Trip.com Refund Guide: How to Cancel Flight and Request for Refund Successfully

Cancelled flights or change of travel plans due to Covid-19? One thing’s certain, this novel coronavirus is really a scary enemy. And what does it leave us, wanderers? This grueling question: In the face of a pandemic, do you know what it means to be a traveler?

It’s heart-breaking. Transport operations are halted. Local and international borders are closed. Holiday plans are messed up. Now what? With all the necessary preparation and bookings for the trip already paid for in advance like airline tickets, hotel or airbnb accommodation, tour packages, transportation and travel essentials, it’s likely you are dealing with another dilemma. Yes, I’m talking about what travel companies and third party agents are offering to affected customers ~ refunds and other flexibility options. Or lack thereof.

Booking cancellations are inevitable and therefore alternative solutions are provided by various travel-related platforms. Request for refund and other options are not really new to many trip makers, but for some, the process can be confusing and frustrating. Confusing as some airlines and third party travel applications have no clear policy and guidelines on eligibility, complaint process, contact information and consistency of policy implementation among them. Frustrating because, more often than not, you won’t be able to get through successfully due to high volume of requests and the limited number of available channels/hotlines (not to mention some useless chat bots, if you know what I mean).

I experienced this challenge first hand when my Spring trip to Osaka, Japan on April 10 -14, 2020 is affected by the Enhanced Community Quarantine implemented by both national and local government. I booked four different flights from various travel platforms as follows: Cebu to Manila (Cebu Pacific), Manila to Osaka (Cebu Pacific), Nagoya to Taipei (trip.com), and Taipei to Cebu (AirAsia). And mind you, the level of predicament in requesting for a refund with these companies varies. Good thing, the flexibility options for Cebu Pacific is pro-customer so I didn’t have any problem with it. Here’s a detailed guide as to how I successfully converted my Cebu Pacific flight bookings to travel fund.

As for AirAsia, the only way you can contact them is through the airline’s website’s “Manage my booking” or chat with AVA (AirAsia Virtual Assistant). It’s a disappointing experience, I tell you. Complaints are not fully addressed by AVA and it keeps answering “something went wrong” thereby closing your case unsolved. It gets a lot more interesting as you navigate through the third party platform ~ Trip.com. It was my first time to book for an international flight through trip.com. The airfare cost is relatively cheaper than what is reflected in the airline’s website, at least for this particular flight. There is no clear-cut guide on making a request for cancellation and refund but I tried all the means to communicate my concern thru email, customer support (via website) and social media pages. Guess what, it worked!

1.) Visit trip.com and go to “My bookings” by logging in to your account

Once you are already in the “My Bookings” portal, enter a booking reference number or search using booking date. You can manage your booking by selecting the appropriate flight booking on the list.

2.) Select “Cancel” option and check if ticket eligible for cancellation

Verify first if your ticket is eligible by reviewing the ticket policy on the “Manage My Booking” section on Trip.com website/App or by clicking the blue link in the Passenger Section in your confirmation email. Upon checking, my flight booking is nonrefundable that is why the total refund reflected is zero as the cancellation fee (equal to the ticket cost) applies. To address this issue, I opted to communicate about this via trip.com customer support and asked for the cancellation fee to be waived rather than cancelling it on my own.

3. Click the Service Chat Button at the Lower Right Section of the Page

Talking to a real customer service agent (non-voice via online help chat) is an effective mode of communication because concern is addressed faster and appropriate action item is taken into consideration immediately. Here’s a screenshot of our conversation on how I successfully cancelled my flight and requested for a refund from Trip.com, even with these caveats:

• airline did not issue cancellation notice
• international flight is operating as scheduled
• special cases like covid-19 are not recognized as basis for refund as per trip.com ticket policy

4.) Receive an email notification from Trip.com

That moment when you finally got a notification from a third party app that your flight booking has been successfully cancelled and full refund has been processed accordingly, is very comforting! Just trust the process and pray positively for the refund to be credited back to your original mode of payment the soonest.

5.) Verify cancellation and refund request from your trip.com account

Trip.com will issue a ticket cancellation advisory, as follows:

“We have received a large amount of cancellation requests due to COVID-19, and as a result it is taking us longer than usual to issue refunds. Once we have confirmed your request with the airline/supplier, we will initiate your refund (if any) as soon as possible. Your refund will be returned to your original account of payment. Part or all of your refund may be provided as airline vouchers. The actual time it takes to receive your refund may depend on the airline and on your bank/card issuer. We will do our best to process your request as soon as possible.”

Check the Total Refund amount if the same with the full cost of the ticket. Once your cancellation request and refund amount have been confirmed, trip.com will notify you by email. You can also monitor the progress of your cancellation and refund request in your trip.com account.

There you go trip mates. If you find yourself having the same dilemma as mine, then feel free to refer to the above guide. I’d like to reiterate to trust the process and back your concerns with concrete evidences to support your claims. I am hoping that every customer of trip.com can request for full refund of their cancelled flights successfully. If you have questions or clarifications, just drop a message in the comment section below.

Stay safe and pray for this Covid-19 pandemic to end the soonest so that we can all travel again and make wonderful moments happen.

Tags: Covid-19, Flight Cancellation and Rebooking, Refund, Refund from Trip.com, Trip.com, Trip.com Refund Guide