trip insurance - advice needed

[docmartin]

we are still planning to come to Coz or at least the riviera maya at the beginning of december although the hotel where we booked is closed because of wilma. therefore, we will have to look for alternative accomodations. understandably, when i want to book they want me to pay a deposit which pretty much amounts to the full price given that the date of travel is only 4 weeks out and cancelling that close to the departure means losing the deposit or at least a major chunk of it.
here is the issue: on this forum as well as others i have been reading about the airlines cancelling flights to coz and cancun, shifting the dates when they will resume service, etc. In other words, at present much is uncertain about flight availability in the near future. we have four tickets using frequent flyer miles on continental so we definitely do not want to use another airline and pay for four. from what i understand, although continental will officially be flying starting nov 4th (?) they will play it week by week depending on demand. therefore, our concern is that they may cancel our december 4th flight and we would lose our hotel deposit. my initial reaction was no problem, we'll buy travel insurance. however, it does appear that travel insurance does not cover airline cancellations except for weather, mechanical problems, strike, bankruptcy. what to do? does anyone know an insurance that does cover "airline cancellation for economic reasons"?

 

[scubawife]

docmartin, we're flying on Onepass miles as well, roundtrip Newark-Cancun in early Dec. My understanding from CO is that they do not anticipate any change in currently scheduled service in Dec. They may not operate 3 flts a day to CUN, but they will offer at least one. They will also have at least one from HOU to Coz, but that could be riskier depending on the available connections from Newark. Any changes (like not operating the EWR non-stops) is for Novemeber. We were booked at Casa del Mar, but they are closed until 12/15. I rebooked at Hotel Cozumel. Contacted then directly and had a reply in 10 min. They suggested booking on Travelocity because they had a lower rate then the hotel could offer directly. I did not have to pay in full or pay a deposit. Just secured the confirmed res with a credit card. I can cancel up to 3 days prior to departure with no penalty. CO will allow redeposit of your miles by 11/29 without penalty. My personal feeling on travel insurance is that more often then not it's just not worth it unless you're traveling on a package deal where everything is non-refundable, or, you think there may be a medical reason in the family that could require cancelling the trip.

 

[diveborg]

Here is Doc Vikingo's Good Guy Resource for Divers which includes a section on travel insurance. Hope it helps.
Bruce