traveling while leaving older parents stateside

You would have to ask each insurance carrier. They are not all alike or either are the airlines. If you can afford the insurance, might as well get it for peace of mind.

That’s exactly the reason we started buying travel insurance about 10 years ago. At first we’d just click on the button when buying our airline tickets to buy insurance. Then a few years ago we realized we could buy the same insurance plus coverage for our other prepaid expenses through AAA. One thing we discovered this year (we always seem to be learning...) was that we had to buy the insurance through AAA within 14 days of booking our flight in order to have any pre existing conditions for us covered.

Even though our parents are no longer around, we feel more covered for our expenses if we needed to cancel.

You just need to buy everything as flexible with trip insurance. It is the option that always costs a lot more
You want reservations and tickets that have no change fees and are refundable in case of cancellation.

With similar concerns, I purchased a travel insurance policy that has Trip Cancellation and Trip Interruption insurance that covers "Sickness, Accidental Injury or death of a non-traveling Family Member" as well as the insured traveler and traveling companion.

Be sure to check the "pre-existing conditions" clauses of any policy to determine the coverages or limits and whether it requires that you purchase the policy within "n" days of initial payments for your trip. (My policy waived pre-existing conditions limitations if you purchase within 10 days of initial payments.)

Travel insurance may be comforting in theory but collecting is not necessarily easy. These policies are designed NOT to pay out. Read the fine print. Research the underwriter. Get some objectiveadvice if you know where to look. If you are a member, AARP may be of some help but they don’t sell their own products, they just get paid to endorse some third party companies. AAA has good insurance products but the fine print is just as tricky.

My sister had what she thought was one of the best policies. It took her a year and tons of paperwork to get reimbursed for a $300 domestic airline ticket cancelation.

You need "cancel for any reason" but the one I looked at would not work if you were less than 72 hr from beginning your trip.

I always purchased flexible airline tickets. Never prepaid for any hotels, or took ,prepaid guided bus tours or cruises where even with travel insurance canceling would be a hassle or loss of $.ultimate flexibility is the best advise I can give. Leave the distant and costly vacations for another time in life.

The concept of traveling with older parents with poor health calls for one decision after another on your part. I feel your pain.

First, it helps if you have a plan in advance of what are the events that would cause you to cancel a trip. Can a sibling accept responsibility for a parent for the two weeks you would be gone? Could you deal with waiting to return to the US if a parent died or would you feel it important to stop your trip right away? These are things to think through.

I have used the travel insurance that comes with my credit card and not purchased additional coverage. I read through the terms and conditions carefully so I knew what was covered and what was not. Mine would cover cancelling for immediate family health issue or death.

My siblings and I have all approached this differently. My sister felt strongly that she could not really travel while my father might need her. My brother felt strongly that he needed to keep living his life and not put everything on hold for the indefinite future. I was somewhere in the middle. I planned and went on trips, but I made sure that my siblings would be covering my father's needs while I was gone. All of these responses are perfectly acceptable. You just have to know what you feel comfortable with.

Sadly, it is not longer an issue as we just lost our last parent. My brother ended up cutting a trip a little short to make sure he was home and had a chance to say "good bye." I certainly don't regret any of the time I took making sure to visit my Dad and that his needs were met. I also don't regret going on my trips either. He loved to look at the pictures and talk about them afterwards.

I suppose what I am trying to say is that this is a difficult issue and only you can decide the approach that will work for you.

We also faced this and had to decide before we traveled how we would handle hospitalization or a death. It’s a serious discussion to have with spouse and siblings and not an easy conversation, but it is much easier to think about in the abstract than in a moment of crisis. Our trips were shorter then, so we felt that we would complete our trip and depend on other family members to step in until we got back. So, we did not get travel insurance for that situation, but we did make sure all their paperwork was in order before we left.

Beth, I understand what you are saying. My mom is 91 - that is getting on up there. And while I also have siblings who help a lot if it’s needed, I have carefully put all my travel expenses for the rest of 2019 on my credit card that carries insurance for me, for those things that are not refundable. I know that makes me relax a little when I make my plans. My mom would kill me (ha!) if I cancelled any travel or thought I needed to stay home just out of worry that she might get sick; so I am continuing to plan, knowing I can adjust and not lose a lot of money if something arises.

Thank you for the practical tips and especially for the important questions we have to answer. We have made refundable reservations for next May but they are only refundable up to two weeks before the reservation. We are renting apartments and that is the best we can do on that end. We haven't yet bought airline tickets so buying insurance just for the flights is something we are considering but also the other ways of insuring that some of you have mentioned.

I know we don't want to just wait until our folks pass to travel. We have only begun to travel again after launching our three children. We went a few times before we had kids but could not afford to travel abroad while raising them. My parents went to Europe for the first time when they were probably 50. I was a teenager at the time and they hired someone to stay with us. My grandfather had a stroke while they were gone and they did not go again until both of my grandparents had passed--which was like 15 years later. By then they had gotten older themselves and only went a few more times until they finally had to cancel a trip because of my father's upcoming surgery. Recently, after they saw our pictures of Greece which we visited two years ago, my mom told me her greatest regret is they didn't travel more.

But we haven't entirely sorted out what would be reason to cancel a trip and I really appreciate the different perspectives. My dad ended up in the hospital while we were in Europe this past summer and my sisters filled in. So obviously hospitalization in and of itself would not be a reason. But about 6-7 years ago my mom was critically ill-it was life threatening-and I am not sure I would have wanted to go on vacation under those circumstances. Hard questions and as several noted better considered before hand then by the seat of our pants.

I have combined business and pleasure in the past few years and been gone for three weeks. I think that is too much with my folks now and am going to limit my overseas trips to two weeks for now.

Beth, it’s so much better to think about this ahead of time and to have those discussions with those involved than having to consider things at the last minute when you might be emotional. I’m glad you posted.

I’ll just second the suggestion upthread to talk with your insurance company of choice (or the airline although they farm out coverage to an insurance provider) to make sure the policy covers what you want it to. I had bought the “cancel for any reason” coverage for several years and then found it wasn’t really “ANY” reason!!

When my Mom was at end-of-life in a nursing home her only regrets were not going on a safari and not seeing the Great Wall. Travel when you can!