Trip Cancellation Insurance: When Do You Get Refunded?

Have you booked a flight or a holiday and an unforeseen event threatens to ruin everything before you even leave? Trip cancellation insurance can refund the money you lose, but only if the reason for cancelling is explicitly listed in the terms of the contract. Illness, accident or the death of a relative are the most commonly covered cases, provided they occurred after you took out the policy and were unforeseeable.

The reasons generally covered by cancellation insurance

According to the general principles set out by the federation

France Assureurs, cancellation insurance covers an event that meets three cumulative conditions: it must be provided for in the contract, unforeseeable when the policy was taken out, and not voluntary. The most common reasons are:

Each insurer defines its own list of reasons, as well as its own definition of "relative" (spouse, children, parents, sometimes parents-in-law, brothers and sisters). This is a point to check line by line in the general conditions, rather than assuming that a given family situation will automatically be covered.

Some contracts are limited to a closed list of reasons named in the general conditions, while others, sometimes called "all causes" or "multi-risk" contracts, cover more broadly any unforeseeable event not explicitly excluded, in exchange for generally wider cover. This distinction, often ignored when the policy is taken out, makes a big difference on the day an unforeseen event falls outside the strict framework of a list of named reasons.

The special case of an illness already known before taking out the policy

One principle appears in almost all travel and cancellation insurance contracts: a medical condition already known when the policy is taken out is generally not covered in the same way as an event that occurs afterwards. By way of illustration, the general conditions of a health policy for tourists in Israel (Ayalon Insurance, September 2025) define precisely what a "pre-existing medical condition" is: a set of medical circumstances diagnosed before the policy was taken out, including where the diagnosis results from a documented prognosis or from a diagnostic process begun in the six months before taking out the policy. This logic is found, in various forms, with most travel insurers, including on standard cancellation contracts.

An illness already declared before you took out the contract generally does not give the right to a cancellation refund. This is why it is preferable to take out travel insurance early, as soon as you book, rather than at the last minute, once a health problem has already appeared.

The death of a relative: how it works in practice

If a relative dies before departure, cancellation insurance generally refunds the non-recoverable cancellation costs (tickets, accommodation, services already paid for), on presentation of supporting documents: the death certificate, proof of the family relationship, and sometimes proof of the date on which the insured person learned of the event. If the death occurs during the trip itself, a different cover generally applies, that of assistance and repatriation, rather than cancellation as such. It is therefore better to check, before leaving, which of these two covers applies to each situation in your contract.

What is generally not covered

A simple change of mind, a fear of travelling without a proven medical reason, or a situation you already knew about when you booked are generally not compensated under cancellation cover. Cover also ends, by its nature, once the trip has started: from that moment, the assistance and repatriation covers take over, not cancellation.

A specific point for families settled in Israel

For many French-speaking families settled in Israel, a trip is often planned around a specific event: a wedding, a bar mitzvah, a birth, or simply tickets booked well in advance to benefit from lower fares. These bookings frequently involve non-refundable deposits with a caterer, a venue or an airline. The earlier the booking is made and the larger the sums committed, the more useful it is to check, when you book the trip, whether cancellation insurance is already included somewhere (bank card, agency) or must be taken out separately, rather than waiting until the last minute to worry about it.

How to report a cancellation properly

Notify your insurer or broker as soon as you know the reason for cancelling, without waiting for the planned departure date. Then gather the available supporting documents (medical certificate, death certificate, employer's statement as the case may be) and keep a copy of your original booking and its conditions. Since every situation is different, particularly when several travellers are affected by the same booking, it is recommended to check precisely, before you even sign, what your contract covers exactly, rather than relying on a general idea of what cancellation insurance "normally covers".

To understand all the covers linked to a stay abroad, you can read our travel insurance page. And if you are preparing a trip with a potential reason for cancellation already identified, a scheduled operation for example, do not hesitate to contact us to check case by case what can be covered before you take out a policy.