Before a ticket exists
You may ignore a quote. Nothing was charged on travelobuds.com, so there is nothing to refund.
After you pay, before the airline issues
If funds have been collected and the carrier has not yet issued, we will try to stop issue and return what has not already been taken as a non-refundable supplier hold that was disclosed in the quote. Some consolidator and airline deposits clear immediately. Timing is the airline’s, not ours.
U.S. Department of Transportation 24-hour rule
On qualifying tickets sold by U.S. airlines and U.S. ticket agents, DOT rules generally require a 24-hour refund or a 24-hour reservation hold without penalty when the purchase is made seven or more days before departure. This is a government passenger-protection rule, not a Travelobuds extra. It does not apply to every foreign-carrier ticket, every fare family, or purchases made inside seven days of departure. We will apply it where the validating carrier and the point of sale make it mandatory, and we will say so on the quote when we know it applies.
After ticketing — the airline fare rules
The booking class on the ticket (the letter in the fare basis) determines what happens next. Typical airline categories:
- Same-day void: Some validating carriers allow a void on the calendar day of issue (carrier timezone). This is a carrier practice, not a passenger right, and it often closes when the airline’s sales day ends.
- Refundable fares: Refunds are processed by the validating airline (or its agent) back to the original form of payment, minus any airline refund fee stated in the fare rule. Card refunds often post in days; the airline’s accounting cycle is longer. U.S. DOT refund-timing rules apply to many tickets sold in the United States.
- Non-refundable fares: The unused ticket may have residual value as a future-travel credit with that airline, minus a change or cancel fee. Some promotional and basic-economy fares have no residual value. The quote should have stated which.
- Changeable fares: A date or routing change is a voluntary change under the fare rule: collect any fare difference plus the airline’s change fee (if any). “Free changes” still require the new flight to be available in the same fare family. If the new date is more expensive, you pay the difference.
- Basic economy / light / saver: Commonly no changes, no refunds, last boarding group, and a carry-on or seat-selection restriction. The operating carrier’s basic-economy page is the source of truth, not a marketing card on this site.
Schedule changes and cancellations by the airline
If the carrier significantly changes time, routing, or aircraft type, or cancels the flight, involuntary reroute and refund rights come from that airline’s contract of carriage and from any mandatory law that applies (U.S. DOT refund rules on qualifying U.S. tickets; EU261/UK261 care and compensation on qualifying European flights; Montreal Convention on many international itineraries).
We will help if we issued the ticket. If you bought direct on the airline after we sent you there, you must claim with the airline.
Name corrections versus name changes
Most airlines distinguish a minor spelling correction (one-letter error, missing initial) from a legal name change (marriage, different passenger). Corrections are sometimes free within a short window. Substituting a different person is almost always a new ticket at the current fare. Do not assume a marriage certificate lets the original PNR fly.
No-shows and unused sectors
Failing to fly the first sector typically voids the rest of a round-trip under airline “no-show” and coupon-sequence rules. Hidden-city and throwaway ticketing violate most carriers’ conditions of carriage. We will not build those itineraries.
Our service fee
If a Travelobuds service fee was itemised, it is refundable only when the quote said it was, or when a mandatory law requires it. Work already done on a complex routing that you then ticketed elsewhere is not automatically refundable.
How to ask
Email support@travelobuds.com with the request ID or e-ticket number, passenger names as ticketed, and whether you want a void, refund, date change, or name correction. Do not send full card numbers. Refunds, when due, are issued by the airline to the original merchant — we cannot speed a carrier’s treasury.