Yes, and no. If you have a travel insurance plan with trip interruption protection and your ‘getting sick’ is being hospitalized due to a heart attack, then that’s a covered reason to head home early.
Any unexpected illness or injury that causes an attending medical doctor to advise you to return home is covered. (Be sure to get that in writing – you’ll need it for the travel insurance claim.)
Trip interruption coverage reimburses a traveler up to 150% of their unused pre-paid trip costs if they have to end their trip and return home for a covered reason. This is post-departure trip cancellation coverage that allows for additional reimbursement to cover the costs resulting from the purchase of additional tickets to return home.
What are the covered reasons for abandoning a trip?
The covered reasons for trip interruption are usually the same as trip cancellation in any travel insurance policy. These covered reasons usually include:
- Illness, injury, or death of you, a traveling companion, a family member or business partner (be sure to review the definitions of ‘family member’ and ‘business partner’ in the plan’s description of coverage).
- Common carrier delays due to severe weather, mechanical breakdown, and unannounced strikes.
- Being involved in a documented traffic accident, being hijacked, being quarantined, being required to serve on a jury or appear in court (be sure to review the definitions in the plan’s description of coverage).
- Having your home destroyed by fire, flood, natural disaster.
- Mandatory evacuations.
- Being called into active military service to provide disaster relief.
- A terrorist act occurs in your departure city or city you will visit on your trip.
- Being laid off or terminated from your employment (minimum employment length applies).
If you simply don’t feel good or find yourself bored, not having a good time, or just wanting to head home early, those are not covered reasons to cancel your trip and return early.
