Sorry to hear you lost out because of illness T.C. hope all is well now.
As far as losing your deposit, a few years ago now I was told that if you paid for your holiday using your c/card the price of the holiday is "insured", even if you only paid a partial amount {i.e. just the deposit} then ALL of what you have paid or future payments on that particular holiday is insured.
This is why whenever we booked {usually with Thomson} I paid the nominal deposit of £20 each by c/card then apparently I could pay the balance anyway I wanted because of the initial c/c payment it was all covered. I also paid this way because [then] they charged for you using your c/c, I believe it was 2% which, if I had paid the full amount this way, would be a real cash cow for them as it cost them nothing to process a c/card payment, just like it doesn't cost anything for a d/debit payment, so as soon as they knew I was onto their little scam they stopped asking for it, usually just saying your not paying it is enough, or in my brothers case he just stands up and starts walking to the door, {he never gets more than 2 paces from the desk}
Having said that it's about 4 years since I last used my c/c for my holiday payments so please just double check for any changes.
I also always got my holiday insurance the day I booked my holiday, but never from the overpriced travel agent..... enjoy your holiday.
