Do you have experience with canceling a flight on your end with insurance?

[Fa-Li]

I am trying to figure out how this works with travel insurance and wondering if anyone has done this:

 

We have an annual policy with good coverage.  We have to cancel our Sept river cruise due to a cancer diagnosis.  This is a covered reason and I'm expecting no issue with the portion of the claim that covers our loss for the cruise tour.  Our airline tickets are another matter.  These days, when you "cancel" a flight, it is not just a loss.  The airline assures you the value of your ticket is still good for a year from purchase and can be applied to other travel.  We are in no position to book other travel.

 

The insurance requires proof of cancellation/loss to confirm the claim.  Which we won't be getting because the cancellation email just states we have the travel credit. I suppose it will become a loss in February when the year has run out and we haven't used it, but by then the policy will also have run out.  

 

The people I have spoken with on the phone for Allianz have not really had an answer to this, and have just stuck to the script of telling me to file with the online form once I've cancelled the flight.  It has been difficult to explain this scenario to someone in a call center not US based.

 

Has anyone successfully gotten around this situation and claimed the ticket as a loss?  Or come up with a creative solution?

 

Thanks for any thoughts you can share.