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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To ask of it's common to cancel holidays/ weekends away due to illness!?

49 replies

Zara85 · 20/01/2019 15:13

I'm just curious really.. We were meant to have gone away today for a 2 night break for my son's bday. Unfortunately I've come down with an awful tummy bug. Despite the trip being "non transferable", after a call to the destination and some tears from me (oops) they've moved it back a few weeks.
Our kids are still young (3 and 9mo) and we book lots of things, but its really bothered me as dc2 is about to start nursery and I feel like I'm just setting myself up for loads of wasted money!
We have booked our summer holiday and my stupid mind is now convincing me one of us will end up poorly the day before!
So I guess I'm just wondering have you have had to cancel or miss holidays etc due to illness, or do you tend to brave it and still go despite being bad?
One of my friends still went abroad with a tummy bug and said the flight was horrific as she was on the toilet every 5 mins! Not good during take off and landing!

OP posts:

Gth1234 · 20/01/2019 16:12

we have had to cancel now and again. Personally we haven't bothered with insurance on UK holidays, as the insurance would over time cost more than the holidays.

eg We've lost a couple of fixed price Premier Inn bookings, but the bookings cost half the list rate, by going for the no refund option.

Notquiteagandt · 20/01/2019 16:12

I always book through booking.com and pay the extra to cancel up until the day (most places offer now but if they dont I wont book it)

I often find booking like this gives me more flexibility.

I have canceled 2 holidays one abroad as my anixity was playing up and I no longer fancied it. And a UK one due to getting pregnant and having HG.

The one abroad I only lost out on about 75 quid as I had to pay an access charge to move the flights.

Neither where an issue and avoided going via insurance by booking flexible things.

MaryShelley1818 · 20/01/2019 16:13

We had to fly out on our 2wk summer holiday 4 days late last year as DS had a nasty virus.
Also had to cancel a trip to Lanzerote due to Gastroenteritis.

Jenasaurus · 20/01/2019 16:16

My friends daughter developed tonsillitis just before a trip to New York with her dad. She was floored by the bug and couldn’t swallow and was on strong painkillers and antibiotics. She lost the whole cost of the holiday as wasn’t covered

Witchofzog · 20/01/2019 16:16

Your friend is spectacularly selfish and probably ruined lots of other people's today's op. Cancelling with a tummy bug is normal and it's good you were allowed to change the dates

bruffin · 20/01/2019 16:17

Dc now in their 20s and never cancelled holidays for illness, but we as a family hardly had things like d&v.

Ds did have to cancel a holiday with gf when she got a clot on her lung week before and was in hospital and wasn't allowed to fly anyway. He got it all back from insurance.

brizzledrizzle · 20/01/2019 16:19

We haven't cancelled anything but came close once when DD was sick about an hour before getting on a ferry to France, we still went when we realised that ex-DP had given her a banana smoothie which he hadn't realised contained cows milk (she was lactose intolerant). Twat.

Ffsnosexallowed · 20/01/2019 16:21

Never had to cancel a trip. Had to extend 2 when each DD caught chickenpox on trips to my mum's.

Onecabbage · 20/01/2019 16:33

My eldest is 38, I’ve never had to cancel a holiday.

morningconstitutional2017 · 20/01/2019 16:37

My sister and BIL had to cancel/put back a caravan holiday due to a heart attack. The small company concerned were very understanding.

It's variable though, my dad had to cancel as mum died, the small guest house were really shitty about it.

Looking back over the years we're rarely had to worry about this sort of thing.

morningconstitutional2017 · 20/01/2019 16:38

Pachyderm1 · 20/01/2019 16:43

Get travel insurance and then cancel if you’re sick.

MitziK · 20/01/2019 16:51

That's why there is an entire industry set up - the travel insurance one.

Tips: Don't assume an ongoing condition is not a problem - get it declared and cover for it cleared.

Don't assume that being on a waiting list for something is covered - get it declared in advance and cleared.

Don't buy the insurance three months later when you have already done your back in/have been put on a waiting list/somebody has just had a diagnosis. Buy it when you book/within a couple of days.

But no, it's not unusual.

BiteyShark · 20/01/2019 16:52

I would cancel for serious illnesses as they would be covered by travel insurance but for trivial illnesses like a cold I wouldn't.

I have cancelled when my dog had emergency surgery and was still needing to be looked after. We were just out of the time period when we could have claimed on pet insurance for the holiday so had to just suck up the cost for that one.

elliejjtiny · 20/01/2019 17:00

No, although I went on holiday 2.5 months after a c-section that was booked before I got pregnant accidentally. I was very tempted to not go but the older dc had been looking forward to it for so long so I went and got through it. It was really hard though.

JustDanceAddict · 20/01/2019 17:25

No. But have travel insurance and often use booking.com and make sure it can be cancelled up until day before.
Wouldn’t get insurance for UK hols.
DCs have had ear infections, we’ve had minor illnesses on hols to necessitate a trip to local clinic but all been in Europe so far so have used EHIC. Not sure what will happen post-Brexit.

JustDanceAddict · 20/01/2019 17:28

Obv would travel with a cold. Just dose up.

Satsumaeater · 20/01/2019 17:29

DH and I have been married for 20 years and ds is 16. In that time we have cancelled one trip because FIL died 3 weeks before (claimed on insurance for that one) and we cancelled another trip because DH wasn't that well but to be honest we didn't want to really go anyway by then anyway. We'd only booked a B&B in the UK so just lost a low value deposit.

There was one point though where DH was ill every time we went away and there was more than one time I thought we'd have to cut a trip short.

kaytee87 · 20/01/2019 17:30

The only thing I've had to cancel was a weekend away in london as I broke my ankle badly a couple of weeks before.
Never cancelled any other trips due to illness, maybe we've just been lucky.

Soubriquet · 20/01/2019 17:36

Had to cancel a holiday I had planned as dd came down with chicken pox two weeks before. We were then worried ds would come down with it, so we cancelled it whilst we still had the chance to get some money back. Good job we did as ds did come down with them.

Original poster

Zara85 · 20/01/2019 20:42

I'm praying this is the first and last time for us then
We do have full travel insurance including UK breaks with the premium joint bank account we hold but it isn't worth the excess for this trip anyway, we were just so lucky they agreed to move it. I'm sure the crying definately helped!

OP posts:

ddl1 · 20/01/2019 21:55

If you're lucky it won't happen often; but yes, if people are ill (more than a mild cold or something) they do sometimes cancel. Especially if they' would be going by plane: not good for the individual who's ill, and not good for everyone else on the plane who is receiving all the germs being wafted in their direction.

Honeyroar · 20/01/2019 22:00

I've cancelled five uk holidays in the last 15 months as close family have been rushed into hospital (one time it was my horse!). It's been unbelievable! I laughed the second time, in a "you couldn't make it up" way.. Now I daren't book anything!

Honeyroar · 20/01/2019 22:02

Actually I'm exaggerating - we did make it on three of them, just a couple of days late.

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