I am home and my China trip refund has not arrived. What should I do?

At a glance

• Trip.com says refunds return to the original payment method unless otherwise agreed; the posting date depends on your account provider. There is no single Trip.com day count for every refund. [1]
• For tickets bought online through 12306, the operator directs you to the original payment tool to see whether the refund arrived. [2]
• A cancellation confirmation, a refund approval, a refund sent and a posted credit are four different things. Save the amount, currency, order number and dates for your own case.
• Use the first 14 days after returning to clear your open cases, with the promised date in each case taking priority. Fourteen days is a follow-up plan, not a universal processing rule.

Follow the money in order

1. Day 0–1: make a short list of outstanding refunds. For each, write the booking seller, order number, cancelled service, expected refund amount/currency, fees retained, original payment method and the latest message. Save the cancellation terms you accepted and the actual refund notice. A cancelled booking without a submitted refund request still needs the seller’s next step.
2. Inspect the original bank/card or wallet payment record. Look for a refund or reversal against that transaction, including pending credits. If you paid a seller through a wallet linked to a card, identify that funding card from your own payment record rather than assume the money will appear as wallet balance. If someone else paid, the payer needs to inspect their account.
3. Open the order in the service that sold it and ask for the exact status: requested, approved, sent or rejected. For Trip.com, use that booking’s support; for a direct hotel or activity payment, use its receipt and contact. If the seller has not sent the money, ask what approval or information is missing and the next update date. Keep one support thread per order.
4. If sent, request the dispatch date, amount, currency, destination payment method and a refund or transaction reference. Ask whether a card refund tracing reference is available, rather than assuming every seller issues the same reference type. Send that evidence to your payment provider with the original charge details and ask it to trace the credit.
5. If the expected date passes, follow up immediately with the party that owns the next step. If no date was supplied, ask for one rather than invent a 7- or 14-day rule. Around day 3–7 at home, review your case list and chase unanswered items; an already late refund should be chased sooner.
6. By day 8–14, mark each case as credited, still awaiting seller action, sent awaiting payment-provider posting, disputed, or rejected with a stated reason. Keep the reference and next response date for anything open. If a charge dispute is necessary, ask your own payment provider about its evidence and deadline; this checklist does not extend it.

If your situation is different

If the refund total is smaller than the original payment, separate cancellation charges, service fees, currency conversion and the seller’s stated refund amount. Ask the seller about the amount it authorised and your payment provider about the amount posted. Matching the original charge in your home currency is a different question from refunding the agreed amount in the sale currency.

If you paid cash, have an old paper railway reimbursement receipt, or your case notice says station handling remains necessary, resolve that specific requirement with 12306. Its online-refund page describes some station-handled cases. Do not assume every cash or paper case becomes a remote card refund. [2]

If the card was replaced or closed, contact its issuer about where a refund to the old transaction will go. Keep the seller’s case open until the payment provider explains the path. A new card number does not justify sending bank details to a different person claiming to process the same refund.

Common mistakes

• Watching only the wallet balance: trace the original funding account for the actual payment.
• Chasing the bank before the seller has sent a refund: establish the stage and reference first.
• Treating all refunds as due within 14 days: use the seller’s case date and your provider’s terms.
• Deleting the app or losing the booking email while a refund is open: keep a usable support route and your evidence.

Quick questions

Make it fit your trip

Bring the cancellation notice and latest refund response to Ask, with payment details reduced to what identifies the transaction. We can help decide whether the next message belongs with the seller or the payment provider.