D7200

I purchased two tickets for a summer vacation next week but at the time never bothered with cancellation insurance. Well my wife has not been feeling well since then and may not be able to travel. Can cancellation insurance from RBC which who Air Canada deals with and offers on their website be purchased after tickets have been booked and paid for? Also if just calling next week if necessary and having to cancel is enough for RBC to simply pay the claim or is it a red tape tangle. Have never used cancellation insurance before but it may be an option for us. My wife is 69 and not sure if she has to answer some specific medical questions when the insurance is filled out or is it straight forward ( I am thinking not likely but I could be wrong). If a claim is filed does she need to have a doctors report etc for her reason, hopefully she is felling better next Tues and off we go.

khkchan

I doubt you can add cancellation insurance after the fact. Check with the credit card that you used and see if it comes with any cancellation insurance. You will need a doctor note for any insurance.

Most mid-tier tickets allow you to refund minus a fee. Almost all tickets allow you to change with a fee.

Hope your wife goes well so it's a go!

expert7700

LOl. that would work out excellent, just wait until you know you'll have an insurance claim THEN buy a policy.

Oh, wait. RBC is on to this. "purchase at the time of new ticket sale or upto 24 hours after ticketed." for aircanada that conveniently coincides with 24hr refund allowed even on the cheapest ticket type.

To answer your other ?s yes there will be a claim process, and yes it is designed to be quite a few verification steps. After all the insurer only makes $ if there are no claims or no claims are followed thru on.

I do also hope whatever health issues involved clears up so you can both enjoy the travel together

tcook052

As others have said you can't add insurance after you know of a reason why you have to cancel, it must be purchased at the time payment is applied and cancellation penalties begin.

MSPeconomist

Plus, most insurance excludes pre-existing conditions. Policies which don't can be extremely expensive. There's also cancel for any reason travel insurance, but these policies don't pay in full and are very expensive.

eigenvector

If the illness or injury is severe (e.g. resulting in loss of mobility or requiring hospitalization), you may find Air Canada willing to waive change fees if medical documentation is provided. I'm aware of several incidences were AC voluntarily rebooked people who had situations like breaking their leg or having a heart attack shortly before they were scheduled to travel.

Otherwise, there is not going to be any insurance that you can buy after the fact will cover cancellation, and anyway cancellation insurance usually only covers things that are involuntary - otherwise it would simply be too expensive for the provider to pay out all the claims.

Check your credit card to see if it has coverage.

tcook052

Not that expensive, at least here in Canada but regardless CFAR (Cancel For Any Reason) would still only apply if the policy was purchased at the time payment was applied.

yyznomad

If only I could get the dealer to let me pay for insurance once the dealer shows a Blackjack!

All kidding aside, to the OP, as per the others, for all intents and purposes, insurance needs to be purchased ahead of time, and not after the fact.
You can even buy something like a yearly travel insurance plan so that you don't have to worry about it every time you book a trip that year.

D7200

Thanks all for the great help and straight forward info, very much appreciated.

tcook052

As this is about the insurance itself rather than an Air Canada specific questions the thread has been relocated to the proper venue for travel insurance queries which is the Travel Products forum.

tcook052
Air Canada forum moderator

Often1

Who in their right mind would pay extra for insurance if they could get away with purchasing it only after a reason for it arises? Or looking at it another way, what insurer in its right mind would sell? As noted, even CFAR generally has a very tight timeline for just this reason.

Bartolo

s0ssos

Then why do all these people buy Amex premium car insurance? You can put your amex as the method of payment when renting. and if all gors well then at the return change your method of payment

deniah

inane.

canolakid

in support of select insurance: Manulife allows 'return of AE miles' when inside the 21 day cut off... IMO worth it for those 'high points value' trips.
Insurance is all about peace of mind- we all have our own parameters.