Refund Policy — Cancelling a China Train Ticket

1. The short version

Before we issue your ticket, you can cancel for a full refund of everything you paid, including our service fee.

After your ticket is issued, China Railway’s own cancellation rules apply to the fare, and we pass back whatever they return. If it is your first booking with us and you have not travelled, our seven-day guarantee refunds our service fee in full on top of that.

2. Before a ticket is issued — full refund

When you pay, there is a short window before we purchase the ticket in China Railway’s system. If you cancel inside that window, you get back everything you paid, including the service fee, with no deduction at all.

The same applies if we are unable to obtain a ticket for you — sold out, no seats left at the fare you paid, or the railway rejects the passenger details. You receive a full refund.

3. After the ticket is issued — China Railway’s rules

Once the ticket exists, cancellation is governed by China Railway, not by us. Their refund rules are tiered by time: a cancellation made well before departure returns most of the fare, and the deduction grows the closer you get to departure. China Railway also charges a handling fee on some cancellations, and it does not process refunds at all after the train has departed.

We do not control these percentages, and we cannot waive them. What we do is tell you the exact amount China Railway will deduct before you agree to the cancellation, so there are no surprises. Ask us for the figure before you decide.

4. Seven-day first-booking guarantee

If this is the first booking you have made with us, and you have not yet travelled, you may request a refund within seven days of the ticket being issued. Under this guarantee the fare is refunded less only the deduction China Railway itself imposes — and we return our service fee in full.

This guarantee exists because booking a train in a country you may never have visited is a leap of trust, and the first one should be reversible if the trip changes. It applies once per customer.

It does not apply once you have boarded, and it does not override a ticket that China Railway has made non-refundable at that point.

5. Service disruption and duplicate charges

If China Railway cancels your train, you may choose a full refund or a change to another service where seats are available. If we take payment and then fail to deliver the confirmed ticket you paid for, you receive a full refund of everything you paid.

If a payment error charges you twice for the same booking, the duplicate is refunded in full.

6. What we cannot refund

A journey that has already been travelled.

A cancellation made inside China Railway’s no-refund window, or after departure.

A booking we cancel because the passenger details were false, or because the booking was fraudulent.

Our service fee on a ticket we successfully issued, where you cancel outside the seven-day guarantee. Our work — checking details, purchasing, delivering the ticket — has already been done at that point.

Costs that are not ours to refund, such as flights, hotels or tours affected by a delay. That is what travel insurance is for.

7. How to claim

Email traintickets@trainticketschina.com with three things: your booking reference, the passenger name, and the reason for the cancellation. You do not need to fill in a form.

We acknowledge within two business days and tell you the exact amount China Railway will deduct. Once you confirm, the refund is processed within five to ten business days. It goes back to the original payment method through Waffo Pancake; how quickly it appears on your statement after that is up to your bank.

8. Your statutory rights

This policy sits alongside the consumer law of your own country and does not restrict any right you have under it. Where local law gives you a stronger right than this policy — for example a statutory cooling-off period — that right applies.

Refunds are made in the currency you paid. We do not profit from exchange-rate movement between payment and refund, and we do not deduct a currency fee of our own.

The governing terms for the booking as a whole are in our Terms of Service. How we handle the personal data involved in a refund is in our Privacy Policy.

All train routes we cover

Every route below has a dedicated page with live timetables, USD fares and a direct booking link.