Cancelling due to pregnancy- fees

[SammiePocket]

Hi looking for some advice, we booked 2 holidays this year due to being told we need ivf and after putting our life on hold for several years due to ttc. 1 in may and 1 in September, well I've just found out I'm pregnant! I don't want to fly after a previous loss I'm not wanting to risk anything but the charges for cancelling seem ridiculously high.

Has anyone had to cancel for this reason and how did you go about it? If we have to pay the fees so be it but just wondered if anyone had any advice for cancelling due to pregnancy. 😊 TIA x

Congratulations! Bit of a long shot, but does your holiday happen to be in a Zika virus area? We managed to get a full refund from BA for our Barbados holiday when I fell pregnant

Can you change instead of cancelling. We moved our holiday to a year later when I found out I was pregnant post booking.

You shouldn't need to cancel unless you're like 8 months pregnant.

It will have no effect on any thing.

It might be helpful to make a couple of distinctions.

It doesn’t sound like it’s pregnancy itself that’s the reason you want to cancel.

It’s an unexpected pregnancy (although any insurance or booking clause recognising that when you were trying might be tricky).

It’s anxiety related to pregnancy that means you want to cancel.

Read up on your booking terms, medical advice for the places you’re travelling to and your travel insurance terms. If you get lucky you might be able to find a private service that will give you a medical letter saying not fit to travel which then gives you more options.

How pregnant are you? I wouldn't cancel anything until I'd had my 12 week scan. Presumably you are at least 4/5 weeks in, so for the September trip you may have grounds to cancel on your travrl insurance as presumably you would be just about due to give birth. The May trip is a bit different, totally understand why you are anxious and feel like you want to wrap yourself in cotton wool, but as it's a personal choice not to travel you probably have just have to just bare the cancellation costs. Maybe worth chatting to a medical practitioner about the risks of travel in pregnancy. If the anxiety gets worse you may be able to find a medical professional who will sign the insurance forms to say your anxiety is too bad to go on the trip, but it's too far ahead for you to do that now.

Have you got travel insurance?

I can understand your anxiety but think you should consider going and enjoying and relaxing will be good for you

Congratulations on your pregnancy!

I would also consider going as holidays after babies are totally different and you won’t have the chance for a relaxing adults style holiday for a long time.

Personally I’d change the dates if possible so the holidays fall after your 12 week scan but before about 24 weeks which is the viability point for a premature birth. I wouldn’t want to be abroad after this point although many people do travel after this with no problems.

You might have more luck postponing it than cancelling. Although for September date the loss of deposit should be relatively small by cancelling now.

Same thing happened to us 😊

Wr had 2 holidays booked one for October and one for August.

We moved the one with the higher cancellation charge to this year. The other we bit the bullet and cancelled . Tried to claim back on insurance and got some back but we were still £300 out of pocket.

But I was due in October and have medical conditions so couldn't have done either holiday.

Congratulations!

Not sure anyone here can truly help you. You’ll need to refer to the T and Cs of your booking , and also your travel insurance (presuming you took travel insurance out at time of booking…).

Your September will be loss of deposit. May holiday - have you paid the balance yet

What an unkind and oblivious thing to say.

All of my three children were born before 8 months so it absolutely depends on the pregnancy.
OP it happened me with my surprise third pregnancy. We had literally just booked a family holiday for the following summer. TUI were great and moved it to the following year.
Congratulations

Hi all just an update, I ended up sadly losing my pregnancy after we had already cancelled the holiday.

We luckily had insurance and the hospital were able to provide proof of pregnancy and loss which we supplied to our insurers and we managed to get the majority of our money back, just had to pay the excess. It's been a really crappy time but the insurers handled it amazingly and really came through for us. Holiday insurance is definitely worth it. We may not be going abroad now, but we've booked a mini break in the UK with the money we got back and have planed some house bits to do up. Thanks for all your advice everyone.

Message deleted - so so sorry for your loss. I didn’t see your message before I posted advice.

OP I'm so sorry for your loss