United Airlines' travel insurance aims to protect you if your trip is delayed, your baggage is lost or other travel mishaps occur. But the United Airlines flight insurance plan is far from comprehensive. Let’s look at what the policy covers, how to buy it and whether it's a good fit for you.

About United Airlines travel insurance

United’s flight insurance isn’t underwritten by United Airlines. While you can purchase a policy via United’s website, it’s actually issued by AIG and is called the Travel Guard plan.

United Travel Guard insurance is focused on benefits during your air travel, though it does have limited coverage beyond your flight time.

United trip insurance

Two policies are available via the United website: The Domestic Air Ticket plan and the International Air Ticket plan.

To get a sample quote, we put in two different flights. The first was a one-way economy class flight from San Diego to Newark, New Jersey. The total for the flight came out to $755.70, and the insurance premium offered totaled $60.46.

In our second quote, we checked out an economy class flight from London-Heathrow to Boston. A one-way ticket came out to $1,624.35, and the insurance policy quote was returned at $117.77

Here’s how the plans compare to one another.

The coverage for the policies is fairly similar whether you’re traveling domestically or internationally. However, international travel includes emergency medical and higher limits for issues with luggage. It’s also correspondingly more expensive.

What isn’t covered by United Airlines insurance

United’s travel insurance has generous policy limits.

They don’t ask you how much your trip cost and price the maximums accordingly; instead, there’s a flat rate benefit for trip interruption and trip delay, which can be great if you’re embarking on a more expensive vacation.