Cancel over flu?

Question: I am going to Mexico in August with my family and am worried about the flu. I called Continental and tried to cancel my reservation, but I cannot get my money back. Continental says it’s too far in the future. But I have a time share that I need to cancel now or lose my fee. I am very frightened; I have three children and a boyfriend with medical problems, so we would appreciate some advice. Whom can I call?

Cindy Ecay

Valley Cottage, N.Y.

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Answer: Ghostbusters.

Ecay is caught in an unfortunate and seemingly ectoplasmic event because of three tenets of travel:

No. 1: Travel providers don’t refund money -- at least, not very often. The last refund I got from an airline was for a flight I was supposed to take five days after 9/11. I’ve canceled many a flight since then, and no hard, cold cash has ever crossed my palm.

No. 2: Travel providers rarely consider fear as a reason to cancel. If there’s a hurricane, they think we should sail anyway. If there’s an infestation of fire-breathing ants, man up and get on that plane. They don’t run their businesses on “might” and “maybe.”

No. 3: Travel providers are dispositional optimists; that is, they think the sun will come out tomorrow, Annie.

And they might be right.

But they might not. And that’s why there’s travel insurance.

That’s the good news: You can safeguard your financial investment in a vacation by buying travel insurance that covers some (but not all) situations.

The bad news? For canceling-out-of-fear coverage, you may have had to have bought it before April 24, generally, and even if there is a pandemic, you may not be covered if you decide to stay home. If you have cancel-for-any-reason insurance, which is usually an optional add-on, you may be covered, but, says Chris Harvey, chief executive of Squaremouth.com, a travel insurance comparison site, you won’t get back all of your money (sometimes as little as 35%), and it is expensive, sometimes adding 40% to the cost of your policy. Harvey’s not a big fan of this kind of policy, but I am, because life is so random.

So Ecay’s best bet now is to sit tight.

“What I recommend people do is stay in contact with their airline,” said Terry Trippler, an airline expert whose websites are www.terrytrippler.com (subscription) and www.tripplersview.com (free). “Your airline is the one who will know; your airline is the one who can make any special allowances. So, again I advise, regardless of where you purchased your ticket, deal directly with your airline.”

Anne Banas, executive editor of SmarterTravel.com, thinks the window for change fee waivers may widen if the outbreak of H1N1, or swine flu, worsens. To see airlines’ policies, check www.smartertravel.com or www.airfarewatchdog.com.

Ecay may get to make her trip to Mexico, but who knows for sure? The best we can say at this point is that the sun may not come out tomorrow, but it certainly will rise in the east.

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