed? Travel insurance policies commonly refer to as "missed connection coverage" and it covers the additional cost incurred to get to the next port and join your trip.   For many travelers - especially those who book their own flight and cruise or tour separately - this is a real concern and it’s where Missed Connection coverage can help. 

What is it Missed Connection Coverage?

Missed Connection covers missing your trip’s scheduled cruise or tour departure due to carrier caused delay.  It helps reimburse you for those reasonable additional expenses incurred for catching up to your departed trip if you are delayed from doing so due to an unforeseeable covered reason stated on the policy.  Some plans do not list a Missed Connection benefit. Just because it isn’t listed as a separate coverage, the same type of benefit can be listed under the trip interruption benefit.

Missed Connection is a limiting benefit for insured’s.  The reality is that it was created to limit losses for travel insurance companies under trip interruption.  In fact, you will see that with many plans, there are very similar coverages to be found under trip interruption.  

What does it cover?

The list of named perils for Missed Connection varies by policy.  The perils tend to not be as rigid as those listed for trip cancellation/interruption, though they can be limited in scope.    It is also important to note that some plans may only apply this to cruises, other plans do not have such restrictions Most plans cover for events such as Common Carrier delays, documented weather conditions, quarantine, hijacking, natural disaster, terrorism or riot.

One thing that all plans cover is Missed Connection due to weather.  With some plans, weather is the only peril that they are covering for.

 Benefit Highlights:

• All plans provide coverage for adverse weather- with some plans, it’s the only peril covered.
• Some plans will also cover Common Carrier delays, documented weather conditions, quarantine, hijacking, natural disaster, terrorism or riot  

How does it work?

There are two numbers associated with Missed Connection- the amount of consecutive hours your trip must be delayed causing you to miss your cruise or tour departure, and the benefit amount.  The amount of time varies from 3 hours being the minimum to 12 hours being the maximum. As with Travel Delay and Baggage Delay, the lower the time listed the quicker the benefit goes into effect for you.  The benefit amount can range from $200 to $1,000. 

Highlights:

• Time trigger varies from 3 to 12 hours
• Benefit amount ranges from $200 to $1,000 

What does it reimburse for? 

For the most part, Missed Connection reimburses you for those additional transportation expenses to catch you up to your trip.  Some plans cover the fee with changing your air itinerary, and may have a further sub-limit for such (say up to $250). 

Some plans will also provide coverage for pre-paid expenses for unused land or water travel arrangements.  This sounds a lot like what trip interruption is covering you for- however, if you look at the wording, you’ll see that it’s limited to land or water travel arrangements.  Some plans may also fold in what is normally covered under Travel Delay here as well- reimbursement for meal and accommodation expenses. Keep in mind, that most plans have a provision that states that if you have a loss that can be covered under one part of the policy, you could not be covered under another part even if the covered reason is nearly the same.

Highlights:

• Coverage for additional transportation expenses to catch you up to your trip
• Some plans may also provide coverage for:
  • Change fee for itinerary change
  • Pre-paid expenses for unused land or water travel arrangements
  • Reasonable accommodations and meals 

What to Expect with a Missed Connection claim: 

Travel insurance companies will require that you:

• prove that the reason you missed your cruise departure was due to a covered peril under the missed connection coverage(different than the trip cancellation coverage); and

• that the expense you are claiming is covered by the benefit.

It is important that you keep documentation as to the cause of your missed connection and your covered expenses.  The insurance company will not reimburse you for undocumented expenses or for missed connections that are cause by some other reason that is not listed as one of the perils or hazards for missed connections.  In some cases there might be some overlapping coverage between the Travel Delay coverage and/or the Trip Interruption coverage however, in most cases travel insurance companies have made sure that they have eliminated overlapping coverages.

Check out our claims page for each travel insurance company's contact information.

QuoteWright Rating for Missed Connection

In order to help you choose a plan that best covers your particular trip we have developed the QuoteWright Rating system. Check out our QuoteWright Rating page for more details on how we determine each plan's coverage rating. To give you an idea as to how we rate these plans here is the following criteria:

• How many covered reasons will be covered - some plans limit this just to weather;
• The minimum time the trip has to be delayed for - the shorter the better; and
• The actual benefit amount - the higher the benefit the better the rating.

This is a general overview of what is considered in determining a coverage's rating. We developed the rating to be a helpful tool to quickly get a feel as to how different plans compare to one another. Please make sure to review the policy wording in order to fully understand what is covered in the plan.