# Trip delay insurance vs airline duties: who pays first Source: https://airtravelrights.com/trip-delay-insurance/ > The airline owes meals from a 2-hour delay and a hotel overnight, whatever your policy says. Section # Credit card trip delay insurance and airline delay rights Three different things travel under the phrase "card cover". One is credit card trip delay insurance, a contract with a third party. Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 makes your credit-card issuer liable alongside the seller. Chargeback is a card scheme's rule for its member banks. None replaces what the airline owes you under [UK261](https://airtravelrights.com/uk261/). ## Does travel insurance or a credit card pay for a flight delay? 4 routes are in play after a delay, and only 1 of them is insurance: the airline's duty under UK261, section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, a card-scheme chargeback and a trip delay policy. They differ in who pays, what triggers payment and how long you have. **Four routes after a delay, compared** | Route | What it is in law | Who pays | What fixes the amount | Outer time limit | |---|---|---|---|---| | UK261 compensation and care | A duty the Regulation places on the operating airline | The airline | Distance bands of £220, £350 and £520; care is what is reasonable | 6 years in England and Wales | | Section 75, Consumer Credit Act 1974 | A statute: your credit-card issuer is jointly and severally liable with the seller | Your credit-card issuer | The claim you already have against the seller | 6 years in England and Wales | | Chargeback | A rule the card scheme writes for its member banks | Your bank, if it agrees to raise it | Only the amount you paid by that card | About 120 days, never past 540 | | Trip delay insurance on a card or a policy | A contract of insurance with a third party | Your insurer | Your own policy wording | Your policy's notification deadline | Source: UK261 arts. 6, 7 and 9; Consumer Credit Act 1974 ss. 75(1), 75(3)(b); Limitation Act 1980 s.5 - legislation.gov.uk; Visa Core Rules s.11.10.2.4 (edition 18 April 2026) - usa.visa.com; Financial Ombudsman Service published guidance - financial-ombudsman.org.uk, checked 2026-09-20. Only the bottom row is insurance, and only its conditions are ones this page cannot state. Trigger hours, per-person caps and primary-or-secondary wording live in issuer terms that are not in our verified fact base, and a stale figure would send you to the wrong desk. A refusal from one route decides nothing about the others. Open your card's benefit guide before you travel and write down the hours that start a payment, the cap per person, and whether the cover is primary or secondary. ## What must the airline pay before any insurance? 2 hours is where the airline's duty starts on flights up to 1,500 km, 3 hours from 1,500 to 3,500 km and 4 hours beyond that. From those points UK261 article 6(1) owes you meals, refreshments and 2 free calls or emails, and those care duties come first in order, whoever your insurer is. Source: UK261 art. 6(1) (care thresholds), art. 9(1)-(2) (meals, accommodation, communications), arts. 5(3) and 6(4) (what extraordinary circumstances remove) - legislation.gov.uk; EU261 art. 6(1) (care thresholds), art. 9 (care) - eur-lex.europa.eu, checked 2026-09-15. Article 9 adds a hotel and transport to it once the new departure is at least the day after the time announced. At 5 hours, article 6(1) offers reimbursement under article 8(1)(a), paid within 7 days. On a flight departing the EU, EU261 article 6(1) sets the same 2, 3 and 4 hour steps, with every intra-EU flight over 1,500 km in the 3-hour band, and its article 9 owes the same care. Nothing in those articles mentions insurance. The cause changes only part of it. Articles 5(3) and 6(4) release the airline from compensation in accordance with article 7 and say nothing about article 9: a proven extraordinary circumstance takes the £220 and leaves the meals and the room. A passenger posting as BedfordRabbit on TripAdvisor's Air Travel forum, writing about a 13-hour delay through Dubai (passenger report, crawled 2026-09-14), reported the insurer's answer: "we need to claim from Emirates in the first instance". Ask the desk for meal vouchers and a room while you are in the terminal, then check the [right to care](https://airtravelrights.com/uk261/right-to-care-meals-hotels/) thresholds. ## Do US airlines pay anything that trip delay cover would? 9 airlines sit on the US Department of Transportation's delay dashboard, and its cash compensation column reads "No" for all 9, on delays and on cancellations. The dashboard, last updated 11 September 2025, records what each carrier promises when a disruption is within its control. Source: US Department of Transportation, Airline Cancellation and Delay Dashboard, and Fly Rights (page last updated 26 September 2025) - transportation.gov, checked 2026-09-15. The department's wording is flat: "Contrary to popular belief, for domestic itineraries airlines are not required to compensate passengers whose flights are delayed or canceled." Payment is required by law only when you are bumped from an oversold domestic flight. What it records instead is a set of promises. Alaska, Hawaiian, JetBlue and Southwest show "Yes" for a credit or voucher once the wait reaches 3 hours; Alaska and [Hawaiian Airlines](https://airtravelrights.com/airlines/hawaiian-airlines/) add frequent-flyer miles; Frontier shows "No" for a hotel and ground transport. Those promises bind because they sit in the carrier's customer service plan. So a US domestic delay produces no federal payment for the wait itself, which is where a card benefit can reach what the law does not touch. The [US delay and cancellation rules](https://airtravelrights.com/us-dot/delayed-canceled-flight-rights/) page covers