Home / Legal / Cancellation & Refund Policy
There isn't
one refund
policy. There
are five.
Which rulebook applies to your money depends entirely on what you bought. A tour package follows our schedule. A flight follows the airline's fare rules. A visa fee follows nobody's — it is gone. Knowing which one governs you is the whole of this page.
Start here
Which rules
govern your
refund
Find your product in the first column. That tells you whose terms decide what comes back, and it is only ours in one of the five rows.
| Ref | What you booked | Governed by | How it works | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R1 | Tour packages booked with us | Tripgation schedule | The published schedule below applies, based on how many days before travel we receive your written cancellation. | The only category we control outright |
| R2 | Flight tickets | Airline fare rules | Set when the ticket was issued and frequently stricter than ours. Many fares are non-refundable; some permit only a change for a fee. | Statutory taxes are usually recoverable even on a non-refundable fare |
| R3 | Hotels | The property's policy | A deadline in the hotel's local time, stated on your voucher. Non-refundable prepaid rates carry no cancellation right at all. | Festive-period bookings carry stricter terms |
| R4 | Third-party products | That supplier's rules | Cruises, rail, trade-fair accommodation, insurance and forex each follow their own supplier terms, which apply in addition to ours. | Often the strictest of the five |
| R5 | Government & consular fees | The issuing authority | Visa, embassy and service-centre fees are not returned once an application is submitted, whatever the outcome. | Not refundable, including on refusal |
Where more than one applies — a package containing a flight, for example — each component follows its own rulebook. This is why a partial refund on a mixed booking rarely looks like a single clean percentage.
Row R1 in detail
Our tour
package
schedule
Applies to tour packages booked directly with us. The band is set by the date we receive your written cancellation, not the date you decided.
| When you cancel | Refund | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 46 days or more before travel | 50% refund | The earliest band, and still not a full refund — supplier deposits are committed by this point. |
| 31 – 45 days before travel | 25% refund | Hotel blocks and transport are contracted; most of the cost is already spent. |
| 15 – 30 days before travel | 15% refund | Inside most supplier cancellation deadlines. |
| Under 15 days before travel | No refund | The trip is fully committed with suppliers and cannot be recovered. |
Even the earliest band is not a full refund, and we would rather say why than let it look arbitrary: hotel blocks, transport and deposits are committed well before departure. Cancelling early recovers what is genuinely recoverable, which is never the whole amount.
Before you are paid
Three deductions,
and no
fourth
Non-recoverable supplier charges
Whatever the airline, hotel or operator has retained under its own rules. This is usually the largest deduction and none of it reaches us.
Government and consular fees
Visa and embassy fees already paid to an authority. We cannot recover these and neither can anyone else, including on a refusal.
Our service or processing fee
The fee for work already performed — building the itinerary, issuing documents, handling the file. Stated at cancellation, not discovered at refund.
Nothing else
There is no separate handling charge, no admin levy and no percentage skimmed on the way through. If you see a deduction you do not recognise on a refund from us, query it and we will show you the working.
Be clear about this
Six things that
never come back
Not a policy choice on our part — in every case the money has already gone somewhere we cannot reach.
- Government, embassy and consular fees once an application has been submitted
- No-shows — arriving late for a flight, a hotel night or a tour departure
- Unused portions of a trip you chose to cut short, unless a policy covers it
- Services already delivered, including work completed on a visa file
- Charges retained by a supplier under fare rules or a property's cancellation policy
- Cancellations communicated verbally and not confirmed in writing
Where your money is
Why it takes
weeks, and
who has it
The commonest complaint in travel, and almost always the same misunderstanding — that the agent is sitting on the money. We are not.
You cancel, in writing
Email or WhatsApp, so there is a timestamp. We file with the supplier the same working day and send you the reference number. Verbal cancellations are not actioned — the date decides your refund band, so it has to be provable.
Filed with supplierThe supplier assesses
The airline applies its fare rules, or the hotel its policy, and determines the recoverable amount. That figure was fixed by rules set when you booked. Neither we nor you set it now.
Amount being decidedThe supplier releases funds
Airlines settle refunds on their own cycle, measured in weeks rather than days, and peak periods extend it. This is the long step, it is outside our control, and it is where nearly all the wait happens.
Still with the supplierWe pass it to you
Processed to your original payment method after the deductions listed above, with the date it left us confirmed in writing. Ask at any point and we will show you the supplier reference so you can see the stage it is at.
Money reaches youMaking the request
Four steps,
and the first
one is urgent
Put it in writing, today
Email or WhatsApp. The date we receive your written request sets your refund band, and a day either side can move you between bands. Do not wait for office hours to start the clock.
Quote the booking reference
Invoice number, booking reference and the names of anyone being cancelled if it is a partial cancellation. Partial cancellations may reprice the remaining travellers.
We confirm what you will get
Within one working day you receive the supplier position, the deductions, and the expected net refund. You are told the figure before the process runs, not after.
We track it to your account
You get the supplier reference and can ask for status at any point. When the money leaves us, we confirm the date and the method it went back to.
Our own work
What we
stand behind
If the error is ours, our fee goes back
A wrong date, a misspelt name we entered, a booking made against the wrong itinerary — where the mistake is ours we refund our service fee and bear the cost of putting it right. We do not offer a blanket money-back guarantee, because once an airline has your money the refund follows their rules and not our goodwill. But our own work is ours to stand behind.
What we cannot do
We cannot refund a supplier charge the supplier has retained, recover a government fee, or reverse a fare rule you accepted at booking. Any firm promising otherwise is either absorbing the cost silently — and pricing it back in elsewhere — or not telling you the truth.
Precedence. Supplier terms — airline fare rules, hotel policies and third-party conditions — apply in addition to this policy and prevail where stricter.
Force majeure. Where a trip is disrupted by events beyond reasonable control, recovery depends on what each supplier is willing to return. We pursue it on your behalf and pass on what is released.
Escalation. Grievance Officer: Mrs Pooja Rani, grievance@tripgation.com, Mon–Sat 09:00–19:00 IST. If you remain unhappy you may ask for the matter to go to a director.
Related. Read with the Payment Policy and our Terms & Conditions.
Governing law. India. Subject to your consumer-protection rights, the courts at Gautam Buddha Nagar, Uttar Pradesh have jurisdiction.
Need to cancel
Write to us today, not tomorrow.
The date we receive your written request sets your refund band. Send the booking reference now and we will confirm the position within one working day.