Delay, missed connection, interruption: three benefits people treat as one

Travel plans come apart in several distinct ways, and travel insurance responds to each of them through a different benefit with a different trigger. Treating them as interchangeable is the most common reason a traveller believes they are covered for something they are not.

Trip delay

This is the benefit that responds when your departure is held up. The trigger is a stated waiting period - commonly six or twelve hours from the scheduled departure time - after which a fixed amount becomes payable, often in blocks for each further period of delay.

It is intended to cover meals, refreshments and, where the delay runs long, a hotel room. Payment is usually against a written confirmation from the airline stating the reason and the duration of the delay. Get that confirmation at the airport; obtaining it weeks later from a call centre is considerably harder.

The covered reasons are defined - typically weather, mechanical breakdown of the carrier, strike or civil disturbance. A delay because you arrived late at check-in is not a covered delay.

Missed connection

Missed connection responds to a specific chain of events: an incoming carrier is delayed, and as a direct result you miss an onward departure - another flight, a cruise, a tour. The benefit covers the reasonable cost of rebooking onto the next available service, plus accommodation and meals while you wait.

Two conditions catch people out. Most policies require a minimum connection time between the two services, so a self-arranged 45-minute transfer between separate tickets may fall outside cover. And many require the delay to exceed a stated threshold before the benefit engages at all.

Trip delay asks how long you waited. Missed connection asks what the wait caused you to lose.

Trip interruption

Interruption applies to a journey that has already begun and then has to be curtailed for a covered reason - a serious illness or injury to you or a travelling companion, or in many wordings the death or hospitalisation of an immediate family member at home.

It reimburses the unused, non-refundable, prepaid portion of the trip and, depending on the wording, the additional cost of returning home early. The distinction from delay is that nothing is being waited for; the trip is simply ending sooner than planned.

What to do while it is happening

Documentation collected in the terminal is worth more than any amount of correspondence afterwards. Ask the airline for written confirmation of the delay and its cause. Photograph the departure board. Keep every receipt for food, transport and accommodation, and pay by card where you can so there is a traceable record.

Call the insurer's assistance line before incurring large costs. Many policies require prior approval for rebooking or extended accommodation, and an approval reference obtained in the moment removes an argument later.

Reading your own schedule

Find the three benefit names on your policy schedule and note the trigger threshold, the per-day or per-block amount, and the overall cap for each. Where a benefit does not appear, it does not exist, however the brochure was worded. This takes five minutes and is the only reliable way to know what your plan actually does.