Travel Ins - Cancellation Cover illness of relatives

karendb

Does anyone know of a travel insurance policy where you are covered for cancellation in the event that a close relative is ill (not spouse or children) and you don't want to travel?

Thanks!

cleopatra_2

If it's a pre-existing illness you won't be covered at all unless you've already told the insurers and even then they often exclude that from any claim.

karendb

Thanks Cleopatra.

Yes, you're right.

The reason I asked the question is that my elderly FIL is ill in hospital - we are due to travel next week - but obviously, we don't want to go in these circumstances. We can't claim because our particular travel insurers only cover cancellation if spouse & children are ill, not extended relatives. Even if we do decide to go and are prepared to come back quickly if necessary, we won't be able to claim for curtailment because it's now a pre-existing condition which we knew about before we set off! We are caught between the rock and the hard place.

To be honest, even if the policy did cover extended family, I wonder if they would accept our claim anyway - even though FIL was fine when we booked the holiday, he is 90 and has been ill a few times in the past 2 years. They could say it was a pre-existing condition waiting to happen.

It makes me wonder about my own 70 yr old father who suffered a heart attack 5 yrs ago but has been very stable since. Even if we changed our insurance policy for future holidays, if he did have another heart attack just before we were due to go, we probably wouldn't be able to claim.

It just seems to me that the policies are not covering for the real world.

If you've got this far in my "War & Peace", well done. Rant over.

Best wishes & thanks again!

Barter

A few years ago we were in a similar position; we were due to go on hols then MIL was taken into hospital (seriously ill - proved to be fatal). Our policy did cover us for near relatives so we claimed.

They tried to wriggle out of paying saying she had the condition when we'd booked. It transpired that that was true, but we were able to show that we didn't know about it; she hadn't told us & the doctor at the hospital confirmed that it was he who told us of her illness, so after a bit of convincing they paid up.

cleopatra_2

Sadly this catches a lot of people out. Anybody with elderly relatives take this chance unfortunately. Happened in my family too, sometimes their illnesses last a few years. Unreasonable of insurers not to expect us to take holidays during this period.