Holiday

I have RA and we go every spring to visit our son in L.A.

You must tell your insurers (Trawl the net. It's a necessary bore) about your ReA and you must all book your insurance 'on the same ticket' as it were. It costs more but that's because on individual insurance, only the person who gets ill is covered for delayed flights and longer hotel stays. If you're all on the same ticket all are covered. However, you might prefer to just have eg yourself and one other person on the same ticket while the rest of the family book their own. That way, you'd have someone to stay on with you if necessary.

You are covered as soon as you book so the year we booked the insurance and then I ended up in hospital the week before flying out, we would have been covered if we'd had to cancel. But check with the insurance people that that would apply from whenever you booked. It might be that I'd booked the insurance from the date I booked rather than the date I travelled. We always book it over the phone, never online, as it's all too easy to omit something vital online. And be scrupulously truthful. It will probably cost more short term but save you £1,000s if you get ill.

All this sounds a bit scary but, in about 13-14 years of annual 'transatlanticing', we've only had to delay the return once due to a chest infection of mine.

The steroid jab is probably an excellent plan but also consider wheelchair assistance at the airports. It's not so much the walking as the interminable standing around.

I'm not 100% sure what you mean here. Do you mean simple holiday protection against the travel company / airline etc going down the pan or do you use your bank's travel insurance policy? If so, I guess you need to check the 'Ts and Cs'. Would others in the party be covered? Would cancellation prior to departure due to illness, whatever, be covered, including hotels, excursions etc. ? Would an extended stay , eg after hospitalisation, be covered and for how many of you? What is the cover, if anything for lost baggage?

As regards illness, I've never travelled without several :roll: - RA, OA, asthma, plus others but all the online forms ask about every one, and how many meds I take for each. You say yours said, as there was only one illness it didn't matter but the online forms do ask if you've seen a consultant in the last 12(I think) months.

Personally, I think I'd want to know exactly what I was being covered for. If the bank's is only a basic thing then I'd check out ones online from eg travelsupermarket but then book by phone to be sure.

By February you could, hopefully, be much, much better but, arthritis being a fickle, antisocial thing, you could conceivably be worse. Better safe than sorry.