Most people think about travel protection only once: at checkout, when a booking site asks whether you’d like to add travel insurance for a few euros. It’s easy to click past, and easy to forget whether you did.
At ZEN.COM there’s no box to tick when you book. Just pay for your trip with your ZEN Card, and the protection works on every trip, from the moment you book. It covers three kinds of risk: your own plans changing, things going wrong along the way and an airline or travel agency letting you down.
Travel protection grows with your plan. The Best and ZEN plans include travel protection, with the highest limits on the ZEN plan. Here’s what the Best and ZEN plans cover:
| Benefit | What it covers | Best | ZEN |
|---|---|---|---|
| Travel Cancellation Cover | Money back if an eligible reason means you cancel a trip or cut it short | Trip cancelled | Trip cancelled and Trip interrupted |
| ↳ Trip cancelled | Costs you can’t get refunded elsewhere if you cancel before you leave | Up to 2,500 EUR | Up to 5,000 EUR |
| ↳ Trip interrupted | Your return ticket plus an amount for each unused day if you cut your trip short | No | Included |
| Travel Delay Cover | Eligible extra costs when travel doesn’t go to plan | Up to 400 EUR | Up to 1,000 EUR |
| ↳ Trip Delay | Meals, refreshment, a hotel and transfers while you wait | Within the same limit | Within the same limit |
| ↳ Missed Departure | Eligible extra costs if you miss your departure | Within the same limit | Within the same limit |
| ↳ Missed Connection | Eligible extra costs if you miss your connection | Within the same limit | Within the same limit |
| ↳ Baggage Delay | Essentials you buy while your checked baggage is late on your outward journey | Within the same limit | Within the same limit |
| Personal Liability Cover for Travel | Costs, including legal and defence costs, if you accidentally injure someone or damage their property while travelling and you’re held responsible | Up to 1,000,000 EUR | Up to 1,500,000 EUR |
| Event Ticket Cover | The cost of tickets you can’t use | Up to 250 EUR | Up to 500 EUR |
| Airline Failure Assistant | Money you’ve already paid if the airline stops operating | Included | Included |
| Travel Agency Failure Assistant | Money you’ve already paid if the travel agency stops operating | Included | Included |
| Flight+ | Add your flight and we’ll start protecting your trip | Flight Claim Assistant | Flight Claim Assistant, Flight Delay Lounge Pass and Flight Live Assistant |
| ↳ Flight Claim Assistant | A compensation claim handled for you when your flight is delayed, cancelled or you’re denied boarding. The amount depends on flight distance | Up to 600 EUR per passenger | Up to 600 EUR per passenger |
| ↳ Flight Delay Lounge Pass | An automatic lounge pass when your flight is delayed by more than 3 hours | No | Included |
| ↳ Flight Live Assistant | Updates on departure time, terminal and gate from 48 hours before departure | No | Included |
| Rental Car Excess | Eligible excess costs if a rental car is damaged or stolen | No | Up to 30,000 EUR |
Before you leave: cancellation cover works from the moment you book
Sometimes you have to cancel a trip at the last minute: a loved one ends up in hospital right before departure, or your travel documents are stolen, and the trip you booked can’t go ahead.
At ZEN.COM, Travel Cancellation Cover comes with the Best and ZEN plans: nothing extra to buy, nothing to remember at checkout. If you have to cancel, you can claim back what you can’t get refunded elsewhere, up to the limit in your plan.
Trip cancelled applies before you leave. On the ZEN plan, Trip interrupted also covers cutting a trip short once you’re away. You can claim back your return ticket plus an amount for each unused day, up to the limit. You need to have booked a return ticket before departure.
Covered situations include:
- serious illness, injury or death affecting you or a close family member
- an urgent need to look after a close relative
- a serious event at your home, such as a burglary, fire or flood, that requires you to be there
- theft of your travel documents shortly before departure
- loss of your job for reasons beyond your control
During your trip: your card works like at home, with protection on top
Two things work at the same time once you arrive. Your card works just as it does at home: pay, exchange at best rates in 35 currencies and withdraw cash with no ZEN fees within your plan’s limit. On top of that, you get protection for problems on the trip.
