what it costs to change your mind, and who gets to decide
Reserve a vacation package and know how to cancel it before you commit
Every trip on this site is operated by another company, and that company writes the rules for changing it. This page explains what those rules usually look like, what this office does when you want something changed, and where the limits sit.
Reserve a vacation package and know how to cancel it before you agree to anything, because the terms that bind are not this office's. The reservation is made in your name with the company that runs the trip, and that company sends the bill.
When you reserve a trip through Willow Mile Press, the reservation is made in your name with the company that runs the trip. That company sends you the bill, takes your money, and holds it. This office never touches it. There is nowhere here to check out, no card box on any page, and no account holding a balance of yours. That arrangement is good for you in one way and awkward in another: nobody here can quietly keep a deposit, and nobody here can hand one back either.
So when you ask to change or cancel something, the honest answer is that the operator decides. What this office can do is put the request in front of the right person in a form they can act on, tell you what came back in plain language, and keep pushing where there is room to push. What it cannot do is override a rule the operator wrote, waive a fee, or promise an outcome before the answer arrives. Anyone in this business who tells you otherwise is describing a favor they cannot actually perform.
usually the deposit only, and on some small group departures even that is refundable or movable. The operator decides. Ask early and the answer is usually the kindest one you will get.
the deposit is normally gone, and the operator may hold you to a percentage of the balance if flights or rail have already been ticketed in your name. The operator decides, and airline rules sit underneath theirs.
expect to lose most or all of what you have paid. Some operators convert part of it to a credit against a future departure instead. That is a favor, not a right, and it is theirs to grant.
often costs a great deal less than a cancellation, and the first thing this office tries. Cost is usually a change fee plus any difference in season pricing. The operator decides, and availability decides with them.
the remaining traveler is normally moved to single occupancy pricing, which raises their share. The operator decides. This office will get the exact new figure in writing before you commit to anything.
usually possible, priced at the rate live on that date rather than the rate you were quoted. The operator decides, and space decides first.
you are entitled to whatever their terms promise, commonly a full refund or a transfer to another date. The operator decides the form it takes. This office will tell you what your options are and which one costs you least in real money.
remedies vary widely and some operators owe you nothing at all. Report it to the operator's representative on the ground the same day, in writing if you can, and tell this office when you get home.
treated as a cancellation on the date the payment was due, not the date you decided. The operator decides, and this one is rarely negotiable, so tell somebody before the date rather than after.
The rows above are patterns, not your contract. Your contract is the document the operator sent you when they took your deposit, and if there is any daylight between that document and this page, that document wins. Read the part headed cancellation before you pay anything, and if you cannot find it, write to desk@willowmilepress.com and this office will find it and send you the section.
Putting your request to the operator, and coming back with the answer
Write to desk@willowmilepress.com with your reservation reference, the trip, and one line saying what you want: cancel, move to a named date, drop a name, add a name. If it is faster to say it out loud, call +1 (314) 862-4517 and somebody will take it down and confirm it back to you in writing the same day.
Requests are read in the order they arrive and answered within one business day.
Somebody here then puts the request to the operator in their own format, with the reservation reference and the dates already filled in, because a request that arrives incomplete goes to the bottom of a queue. Most operators come back within two to five working days. Where a change touches ticketed air or rail, the answer often takes longer, because the operator has to ask a third party of their own and wait in turn. If the answer is slow, this office chases it and tells you it has done so. You will not be left guessing whether anything is happening.
When the answer comes back, you get the whole of it: the figure, the deadline attached to it, and what the alternative was if there was one. If the operator refused, you get the refusal in their words rather than a softened summary of it. If a refund is due, it comes from the operator to the same card or account that paid them, on their timetable, which is commonly two to six weeks and occasionally longer. This office does not handle that money and cannot speed the bank up, though it can and does ask the operator for a status when a refund goes quiet past the date they gave.
One thing this office will never do is tell you what your insurance covers, whether a claim will succeed, or what your rights are under any law. Those are questions for the company that sold you the policy and for an attorney respectively. Nobody here is either, and a confident guess from a booking office is worth nothing to you when the claim is assessed.
The first thing to do when plans wobble
Tell somebody early, even before you are sure. A date you are 60 percent likely to cancel is worth mentioning, because the difference between 91 days and 89 days is often the whole deposit, and this office cannot act on information it does not have. There is no cost to asking what a change would run, and no obligation attached to the answer. Plenty of people ask, get a number, and go on the trip anyway.
If you have not reserved yet and this page is making you cautious, that is a reasonable response. Ask before you commit: the page for asking a figure produces a written figure against particular dates, and the operator's cancellation terms are quoted in it alongside the price, so you can see what you are agreeing to before you agree to it. the page that sets out the steps sets out the whole sequence from first message to confirmed reservation, and the awkward questions answers the questions that come up most often, including several about money. If the trip you had in mind is not one this office arranges, all twenty-five swaps, request by request shows what stands in its place, and the same terms above apply to whatever you reserve instead.
This office keeps no counter hours and publishes none, because a printed opening time would be a promise about a person rather than about the work. What is promised instead is a deadline: every request that reaches the form is read in the order it arrived and answered within one business day, and if the answer needs longer than that you will get a note saying so and what it is waiting on.
The office is at 230 S. Bemiston Ave, Suite 914, Clayton, MO 63105, and Willow Mile Press Bookings LLC is registered with the Missouri Secretary of State. Corrections to anything written on this page go to corrections@willowmilepress.com and get fixed.