The Refund Protection Report:

Research reveals US 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

Consumers in the US are seeking a seamless experience when buying live event tickets or booking travel, which includes the process of requesting refunds for when things don’t go according to plan. That’s why consumers, purchasing live event tickets or booking travel, indicated that they’re more likely to purchase the underlying event ticket, airfare or accommodation when offered  ‘Cancel for any Reason’ (CFAR) Refund Protection (compared to those who were offered a more limited refund protection option or no protection at all). The convenience of CFAR protection leads to higher customer satisfaction — as evidenced by a sharp 46 point increase in NPS.

These findings come from our Refund Protection Report, a survey of 6,033 US consumers.

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 US consumers 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 51% 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 126% more for CFAR protection than non-CFAR protection (29% of the ticket value vs 13% 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 0 for those customers in the US who have recently purchased CFAR protection when buying live event tickets, 51 higher than those customers who purchased non-CFAR protection.

CFAR protection for travel

As with live event ticketing, the US travel sector has seen higher demand and satisfaction with CFAR protection when customers book flexible airfare and accommodation. Travelers in the US are highly likely (59%) to book airfare when given the option to purchase CFAR protection rather than non-CFAR protection (59% vs 45%). Driven by the same convenience, they’d also pay 133% more for CFAR protection than non-CFAR protection.

Travel providers are also seeing a 42 point increase in average NPS when customers book airfare with CFAR protection. This is compared to the poor experiences reported by US customers booking airfare with non-CFAR protection, resulting in a decidedly low NPS of -33.

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