You come down with the flu the day before your cruise.

Your spouse is injured in a car accident right before your big family vacation.

Your best friend fractures her ankle and can’t join you on your planned cycling trip.

These travel nightmares can happen to anyone. That’s why it’s so important to have travel insurance with trip cancellation benefits.

This means your insurance plan can reimburse you for your non-refundable trip payments, deposits, and cancellation fees if you have to cancel for a covered reason, up to the maximum limit in your plan. You can also get reimbursed for the costs to rebook your transportation (minus any available refunds).

Trip cancellation insurance benefits can help when:

• You or a traveling companion becomes ill or injured, or develops a medical condition disabling enough to make you cancel your trip.

• A family member who is not traveling with you experiences an illness, injury, or medical condition that’s life-threatening or requires hospitalization.

Illness and injury aren’t the only reasons you might need to call off a trip, of course. Trip cancellation benefits can also help in many other situations. Find out what’s covered in Trip Cancellation Insurance: Covered Reasons Explained.

For now, let’s take a deep dive into trip cancellation for medical reasons. And if you’re traveling soon, get your own travel insurance plan right away! See all your plan options and get a quick quote.

The key steps to take when canceling your trip because of illness or injury

Step 1: Consider your options.

If you can’t travel now, but you might recover in a few days, can you move the dates of your trip? Contact your travel suppliers to see if there’s any flexibility. Your trip cancellation insurance may be able to reimburse rebooking fees.

Step 2: Make sure you’re canceling for a covered reason.

Read your plan documents to understand what’s covered by your trip cancellation benefits. Remember, your illness or injury must be disabling enough that a reasonable person would cancel the trip. If you have a mild cold or a small gash on your knee, for example, that’s probably not a covered illness or injury for trip cancellation.

Step 3: Talk to a doctor. 

It’s not enough for you to decide that an illness, injury, or medical condition is a good reason to call off a trip. A doctor must examine or consult with you or your traveling companion and advise you to cancel the trip before you cancel it. Ask your doctor for a letter that explains their recommendation.

But wait: What if you’re unable to see a doctor before canceling your trip, either because you can’t get an appointment or you’re feeling too ill to make it to the doctor’s office? In that case, a doctor must either examine or consult with you or your traveling companion as soon as possible within 72 hours after the cancellation, to confirm the decision to cancel.

Step 4: Contact your travel suppliers as soon as possible.

We ask that you reach out to your airline, cruise line, tour company or any other travel supplier within 72 hours of deciding to cancel. If you wait longer to contact travel suppliers and you get a smaller refund as a result, your travel insurance plan will not cover the difference. Now, if you’re in an emergency situation and you’re too sick or hurt to make those calls, we understand! Just notify your suppliers as soon as you can.

Step 5: Keep all your receipts, invoices, emails, and other documents related to your trip cancellation.

These will help your trip cancellation claim go smoothly. Grab a quick photo or scan of any documents you have on paper, just in case you lose the originals.

Step 6: File a trip cancellation claim.

Allianz Travel Insurance makes it easy to file a claim online or in the Allyz® app. Don’t rush through the claim process: You want to make sure you tell the full story of what happened and include all the documentation to back up your claim. That way, we can reimburse you as quickly as possible. If you have any questions, call us at 1-866-884-3556.

A few more things to know about trip cancellation insurance

Your travel insurance plan defines “family member” broadly—but not everyone is included.

Your longtime roommate is hospitalized after a bad car accident. You had planned to go skiing the following weekend, but you cancel your trip to take care of her. Could travel insurance cover your trip cancellation?

Yes! That’s because Allianz Travel Insurance plan includes a long-term cohabitant (a.k.a. roommate) in the definition of  “family member.” Here’s the full list of family members:

• Spouse (by marriage, common law, domestic partnership, or civil union);
• Cohabitants (anyone you’ve been living with for at least 12 consecutive months who is at least 18 years old)
• Parents and stepparents;
• Children, stepchildren, foster children, adopted children, and children currently in the adoption process;
• Siblings and stepsiblings;
• Grandparents and grandchildren;
• The following in-laws: mother, father, son, daughter, brother, sister, and
• grandparent;
• Aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews;
• Legal guardians and wards;
• Paid, live-in caregivers; and
• Service animals (as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act).

What happens if someone who is not on this list—such as a cousin, a great-aunt, or a pet—becomes ill or injured? In that case, your trip cancellation benefits would not apply.

Pre-existing conditions can be covered—if you meet the requirements.

You’ve lived with Crohn’s disease for years, but recently you’ve been able to control the symptoms with medication. You’re doing so well, your doctor clears you to go on a celebratory cruise to Hawaii with a friend. You buy travel insurance right after paying the deposit. But then, you have a flareup so severe you have to be hospitalized. Can travel insurance cover your lost trip costs, even though you have a pre-existing medical condition?

Yes—because you met all the requirements for the pre-existing condition exclusion waiver, which means your condition can be covered.

• Your policy was purchased within the time frame specified in your plan (usually 14 days of the date of the first trip payment or deposit)
• You were a U.S. resident when the policy was purchased
• You were medically able to travel when the policy was purchased
• On the policy purchase date, you insured the full non-refundable cost of your trip with us.

Learn more about how travel insurance defines and covers pre-existing conditions in Travel Insurance 101: Covered Illnesses.

Trip cancellation insurance can’t cover losses that occur before you buy your plan.

A few days before your flight to Tokyo, you trip over the dog’s leash and fracture your tibia. You quickly buy a travel insurance plan so you can file a claim for trip cancellation. Will insurance reimburse your lost trip costs?

No. Travel insurance only protects you against unforeseen losses that have not already occurred. Once something happens to make you cancel a trip, it’s too late to buy travel insurance to cover that cancellation. That’s another reason it’s always wise to buy your travel insurance plan well in advance of your trip!

Not sure which plan is best for you? Here are three good options:

• OneTrip Cancellation Plus is the most economical option. It’s trip cancellation up to $5,000 without medical benefits. Good for: budget travelers
• OneTrip Prime is our most popular plan, with trip cancellation up to $100,000 and a full slate of benefits. Good for: International travelers and families
• AllTrips Prime protects every trip you take in 365 days, with trip cancellation up to $3,000 per insured, per year. Good for: people who take lots of small trips

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