To ask for experiences cancelling a holiday due to illness?

[WombatStewForTea]

Our youngest has chickenpox. We were due to fly out on holiday on Thursday. It's going to be very touch and go as to whether they will be fully scabbed over in time so looking very likely we'll need to cancel. Kid is completely fine in himself btw - no temp or itchyness just covered in spots.
It's a package holiday with TUI who have said any changes or cancellations are at the full cost of the holiday (understandable). We have travel insurance but haven't been able to contact them over the weekend so that will be my job tomorrow. I've read through the policy documents but it doesn't actually specify which illnesses are covered. If we have medical proof of the chickenpox are they likely to pay out?
Am I right in thinking that if they will cover and we move the dates we will have to have to pay for the new holiday and then claim back?

Never had to claim before and a bit stressed 😭

You’ll have to prove the child’s illness, usually a doctors note, which they may charge for?
Do you have online access to your surgery? ( we can message ours through an app, attach photos if required ).

Its worrying you can’t contact the insurers at the weekend, or are you not wanting to give them a heads up by asking what your options are?

We do I'm going to put a request in first thing tomorrow. They're pretty good at getting back to you same day and if we have to pay then that's fine.

The claim line for the insurers is only open normal office hours which is annoying. I wasn't too bothered about giving them a heads up as if we can still fly I imagine that would be in their best interests and if we can't then they'd find out anyway when we have to claim? Or am I being naive?

You would only get back at best what you paid not any difference to rebook or cost of new holiday, unless you can transfer the booking for a fee. A medical certificate stating dc was not fit to fly on original departure date (you might be charged for this) is usually required and confirmation of cancellation and non-refunded amount. The airfare taxes should be refunded by the airline.

There's no option to transfer without paying the full cost of the holiday. If we can then great but availability isn't great so imagine we'll end up cancelling and rebooking something else.

Thanks for the advice

When we had to claim, DH got a private Gp appointment for a second opinion as much as the insurance forms but it was easier than trying to get a normal Gp appointment and it wasn’t prohibitively expensive. We got our money back thankfully but it took a while.

When did he get chicken pox.

My ds seemed to get new ones continuously for 3 days and I was thinking it would be 5 days from then until they scabbed over. But it was 5 days from day he just had 1 lonely one on his back for the first 18 hours!

So dependent on what time your due to leave Thursday you could wait until then to decide. Especially because I’m himself he’s fine.

Bunin glad to hear your considering all options and will cancel if he has any not scabbed over. Planes are Petri dishes at the best of times!

you could always contact Tui and ask if you can rearrange for a few days later as a preemptive strike.

I really hope you get to go away

Could the other child /ren get it too?

When are you due to go?

See the GP and hopefully get a fit to fly certificate and be on your way.

Came out Saturday morning. Not even one spot and then more appearing. Took his PJs off when he woke up and he was covered. He's definitely gained some new ones since then.

Due to fly 6.30 am on Thurs so a decision will need to be made by Wed. I've found a local private GP who has appointments on Wed and have said they can do fit to fly letters should he hopefully be all clear

No thankfully eldest had it when she was a toddler

Glad you’ve got everything ready for whatever happens. 🤞 he’s fit to fly but I’m so glad you’re not planning to “go anyway” as so many others would.

You wouldn't believe how many people have said to just go / put make up on him/ wear a hat.

I'm not going to but a friend also told me about a time she was on a flight with a kid with suspected chicken pox and the grounded the flight until a doctor could come and check the kid. I'd be mortified so even if I was tempted that would be enough to stop me

We had to cancel a few years ago due to possible covid. DS had an awful cough and would boy have been allowed into Spain! We got a letter from the GP confirming he had a cough that may be covid.
Our travel insurance told us we had to claim as much as we could from the tour operator first. I think we’d booked through Thomas Cook. It took us bloody ages to get confirmation from TC that they had no liability to refund / chance dates etc. partly because their communication was so absolutely dire. It then took them ages to to send proof of this for us to give to our insurers. We did eventually get our money back.
iirc it was more complicated because tour operators had a clause related to Covid (this was in 2022). Because my son wasn’t testing positive BUT had a symptom that meant Spanish customs were likely to refuse entry, we kind of fell between the gaps.
I hope your experience is more straightforward than ours!

You just need a cancellation invoice from the holiday company and a doctors letter. I cancelled last year because the friend I was travelling with had a fall and couldn’t walk. Absolutely no problem.