Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

How to create an Amex Platinum insurance certificate before you travel

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

Whilst we haven’t covered it, because we couldn’t find anything worth discussing, American Express moved its insurance underwriting to Europ Assistance on 1st January.

This has led to changes in the back end to how insurance issues are dealt with, something which primarily impacts holders of The Platinum Card.

One thing that has changed is the process for getting an insurance certificate.

American Express Platinum travel insurance certificate

Insurance certificates became a ‘thing’ during the pandemic when some countries made it a condition of entry to show proof of medical insurance.

It is fairly rare that you will be asked to show one anywhere today. One exception is if you book a cruise, where you may be required to produce proof that you are insured.

If you bought a dedicated travel insurance policy then you don’t need to worry because you will have a personalised policy document. It is trickier if your coverage comes via The Platinum Card from American Express because you do not have a policy document with your name on it.

American Express has the functionality to generate an insurance certificate online although the process is now different under Europ Assistance.

How do you get an American Express travel insurance certificate?

The first step is to visit the dedicated American Express travel insurance portal which is here.

Slightly annoyingly, Europ Assistance now forces you to create an account before you can do anything.

Once logged in, you will see this screen:

American Express insurance certificate

Click on ‘Travel insurance certificate’.

This takes you to a form where you need to fill in details about yourself and your trip. Once you have submitted those, your certificate is immediately available for download as a PDF. It is also emailed to you.

And that’s it. Once you know about the link above, it is a very fast and efficient process for American Express Platinum cardholders.

PS. You can learn more about the benefits of The Platinum Card from American Express in this article.


earns points from credit cards

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2025 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Comments (57)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • J says:

    Would love a full guide to the Amex Platinum insurance product. Took me a while to understand who is covered by it, that you can book on a different Amex in your name and still be covered, etc. (relevant if you have the business version).

  • JB says:

    Do you need to prove that part of/all of the trip has been paid for using your Platinum card in order to be insured and get the certificate?

  • Lordy says:

    Does any one know if Amex platinum insurance covers cruises, can’t find either way in T&Cs

    • Fiona Lochrie says:

      I’m interested in the reply to your question as I prepared a certificate yesterday to go on a cruise in February. I was only able to add one destination which I made my departure port but was concerned that this didn’t seem right.

    • Jonathans says:

      I say yes on the basis I claimed in November 2024 and they paid out no questions asked (bar the initial form).

    • Paul says:

      It does. I have used it twice. Firstly to cross the Atlantic and recently on Queen Anne. The first time I called as I need the certificate to specifically mention cruise

  • OnTheRun says:

    This is great, thanks HfP

    Can supp card holders do this as well or is it just for the main account holder to do?

    • Fiona Lochrie says:

      I did this yesterday and both parties were able to create an account. Also either party could create the certificate adding the other as a travel companion.

  • SteveW says:

    Also interested in the cruise insurance, ultimately will determine whether I get card or not.

  • LittleNick says:

    Have there been changes to the cover provided and terms?

    • JDB says:

      No, the only change is that the policy is now administered by Europ Assistance instead of Axa. The underlying terms and conditions remain; it is time they were updated though! Even their presentation and wording looks/feels rather outdated.

  • JdeW says:

    When Amex travel insurance cover was provided by AXA, it was provided to Platinum cardholders up to the age of 70. I am not sure if this is still the case via Europ Assistance. I am 70 and was able to generate a Europ Assistance certificate last week. Would it have paid out, I wonder…? (I had back up cover just in case!)

    • ba says:

      The Personal Platinum card provides cover for those under the age of 70. This was true when administered by Axa and remains true under Europ Assistance.

      So, if you are 70, you are not covered.

      I believe the Business Platinum card provides cover for those under the age of 80. If so, that could be an option for you.

    • JDB says:

      Unfortunately they don’t set out the terms in easily referenced numbered paras, but if you look towards the bottom of page 8 it clarifies that you must be under 70 for the medical cover to apply. The wording of this implies that you would be covered under other sections, but you should check. It’s quite concerning they issue a certificate without alerting you to such a major omission, but I wouldn’t want to rely on the certificate in these circumstances.

  • Ragman says:

    Just a heads up. When I tried to create a Europ Assistance account on my iPad, I used the “create a strong password option “ from Apple. The site didn’t like a long and complex password ( it passed the guidance on the page). I had to simplify it. It then worked ok.

    • RussellH says:

      Was it a question of the PW being too long?

      I personally do like to have passwords that are easy to type (as I never store PWs for financial sites), which rules out the idea of totally random characters. But I can across a site the other day that imposed a maximum of 12 chars, which I have long understood to be the recommended minimum.

      • memesweeper says:

        Three random words are easy to type, separate them with a special character and a number and you have more than enough entropy to defeat an attacker *provided they are random and unique*

        Bitwarden will do this for free for you — select ‘generate’ and ‘passphrase’

        Systems with a 12 character maximum are run by idiots. BA also seem to have a maximum length for no good reason — and for bonus idiot points, they let you set a ‘too long’ password then refuse to let you log in with it. 😳

        • RussellH says:

          > they let you set a ‘too long’ password then refuse to let you log in with it.

          Fortunately never had that one.
          But I must check Virgin Money – they objected to my original 17 char PW, so had to leave the last char off, which is actually quite difficult when typing actual words.

          Also bad are Amex – PWs still not case sensitive.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.