You can refuse a voucher in all three regimes. EU261 and UK261 pay in cash or by bank transfer within seven days, and a voucher only with your signed agreement. US rules require the refund in the original form of payment unless you agree otherwise. A package refund is due within 14 days. Nothing obliges you to accept credit.
EU and UK: Article 8(1)(a) with Article 7(3)
Two articles do the work. Article 8(1)(a) gives you reimbursement of the ticket “within seven days” when a flight is cancelled or you decline to fly on. Article 7(3) sets the form the money takes, and its wording is the sentence to quote back: compensation “shall be paid in cash, by electronic bank transfer, bank orders or bank cheques or, with the signed agreement of the passenger, in travel vouchers and/or other services.”
Cash and bank transfer are the default. The voucher is the exception, and the exception is conditional on your agreement. “Original payment method” is not what the text says — a useful thing to know if the airline claims it cannot pay a card that has since expired. Ask for a bank transfer instead and give the details.
United States: original form of payment, and no assumed consent
Two short sections of 14 CFR part 260 do it. §260.10 requires a refund to be “issued promptly in the original form of payment (i.e., money is returned to an individual using whatever payment method the individual used to make the original payment, such as a check, credit card, debit card, cash, or airline miles) unless the consumer agrees to receive the refunds in a different form of payment that is a cash equivalent”. It also bars the carrier from keeping a processing fee.
§260.7 closes the trapdoor: a covered carrier “must not deem a consumer to have accepted an offer for travel credits, vouchers, or other compensation in lieu of a refund … unless the consumer affirmatively agrees”. Silence is not acceptance, and neither is failing to answer an email. §260.8 also requires the airline to disclose the voucher’s restrictions — validity period, blackout dates, advance-purchase rules — at the moment it offers it. The US DOT refund letter uses these sections.
Package holidays: 14 days, from the organiser
If you booked a flight-plus-hotel package, the clock is different and shorter. Article 12(4) of Directive (EU) 2015/2302 requires reimbursement “without undue delay and in any event not later than 14 days after the package travel contract is terminated”, and regulation 14 of the UK Regulations uses the same 14-day wording. The debtor is the organiser, not the airline. See the package holiday refund letter.
A voucher accepted “in full and final settlement” is a settlement. That phrase, or a tick-box saying the same thing, is the one that closes the file. Read the confirmation screen before you click, and if you only want your money, say so in writing first.
What “signed agreement” means in practice
It means a positive act by you, aimed at the voucher, made with knowledge of what you were giving up. A pre-ticked box is not it. A default option you had to hunt to change is not it. An email that says “we have issued your credit” is not it either — that is the airline informing you of its own decision.
Three things are worth doing on the day: keep the screenshot of what you were offered, ask in writing for the reimbursement in money citing Article 8(1)(a), and do not click through to a credit while you are waiting for an answer.
If you already took the voucher
Be realistic. Where you gave clear, informed consent, the airline has what Article 7(3) asks for and the claim is much weaker. There are still arguments worth making, and they are factual ones: the voucher was the only option displayed; the cash option was hidden behind extra steps; the restrictions were never disclosed; or you were told a refund was unavailable when it was owed. If any of that is true, say it plainly and attach the screenshots — that is what the voucher-to-cash letter is for. If none of it is true, spend your effort on the compensation claim instead, which is a separate right.
Can an airline force a voucher instead of a refund?
No. Under Article 7(3) a voucher needs the passenger’s signed agreement, and in the US §260.7 forbids the carrier from treating you as having accepted one unless you affirmatively agree. An airline can offer a voucher; it cannot substitute one.
How long does the airline have to pay the money?
Seven days for reimbursement of a ticket under Article 8(1)(a). In the US, seven business days for a credit card purchase and 20 calendar days for other payment methods. For a package, 14 days from termination of the contract.
Is a voucher worth more than the cash?
Sometimes the face value is higher, and that can be a fair trade if you genuinely fly that airline again. Compare it against the restrictions the airline is required to disclose, and against the risk of the airline failing — a voucher ranks as an unsecured claim, which is why airline insolvency turns credit into nothing.