the refund triggers that apply. Screenshot your carrier's dashboard row on the day of the flight: the promise you enforce is the one printed there. ## Is your card's protection insurance, Section 75 or chargeback? £100 is the floor for section 75: the Consumer Credit Act 1974 excludes a claim about any single item with a cash price of £100 or less, or more than £30,000. It reaches credit cards only, and it is not insurance. Source: Consumer Credit Act 1974 ss. 75(1), 75(3)(b), 75A(1)-(2), 75A(5), 75A(6), 187(3A) - legislation.gov.uk; Financial Ombudsman Service published guidance - financial-ombudsman.org.uk; Financial Conduct Authority Handbook DISP 1.6.2R, DISP 2.8.2R - handbook.fca.org.uk, checked 2026-09-20. Section 75(1) gives you a "like claim against the creditor", who is "jointly and severally liable" with the supplier for misrepresentation or breach of contract. That is the same claim, not a capped goodwill payment, and it exists only if you have one against the seller in the first place. The [section 75 and chargeback steps](https://airtravelrights.com/section-75-chargeback-flight-refund/) set out the order to use them in. The threshold is the cash price the seller attached to the single item, not the amount you charged. Above £30,000 section 75 stops, and section 75A does not take over an ordinary credit card: it needs a linked credit agreement financing that one service, it covers breach of contract only, and it opens only on one of four conditions, the supplier's insolvency among them. Section 187(3A) disregards "arrangements for the electronic transfer of funds from a current account", which puts a debit card outside section 75. The Financial Ombudsman Service tells consumers the same: it does not apply if "you paid with a debit card or a charge card". Chargeback is the third nature, and it is not law. The scheme rule books bind the banks that belong to them, not the scheme to you, and the ombudsman is blunt: "A bank or lender doesn't have to raise a chargeback." An airline that has stopped flying changes the chargeback timing, covered in [refunds when an airline goes bust](https://airtravelrights.com/airline-went-bust/). Check which card paid. A credit card opens section 75 above £100; a debit card leaves chargeback alone. If the bank refuses, DISP 1.6.2R gives it 8 weeks to answer and DISP 2.8.2R gives you 6 months to reach the ombudsman. ## How do you claim from both without being paid twice? 2 claims can run at once, and they are proved differently: the airline's care duty is discharged in kind, with vouchers and a booked room, while a policy pays against a receipt for a loss you carried. Article 9 says care is provided free of charge. Source: UK261 art. 9(1) (care provided free of charge) and art. 8(1)(a) (reimbursement within seven days) - legislation.gov.uk, checked 2026-09-15. Take what the airline hands over first. A voucher you used and a room the airline booked cost you nothing, and a policy pays against a receipt for money you spent. What is left is what a policy is for. You can claim both. Whether either side then deducts what the other paid is set by your policy wording, not by UK261. A reply from Dubai_Phil_R on the same forum puts one expectation plainly (forum reply, crawled 2026-09-14): "the insurance pay out shall be deducted from the money you claim from the airline for duty of care". That is a passenger's reading, not a rule this page can source. Tell each side in writing what the other paid, and keep one receipt set with the airline's refusal attached. General information, not legal advice. For your specific case, contact the US Department of Transportation, the Civil Aviation Authority or your insurer. ## Sources - Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 as it forms part of UK law, arts. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 - [legislation.gov.uk](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2004/261/contents), checked 2026-09-15. - Regulation (EC) No 261/2004, arts. 6 and 9 - [eur-lex.europa.eu](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32004R0261), checked 2026-09-15. - Consumer Credit Act 1974, ss. 12, 75, 75A, 187 - [legislation.gov.uk](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1974/39/section/75), checked 2026-09-20. - Limitation Act 1980, s.5 - [legislation.gov.uk](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1980/58/section/5), checked 2026-09-20. - Financial Conduct Authority Handbook, DISP 1.6.2R - [handbook.fca.org.uk](https://www.handbook.fca.org.uk/handbook/DISP/1/6.html), checked 2026-09-20. - Financial Conduct Authority Handbook, DISP 2.8.2R - [handbook.fca.org.uk](https://www.handbook.fca.org.uk/handbook/DISP/2/8.html), checked 2026-09-20. - Financial Ombudsman Service, goods and services bought on credit (consumer guidance) - [financial-ombudsman.org.uk](https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/complaints-can-help/credit-borrowing-money/goods-services-bought-credit), checked 2026-09-20. - Financial Ombudsman Service, goods and services bought on credit (guidance for businesses) - [financial-ombudsman.org.uk](https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/businesses/complaints-deal/consumer-credit/goods-services-bought-credit), checked 2026-09-20. - Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules, edition 18 April 2026, s.11.10.2.4 - [usa.visa.com](https://usa.visa.com/dam/VCOM/download/about-visa/visa-rules-public.pdf), checked 2026-09-20. - US Department of Transportation, Fly Rights - [transportation.gov](https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/fly-rights), checked 2026-09-15. - US Department of Transportation, Airline Cancellation and Delay Dashboard - [transportation.gov](https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/airline-cancellation-delay-dashboard), checked 2026-09-15.