A question that has come up is if a person can get Cancel for Any Reason coverage for a trip that has the travelers flying standby. The main concern was that the travelers would not be able to get a standby flight in time for their scheduled cruise, therefore they were seeing if Cancel for Any Reason coverage would apply in this situation. The answer is no, plans that offer this type of coverage won’t cover here.
The reason is Cancel for Any Reason coverage ends 48 hours prior to the scheduled departure time. In the case of the travelers above they were giving themselves 3 days prior to the start of the cruise to find a standby flight. In case they didn’t get one the first day they would return the next. If they didn’t get one then they wanted to cancel and be covered for the missed cruise. The problem here is that these travelers would be considered(according to the policy) to be leaving on their trip the day they first go to the airport. Since this would be considered the departure time it would be impossible for the traveler to meet the 48 hour requirement.