My daughter is a senior in college and booked her first and only spring break trip last fall through a tour operator. We paid for the entire trip including the Travel Protection Plan and I admittedly did NOT read the details of that plan. I assumed it was typical travel insurance.
Her flight to Mexico was supposed to leave early this morning but late yesterday she started developing Covid symptoms (she is fully vaxxed and boosted). Multiple Covid tests came back negative so either she had something other than Covid or just didn’t have enough viral load YET for it to register on the test.
If it was Covid we certainly didn’t want to send her to Mexico and potentially have her test positive at the resort and then not be able to come home. And obviously, traveling sick regardless of what it is poses a risk to other travelers.
At that time we evaluated the Travel Protection Plan as we figured she probably shouldn’t go on the trip - or at least shouldn’t go on the original date of departure, maybe she could go a day later if she was feeling better and continuing to test negative.
But unfortunately we learned that the Travel Protection Plan offers NO protection if you need to cancel within 48 hours of the departure time. So if your kid gets sick or god forbid there is an emergency like a death in the family you are out the entire cost of the trip. If you cancel more than 48 hours in advance you can get a full refund in the form of a travel credit with the same tour operator and airline. If you cancel more than 30 days in advance you can get a 75% refund in original form of payment.
After talking to one Delta agent who said we could not get a travel credit due to the restrictive fare category booked I spoke with another (after waiting almost 4 hours for a callback) who issued us a travel credit for the airfare cost less a $99 fee. But in total we are still out almost $1300.
If we had looked at the details of the Travel Protection Plan in October when she booked would we have said no? Probably not. We would have said the odds of anything happening in the 2 days before she leaves are slim and we wanted her to have this opportunity. But clearly, and especially in this covid world we live in, the odds of something happening are not zero.