A horror story, to be sure. But I want to tell two stories that are different.Five years ago I booked a round trip from Denver to Munich on an airline based in India. A couple months before the trip, that airline went out of business. Their website advised customers to call their office in Mumbai. I didn't even bother to try that. Instead, I had purchased the tickets with a credit card that offered travel insurance. I contacted them, provided all the paperwork (non-trivial), and was reimbursed for everything -- $3500 or so.Then, just this last year, I made a mistake on my dates when we were returning from Europe. We had tickets to fly one day before we would actually get to the airport. I paid for the changed tickets with no pushback. However, I had also reserved a room at the Munich Hilton, and I tried for several hours to get that changed. Called the front desk, called Booking.com, went on all the websites, and couldn't make it happen. Finally cancelled the first reservation for a cancellation fee of 95% (!!!!), made another reservation for 25% more than the original. However, when we got home, I got an email from the Munich Hilton asking me how I had liked our stay. I told them that I had liked it very much, but I had this problem with being unable to change my reservation. They very kindly refunded me the entire amount of my first reservation. Just wanted to tell a couple of better stories. I will never book a trip on a credit card that doesn't have travel insurance.

A horror story, to be sure. But I want to tell two stories that are different.Five years ago I booked a round trip from Denver to Munich on an airline based in India. A couple months before the trip, that airline went out of business. Their website advised customers to call their office in Mumbai. I didn't even bother to try that. Instead, I had purchased the tickets with a credit card that offered travel insurance. I contacted them, provided all the paperwork (non-trivial), and was reimbursed for everything -- $3500 or so.Then, just this last year, I made a mistake on my dates when we were returning from Europe. We had tickets to fly one day before we would actually get to the airport. I paid for the changed tickets with no pushback. However, I had also reserved a room at the Munich Hilton, and I tried for several hours to get that changed. Called the front desk, called Booking.com, went on all the websites, and couldn't make it happen. Finally cancelled the first reservation for a cancellation fee of 95% (!!!!), made another reservation for 25% more than the original. However, when we got home, I got an email from the Munich Hilton asking me how I had liked our stay. I told them that I had liked it very much, but I had this problem with being unable to change my reservation. They very kindly refunded me the entire amount of my first reservation. Just wanted to tell a couple of better stories. I will never book a trip on a credit card that doesn't have travel insurance.

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