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Uziel
Jun 28, 2004

Ask me about losing 200lbs, and becoming the Viking God of W&W.
On Sunday I booked a trip that included airfare, hotel, and rental car for 4 nights in Boston. This is for the middle of October. The day after, my mother-in-law said "I hope you got travel insurance because <relative>'s cancer is so bad there is nothing they can do and they are experiencing liver failure." Unfortunately no other information was really given. My mother-in-law is watching our kids during the trip so its unclear exactly what circumstances could dictate having to cancel the trip.

So it sounds like I need to get some travel insurance that would cover this situation. Any ideas/advice? Priceline wasn't able to add it after the fact.

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Saladman
Jan 12, 2010

Uziel posted:

On Sunday I booked a trip that included airfare, hotel, and rental car for 4 nights in Boston. This is for the middle of October. The day after, my mother-in-law said "I hope you got travel insurance because <relative>'s cancer is so bad there is nothing they can do and they are experiencing liver failure." Unfortunately no other information was really given. My mother-in-law is watching our kids during the trip so its unclear exactly what circumstances could dictate having to cancel the trip.

So it sounds like I need to get some travel insurance that would cover this situation. Any ideas/advice? Priceline wasn't able to add it after the fact.

Smother <relative> with a pillow to ensure their funeral is before mid October.

yeah I eat ass
Mar 14, 2005

only people who enjoy my posting can replace this avatar
From what I read in the FAQs of a random travel insurance company, it sounds like you can purchase insurance up until the day before you leave.

Would travel insurance even help you at all in this situation though? It sounds like what you need are refundable tickets/reservations, not insurance. Insurance seems to be more for extra expenses due to an accident, canceled flight, etc, not a "I can't go anymore" backup plan. I could be wrong, but before you spend any money on this, make sure it actually can do what you want it to do. For the hotel, you can probably cancel as long as you do it 48 (or 24, depending on the place) hours before your first night - unless you prepaid, of course. For the rental car, I think it's pretty painless to cancel that since you pay after you return it in most cases, and with booking services like priceline/kayak I've never had to give them my credit card information until I showed up. That leaves the flight, which is probably the most expensive one. Unfortunately I don't think you can change your ticket type after purchase so you may be screwed there.

dennyk
Jan 2, 2005

Cheese-Buyer's Remorse
What you want is trip cancellation insurance, which will reimburse you for any nonrefundable travel expenses if you have to cancel your trip for a covered reason. Most general "travel insurance" plans will cover this, and you can often get just trip cancellation insurance if you don't need the emergency medical coverage or other extras of the more comprehensive plans.

I've used Allianz for my last few international trips, though since I've never submitted a claim I can't speak for their claims process or general rear end in a top hat level. Looks like their basic trip cancellation coverage runs about $60 for a $2000 trip, and last time I bought their insurance their cancellation plan did cover the illness or death of a non-traveling non-immediate family member. (Obviously, read the full policy declarations before buying anything to make sure your particular situation is covered...)

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