Hello!
We upgraded recently for fears of having a slew of COVID related cancellations and that cancelation insurance looked quite nice.
The caveat to that: you have to book your hotel in the same city of the cancelled sit.
So in our instance we were in Tucson on a Monday, found out that our sit in New Mexico (one state east, short flight) that was to start 4 days later cancelled.
In order to take advantage of that reimbursement for the hotel, we would have had to go to New Mexico and book a hotel there while looking for other options. And trust me when I say there are few options for house sits or hotels in this remote part of New Mexico.
So we cancelled the flights we had already booked and started scouring the site for nearby sits. We were lucky and found one an hours drive away and only needed an Airbnb for two nights.
But of course, we paid for those nights as they weren’t covered in the cancellation insurance.
I’m sure it’ll come in handy sometime. We’ve had 3 sits cancel on us in 1 month. (Be safe out there y’all!).
As for the airport lounges - you only get two passes every 12 months, so if you are traveling with a companion/partner, you can use it for one journey. So choose your lounge wisely!