Travel vouchers being offered instead of cash

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It is becoming more and more common for travel suppliers to provide vouchers rather than cash refunds.  If a credit is provided as a nice gesture for something that went wrong, or you are unhappy with the service provided, this may be acceptable.  

More and more often, however, travel suppliers are offering vouchers when this option seem very unfair to the recipient.  Let's say your flight or your cruise was cancelled.  Should you have to take their voucher as compensation?

This seems to be an area where better regulations are needed, but you should always say no to vouchers.  Very often companies are required to offer you cash, but will try to make you believe that you don't have a choice.

Vouchers often have black-out dates and an expiration date.  You may be told that the voucher expires in a year, what they often don't tell you is that it is a year from when the ticket was purchased, not a year from when you would receive your voucher.  

Make sure you read the fine print on the voucher before you agree to accepting it. If you don't like the terms, ask for a better deal, or a refund. Otherwise, you may never be able to use the credit. 

This is also one of the main reasons why, when purchasing travel insurance you should use a third party travel insurance company rather than purchasing insurance through the supplier.  When you are insured through the supplier you will very often be reimbursed in vouchers, not cash.      

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