Article 8(1)(a) of EU261 requires the ticket price back within seven days, and Article 7(3) allows a travel voucher only with the passenger’s signed agreement. If an airline issued credit you never agreed to, the letter below asks for the money in its place and asks for the record of the agreement it says you gave.
[Your full name]
[Your address]
[Email]
[Phone]
[Today's date]
[Airline name] — Customer Relations / Claims
[Airline claims address or online claim form]
Re: Request for reimbursement in money rather than a voucher
Flight [Flight number]
Route [Departure airport] to [Final destination airport]
Date of flight [Flight date]
Booking reference [Booking reference]
Your reference [Reference number]
Dear Sir or Madam,
I was a confirmed passenger on flight [Flight number] from
[Departure airport] to [Final destination airport] on [Flight date],
booking reference [Booking reference]. The flight was
[cancelled / significantly changed] and I did not travel on it.
You have issued a travel voucher for this booking. I did not agree to a
voucher, and I do not agree to one now.
Article 8(1)(a) of Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 requires reimbursement of
the cost of the ticket within seven days. Article 7(3) provides that
payment is made in cash, by electronic bank transfer, bank order or bank
cheque, and in travel vouchers only with the signed agreement of the
passenger. I have given no such agreement.
Please cancel the voucher and pay [Currency] [Refund amount] to:
[Payment details]. I am asking for payment within 14 days of the date of
this letter.
If you consider that I agreed to a voucher, please send me the record of
that agreement: the date, the wording I was shown and the action you say
I took.
Yours faithfully,
[Signature]
[Your full name]
How to use it
- Check first that you never clicked a box accepting credit. If you did, read the honest scope below before sending.
- Fill the gaps from the booking confirmation and the voucher email. Use the voucher reference in “Your reference”.
- Put your bank details in the payment field. Article 7(3) names bank transfer, so an expired card is no excuse.
- Attach the booking confirmation, the cancellation message and the voucher email as it reached you.
- Send it through the airline’s claim form or claims address and keep proof of sending.
Do not spend the voucher while you are asking for cash. Partly redeeming it is the strongest evidence an airline can have that you accepted it. Leave it untouched until the money question is settled, and say in writing that you are not accepting it.
When this letter works, and when it does not
It is at its strongest where the airline converted your booking to credit on its own, or where the refund option was never displayed, or where you were told a refund was not available. Article 7(3) puts the agreement requirement on the airline’s side of the line, so asking it to produce that agreement is a fair question with a factual answer.
It is much weaker if you were shown both options and chose the voucher, and weaker still if you accepted it “in full and final settlement”. That phrase is a settlement, and a letter that pretends otherwise will be refused. In that situation the honest move is to check whether the restrictions on the voucher were disclosed when it was offered, and to concentrate on the separate compensation claim, which the voucher usually does not touch.
This letter asks for the ticket money. It is not the compensation claim for the disruption itself — that is the cancellation letter, and the two can run together.
What if my flight was part of a package?
Then your debtor is the tour operator, not the airline, and the deadline is 14 days from termination of the contract rather than seven. Use the package holiday refund letter instead.
What if the airline says my card has expired?
Give it bank details. Article 7(3) lists electronic bank transfer as a permitted method, and there is no rule requiring the original card. If it still refuses, that refusal in writing is what you take to the regulator.
What if the airline ignores the letter?
Chase it once with a dated deadline, then escalate. The follow-up letter sets the deadline, and escalate to the regulator explains who takes the file next. It is free, and it is the same route a claim agency would use on your behalf.