Refund policy

This page says plainly what can be given back and what cannot. It is not comfortable reading, and it is more useful than a friendly page that leaves you guessing. Read it before you pay a deposit, not after.

The short version

Once a booking is confirmed it is non-refundable unless the supplier's own terms say otherwise. That is because the money does not sit with us: it is paid on to hotels, airlines, transport companies and the visa system, each of which has its own cancellation rules, and most Umrah-season hotel rates are sold to us on non-refundable terms.

Before anything is confirmed

A quote is not a booking. Until you pay, nothing is held for you, nothing is committed on your behalf, and you owe nothing. You can walk away from a quote at any time, and the price it quoted may have moved by the time you come back, because hotel and airline prices move.

Deposits and payment deadlines

Instalments are a Pakistan option. Where they apply, the deposit is 40% of the total, due within three days, and the balance follows: within seven days when your travel date is thirty days or more away, and within four days when you are travelling sooner. Guests booking from anywhere else pay in full, due within three days. If your Umrah is within ten days, the full amount is due the next day.

A deposit is what allows us to commit to suppliers on your behalf, so from the moment it is paid, money starts leaving on your booking. If the balance is not paid by its date, the supplier can release the room or the fare, and what has already been spent on your booking cannot be recovered by us.

Hotels

Hotel bookings in Makkah and Madinah are generally sold to us as non-refundable, non-changeable and non-cancellable. Ramadan bookings in particular are non-refundable and non-changeable, and where a guest does not arrive, all nights are charged. Your travel pack states the exact terms that apply to your booking, and those terms are the ones that govern it.

Flights

A flight is governed by the airline's own fare rules, and those rules vary from ticket to ticket. Some fares allow a change for a fee, some allow nothing at all once issued. We will tell you what your ticket allows before you ask us to change it, and any airline fee or fare difference is yours.

Visas

The visa fee and the mandatory insurance are paid into the Saudi system when the application is lodged. What can be returned depends on the stage your application has reached, and we will tell you honestly where it stands rather than guess. If a fine is imposed on us by the visa company in connection with your application, that charge is passed to you.

Transport and extras

Transfers and guided Ziyarah are booked with local suppliers on their own terms. Where a supplier will refund an unused service, we pass the refund through in full; where it will not, we say so.

If we cancel

If we cancel a booking for a reason of our own making, you get every rupee back, including anything we would otherwise have kept. If a supplier cancels on you - an airline drops a route, a hotel cannot honour a room - we will first try to move you to an equivalent service at no extra cost to you, and refund what cannot be replaced.

Things nobody controls

Entry requirements are set by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and can change. A refused visa, a closed border, a suspended permit or a grounded airline is not something we can pay for, and in those cases we refund whatever the suppliers release to us and no more. We will always show you exactly what came back and from whom.

How to ask for a refund

Write to support@umrahcompanions.com with your booking reference, or ask on the same WhatsApp thread you booked in. Tell us what you want cancelled and why. We will tell you what each part of the booking will release before anything is cancelled, so you can decide with the real numbers in front of you.

Every refund we make is recorded against your order with its reason, and it is returned to the account the payment came from. Where a payment gateway or a bank sits in the middle, the money moves at their pace, not ours, so we will not promise you a date we cannot control.

The paperwork that governs your booking

The terms on this page apply alongside our terms and conditions, our transfer terms, and the specific terms printed on your invoice and travel pack. Where a supplier's terms are stricter than this page, the supplier's terms are what apply to that part of your journey. This policy is governed by the laws of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.