Planning and booking your vacation or honeymoon is exciting!  We never want  to bring up a “what if” situation but My Vacation Lady wants to make sure all of our clients are protected against unavoidable illness or circumstances.

We have had a few occasions to use travel insurance personally when Mr. My Vacation Lady got sick during a cruise and ended up in the hospital.  We’ve also had clients who needed to cancel their vacations when non traveling family members were sick.  A couple of years ago, we needed to assist Hans and Irma get home from the Bahamas when Hans’ sister was hospitalized in New York.

How Family Members Not Traveling With You May Affect Your Vacations

Did you know that when you purchase travel insurance, some of your coverage may also cover family members not traveling with you?

Under the Trip Cancellation benefit, certain policies may provide coverage in some of these instances affecting non traveling family members:

  • Grandma fell last month but she has taken a turn for the worse right before you are set to leave for your vacation.
  • Your pregnant daughter is put on bed rest and you are the only one who can take care of her
  • Your sister-in-law becomes seriously ill

While many policies provide some coverage for events involving family members who are not traveling with you, you should also pay close attention to the exclusions section of the policy. Unless specifically stated, most exclusions apply to family members not traveling with you as well.

One of the most important things you can do is read your travel insurance policy to see what is included and what isn’t.  If a non traveling family member has a pre-existing medical condition (and most elderly parents and grandparents do), the best thing is to purchase your travel insurance when you deposit your vacation when many insurance plans will include the pre-existing medical condition waiver for travelers and non traveling family members.

Each travel insurance plan is different so if Grandma is in poor health or Dad’s diabetes has been causing health issues, you want to make sure that the travel insurance you purchase will cover those conditions in case you have to cancel your vacation.

My Vacation Lady can usually offer a couple of options when it comes to travel insurance.  Let us know your concerns so that we can guide you toward the plans that make the most sense for you.