Why Did a Cruise Line Deny a Widow’s Travel Insurance Claim After Her Husband …

Brady says travelers can learn a lot from Leggett’s sad case when purchasing travel insurance for their own trips. “You should communicate exactly the type of coverage you need for your specific situation,” Brady says. “If you have a severe illness that can potentially cause you to cancel your vacation, you want to make sure you have insurance that has a clause [that lets you] cancel for any reason.”

That’s apparently where the Leggetts ran into trouble: apparently purchasing a policy that didn’t cover cancellations caused by pre-existing illnesses. Such policies tend to be cheaper than those that cover you if you cancel for any reason.

“The prices vary for all of these different policies, but obviously the more coverage you purchase the more expensive it is,” says Brady. “We find a lot of people say, ‘I don’t want to pay that much. I’m going to get this [cheaper] policy’ without reading the fine print.”

Of course, reimbursement for a missed vacation means very little in the face of losing a loved one. Still, making sure you have the right travel insurance coverage can make sure your sadness isn’t compounded by a financial headache.

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