AMEX Platinum Travel Protection

I have had AMEX Platinum card for a while as I traveled a lot pre-pandemic. I know of many benefits that platinum card comes with and mostly used the travel perks on hotels, airport lounges and uber credits.

I’m not big on collecting and redeeming points so mostly hoped that as long as the card provided travel perks and purchase protection, I will be happy. In the recent times I had to cancel a hotel booking due to an accident that resulted in back injury. I called AMEX to see if they can cover the cost of non-refundable hotel booking (non-refundable as of the date I called). It seems surprising that they did not have a straight answer and ended up transferring me around to a few different customer service folks. Makes me think that this may not be a common claim for AMEX.

However after a few transfers between agents, I was told that a travel is covered only if it involves you flying, taking a cruise or a train or may be a greyhound like bus service. Essentially you will need a round trip ticket on a carrier. In my case I was driving myself to the destination and back as it is only a couple of hours from my house. This was a bit disappointing in that the one time I needed this coverage, I couldn’t use it.

I hope someone else was able to take advantage of this perk and hope to read about it.