Canceling flights to europe - insured. any experiences?

[gozalim]

Two people flying to europe next week.
flight NY-Paris on Icelandic followed by a couple of inter-europe flights. bought insurance on the whole thing.

in light of recent events, PAX is spooked, wants to cancel tour (will instead fly direct to final destination).

Insurance is giving a runaround, saying that wouldn't be eligible unless State department (not white house) lists it as terror attack.
best I have now is
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/NiceAttackCrisis.html
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/07/14/statement-president-attack-nice-france
https://fr.usembassy.gov/security-message-u-s-citizens-nice-terrorist-attack-latest-information/

Insurance is saying 'submit all paperwork and we'll respond in 10 days'. PAX needs to fly (this or alternate flight) within a week, so can't just wait for verdict to book new travel.

Anyone with any experience dealing with these things? anyone cancel Europe based travel recently?
what's the chances I get fully insured? any way to get confirmation from them? can I fight them?

[AsherO]

Not that the passengers are asking me, but I doubt KEF is high on the terrorists' target list...

[gozalim]

Not that the passengers are asking me, but I doubt KEF is high on the terrorists' target list...

to clarify, what they're looking to avoid is a week hanging around europe (paris, italy, prague, etc.)
they want to cancel the local flights. I was wondering whether canceling the whole trip has better chances of success