Bereavement insurance

[Girlsworld92]

Hi, just looking for some advice plse. My FIL has cancer and unfortunately today we found out that the outlook isn’t good. We knew this really but were never given an indicator of how long he has and unfortunately it seems to be happening a bit quicker than anticipated & we have a trip booked in March. I’m looking for recommendations of travel insurance companies that might cover us if we cancel due to family bereavement from a pre-existing condition. Has anybody been in this situation & can advise. Apologies as it’s a sensitive subject & don’t want to upset anyone. Fortunately we don't have to pay the rest of the hol until a month before we could make a judgement call then. Tia x

Did you not take out insurance when you booked the trip? I think you may struggle to cover this situation now.

No one will cover you for a pre esisting condition unfortunately, it would be commercially crazy.

I doubt you would get covered now - did you not take insurance out when you booked it ?

No, you won't get insurance to cover you for something that you already know has a strong chance of happening.

If you had taken out insurance when you booked the trip, that might have covered you, but you can't take it out after the fact. I think you need to budget for having to write off the deposit.

He's had it for years so even if we had taken our insurance earlier it would have been preexisting. We have never covered for it before but it's getting critical now. I guess we will just have to take the hit if it comes to it. It's fine we will just have to deal with it I thought it was just worth considering. In the grand scheme of things it doesn't compare to what MIL will be facing.

It's a very difficult scenario to plan for, and it can feel morbid even thinking about the practicalities. I postponed/cancelled some long-term travel plans when my sister's cancer returned, but in the end she had a lot less time left than anyone had thought, so the original dates would actually have been OK. I hope your FIL has some quality time left to spend with you all.

Been on that holiday. Had that phone call. I'm cynical. The insurance didn't pay for anything even though on paper it looked like it would. So short of ringing around and getting an explicit yes we will get you home clause, I think you might just have to chalk it up to experience. Hope it doesn't happen to you

Thank you for your kind words @exexpat hoping he feels well to enjoy Christmas Day. We had such a lovely day with them last year.
We will just have to see what happens I think. It's only a 3 day trip to DLP for the kids so rearranging it nearer the time might be the best option.

Thank you @didireallysaythat
Sorry you went through that.

Like pp’s said, think it’s unlikely you will get TI that covers this scenario now. However, be careful when you take out your TI for the other aspects of your trip that you read the small print, as not mention a potential situation can impact on others claims, there are often clauses that invalidate the entire policy, despite the actual problem being nothing to do with the situation you are worried about IYSWIM.
You could get a 0% credit card as a fall back in case you need to return suddenly and incur additional expense.
Very difficult situation to be in, been there myself.

Thank you @FadedRed good idea about the credit card.
Think our best bet is to see where we are at a month before and then make a decision from there.

Sorry about your FIL.

I suspect that, even if you did get cover, it would be so expensive that it wouldn't be worth buying, ie a significant percentage of the cost of the holiday.

Rearranging the trip might be a better option if you can do that.