Guide to United Travel Insurance - NerdWallet (2024)

United Airlines' travel insurance aims to protect you if your trip is delayed, your baggage is lost or other travel mishaps occur. But the United Airlines flight insurance plan is far from comprehensive. Let’s look at what the policy covers, how to buy it and whether it's a good fit for you.

About United Airlines travel insurance

United’s flight insurance isn’t underwritten by United Airlines. While you can purchase a policy via United’s website, it’s actually issued by AIG and is called the Travel Guard plan.

United Travel Guard insurance is focused on benefits during your air travel, though it does have limited coverage beyond your flight time.

United trip insurance

Two policies are available via the United website: The Domestic Air Ticket plan and the International Air Ticket plan.

To get a sample quote, we put in two different flights. The first was a one-way economy class flight from San Diego to Newark, New Jersey. The total for the flight came out to $755.70, and the insurance premium offered totaled $60.46.

In our second quote, we checked out an economy class flight from London-Heathrow to Boston. A one-way ticket came out to $1,624.35, and the insurance policy quote was returned at $117.77

Here’s how the plans compare to one another.

The coverage for the policies is fairly similar whether you’re traveling domestically or internationally. However, international travel includes emergency medical and higher limits for issues with luggage. It’s also correspondingly more expensive.

What isn’t covered by United Airlines insurance

United’s travel insurance has generous policy limits.

They don’t ask you how much your trip cost and price the maximums accordingly; instead, there’s a flat rate benefit for trip interruption and trip delay, which can be great if you’re embarking on a more expensive vacation.

However, this travel insurance isn’t comprehensive. While you’ll get superior benefits if you’re traveling abroad, other plans offer more customization.

Notably, these plans don't allow you to add any supplemental coverage, such as Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR) insurance, flight accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) coverage and rental car insurance.

Note that United’s website specifically calls out COVID-19 as a foreseen event, meaning that trip cancellation, trip interruption and trip delay as a result of quarantine will not be covered.

However, emergency medical benefits will still apply.

How to buy United Airlines trip insurance online

When purchasing a ticket

There are two ways to purchase United Airlines travel insurance online. The first is to do so when you’re booking your flight.

You’ll want to start at United’s home page, where you can input your travel information.

After you click Find Flights, you’ll be taken to a results page, where you can peruse available options.

You’ll be able to select which flight suits your needs, after which you’ll begin the checkout process. Here you’ll need to put down all your personal information, including name, date of birth and frequent flyer number.

United will then take you through a couple pages of extras asking you if you’d like to purchase Wi-Fi or choose your seats. Once this is done, you’ll be presented with the United insurance page.

Here you can select whether or not you’d like to purchase the insurance. After this, you’ll be prompted to input your card information. Your payment will be processed (including the insurance) and then your ticket will be issued.

If you already have a ticket

Adding United’s insurance to a ticket you’ve already purchased is possible. To do so, you’ll either want to log into your account or search for your trip using your booking code and name.

If you’re logging in, you’ll want to click My Trips, then Manage Trip to get to the insurance page.

This will bring up of your trip details including flight numbers and upgrade options. Scrolling down to the Trip Extras section, you can purchase insurance.

Should you buy United travel insurance?

United Airlines makes it easy to purchase travel insurance by bundling it with your airfare purchase. However, you’ll always want to double-check the coverage and customizability to see if it fits your travel plans.

You’ll also want to gather multiple quotes before committing to a purchase. Sites such as Squaremouth gather providers from a variety of companies to generate a quote and get you the best deal.

Otherwise, many travel credit cards offer complimentary travel insurance as long as you pay for the trip with your card.