UK travel Insurance inc day trips

hrbc

We would like to book 2 steam train day trips with premier dining  plus a UK holiday this year.  However my father has terminal cancer and if we cancel less than 31 days before the train excursions we will lose our money.  The company advises to take out travel insurance as each trip will be around £700-800.  The problem is finding an insurer that covers day excursions and would they pay out as I am aware of a pre existing condition all be it not myself but a family member who is terminally ill.  (My father will not be on any of the trips/holiday)

Any advice on insurers etc would be welcome

TELLIT01

I think you are going to struggle on various aspects. The major stumbling block is one of your party having terminal cancer.  That is likely to affect cover for all travelling with them and anything associated with the cancer is likely to be excluded from all cover.  You need to speak to a broker rather than trying to sort it online.

Aretnap

Very sorry for your situation. 

I also think your going to struggle, not so much with the day excursions aspect as with the fact that your dad has already been diagnosed as terminator ill. While most policies will cover cancellation due to the death of serious illness of a non-travelling relative, this will not apply if the relative was already known to be seriously or terminally ill at the time of booking.

And while insurers will ask questions about the health of travellers and there are those who will cover travellers with even quite serious health issues, I've never come across over who asks questions or considered the health of non-travelling relatives - a standard policy will just apply a blanket exclusion on cancellation due to their existing health problems. 

Even if a policy was available it would quite likely cost a significant fraction of the cost of the holiday due both to it being a very specialist market, and the rather high probability that it would have to pay out. 

Financially what did the cost of the holiday represent to you? For some people having to cancel a £1500 excursions would be a financial disaster, for other people it would be relatively minor in the grand scheme of things. That perhaps should give you in deciding whether it's better to book without insurance, or postpone the holiday until another time. (The railway company will of course advise that you take out travel insurance, mainly so that they can say "we warned you" if you complain that they won't refund your money. That doesn't always mean that it's the right decision for you.)

Aretnap

TELLIT01 said:

I think you are going to struggle on various aspects. The major stumbling block is one of your party having terminal cancer.  That is likely to affect cover for all travelling with them and anything associated with the cancer is likely to be excluded from all cover.  You need to speak to a broker rather than trying to sort it online.

None of the party has terminal cancer. A non-travelling relative has terminal cancer, which if anything makes getting adequate cancellation cover even more difficult.

Hoenir

I'm very sorry – this must be a difficut time for you. 

As far as insurers go. For travel insurance there's a broad blanket approach. 

"Trip cancellations and trip interruptions due to known, foreseeable, or expected events, epidemics, or fear of travel are generally not covered."

hrbc

We did wonder if this was the case, we didn't have a holiday last year due to dad being diagnosed and other personal factors.  The train trip is for our 30th wedding anniversary later this year (we couldn't celebrate our 25th due to Covid!)  We haven't as yet booked a holiday, we could quite easily book last minute as we are able to go outside school holidays.  One to think about!