Health problems and travel: Cruise cancellation after knee surgery: a valid reason for travel cancellation?
After repeated knee surgeries, a woman has to cancel her cruise. Her travel cancellation insurance only reimburses a small part of the approximately 12,700 euros in cancellation costs - was that allowed?
Travelers only receive a partial refund of cancellation costs when they face health issues that they could have foreseen and that are excluded from their insurance policy's terms. This principle was established by the Oberlandesgericht Frankfurt am Main (case 3 U 49/25), according to a report by Stiftung Warentest.
In a specific case, a woman booked a cruise in 2021 and purchased travel insurance in 2022. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she rescheduled the cruise to January 2024, which increased the travel cost and she subsequently bought a new cancellation policy with a higher insurance amount in October 2023. The woman had undergone surgery on her left knee prior to booking and had another surgery on her right knee in summer 2022, which had to be repeated in the spring of 2023.
By the end of November 2023, she had to cancel the trip due to persistent fluid accumulation in her knee joints. The cancellation costs amounted to approximately €12,700. However, the insurer only refunded about one-third of the cancellation costs, citing that they are only required to cover the cost of one rescheduled trip if a new serious illness or an unexpected worsening of an existing condition occurs.
The insurer argued that the woman's knee problems did not arise unexpectedly, as she had been receiving treatment throughout the process. The right knee surgery took place within six months of the second higher-insured policy being taken out. Therefore, the insurer claimed that the woman had no right to a full reimbursement of the cancellation costs.
Consequently, the woman filed a lawsuit, but lost in the first instance at the Landgericht Limburg an der Lahn. The woman's appeal led to the Oberlandesgericht Frankfurt abandoning the case (case 3 U 49/25). The court stated that a surgical outcome is always subject to delayed healing and/or complications, implying that the plaintiff would still be responsible for most of the costs.
Written by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
