When it owes you, a travel supplier will often try to give you a voucher you can use toward the purchase of a future service rather than cash. Accept the voucher if you have no other choice, but where you can, refuse a voucher and insist instead on cash. What s good for the supplier is almost always bad for you. You may not use it at all.
Vouchers typically carry a time limit of six months or one year.
You may find that there s no way for you to use the voucher before it expires. A one-year voucher toward the future purchase of a cruise, for example, might well be worthless if your vacation plans don t call for another cruise within a year. Also, if you re angry enough at a supplier you may well never want to use that supplier again. I ve heard from many consumers who felt they had been so abused that they wouldn t accept even a free trip from an offending supplier, let alone a slightly discounted one. The voucher may be a come-on in disguise.