Carrier Cancellations

Distribusion provides processes for handling pre-trip, post-departure, and technical cancellations to ensure smooth refunds for customers. Retailers are encouraged to integrate the Cancellation Webhook or opt for email notifications to manage pre-trip cancellations efficiently. For post-departure or technical cancellations, retailers must liaise directly with carriers, following Distribusion's outlined procedures to resolve issues and align on refunds.

Pre-trip Cancellations

Due to unforeseen circumstances, carriers sometimes need to cancel bookings. In these cases, customers must be refunded by the platform on which they purchased the ticket.

To facilitate the cancellation and refund process, we recommend retail platforms to integrate Distribusion’s Cancellation Webhook which automatically informs in the case of a carrier-side cancellation and can be integrated into existing customer service procedures. Please refer to our detailed Webhooks guide.

Distribusion can also notify retailers about these cancellations via email. If that is your preference, please share your choosen email with your Partnership Manager.

Post Departure Cancellations

Sometimes the customer will request a refund post departure with a valid complaint, such as a bus not showing up or a train leaving early. However, these type of post departure cancellations cannot be processed through our API. This is because all three parties (the carrier, the retailer, and Distribusion) need to be aligned in order to issue the refund.

To gain a refund for a trip post departure you must contact the carrier directly through email with support@distribusion.com in the CC. All carrier contact information can be found on the ticket itself, though if you have additional questions you can contact Distribusion directly.

You can use the following template to reach out to them:

Cancellation Request: {carrier booking number}

Dear {carrier_name},

We are {retailer name} and we are consuming your content via Distribusion. For one of the bookings made with you, a passenger has reported an issue and we therefore kindly ask you to confirm the booking cancellation. This will help us issue a monetary refund back to the original payment method used and therefore avoid double refunds or chargeback.

Please see information below about the booking:

Distribusion booking number: {insert Distribusion booking reference}

Carrier booking number: {insert carrier booking reference}

Issue details: {describe the issue in as much detail as possible}

Could you please confirm within the next 10 business days that this booking may be refunded in full? If not, please explain the reasons for this. Otherwise, if we do not hear back from you within this timeframe, Distribusion will involuntarily confirm this cancellation in full and you will not receive compensation for this.

Distribusion Partner Support Team is copied to this email. Please make sure that they are not excluded from this email chain when you respond to us. This will help us bring more transparency to the process.

We are looking forward to your prompt resolution.

Regards,

{retailer name}

Once permission has been given by the carrier, Distribusion will implement a deduction from your upcoming monthly invoice. If permission is not granted, then we will not issue the refund. Alternatively, if no response is received from the carrier for 10 working days, we will give a full refund and speak to the carrier on responsiveness.

Technical / Void Cancellations

In the event that a booking is successfully confirmed via the API despite a technical error having occurred on the booking platform, safety mechanisms can be implemented to cancel the booking in the carrier’s system. Many carriers support the cancellation and refund of tickets within a short time period after the booking has been made in order to avoid losses caused in these cases.

There are different options for such technical cancellations, please reach out to your Partnership Manager during the integration process for advice on the best suited method for your use case.