Blue Cross Trip Cancellation Insurance

Blue Cross trip cancellation insurance pays back your insured, prepaid, non-refundable travel costs if an insured risk forces you to cancel before you leave, or to change, extend or cut short your trip. It is for Canadian residents covered by their provincial health plan, such as RAMQ or OHIP, who have paid for a flight, a package or a cruise. Protecto sells this Croix Bleue du Québec plan and helps you before and after you buy.

What Blue Cross trip cancellation covers

The Blue Cross policy provides two coverages and one option:

• Trip Cancellation and Interruption: covers you before you leave and during the trip.
• Trip Interruption: covers you only during the trip, if an insured risk forces you to change, extend or cut short your trip, such as an illness or injury of a family member.
• Option: Cancel for Any Reason: added to Trip Cancellation and Interruption, it lets you cancel for a reason that is not on the list of insured risks.

Before departure, Blue Cross reimburses your insured non-refundable travel costs up to the amount you chose, shown on your certificate of insurance. If a travel companion drops out because of an insured risk and you still go, the extra charge for the new occupancy rate is also covered.

During the trip, Trip Cancellation and Interruption coverage pays the unused part of your insured travel costs and extra economy-class transportation to get home or catch up with your itinerary. It also pays a subsistence allowance of $300 a day, up to $3,000 per person, the return of your vehicle up to $5,000 and, in the event of death, repatriation of remains up to $10,000. Trip Interruption coverage on its own does not pay the unused part of the trip: it covers extra transportation, the subsistence allowance, the return of your vehicle and repatriation of remains.

Insured risks

The Blue Cross policy sets out a specific list of insured risks. The event must be unknown when your coverage takes effect and at the time of each later non-refundable payment, beyond your control, and it must prevent you from travelling. Some examples:

• illness or injury affecting you, a travel companion or a family member, or quarantine of you, a travel companion or an immediate family member;
• death of a family member, or of a friend within 15 days before departure;
• your or your travel companion’s main residence made uninhabitable by a natural disaster or an unintentional event not caused by your or your travel companion’s negligence, or a burglary within 7 days before departure;
• loss of a permanent job held for at least one year, through a layoff or dismissal without just cause, or a transfer required by your employer that means you must move;
• pregnancy complications in the first 31 weeks;
• a required visa not issued even though you meet the criteria, or a passport not issued within the processing time confirmed in writing;
• a Government of Canada travel advisory to avoid non-essential travel, or all travel, to your destination, still in effect within the 7 days before departure;
• during the trip, a missed connection caused by a flight schedule change, an unexpected strike, or a public transit delay due to mechanical failure or weather;
• default of a travel supplier, up to $3,500 per insured person.

Each risk has its own conditions. Your Protecto advisor can walk you through the full list before you buy.

The Cancel for Any Reason option

This option refunds part of your costs if you cancel your trip before departure for any reason other than those on the list of insured risks. Up to age 74, Blue Cross refunds 75% of your insured, prepaid, non-refundable costs. From 75 to 85, it refunds 50%. The maximum is $4,500 per insured person, and you must cancel at least 24 hours before your scheduled departure date.

You must buy the option at the same time as Trip Cancellation and Interruption, within 5 days of paying for your trip (in full or in part), or before the travel supplier’s cancellation penalties apply.

When to buy

The contract must be bought before you leave. Cancellation coverage starts on the later of two dates: the coverage start date on your certificate, or the date you make your first payment for the trip.

In practice, buy it the day you book. An event you already know about when your coverage takes effect, or at the time of each later non-refundable payment, is not covered. The longer you wait, the more likely something happens before you buy.

Pre-existing medical conditions

For Trip Cancellation and Interruption, any medical condition that was not stable in the 3 months before your coverage takes effect is excluded, except a minor ailment. During that same period, a heart condition for which you took nitroglycerin more than once in 7 days for chest pain, or a lung condition treated with home oxygen or corticosteroid therapy, is also excluded. Stable means, among other things: no new diagnosis, no new symptoms, no hospitalization, no change in medication or dosage, and no test or treatment pending.

Before you answer the questions, read our guide on what “stable” means in travel insurance.

Main exclusions

• circumstances known or foreseeable when your coverage takes effect;
• not notifying Blue Cross Travel Assistance within 48 hours of the event;
• a pandemic, whether or not the risk was known;
• a trip taken to get a diagnosis or medical care;
• loss of a temporary, contract or self-employed job;
• financial difficulties or a disagreement with a travel companion;
• high-risk sports or activities, and alcohol or drug abuse.

Worth knowing: a travel credit offered by the supplier counts as a refund, whether or not you accept it. A trip that was credited, or for which you refused a credit, cannot be claimed.

What it costs

Your premium depends on the travellers’ ages, the destination, the trip length, the coverages chosen and the amount insured. With Protecto, you get your price online in under 2 minutes.

Buying through Protecto, and claims

Buy online or with one of our advisors. An advisor may call to help you choose the right amount to insure, never to push. Protecto is a firm registered with the AMF (#602624) and licensed in Ontario (FSRAO 41378M). Our clients rate us 4.9 out of 5 on Google, across more than 800 reviews.

If something happens, call Blue Cross Travel Assistance within 48 hours: 1-800-361-6068 from Canada and the US, or 514-286-8411 collect from anywhere else. Then send your claim form and supporting documents within 90 days of the event. Blue Cross processes the claim within 30 business days of receiving all the documents. To change the amount insured, you go through Protecto, the agent who sold you the contract.

Cancellation only, or with medical coverage?

Blue Cross trip cancellation can be bought on its own or with emergency medical care. If your credit card or employer already covers medical emergencies, cancellation alone can complete what you have. Check the limits of that coverage first. Otherwise, see the Blue Cross à la carte plan or our travel insurance for Canadians page.