Travel Insurance: Mother very ill, looking at cancelling holiday.

Beancounter

Posted this in the travel section before realising this was more appropriate, sorry.

We are due to travel to the USA in 5 weeks time. Unfortunatly, my mother is very very ill and the prognosis is very bad.

We are now looking at cancelling our holiday. Will our insurance cover us for this situation? We have already booked about £400 worth of trips and concerts too so would the insurance cover this too?

Would the travel company look favourably on us if we rescheduled the holiday for next year perhaps?

Quentin

Providing your mother's current condition isn't due to something which was present when you took out the policy, (or when you booked the holiday if you have an annual policy), then cancellation will be covered.

Rescheduling can then be done at your leisure.

dzug1

It depends entirely on the T&C of your particular policy. Many certainly would cover you (less the excess)

They might ask you to wait until nearer the departure date before deciding.

Beancounter

Quentin wrote: »

Providing your mother's current condition isn't due to something which was present when you took out the policy, (or when you booked the holiday if you have an annual policy), then cancellation will be covered.

Rescheduling can then be done at your leisure.

It's probably something that the insurer would try to get out of. She had lung cancer but despite being given the all clear of she has never really been right and isn't eating or drinking and is slowly fading away.

We have an annual policy provided by our bank but it is European cover only so upgraded it to worldwide last month, we booked the holiday back in February.

I've spoken to the holiday company today who say that if the flight tickets haven't been raised already we would be able to rebook straight away for a future date with only an admin fee. We have to call customer services tomorrow to find out more.

luci

Is it the Nationwide free travel insurance policy?

If so, I'm fairly sure that I doesn't cover close relatives if they have been in hospital in the past 12 months. Obviously I don't know if this is the case.

Voyager2002

Talk to your insurer.

Beancounter

It is a Santander policy. We are going to talk to the travel company tomorrow and see how we stand there before contacting g the insurers.

My mother had been in hospital for a lung op but as I said, she was given the all clear for the cancer. Not sure how they'd view this illness.

luci

The policy is online and easily searchable using Ctrl + F

http://www.santander.co.uk/csgs/Satellite?appID=abbey.internet.Abbeycom&c=Page&cid=1237903475694&empr=Abbeycom&leng=en_GB&pagename=Abbeycom%2FPage%2FWC_ACOM_ViewSelector


This is what is says in the Exclusions on page 17 about a Close Relative

9 A medical condition of a close relative, travelling
companion, or close business associate
(whether they are travelling or not) who in the
last year:
a) has been a hospital inpatient in relation to the
aforementioned condition or been put on a
waiting list for hospital treatment;
or b) has been diagnosed with or had cancer.

I don't think your travel insurance will cover you unless you had already declare the condition and had it accepted.

Your best bet is to try and get the date of the holiday changed, but that could be difficult so close to the date of travel and you are possibly within 80-90% cancellation charges.

So sorry to hear of your dilemma as you have enough to worry about without this.