Urgent help / Advice required

GADGE1961

Hi Guys,
I am new to the forum and need some urgent help. Earlier this year myself and my wife booked a holiday of a lifetime which we had planned for a long time. All our plans were booked independently. Flights with BA, hotels with expedia and Octopus travel and internal flights with a company called jetstar. Unfortunately my father in law has been diagnosed with a terminal illness and it looks like we will have to cancel our holiday. We have rolling holiday insurance through our bank account with RBS. Reading the T&C with the hotels 3 out of 4 state if given enough notice we should get our money back . The fourth has a no refunds policy so you basically lose your money. The flights in Oz with Jetstar also look like will will lose our money. I have not looked into the BA flights situation yet. Do we try and get all our money back from our insurance ?. Will they be forthcoming with the cost of the Oz flights etc. As you can all imagine it’s a terribly upsetting time for everyone so any help would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers.

Leigh-Anne_60

Hiya

First of all, sorry to hear about your FIL

Is it the case that your FIL has been given a short time frame & you think he will pass whilst your away? Or maybe you ar now required to care for him and cant travel?

Depending on above, your insurance should provide cancellation cover - As long as at the time of booking your trip your FIL was in good health.

But, you need to be talking to your insurers, they are the only ones that can confirm if you are indeed covered

Good luck x

Pollycat

Sorry to hear your bad news, Gadge1961.

I agree with Leigh-Anne 60, check the T&Cs of your policy to see what it says about cancellation.
It may cover UNFORESEEN illness of a close relative.

If your father-in-law's diagnosis has come out of the blue (i.e. you weren't aware of any illness or he wasn't undergoing tests that you didn't declare to the insurance company) you may be covered.

peachyprice

If you are covered they will expect you to get refunds where possible then will pay out for the rest, minus your excess.

GADGE1961

Thanks for all your replies and good wishes. My FIL has not been given long and we are due to travel end of Oct. On the point of insurance. My FIL was ill but no members of the family were told as he thought he was on the mend, therefore this news came as a bolt from the blue !!. Would the insurers take this into consideration and if so would they cover the costs of the internal flights that we booked in OZ ?

Cheers.

pinksprout

Sorry to hear about your FIL.

I had a similar situation in the summer of 2008 when we (my husnand, two sons and I) had also booked flights to Australia, 4 different hotels, 2 lots of car hire and internal flights between cities with both Jetstar and Virginblue. About 3.5 months before we were due to travel, I suffered major complications following routine surgery (which wasn't even on the horizon when the components of the holiday was booked). I kept hoping that I would be well enough to travel but about a month before departure I had to have further surgery and it was clear that we would not be able to go.

Have you considered rearranging your holiday for another date rather than cancelling everything? We decided to try and postpone the holiday until the following Easter, however due to time of year, absolutely everything we had booked was much more expensive in April than in August and we were majorly out of pocket. The 4 transatlantic flights alone were another £1,000. Anyway, I recall that Jetstar will permit you to change the flights for a later date for a small fee and I imagine that BA would do the same. I included the 'amendment' fees for flights and hotels in my insurance claim.

spiro

GADGE1961 wrote: »

Thanks for all your replies and good wishes. My FIL has not been given long and we are due to travel end of Oct. On the point of insurance. My FIL was ill but no members of the family were told as he thought he was on the mend, therefore this news came as a bolt from the blue !!. Would the insurers take this into consideration and if so would they cover the costs of the internal flights that we booked in OZ ?

Cheers.

Because you and the family did not know about the illness your insurance is valid. They should cover all costs. Contact your insurance asap to get the definitive view.

travelgran

We had to cancel our holiday last year after a close family member's cancer diagnosis. The tax part of the flights was refunded directly by the airline. Our travel agent contacted them for us. The remainder came from our insurance bar the excess. Be aware that the excess was per person so £50 became £100. I must admit I hadn't realised this!

Pollycat

travelgran wrote: »

We had to cancel our holiday last year after a close family member's cancer diagnosis. The tax part of the flights was refunded directly by the airline. Our travel agent contacted them for us. The remainder came from our insurance bar the excess. Be aware that the excess was per person so £50 became £100. I must admit I hadn't realised this!

If it's a joint policy, any excess stated will be 'per insured person'.

But also, any maximum amount covered will be 'per insured person'.

So, for example, say Cancellation excess is £75 per person but maximum amount covered for Cancellation is £2000 per person, you'd get a maximum payout of £3850 between a couple.

HXDave

Spiro

Because you and the family did not know about the illness your insurance is valid. They should cover all costs. Contact your insurance asap to get the definitive view.

Incorrect actually. If the OP's FIL knew about the illness and chose not to tell the family, then it is still classed as a pre-existing condition and, depending on what the condition was at the time of booking the holiday. after all, it is just too easy and also 'convenient' just to say that you did't know of the medical condition of someone who the trip depends on until it's too late.

In my opinion GADGE1961, you really need to speak with the insureres to see what they would say, giving all the details and being 100% totally honest (after all, if you do persue a claim, the first thing that they will do is request your FIL's medical records, which will detail down everything).

Good luck, and i hope you are succesful with your claim.

GADGE1961

Just a quick follow up. Sadly my FIL passed away. A big thank you to all who responded to my post. It restores you faith in human nature when people take a little time out to help others. Once again thanks.
Gadge1961.