10 Best Cancel Anytime Travel Insurance

We’ve said it plenty of times here on ViaTravelers: the wisest traveler will always take out a travel insurance policy no matter where they are headed!

With the many moving parts of travel arrangements and so much uncertainty in the process, especially in this day and age, it is all but essential to purchase travel insurance before you go.

Most comprehensive travel insurance plans cover things like flight delay and cancellation, medical emergencies, rental car coverage, and maybe more.

And while all of that is great and protects your trip costs from some of the most common issues, what if you don’t want to get on the plane in the first place?

That’s where cancel-for-any-reason travel insurance, or CFAR coverage, comes in. Cancel for any reason coverage can help you recover at least some of your non-refundable trip costs if you are unable to make the trip for whatever reason. 

Standard trip cancellation insurance generally only compensates if a covered reason occurs,  such as severe illness, job loss, or a natural disaster. A CFAR upgrade makes the reason for cancellation insignificant, as the name implies.

This little-known optional benefit can be seriously useful to the right type of traveler, even if the coverage cost is higher. We’ve got you covered below in breaking down how exactly CFAR coverage works and where to shop for the best policies.

How Does Cancel For Any Reason Travel Insurance Work?

Before we dive into the best cancel for any reason travel insurance policies, let us first look at how this tool works as it can be a bit particular.

Purchasing CFAR Coverage

As mentioned, the average comprehensive travel insurance plan does include some form of trip cancellation coverage but only allows you to cancel your trip if a covered reason occurs and can be proven. Some travelers just find those reasons to be a bit too restrictive.

With CFAR insurance, you can cancel whether you suddenly develop a fear of flying, you break up with your significant other and don’t want to travel alone, or anything in between. 

To purchase CFAR coverage, we recommend you add it to the travel insurance coverage that you will want to have if you do end up taking the trip. This way, you have safety nets on all sides of the trip.

This type of insurance is a bit time-sensitive, and you will need to keep an eye on the calendar before making any decisions.

Most companies require you to purchase the policy within a specific time frame, often 14 days, after your first trip deposit. This refers to the time you incurred non-refundable trip costs, such as flight purchases.

Beyond that, there is often a deadline to be able to cancel your trip and take advantage of the coverage. This is often two days before your scheduled departure date, but once again varies.

Canceling a Covered Trip

If you, unfortunately, must cancel and take advantage of these time-sensitive benefits, you will be entitled to partial reimbursement of your non-refundable trip costs.

Some policies offer 100% reimbursement, but this is rare. The average seems to be around the 75% mark, which should be very welcome when dealing with otherwise lost costs!

Don’t forget to first cancel anything that isn’t non-refundable, as the insurance won’t help you if you had a chance to avoid the cost in the first place. Hotels, tours, and rental cars are often flexible with cancellation.

Our Review Methodology

We’ve done plenty of trip insurance reviews here at ViaTravelers and if you are looking for more specific information about things like medical evacuation coverage, rental car protection, extreme sports add-ons, and other common inclusions, head over to those specific articles (which are linked below). 

Here, we will focus on the cancel-for-any-reason benefit and how it fits in with the other basic aspects of the coverage overall, compared to cost and ease of use.

As usual, travel insurance is a very specific purchase that fits into different types of trips differently, so we try to give you all the information you need to make your own decision.

Best Travel Insurance Companies with the Best CFAR Coverage

Not every travel insurance company offers cancel-for-any-reason packages. For example, we love World Nomads and their awesome inclusions for great prices, but CFAR is not one of them.

That’s why you may have to do some research to find the best policy that allows you to cancel your trip as you please.

We’ve compiled a list of some good ones below to save you that trouble. Plus, read on to the next section to see how you can search hundreds of travel insurance quotes at once using a single criterion.

AIG Travel Guard

Travel Guard by AIG is one of the travel insurance companies we are big fans of here at ViaTravelers. They are a giant in the industry and it’s always good to see a name that a lot of people trust when you are making such an important purchase.

Cancel-for-any-reason is an option to add to their comprehensive plan, the Travel Guard Preferred. It allows for 50% of your non-refundable costs to be reimbursed, as long as the plan was purchased within 15 days of your initial trip payment date and is not used within 48 hours of departure.

