We had a holiday booked, to Venice.
When Lee and I got married, we took a week-long honeymoon afterwards. (We didn't have a lot of annual leave to take.) Lee had time off booked in February, and the plan was to book either a snowboarding trip, if I wasn't pregnant; or a babymoon, if I was! We were looking forward to our second honeymoon. Once we found out I was pregnant, it became about planning where I could enjoy myself and be able to walk around without exhausting myself. Venice was chosen for the romance, and if it was to be a second honeymoon without booze, we could at least have the romance! We found a last minute deal, flights and hotel combo, not too expensive, and the hotel looked lovely. We hadn't made any real plans of what we were planning to do while in Venice, but were really looking forward to the break nonetheless.
The day after we paid for the trip, we bought some single trip travel insurance, through The Post Office. We chose an option that didn't carry an excess.
That day in the hospital, the first day of February, was five days before we were due to leave for Venice. It was one of the first logical things that crossed my mind after we'd had the news. Not disappointed that we couldn't go, but anticipating another thing to have to deal with. We explained this to the hospital staff, and they said that they would have a letter ready on Friday when we were back. They explained that the admin staff who had access to the official paperwork had gone home for the day. All I could think was that that was just the start of it...
My husband contacted the insurance company to inform them that we would have to cancel, they told him that he would have to contact the holiday company to request cancellation and wait for a compensation offer from them before claiming on the insurance. Unsurprisingly, we were offered zero funds back, as it was so short notice. We weren't offered that until the weekend, so weren't able to submit the insurance claim until the Monday.
When we submitted the insurance claim, it was to a claims company that was somewhat separate to the insurance company; which I found odd. They sent various pieces of paperwork to be completed, including a medical certificate to be completed by my GP. It took me a while to get round to going in to request the completion of it. When I brought it in to the receptionist, and explained the circumstances, her face changed. She didn't rearrange her expression to pity that was insincere, she actually moved from confusion (when I was talking about an insurance form) to shock (when I said I had been admitted to hospital for the management of the miscarriage) to sincere pity, but I felt supported by it. I've never before wanted to be pitied, and I still don't, but there are times when it has a place.
Once the doctor had completed the certificate, and the fee had been paid, we bought a snazzy printer to scan everything we were sending before putting it in the post. About a week or two later we received notification that we were getting a full refund.
We had discussed it, the fight for our money back. We bought insurance for the just in case, to make sure we didn't lose more money for any reason. We had considered various possibilities: a little bit of money; even less than a little bit of money; and no money. We hadn't considered a full refund, which if you think about it is a pretty sad state of affairs. However, what we had agreed was that we would consider the amount offered versus the amount we were going to lose out on, then decide if it would be worth the fight. I don't think either of us had much energy for anything short of them not giving us any money.
The letter informing us even said they were sorry for the reason we had to cancel. It was probably a standard "cancellation through illness" letter, but it was nice nonetheless. I think both of us saw this as positive, even though we shouldn't have considered anything other than a full refund as acceptable, in the circumstances.
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