Originally Posted by tenant13

I have a kind of crazy situation. I'm scheduled to fly to Tokyo this Friday on JAL operated and ticketed by AA. Then after the weekend stopover I have a flight to KL (same JAL/AA deal). Neither flight is canceled but Malaysia is on full lockdown for non-residents so they wouldn't let me in anyway. Secondly Japan just established a 14 days self-isolation for anyone from US. So I would get locked up in Tokyo for two weeks and unable to get on that KL flight.
On top of all that I somehow managed to give myself a heart attack last Tuesday. Now I have that to deal with and traveling to KL is indefinitely postponed. AA is offering credit/voucher that would need to be used before the end of the year. My travel insurance says: "don't bother" - you may let them know that you won't be on the flight but deal with us from now on; you have a legit reason for canceling this trip and your ticket should be fully refunded once we process the paperwork.
So here's the question: should I just listen to the insurance ppl or cancel my trip anyway right before the flight? I don't want to mess up anything but since the insurance claim is processing and won't resolve before Friday, I'm nervous. What if someone higher up at Allianz tells me later: "our policy is for clients to cancel first, and then contact us".