Pros: 

• 24/7 travel assistance from AIG
• One child per adult is included in the price
• Good value of CFAR upgrade cost compared to benefit if used

Cons: 

• More expensive plan in general
• Cheaper plans have better medical coverage limits

See Related: AIG Travel Guard Review

Roam Right

Roam Right is a newer travel insurance provider that we have found to be a good one. It is backed by the larger Arch Insurance Company and offers a good range of plans and add-ons. 

Cancel-for-any-reason coverage is one of them, available to tack onto nearly all of their plans. What’s great is that you have up to 21 days after your initial trip payment to add CFAR coverage, which is longer than many competitors. They offer 75% reimbursement of your prepaid costs, which is also competitive.

Pros: 

• Longer CFAR purchase deadline than most
• Competitive reimbursement percentage compared to others

Cons: 

• Roam Right’s insurance plans are sometimes uncompetitive when it comes to costs vs. benefits
• The website is not user-friendly in showing the CFAR upgrade option

See Related: Roamright Insurance Review

John Hancock Insurance Agency

While not one of the biggest names in travel insurance, John Hancock Insurance Agency is a reputable one. They are the seller of plans underwritten by Starr Indemnity & Liability Company.

CFAR coverage is available to add on to their Bronze, Silver, or Gold Plans. The reimbursement rate is 75% and it must be purchased within 14 days of your initial trip booking.

Pros: 

• Lower cost without sacrificing benefit quality
• No deductibles on claims
• Very high rate of recommendation and excellent reviews

Cons: 

• Some users mention lots of paperwork needed to file a claim
• Potentially lengthy claims review process

AXA Assistance USA

Well-known around Europe and North America, AXA is an insurance giant that offers plenty of travel insurance plans. I have purchased AXA travel insurance before and was impressed with the qualities of coverage and fair prices.

If you want to be able to cancel for any reason with AXA, you’ll have to buy their Platinum comprehensive package. As you can imagine, that plan is top-level and not the cheapest, but you’ll be glad to get 75% of your costs back as long as you bought it within 14 days of booking your trip.

Pros: 

Cons: 

• High costs of both base plan and CFAR upgrade
• Rental car insurance is extra even with high base costs

Travelex Insurance Services

We have covered Travelex Insurance before in a review and found it to be a quality option for many kinds of trips. Besides our positive review, you can find plenty more on the internet- a pleasant discovery when seeing what others have to say about a trip that went wrong!

For an upgrade cost, you can add a CFAR option to their Travel Select plan to be able to recover 50% of your non-refundable purchases. As usual, the insurance must have been purchased within 14 days of booking the trip and can’t be used less than 48 hours of departure.

Pros: 

• No deductibles
• Great customer service
• Child coverage is free for each adult on the plan

Cons: 

• Lower CFAR reimbursement rate of 50%
• Comparison of cost to benefit limits isn’t great

See Related: Travelex Insurance Review

Nationwide

You’ve probably heard of Nationwide, another big name in all kinds of insurance. They offer several travel insurance packages and are generally of great quality. This quality does usually come with a higher price, of course.

Their cancel-for-any-reason option is available to add to several packages, including the comprehensive Prime plan. It is a more generous upgrade allowing for purchase up to 21 days after your initial trip payment and offering a 75% reimbursement of your costs if the option is used.

Pros: 

• High levels of coverage all around
• Generous 200% allowance for trip interruption coverage
• Longer grace period from the time of booking to add CFAR

Cons: 

• The base cost of the plan is high
• High cost to add on cancel-for-any-reason

Seven Corners Travel Insurance

If you are watching your budget, Seven Corners is a great option to save some money without much sacrifice. These packages are underwritten by the larger United States Fire Insurance Company.

While the low cost of their base plans is great, two things make Seven Corners super interesting for CFAR reasons. First, they offer a comparatively-long 20 days from the booking of your trip to add the benefit, and up to 75% is reimbursed. Second, you can add interrupt-for-any-reason as well, which is a rare product and offered for a great price!

Pros: 

• Low-cost plans
• Low-cost upgrade to CFAR
• Possibility to add interrupt-for-any-reason

Cons: 

• Low cost comes with some loss of benefits and/or lower limits
• Some reviews are negative when it comes to filing a claim

See Related: Seven Corners Travel Insurance Review

Trawick International

An insurance company specializing in all things travel, Trawick International is a great choice for many different types of travelers. Their products are especially useful for those headed to Costa Rica, which has particular insurance requirements, and for medical coverage when visiting the USA.

