Cancelling holiday – insurance not cover it

[florcita]

Hello,

I am 21 weeks pregnant and this is my first pregnancy. My partner and I booked a 3 week holidays to New Zealand and Fiji for a friend’s wedding before finding out that I was pregnant. By the time of the trip I will be 25 weeks and although the pregnancy is going well, I fear that it might be dangerous to fly that far.

Unfortunately we made the booking on traveloworld and they said that we need to cancel the holiday first and then they will check the policies with the airlines before deciding for a refund (they mentioned over the phone that is very unlikely).

Has anyone ever been refunded due to pregnancy concerns? Am I entitled to have the money back? I guess this depends on the travel agency and the airlines (Cathay Pacific + Fiji airlines).
Many thanks!

It depends which airline though. Thomas Cook, for example, do not refund flights. You can move them three months either way for an admin fee, but they will not refund them.

Don't cancel, generally 25 weeks is great for travelling. Went longhaul myself at that time and was lovely - generally you're not nauseous any more, but not yet too big and uncomfortable. I would check if you can get an upgrade to premium, or at least extra legroom seats.

And travelling with kids is not quite the same, I have to say..

I am just back from Florida, flew at 25 weeks, back 26+4. It was lovely and relaxing - much better for me than the usual dreary winter here and the usual flurry of work/childcare/supermarket/commuting blah blah blah! It can seem a bit scary imagining the long journey and something going wrong but all was A-OK (I flew twice in my first pregnancy, once at 30 weeks and all was fine as well)

I think travel is generally not advised for the first trimester in case of miscarriage and the risk of it happening while you are mid-air. Your second trimester is the best time to travel as you haven't got all the ailments and uncomfortable nature of the third.

Be careful with the dates you are flying back though if you do go - if you are past 28 weeks airlines generally want a doctor's note saying you are safe to travel, easily arranged at your GPs for a small fee.

I would definitely be going still! This is my first and I've been to St Lucia and New York during this pregnancy and both were fine. Just took an extra cushion to sit on and got up when bump needed a stretch.

I booked both mine before knowing I was pregnant and like Quodlibet decided it was the perfect opportunity to enjoy myself before the baby came.

New Zealand and Fiji are both so stunning I will have your holiday if you don't want it ;)

I am in the same position, I had a holiday to Mexico booked end of March and I will be 24 weeks pregnant.
The holiday was snorkelling, lots of walking and excursions and my doctor was more than happy to do me an unfit to fly letter (cost me £20 though!). We had travel insurance with our bank account that we pay for monthly so going to claim the money back through them.
I personally couldn't think of anything worse than flying for 10 hours then being in a hot country not close to home but that's just me!

Also just to add, my pregnancy has not been complicated but I had an internal scan early on and they found a hemorrhage on the left side of my womb, it is healing but been advised that throughout pregnancy I have to be extremely careful and do the bare minimum so this is the reason as to why my doctor has done me the letter.

Could you move it to earlier in your pregnancy although you'd likely be fine. We went to Dubai when I was 24 weeks. We had a lovely time.

25 weeks is a great time to travel. I purposefully went on holiday at 24 weeks in this pregnancy (my second) because I know I won't get the opportunity again for so long.
Absolutely don't cancel it unless you have specific medical reasons to do so - this is your last chance for such a holiday in years!