Insurance to cover potential death of non-travelling relative?

MaximumFish

Hey all,

We recently booked a Disneyland trip for January, and usually I'm on-the-ball and get travel insurance sorted straight away - only I was struggling to find anywhere that would cover against cancellation due to Covid so I put the job on the backburner for later.

Unfortunately now my MIL has gone to hospital with advanced-stage cancer, and the outlook's not exactly promising. She wasn't going to be travelling with us, but obviously if she dies before our trip (or is likely to during), my wife's not going to be keen on going anymore, and I get the distinct impression that if we take out insurance now then this eventuality won't be covered.

I've looked into pre-exisiting issue cover via the MSE article, but that only seems to cover people who are actually travelling.

Is there anywhere that would cover this sort of thing post-diagnosis? Or can I just take out normal insurance seeing as none of us are directly affected?

Appreciate any advice!

bluelad1927

I veey much doubt you could get insurance to cover you now. This was almost my exact circumstances a decade ago. January, Disneyworld, terminal illness, direct relative etc. Unfortunately the events did materialse and while we had insurance we were not covered  due to it being a pre existing condition of the relative.

I was able to go directly to the companies to get a refund for park tickets etc but lost the holiday cost

DullGreyGuy

I'm yet to see any policy where you can declare the illnesses of non-travelling family members for cover, others on here have claimed to come across such policies but have never been able to recall who they were. 

Haven't looked recently but the insurance bundled in certain Lloyds accounts used to have a more relaxed wording stating it will cover relatives pre-existing conditions when there was no reasonably foreseeable deterioration in their condition that may result in your cancellation/curtailment. Unfortunately thats not likely to apply to an advance cancer depending on exactly the current prognosis etc. 


You could try a broker, aren't many in this field and most aim at high net worth individuals, but when you are in specialist underwriting plus high risk it may be cost prohibitive. 

born_again

Does the policy you have not cover you for not going if a family member dies (hope that she does not)

eskbanker

born_again said:

Does the policy you have not cover you for not going if a family member dies (hope that she does not)

OP doesn't have a policy!

bluelad1927

born_again said:

Does the policy you have not cover you for not going if a family member dies (hope that she does not)

They are unlikely to cover death from pre existing  conditions of a non traveller

DullGreyGuy

born_again said:

Does the policy you have not cover you for not going if a family member dies (hope that she does not)

Not if the death is related to a condition that existed before the insurance was purchased and/or the holiday was booked. 

MaximumFish

Thanks for the thoughts, everyone. You've pretty much confirmed my assumption that it's uninsurable at this point, and our only chance at any kind of refund is going to be asking Disney themselves.

Time to have a trawl through their T's & C's I suppose.

Edit: Under the circumstances their change/cancellation policy isn't terrible. A 50% refund for cancellations up to 14 days beforehand, or we could potentially change the dates up to 8 days out with no fee if the amended booking is more expensive (£141 fee if it's cheaper).

bluelad1927

MaximumFish said:

Thanks for the thoughts, everyone. You've pretty much confirmed my assumption that it's uninsurable at this point, and our only chance at any kind of refund is going to be asking Disney themselves.

Time to have a trawl through their T's & C's I suppose.

Edit: Under the circumstances their change/cancellation policy isn't terrible. A 50% refund for cancellations up to 14 days beforehand, or we could potentially change the dates up to 8 days out with no fee if the amended booking is more expensive (£141 fee if it's cheaper).

In my circumstances we decided to immediately rebook for a later date and this certainly sweetened the negotiations  when dealing with the theme park ticket company etc who had about £1000 of my cash

boots_babe

I have just been looking into this myself, and the only provider I've found that I believe would provide such cover, is of all places Tesco travel insurance.  I've read their policy wording and believe it would cover for the deterioration of an existing condition for a close family member that resulted in you having to cancel your travel.

Flugelhorn

boots_babe said:

I have just been looking into this myself, and the only provider I've found that I believe would provide such cover, is of all places Tesco travel insurance.  I've read their policy wording and believe it would cover for the deterioration of an existing condition for a close family member that resulted in you having to cancel your travel.

I suspect that the problem for the OP is that the condition of the relative  has already deteriorated and that is  before they got the insurance in place. Most companies will deal with pre-existing conditions in relatives but not if the likelihood of having to cancel has increased to this degree