They offer up to 75% reimbursement of your non-refundable trip costs with their CFAR upgrade as long as it is purchased within 21 days of your initial trip payment. The cost to add it is average and fair compared to others.

Pros:

• Coverage meets the requirements to travel to Costa Rica, which is particular
• Pet medical expenses are covered at certain destinations!
• Medical coverage amounts are competitive
• Rental car insurance is included up to $35,000

Cons:

• The low rating on the BBB with complaints about the lengthy claims process

WorldTrips

Another budget option for travel insurance is WorldTrips, a lesser-known but still quality insurance company. If you are specifically looking for CFAR coverage at a fair price, WorldTrips offers a unique possibility. You can choose between 75% coverage or, for a lower price, 50% coverage. You could save money if you don’t mind a lower reimbursement rate.

Pros:

• Covid-19 Top Pick for coverage if you test positive
• Interesting upgrades are available for things like School Activities and Destination Weddings, providing more specific coverage
• Two options for CFAR coverage: 50% or 75% reimbursement

Cons:

• Baggage loss, baggage delay, and trip delay coverage limits are lower than competitors
• Ratings on InsureMyTrip from past users are somewhat lower than competitors

C&F Travel Insured International

C&F specializes in travel insurance specifically, selling plans underwritten by the United States Fire Insurance Company. They offer CFAR coverage if you purchase the package within 21 days of making your trip bookings and reimburse at a rate of 75%. Furthermore, this is another of the few companies that offer an interrupt-for-any-reason upgrade

Pros:

• Wide range of add-ons available such as rental car insurance, event ticket protection, and more
• Lower-than-average base plan cost and CFAR upgrade cost
• Option to add interrupt-for-any-reason as well

Cons:

• The emergency medical benefits limit is on the lower end
• Baggage delay reimbursement is rather low

How to Find Travel Insurance with CFAR Coverage

It can be overwhelming to search through so many different websites, looking over the details of quote after quote. Don’t you wish there were Google Flights or a Kayak for travel insurance? Actually, there are two!

InsureMyTrip

If you aren’t sure where to shop, InsureMyTrip is a great site to help you compare a whole bunch of insurance plans at once. Rather than going site by site and entering your trip information each visit, you can just do it once on this search engine and easily compare your quotes side-by-side.

InsureMyTrip prides itself on its completely unbiased presentation of the best plans for your trip. They advertise ordering your results solely based on what fits your needs and not by what plans make them the most money. They also work with all types of insurance providers, large and small, so you have a wide array of options and not just the best-connected companies.

What’s more is that once you have chosen a policy, you can purchase the plan directly on InsureMyTrip. The advantage is that they have a best-price guarantee, promising that you won’t find a better deal elsewhere, plus customer service support from their team of advocates.

If something goes wrong and you need to use your insurance, you can count on a professional to help you deal with the red tape. They will guide you through the claims process in dealing with the insurance company.

To get a quote specifically for cancel-for-any-reason travel insurance on InsureMyTrip, enter your destination, dates, and other trip information. Once you see your search results, you should select the option to see Comprehensive plans on the left side. You’ll then be able to check a box to filter for Cancel For Any Reason.

TravelInsurance.com

If you like the magic of a search on InsureMyTrip, don’t forget to try it again on TravelInsurance.com or use it as an alternative. Just as above, this search engine will allow you to compare insurance policies side by side, filter out what you don’t need, and sort them in the order you prefer. All of this is the result of just a single search.

We love TravelInsurance.com for its ease of use and user-friendly format. The search criteria are super simple and will probably take you less than a minute to input. The results display a surprising amount of information about each plan in a way that doesn’t overwhelm you with fine print.

You can also buy your policy directly on the site, where there is also a best-price guarantee. You’ll benefit from another set of customer service assistance if you need it if buying through them, and we love that they have a ton of helpful articles that makes it easy to find information about somewhat complicated travel insurance terms.

If you want to only see the cancellable for any reason plans, you simply have to check the corresponding filter box on the left of the screen. You’ll find a ton of other filters as well in case you have specific needs.

See Related: TravelInsurance.com Review

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