We had made our reservations the previous summer and were really looking forward to the trip. As April began the reality of the trip being so close started ramping up our excitement. About a week before we left, our youngest got sick.

The Family Bug

There’s always some flu or cold bug going around school and it seems to hit at the worst time. As any parent knows, once one gets it, the rest of the family is not usually far behind.

Our youngest ended up with strep throat. At the first signs we had brought him into the doctor to get that diagnosed and get him his medicine. We did all the precautions we could to make sure it didn’t spread, but of course it did.

The weekend before we were leaving Tomatico woke up with a fever and the same exact symptoms as his brother. Ugh.

We quickly got him diagnosed and on the proper medicine but his case was worse and he wasn’t recovering as quickly. Later that same day I started feeling feverish with a sore throat as well. I quickly went to get myself diagnosed though luckily the tests came back negative. I just have some version of the flu while it seemed Tomatico had some version of both the flu and strep throat. My wife was staying as far away from all of us as she could!

Two days before flying, my dad arrived from South Carolina to a house with Tomatico still in the thick of things. I was through the worst of things and recovering my energy. Our youngest was thankfully all better by that time and able to go back to school.

By Wednesday afternoon Tomatico’s fever had finally broken but though he didn’t have his appetite back. Things weren’t looking all that great as he still wouldn’t be able to go to school the next day since his fever had just broken. We called the doctor to see if he was technically able to fly and they said as long as his fever had broken for 24 hours and he had taken his antibiotics he was clear to fly.

Cancellation Options

While airlines can review situations on a case by case basis, you generally aren’t guaranteed to get a refund on your ticket if you’re sick. Luckily, the credit card I purchased the tickets with DOES provide insurance against interrupted or canceled travel due to a person in our party being sick.

While we obviously REALLY wanted to go on the trip, it was nice to know we had that insurance in case we had to cancel. You can often buy supplemental travel insurance, though it often, but not always, provides less coverage than some travel credit cards such as the Citi Prestige and Chase Sapphire Reserve cards, which have excellent coverage options.

We would be hoping Tomatico would quickly get back to himself and that the rest of us would be able to stay healthy. It wasn’t the best lead up to the vacation, though we were doing our best to give ourselves the best chance of being healthy for the trip.