Family bereavement

katejo

jeff_chandler said:

We only take out travel insurance usually a week before we depart. 

Very sorry to hear your sad news but insurance always needs to be purchased as soon as you book a trip. If someone in the party develops a medical condition between time of booking and departure, you won't be covered. 

DullGreyGuy

jeff_chandler said:

We only take out travel insurance usually a week before we depart. 

Then you are wasting money as you are uninsured until you do buy it and there is no discount for buying it late. Would have been the same price had you bought it the day you booked.

On this occasion however it may not have made much difference given your daughter wasn't travelling with you and they weren't married to their partner so not your son-in-law. Most will only cover blood or legal relatives unless you are talking a traveller's partner.

Your best option is to speak to your tour operator, they have no legal obligation to help but they may take sympathy and offer you something.

Caz3121

I would say insurance should be in place as soon as there is a financial loss to cover.
If you book fully refundable flights and accommodation then you could argue that cancelling prior to travel gets you a full refund from the suppliers so insurance is only needed for the actual travel so can be purchased later. (I have done this in the past with flights booked with miles and hotels booked with points where I was not 100% sure I would be travelling but knew I would lose about £30 if I didn't)
As soon as something non-refundable is in the mix insurance should be taken unless you choose to carry the risk/loss of something happening.
TUI (packages) treat scheduling to a later date as a cancellation at this point so potentially a total loss according to the t&cs.

Ganga

If TUI will not cancel and let you re-book you could always sell the holiday to some one at a discounted price, they will have to pay for a name change but you might get some of your money back .

NoodleDoodleMan

J_B said:

NoodleDoodleMan said:

J_B said:

We had to cancel our TUI flights due to a medical condition I had.

I showed TUI the letter and they refunded the full cost, no further questions asked.

Not quite the same as your situation but it's certainly worth enquiring.

Were you insured through TUI ?

Certainly not - we used Now

Not like TUI to be so accommodating.

twopenny

You need to be there for your daughter first and foremost.

I'd gather what information you can that explains it's a genuine situation and ask for rebooking, directly face to face if you have a shop near you so you can show evidence.
Even then it's not family, you aren't insured for it so it's whatever you can get.

You'll probably need more time than you think if you daughter has to deal with his family, his posessions and the legal side of accommodation, banks etc. So months here.

jeff_chandler

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80025739#Comment_80025739

Thank you for your reply.

First and foremost, indeed, we are there for our Daughter and helping her in every way we can. As of yet, we no date for the funeral has been announced. This tragedy has been a shock to all of our family, Her live in boyfriend was a gem of a guy.

There is no way we go on this holiday but, as soon as a date for the funeral has been announced, we shall visit our local TUI shop and see what they can do for us.

Kind regards Jeff.

Archergirl

It might be worth going in now, the funeral date may not be for weeks yet as there will need to be a post mortem.
So sorry this must be a terrible time for you all.

TELLIT01

Archergirl said:

It might be worth going in now, the funeral date may not be for weeks yet as there will need to be a post mortem.
So sorry this must be a terrible time for you all.

When my neighbour died her son and daughter-in-law had the same quandary.  They were due to travel to take part in an international sporting event and weren't sure if they should cancel.  I said much the same as Archergirl because there was no way to know when they would be able to have the funeral.  They did go, and it helped occupy their minds apart from anything else.

jeff_chandler

We had a result today. Contacted TUI and because we didn't book direct with them or or TUI online they didn't really want to know. They told me to go direct to the company we booked with which was Holidayhyprmarket, 
I contacted them, explained the situation and was placed on hold. She came back and said they would amend the holiday. I was told the only loss would be the booking fee. I now have until October to re-book. 
Jeff