Hi,
I know its not the same as your problem but last year my friends booked to come on holiday with my family but due to a decrease in their finances they made the decision to cancel it about 6 months before we went as they could not afford to pay for it and save enough spending money for 2 weeks.
Anyway to get to the point,
The travel agent told them that rather than lose all the deposit for the holiday(thats all they had paid) why did they not just transfer it over to another and take a city break for a weekend, they did this, so lost nothing and still got away for a few days.
Ask the travel agent if you could do some thing like that, its not as if they wont be able to re sell your holiday, late deals get snapped up, although you could end up out of pocket as it would depend what they sell it for.
I hope every thing works out ok for you and your family.
Good luck

Loulou

First of all- how terrible. I hope your wife's mother improves.
I would look very closely at your insurance. I have just looked out mine and under the section Cancellation of a journey it says that cover is given "following your death or serious injury or illness or that of
- acompanion upon whom your travel plans depend
- member of your immediate family...............

Seems you would have been covered if you had Tescos insurance. I would have thought that most other companies would have this covered as well. Who are you insured with?
Sorry I can't be of more help.

Hi Bluey66 .... Welcome to the forums.

I am sorry to read of your predicament. I can understand that from the tour operator's point of view, cancellation at this stage may attract a full 100% cancellation charge. However, even although you may have purchased your travel insurance through the tour operator, I would still advise reading the terms and conditions of your policy, or perhaps even speaking directly to the insurance company to verify whether or not you would be covered under these unfortunate circumstances. If this stroke did not result from a known pre-existing illness, it's possible that your insurer may provide cover in the event of cancellation due to the sudden or serious illness of a close relative.

If it transpires that you are not covered for cancellation in this case, as the tour operator has suggested, it may be worth discussing with them what options may be available to change your holiday to a date perhaps later in the year. This would probably incur an amendment fee, but that may be preferable to losing the entire holiday cost as a cancellation fee.

The chances of the tour operator re-selling the holiday on your behalf are unfortunately slim to non-existant.

Let's know how you get on with speaking directly to the insurers.

Good luck.

David

Thank you all very much. I will get on with these suggestions asap tomorrow, unfortunately have a 340 mile car journey to make first!
Thanks again.

http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=1329&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

I did a trawl through the above topic for you but it is so long and I only got half way through. What I did find though is what David has already said- as long as you mother in law's stroke was not the result of a pre existing illness you should really be covered.
Let us know how you get on.

I would try ring the insurance company. Last October I was going away with a friend a couple of days before we were due to go her mother was rushed into hospital. We had to cancel our holiday and we both got our money back even though she was not my relative they said as I was travelling with her I would get paid as well.

The actual wording on my policy states death or illness confirmed by a doctor of you or your close relative, business associate, partner or travelling companion.

Thanks for the additional replies, much appreciated.
When I spoke to somebody at the inurance company yesterday, she misunderstood what I was asking, she thought I was trying to let them know about my mother in law's condition in order to ensure we were covered should anything happen whilst we were on holiday. As this was a "known condition" we would (perhaps obviously) not had been covered for the cost of urgent return travel. I rang again and clarified the situation, having studied the terms and conditions, and it appears that we will be covered should we cancel before we go, as mother in law is classed as a "close relative".
The dilemma continues however, on speaking to the doctor today he was talking in terms of moving her to a nursing home! She has to have a small operation on monday in order to insert a feeding tube directly into her stomach, as she can no longer feed in the normal way, if this goes ok then they will look at nursing care.
We still have to make a decision, a very difficult decision, made harder due to fact that the holiday has been arranged jointly with some friends from Dublin. Obviously they would understand, but we would feel wretched letting them down. We will make a decision towards the middle of next week, after talking to the doctor again. I believe he would advise us to go on the holiday, as if her condition is stable it is likely to remain that way, ie, six months down the line we would stll be in the same position as regards going away.
Depending on what happens next week, we may just enquire if a reduction to one week is possible, and take that option if it is available (doubt it will be, I've never seen any spare seats on holiday charter flights in the middle of the season)
Thanks once again. If we do manage to get there, I will report back on the resort (Cavtat)
Best wishes.

Thanks for the update. I hope that next week might bring better news, both for your mother in law, and for your holiday prospects.

David

Glad to hear the insurance is sorted out. Not so good news about your mum in law. I am wondering if she would rather you went on your holiday- she may feel guilty if you give it up. At least you can make your decision without worrying about losing the holiday money. Hope things go ok and do let us know if you get away.
Now you have found HT don't be a stranger!

Hello everyone.
Just brought this thread back up to let you know how we got on.
Sadly, mother in laws conditioned deteriorated rapidly, and she died in hospital before we were due to go on holiday. This still left us with the problem - to go or to cancel? My wife, particulally, desperately needed a holiday, and the timing of mum in laws death meant that we would not be able to fly out on the original date, and we could not get a seat on the flight a week later. So, this is what we did. I hunted around for flights to Dubrovnik, plenty available, but few direct, and some very expensive. We flew from our local airport (Doncaster) to Dublin by Thomsonfly. We then flew with Aer Lingus direct to Dubrovnik. Transfer by taxi to hotel - 10 minutes.
Ok, we lost 4 days of our holiday, and it cost an extra £550 to get out there. Its only money after all. . On the positive side we were able to meet up with our friends, who contributed to the best holiday we have ever had. Cavtat is a great resort, and I will contribute a fuller report in due course.
We did feel a little strange taking a holiday so soon after the bereavement, however everbody we spoke to encouraged us to go, and mother in law was very pleased that we had the holiday booked, so we do not feel we have let her down in any way by going so soon, I do believe that we went with her blessing.
Thanks to you all for your thoughts.

I'm so sorry about your mother in law.

Glad you eventually got there and had a great time, I'll look forward to
reading your report.
I'm sure she would have wanted you to go and enjoy yourselves instead
of sitting at home moping.

Helenxx

Thanks Helen.

That is so sad, i am sorry to hear that Bluey66
I hope that you and your wife enjoyed your holiday and i agree with bluebabe i am sure that your mother in law would not want you to be sad and mope and to go and enjoy your hol.

Loulou

Hi Bluey. What a sad thing, your mother in law passing away. My condolences to your wife and family. I personally think you did the right thing - im sure your mother in law would have agreed with your decision to go on holiday, and was probably looking down, wishing you all the best.

hi bluey66, i too am sorry to hear about your mother in law, however i'm glad you decided to take the holiday, after all the stress and worry, i feel it was well needed. i'm sure your mum in law would have still wanted you to go and thankfully you still managed to enjoy your break. looking forward to your report.

sarah