Too ill to travel

1369phil

Good evening, hope this is posted in the correct place.

I've booked a holiday to Orlando as separate flights and accommodation (via the methods on this site) for the 4th April 2016 however as I type this I am in a hospital bed, seriously ill.

I will not be well enough to travel and my wife and 3 kids won't go without me.

I bought travel insurance, a villa and flight and my wife has managed to get a credit note from the ticket place.

It's still going to thousands of pounds if I can't reclaim the money I've spent on flights and the villa

To be totally honest I don't know where to start - this time last week I wasn't sure I was going to live, now more practical matters are at hand.

Can anybody tell me where to start

DUTR

With your travel insurance policy......

tomtontom

Your insurance documents will give you a number to make a claim, call this as soon as possible. They'll ask you to get your doctors to complete a form and may also request confirmation of cancellation from the airline etc.

Your documents will also detail any policy limitations or exclusions.

I hope you're on the road to recovery soon.

elsien

Phone up the travel insurance - isn't that what it's for?
I hope you start to get better soon - if you're not going to be well enough to travel, your doctor should be able to confirm that. I'm guessing there wasn't anything when you booked the holiday that would count as a preexisting condition or tests?

EssexExile

I had this last year, had to cancel a week before going. I phoned the insurance company & they sent a claim form. I left the medical part with my doctor (£36 please) & got cancellation invoices from the airline & accomodation people. Got it all together & sent it off & the money came back pretty quick. The hardest bit, if you've never done it before, is working out exactly what paperwork they want.

lea2012

I had this a couple of years ago, my daughter was taken very ill just two weeks before our wedding overseas so we had to cancel everything.

First thing to do is call your travel insurance and ask them for advice.

They will likely send you a claim form and advise you to cancel your travel arrangements, but check with them before you cancel.

You'll then need to contact the airline and the villa owner. You will be unlikely to get a refund at this late stage but they should both be able to provide you with cancellation certificates / letters to show that you cancelled but that you have been charged in full. You will need to do the same for any airport transfers etc that you may have also booked.

You will also need a letter from the hospital or your consultant to say that they advise you not to travel.

Once you have all the cancellation documents you send those along with the claim form to the insurance for them to review. If approved and everything goes OK they will advise you of an amount that they intend to refund you. We got everything refunded apart from the flight taxes which the airline refunded us, and the excess which we had to pay per person including children.

It was a lot easier than I expected it to be to be honest and the insurance are there to guide you all the way should you need it.

crazycamper

Hope you are soon on the road to recovery but you must all be very disappointed and stressed about the holiday plans. You have already got most of the advice you need on here but most important things you need are the original paperwork for the flights & villa and then you will need the cancellation invoices from both places showing the amount of money that you have lost. You mention that your wife had got a credit note for the flights ? Is that so you can book future flights with the same company ? If so, I would check on that as you wont be able to claim that back if in effect it is money on a voucher . Ask the insurance company for a claims form and then you will be able to see exactly what they require. Good luck.