I Just read an article in the Chicago Tribune regarding travel insurance and war.<BR>Every policy by every major company excludes any claims do to the &quot;out break of war&quot;<BR>So if you were booking thinking you could cancel and get reimbursed if war breaks out think again.<BR>It personally would'nt stop me going.

I've also noticed a couple of posts in which people were questioning what insurance to but as a &quot;mother is ill and we don't know if we will be able to leave her if something happens&quot; and similar topics. Will travel insurance reimburse you if you cancel due to illness or death of a relative who wasn't part of the travel plans? I always thought it wouldn't.

All types of insurance have exclusions: Life, homeowners, health, auto, travel. You must always read any policy carefully to determine what is or is not covered by that particular policy.

Have known of at least 2 situations in which the insurance company explicitly excluded &quot;pre-existing&quot; situations such as the known terminal illness of a relative. There are also often some very persnickety provisions about timing, e.g., you much purchase the insurance within a certain period of time after paying for a trip, or if you get sick and cancel the trip, you must do so within a certain amount of time before the trip.<BR><BR>As elsewhere, always worth reading the fine print -- the very thing you need to have covered may be a major exclusion.

Patrick you may be remembering my question on the US board.<BR><BR>We just did heavy research for trip insurance and finally found a policy that would cover us for:<BR><BR>Having to cancell the trip due to my mothers battle with cancer (pre exsisting) for either myself or my boyfriend (coverage is for my or my travel partner's immediate family). We had to pay with in 7 days of buying our tickets to get the pre exsisting waived and had to search companies to find one that would cover the travel partner's family.<BR><BR>Also we are covered if their is war or acts of terrorism in the areas of where we are going (in this case Spain) but not general war or war against another country. <BR><BR>Wendy