Help! Canceling holiday due to family illness

batboysings

Hi everyone, I'm looking for some advice.

A few weeks ago, after some massive saving, I booked myself a flight and hotel deal on ebookers.com to New York for the start of September, as well as a couple of theatre tickets for while I'm there. I booked on my HSBC mastercard. Total was around £850.

Sadly, a close family member has been diagnosed with cancer, and the doctors have suggested they only have 1 or 2 months left. Obviously I'm going to need to be in the country for this time. I know this is the wrong time to worry about cancelling holidays, but I wanted to know if anyone had any idea where I stand about refunds etc - after saving for so long it would be very sad to lose all the money at a time when I'm going to need it.

Ebookers phone line is closed at the weekend and their help pages are a bit vague. I recently also bought travel insurance from OULDirect.com, but as I haven't really done this before I'm not sure if it would cover this sort of cancellation, as I'm not physically unable to travel.

Does anyone have any idea about where I stand, in terms of possibly a refund or changing the holiday to next year or something?

Thank you v much

Pollycat

Hi
I'm sorry to hear about your relative's illness.

You really need to get your insurance policy out and read what you are covered for.

My insurance covers me for cancellation (subject to the excess (£50 in my case)) in the event of 'serious illness of an immediate relative - and gives the definiton of exactly who that includes. So it really depends on what your policy says and what the relationship is between you and who's ill.

I hope you can cancel or postpone your holiday without being too much out of pocket.
Regards

poet123

Sorry to hear your sad news. This happened to me some years ago, the first question they asked was about the diagnosis and whether the relative had been undergoing tests before we booked. In our case they hadnt, but if they were, to be covered you would need to have disclosed the information, as it comes under the principle of "the health of any person on whom travel is dependent".

Then, all we did was obtain a doctors letter outlining the circumstances and the insurance company re imbursed us in full. I hope it works out for you.

If you cannot cancel a lot of TA's/airlines will allow you postpone, until a more suitable time, if you explain the circumstances they will try to help.

batboysings

Thanks for your advice.
The policy states

For! a! Close! Relative! or! Business! Associate! who! is! not! travelling! and! whose! health! may!
affect!the!trip.!
If,! at! the! time! of! taking! out! this! insurance! (or! booking! the! trip! if! this! was! later)! Your!
Close!Relative!or!Business!Associate!had!a!medical!condition!for!which!he/she:!
Was!receiving!treatment!at!hospital!
Was!waiting!for!a!hospital!consultation!or!treatment!
Had! been! given! a! terminal! prognosis,! or! been! told! that! their! condition! is! likely! to! get!
worse!in!the!next!12!months!
We!will!not!pay!for!any!problem!which!has!anything!to!do!with!that!medical!condition.!



The relative is my grandmother. She was ill when I ordered the insurance but we were not aware how serious it was. So I suppose this could be a problem. Hopefully, Ebookers will allow me to postpone the trip...

batboysings

Sorry about those bizarre exclamation marks...

Incapuppy

batboysings wrote: »

The relative is my grandmother. She was ill when I ordered the insurance but we were not aware how serious it was. So I suppose this could be a problem.

Sorry to hear of your grandmother's illness. Unfortunately I really cannot see your travel insurance covering you but I really hope that you can sort something out re: postponement.

Wammer

I agree. If she was under investigation or diagnosis before the insurance as taken out then I doubt you would be covered.

If you have the opportunity to postpone then I would do that for a good few months down the line as the diagnosis is only a guess and your grandmother may survive a lot only than has been estimated.

I would also get it in writing if you can that it can be postponed as I'm surprised at you being able to postpone scheduled flights as they are normally payable and non-refundable at time of booking.

However........ the American carriers are good at letting you change things, but it must be done via the agent you booked with.

beverley1296

I booked a holiday months ago to take my mum away for her birthday, i was insured and everything, anyway she fainted on Sunday morning, the hospital let her home next day, I rang to claim off the insurance and they told me to change the name if possible so I wouldn't lose out, I decided to take my nephew away so I changed the ticket and paid the insurance, cancelling the first insurance, mum told me she was feeling fine and not to lose the holiday, but she wasn't feeling fit enough to fly, . Now today I had to take my mum for a CT scan and they have found a lesionin her brain, she is now in hospital I cannot go now and wonder how I stand in cancelling the holiday. Will I lose out....this is a nightmare.

richardw

Is your Nephew old enough to go with one of his friends or something?

photome

Highly unlikely that your new insurance policy will cover you as your Mum was already in hospital at the time you took it out (if I have read your post properly).

As Richard says could your nephew go with someone else? otherwise I suspect you would lose everything unless you have any other way of cancelling ie if yopu have booked direct with hotels etc

melb

but the insurance company advised her on her best course of action knowing that her mother had had to go to hospital. Don't they bear some kind of moral responsibility to help her?