The Refund Protection Report:

Research reveals consumers prefer ‘Cancel for Any Reason’ (CFAR) protection when purchasing live event tickets or booking airfare and accommodations, and are willing to pay more for the convenience

Just as they desire a seamless booking process, when consumers need to request a refund for their purchases, they want their experience to be as pain-free as possible. That’s why users offered ‘Cancel for any Reason’ (CFAR) Refund Protection, when purchasing live event tickets or booking travel, indicated that they’re more likely to purchase the underlying event ticket, airfare or accommodation (compared to a more limited refund protection option). The convenience of CFAR protection leads to higher customer satisfaction — as evidenced by a sharp 17 point increase in NPS.

In our Refund Protection Report, we surveyed 10,304 global consumers in eight different countries: United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Germany and France.

The report, conducted by Momentive.ai and commissioned by Cover Genius, explores consumers’ experiences when requesting refunds and their interest in adding CFAR protection to their next live event ticket purchase or travel booking.

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CFAR protection for live event ticketing

Findings from the report show that consumers globally want CFAR protection when booking tickets for their next big event, and they’re more likely to purchase those tickets if they have that option. 63% of respondents said they’d be highly likely to buy a live event ticket if offered CFAR protection — that number goes down to 54% when the protection that’s offered requires them to provide documentation (such as a doctor’s note or evidence of transport interruption) when submitting a refund request, or when the protection covers limited reasons like medical or transport interruption only.

Not only are ticketholders more likely to purchase CFAR protection compared to non-CFAR protection, they’re willing to pay more for it. Respondents said they’d be willing to pay 123% more for CFAR protection than non-CFAR protection (29% extra of the ticket value vs 13% extra of the ticket value), with most of them nominating convenience as the primary reason. 

According to the study, the ease of requesting refunds without paperwork or documentation has led to an average NPS of -38 for those customers who have recently purchased CFAR protection when buying live event tickets, 10 points higher than those customers who purchased non-CFAR protection.

CFAR protection for travel

As with live event ticketing, the global travel sector has seen higher demand and satisfaction with CFAR protection when customers book flexible airfare and accommodation. 60% of travelers are highly likely to book airfare when given the option to purchase CFAR protection rather than non-CFAR protection (60% vs 48%). Driven by the same convenience, they’d also pay 133% more for CFAR protection than non-CFAR protection. 

Travel providers are also seeing a 30 point increase in average NPS when customers book airfare with CFAR protection. This is compared to the poor experiences reported by customers booking airfare with non-CFAR protection, resulting in a decidedly low NPS of -42.

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