Delays and baggage
On a trip, everything can go wrong at once: a storm grounds your flight for six hours, you miss your connection and your suitcase flies without you. Travel Delay Cover helps when travel doesn’t go to plan. It includes Trip Delay, Missed Departure, Missed Connection and Baggage Delay.
You can claim back eligible extra costs: meals, refreshment and a hotel while you wait, plus transfers to and from the airport or station. If you miss a departure or a connection, you can claim back eligible extra costs too. If your checked baggage is late on your outward journey, you can also claim back essentials you buy while you wait. One claim is enough. You don’t have to work out which cover applies.
Accidents
You can’t plan for every mishap on a trip. Personal Liability Cover for Travel protects you even when the incident has nothing to do with your flight or your luggage. If you accidentally injure someone or damage their property while travelling and you’re held responsible, it helps with the costs, including legal and defence costs.
Flights
Some benefits are only about flights. Flight Claim Assistant, available on the Best and ZEN plans, turns a ruined journey into money back. If your flight’s delayed, cancelled or you’re denied boarding, our partner automatically spots when it qualifies for compensation and handles the claim for you, paying you directly. It’s based on Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, the EU rules on air passenger rights.
Flying? Add your flight in the Flight+ tab of the ZEN.COM app and we’ll start protecting your trip.
The ZEN plan adds two more flight benefits. Flight Live Assistant sends updates on departure time, terminal and gate from 48 hours before departure: no more checking the departure board.
The second is Flight Delay Lounge Pass. A long delay shouldn’t mean sitting on the floor by the gate. When your flight is delayed by more than 3 hours, we automatically send you a lounge pass, so you can wait in comfort.
Rental cars
Driving? Say you reverse a rental car in a supermarket car park and hit a bollard. Rental Car Excess, available on the ZEN plan, helps you get eligible excess costs reimbursed, whether you rent at home or abroad. The excess is the amount the rental company makes you pay out of your own pocket. Enjoy the drive, not the what-ifs.
When an airline or travel agency lets you down
This is a different risk from a delay or late baggage. The company you paid for your trip stops operating, either before you leave or while you’re away. Many standalone travel insurance policies focus on weather and luggage and leave out the failure of the company that runs your trip.
Say you’ve paid in full for a week away, and three days before your flight the travel agency announces it has stopped operating. Or the airline itself collapses before your return flight has taken off. Two benefits fill this gap, both in the Best and ZEN plans: Airline Failure Assistant and Travel Agency Failure Assistant. They help you claim back what you’ve already paid with your ZEN Card. You file the claim the same way as for a purchase the merchant never delivered.
Why one package makes sense
These protections work as a package because they all relate to the same trip. A delay can make you miss your connection, and the airline may run into financial trouble before it refunds you. That’s two problems from one trip, and you’re protected against both without having to think about it. You have one plan and one way to file a claim, whichever benefit turns out to be the one you need.
That’s the difference between a plan and standalone travel insurance: if you forget to buy the insurance at checkout, you have no protection at all, however good its terms are.
Plans fall through for more than trips. Can’t make it to a concert, match or show you’ve booked? If a covered reason such as illness or a family or home emergency keeps you away, Event Ticket Cover, also in the Best and ZEN plans, helps you claim back the cost of the tickets, up to 250 EUR.
What to know before you fly
For our travel insurance package, keep a Best or ZEN plan active from the time you pay for the trip until you need to submit your claim. You also need to pay for the trip cost with your ZEN Card.
Our travel insurance package is part of your plan, so there’s nothing extra to buy or switch on before you fly. Flying? Add your flight in Flight+ and we’ll start protecting your trip.
Take a few minutes to check what your plan covers before you find yourself at the airport with a delayed flight. Keep your booking confirmations handy too, in case you need to file a claim.
Want the full picture? Read The Best plan: travel protected from booking to landing or compare the Good, Better, Best and ZEN plans.
About ZEN.COM
The multicurrency account that makes shopping and travel better. Pay globally, get more from every purchase and travel with peace of mind. One account. One app.
Before your next trip, check what each ZEN.COM plan covers. Full conditions in the terms.
