USVI-On-Line

Has anyone ever had to cancel a trip and use trip insurance for a pre-existing condition??

Maryanne, I cancelled a trip for this past november but I didn't have trip insurance. So I am not sure how helpful this will be for you.

Destination St. John let me cancel the house about 30 days out with no penalty and applied my deposit to the house we are renting later this year.

Conrad Sutton let me cancel two reserved jeeps with no penalty. Needless to say, I've booked with them as well for my upcoming trip.

As for airlines ... this is where you'll probabably have your problem. We were booked with frequent flier miles through Delta. They did let us redeposit our miles for $50 a ticket. I figured $200 was better than being out 120,000 miles. And they did credit us the $10 per ticket booking fee when we redeposited so it was a net of $160 we owed.

As for the one airline ticket we'd actually paid for we had to use it w/in a year and pay a $50 change fee + any change in fare. I've rebooked that one for a trip for the traveler in April and it cost us a total of about $100 ($50 fee + change in fare).

Good luck.

Thank you for that information. It is the house I'm worried about. I have to pay a large non-refundable 50% deposit to a company I've never used before....

I've also never used trip insurance but we have a family member with a pre-existing condition and it's impossible to predict when she'll get sick.

is your trip already planned? if not i think most of the insurance companies will allow pre existing conditions if you buy the insurance within 10 or 14 days of your booking.
I had to use trip insurance for a trip to Italy once but the condition was not Pre ex.

Maryanne, have you looked into the cost of trip insurance yet? It might be worth it just for your peace of mind. I looked into it last year, and for the two of us, to cover two weeks at the villa, plus four nights at a resort, airfare, and rental car, the cost was around $200 or so. You don't have to break out what you are spending the money on, you just tell them how much you are spending and give them your ages, and they quote you based on that. I remember that illness of a traveler or immediate family member was one of the covered situations.

In my case, we were looking into it for hurricane coverage, but decided not to get it since we were traveling in early June.

I am just looking at Travel Guard and they waive Pre existing if you purchase within 15 days of making your deposit.

Re:I am just looking at Travel Guard and they waive Pre existing if you purchase within 15 days

Thank you for this ! I will check into it.

Also, I'm assuming I can just insure the lodging. I can deal with car/airfare if and when I would have to (hopefully NOT) cancel.

A couple of years ago, my daughter got really sick hours before my husband and I were set to leave. A waste of a nice villa. Don't want to repeat that ever again.

include anything you risk to lose. yes you may be able to re book the air but there are terms around that as well (ie. has to some times be used within one year of booking, etc). you may want to call also and find out if you can add the air later if you don't have that booked yet.