Cancellation & Refund Policies

In the booking flow, it is highly recommended to display the carrier’s cancellation policy for the chosen trip and fare class to the user.

Cancellation policies are defined on a fare class level in the Distribusion API and communicated through fare_features that are provided in the /marketing_carriers/{marketing_carrier_id} or /connections/find response. Check our Features & Amenities guide for more details about how they work.

These fare features should be displayed to users during the booking flow, ideally as part of the search results. We recommend giving extra visibility to them in your flow, ideally separated from other fare features, to allow users to understand what cancellation rules apply to each fare class.

Note that after a booking is completed, the cancellation and refund policies that are valid for the booking should be checked using the /cancellation/conditions endpoint as described in the Cancel Booking steps of the flow.

Cancellation & Refund Features

Distribusion uses three standardized fare feature codes to communicate cancellation policies and provide the relevant information to be displayed to users.

Each carrier will have at least 1 of these 3 features, and will never allow more than 1 per fare class.

Besides that, 2 other useful features that could go alongside the 3 above are the ones that inform if the fares allow amendments.

Some carriers might have specific fare_features that include additional cancellation and refund details. Please take note of them from the list below:

For the full list of possible fare_features including fare names and descriptions check our Features & Amenities guide.

Custom Descriptions

Each cancellation/refund fare feature provides a carrier-specific description within the attributes array of the response, detailing the conditions whereby a customer can cancel a ticket.

Sample PREF Feature from Westbahn

 
        {
            "id": "WEST-PREF",
            "type": "fare_features",
            "attributes": {
                "code": "PREF",
                "name": "Partially refundable",
                "description": "If the ticket is cancelled within 15 minutes of purchase, the passenger is eligible for a full refund. Beyond this period, the ticket may be cancelled up to one day before the selected day of travel for a fee of 25% of the ticket price (minimum €4.99)."
            }
        }

Fare Conditions

SNCF and National Rail are among some of the carriers that work with the concept of micro-conditions. These are dynamic cancellation and refund policies that are set at a fare class level.

This content appears under the fare_conditions section in the /connections/find response.

 
{
            "attributes": {
                "code": "CONDITION-27",
                "description": "LYON PART DIEU - PARIS - GARE DE LYON - HALL 1 & 2 - Découverte 12-25\nTo be between 12 and 25 years old on the date of travel. For a journey during blue (off-peak) hours. Ticket non-exchangeable. Refundable until the day before departure on the purchase channel.\nLYON PART DIEU - PARIS - GARE DE LYON - HALL 1 & 2 - Billet Tarif Normal\nValid solely on TER trains for the selected date of travel. Ticket non-exchangeable. Refundable until the day before departure on the purchase channel.\n",
                "exchangeable": "no",
                "refundable": "yes",
                "title": "Découverte 12-25;Billet Tarif Normal"
            },
            "id": "SNCF-159c0f8282ec1812d-21ad8dacb0c7d631a",
            "type": "fare_conditions"
        }

Displaying this information in your search flow is a requirement by SNCF and National Rail.