What are my rights if an event or booking is cancelled?

Three situations get conflated. If the organiser cancels, the service you paid for is not being provided and a refund is the normal position. If it is postponed, the terms usually govern and you may or may not have a refund right. If you simply cannot attend, you generally have no right to anything, which is what ticket protection insurance is sold for.

Step by step

1. Establish which situation you are in.Cancelled outright, postponed to a new date, materially changed — a different venue, headliner or format — or you cannot attend. The rights differ substantially.
2. Read the terms you agreed to.Find the refund and postponement clauses. Terms that are unfair to consumers can be challenged, but you need to know what they say first.
3. Claim the refund from the seller.That is whoever you bought from — the primary ticket agent, the venue or the organiser. Do it in writing with the booking reference.
4. Decline a voucher if you want money.Where a refund is due, a credit note is an offer. You can accept it if it suits you, but you are not obliged to.
5. Check whether booking fees are included.Ask explicitly for the full amount paid including fees. Sellers often refund the face value only, and it is worth challenging.
6. Check any protection you bought.Ticket protection or refund protection policies have their own terms and their own claim routes. Read what they actually cover.
7. Use the card routes if refused.Section 75 for qualifying credit card purchases, chargeback for services not provided. Both work well where an organiser has stopped responding.
8. Check ATOL, ABTA or package rules for travel.A cancelled package holiday has its own protections and refund timescales that are stronger than ordinary contract rights.
9. Be careful with resale platforms.Secondary market purchases have different protections, and some platforms guarantee only a like-for-like replacement. Check the platform's terms.
10. Escalate rather than wait.Refund backlogs are real, but chargeback deadlines are not extended for them. Set a deadline and use the card route when it passes.

Tips

• Buy tickets for expensive events on a credit card. Section 75 turns an unrecoverable loss into a claim against a solvent card provider.
• Ask for the booking fee back explicitly. Many refunds exclude it unless you challenge it.
• Screenshot the cancellation announcement. Organisers sometimes reword them later.

Common mistakes

• Accepting a voucher because it was offered first — Where a refund is due, accepting a voucher can be treated as agreeing to a variation and it becomes worthless if the organiser later fails.
• Waiting months for the organiser's refund process — Chargeback time limits keep running. Raise the card claim while the process continues rather than after it fails.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask