Does this exist? Travel ins. for you when your travel partner cancels?

Yes. It's Trip Cancellation Insurance. Just bought some today.

I'd look VERY carefully at what is offered ... cancellation policies often have "pre-existing condition" exclusions if you buy them after a few days of booking your trip. Also, the cancellation-for-any-cause insurance may be very costly.

I'd look very carefully at policy conditions before you assume you'll be covered. The reason for cancelling matters A LOT in these policies, and only certain reasons are covered. Trip cancellation insurance routinely covers cancellation for illness in family (or maybe within a household). So your friend could get it to cover her lost expenses. Check to see if your policy would also cover cancellation because of illness in a traveling companion's family. Also, from your message, it seems like you might be looking for reimbursement for her part of the expenses so you could take the trip without her? If that's the case, again, look very carefully at the policy conditions. That strikes me as unusual. I'd suggest going to the website insure my trip. It allows side by side comparison of various polices, showing basic terms. I also remembering calling one of their agents once with a question I had. In this situation, I'd recommend talking to someone, AND seeing in writing the specific policy language.

She should buy the travel insurance in her name and not yours to cover her situation. In this type of situation you cannot insure a third non-related party.

Frank she means that she would cancel if her friend cancels cause she doesn't want to go alone ( I think?) and friends insurance wouldn't cover HER costs, so she is trying to find out if she can purchase insurance that will cover her costs if friend cancels.. ( is this right kat)

Yes, Pat. That is right. I would not be able to do the trip if my travel partner had to cancel. Since I'm unrelated to her or her daughter, I don't know if they have policies that would cover me in the event she had to cancel.

Kat, most of the policies I looked at only covered you cancelling if your travel companion had to cancel because of THEIR illness/accident, not their family's illness. However, I have not checked all possible travel insurance policies and my best advice to you is to talk directly with representatives from some companies. One you could talk to is Travelguard, they have some pretty comprehensive policies. But be aware that if you do find one that covers this contingency, it will likely be quite expensive. Car rental and hotel reservations can most likely be cancelled with little or no penalty (depending on how far ahead you cancel them) so mainly it would be airfare that you need concern yourself with. Have your friend who might have to cancel get the trip cancellation insurance so she will be covered for any non-refundable deposits that the two of you might have made. I have actually had to cancel a planned trip for this reason and did not have insurance but in the end we were able to cancel all reservations and the only thing I was responsible for was the $$ to change my airline ticket. It was a disappointment but not a monetary hardship.

I think you're making this more complicated than it is. As Nancy says, you probably would only be on the hook for a change fee and fare differential for the plane ticket. Just be sure to book hotels and rental cars that can be cancelled with little or no penalty. For this reason, hotels would be better than apartments. Apartments tend to have larger deposits and stricter cancellation policies.

Kat they have a good point,, I never buy cancellation insurance because I book hotels that allow me to cancel penalty free within a day or two , and my airline ticket can be changed with a change fee. If you are not staying in rented apartments and the places ( hotels) you book have decent cancellation policies you should be able to cancel trip with minimal losage. May I ask when friends dd surgery is.. if its like 2-3 days before that is risky, but if its like a few weeks before it would seem she would be able to tell you if she needed to cancel in plenty of time ,.

If you go to the "Insure My Trip" website, you can get the phone number of a representative who can answer your questions. they were very helpful in assisting with questions I had, without a sells push. the site allows you too compare many plans and they only work with reputable companies.