When you spend your hard-earned money on a product or service, you expect a certain level of quality — and when that quality falls short of expectations, it's not unreasonable to think you're entitled to a refund. But not every situation qualifies. So when should you stand your ground for your money back, and when should cut your losses? Take a look at these nine times you should demand a refund— ever so politely, of course.
I once booked a European vacation around the holidays that was supposed to stop in London, Dublin, and Paris, but the last leg of the trip was cancelled due to "weather conditions" according to the evil discount airline that shall remain nameless. The airline offered to fly my friends and me to Rome as penance — which was a nice offer in theory, except we couldn't fly on the dates they suggested — so my flight was essentially a loss since the airline wasn't responsible for acts of God, which, in this case, was fog. I was young and dumb and just accepted the decision.
Maybe that wouldn't have happened if I were friendly with Kyle Stewart, travel editor at UPGRD, at the time. He experienced a similar situation, but walked away a little less broke than I did.
"We had found a very cheap flight to and from London, but once we were abroad we had to make a change and book an alternative separate flight home," he says about his one-time travel plans. "Our tickets were non-refundable, but it is unlawful for the carrier to keep revenue they collect for 'taxes' if you do not actually fly the route. The U.K. has a steep departure tax of nearly $250 each on flights leaving the United Kingdom. Because we did not fly those routes but had paid for the taxes, even on a non-refundable ticket we were able to get the departure tax refunded which nearly paid for our alternative transportation home."
