Rising travel costs and a wave of operational disruptions are pushing more travelers to dispute charges directly with their banks rather than seek refunds from airlines, hotels and booking platforms, according to new industry data.
Travel Costs Keep Climbing
Demand for summer travel remains strong despite higher prices. Deloitte’s 2026 Summer Travel Survey found that Americans planning vacations expect to spend more than $4,000 on their longest trip this summer, a 17% increase over last year. U.S. Travel forecasts international visitation to the United States will rise to more than 70 million travelers in 2026, helped in part by the FIFA World Cup.
Costs are rising alongside demand. NerdWallet data shows average U.S. travel costs were 11% higher in May than the same month last year, while airfare prices climbed 26.7% year-over-year. U.S. airlines also absorbed a sharp jump in fuel costs, which rose 78% in April to nearly $6.5 billion compared with a year earlier, according to Department of Transportation figures. Industry analysts have linked part of that increase to instability in the Middle East and the ongoing conflict involving Iran.
At the same time, many travel service providers prefer their clients’ bookings to be paid upfront and in full, though a recent research from Peach Payments and PayJustNow, conducted by Phocuswright, revealed that flexible payment options like BNPL, and alternative payment options, e.g. digital wallets or mobile money, increase both bookings number and volume.
More Travelers Go Straight to Their Bank
Travel disruption has been frequent over the past year, including airline staffing shortages, severe weather and carrier instability. A storm-driven FAA ground stop in early June led to widespread flight delays and cancellations at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, and the collapse of Spirit Airlines last month forced thousands of passengers to rebook travel on short notice. Travelers are also still adjusting to the lengthy TSA screening delays caused by last year’s partial government shutdown.
When a flight or booking falls through, the financial impact often spreads beyond the original purchase. A missed connection can mean a forfeited hotel stay, a missed excursion or a lost cruise departure, and travelers facing those losses are increasingly turning to chargebacks rather than waiting on a merchant’s refund process.
That shift shows up in dispute data. According to Chargebacks911’s 2025 Cardholder Dispute Index, 76.64% of surveyed consumers say they prefer to resolve transaction issues through their bank rather than directly with the merchant.
Monica Eaton, founder and CEO of dispute management firm Chargebacks911, said the trend reflects tighter household budgets.
“Travelers still want to take vacations, attend events and make memories, but they’re doing so with far less room for financial surprises,” Eaton said. “When a trip goes off track, many consumers aren’t waiting for a resolution anymore. They’re going straight to their bank.”
Eaton noted that this is changing the underlying purpose of the chargeback mechanism itself. “What’s changing is that consumers are increasingly viewing chargebacks as an instant fix rather than a last-resort fraud protection mechanism,” she said. “When travelers are facing higher costs, they’re often less willing to absorb losses tied to a disrupted trip or disappointing experience. In many cases, they’re going directly to their bank for an immediate refund instead of working through the merchant’s resolution process first.”
Why Travel Disputes Happen
Travel purchases carry several features that make them prone to disputes. Bookings are typically paid for weeks or months ahead of the service itself, transaction values are high, and cancellation or refund terms can be difficult for travelers to interpret. Multiple parties like airlines, hotels, travel agencies and online booking platforms, are often involved in a single trip, which can make it unclear who is responsible when something goes wrong.
Common dispute triggers include charges a cardholder doesn’t recognize, services that were never delivered, accommodations or tours that didn’t match what was advertised, cancellations that didn’t result in a promised refund, and duplicate charges from a single booking. Disputes also arise from poorly defined contract terms between travel providers and resellers, unclear payment or refund timelines, and gaps in communication when itineraries change. External shocks, e.g. severe weather, strikes or sudden price changes, can trigger a spike in cancellations and disputes at the same time, straining merchants’ ability to process refunds quickly enough to head off a chargeback. At the same time, travel service companies often lack visibility into the actual reason for the chargeback claim.
“Travel merchants don’t have a dispute problem. They have a data problem,” said Craig McClure, Director of Relationship Management at Chargebacks911. “When booking information, customer communications, payment records, fulfillment data and dispute information live in separate systems, it becomes extremely difficult to understand what’s driving disputes.”
What Merchants Can Do
Dispute management specialists generally recommend that travel providers communicate refund and cancellation terms clearly before purchase, keep detailed records of bookings and customer communications, offer accessible customer support so travelers can resolve issues before contacting their bank, and track dispute patterns to catch recurring operational problems early. Cross-border transactions, which have grown alongside this year’s World Cup-driven travel volume, add further complexity, since chargeback rules and evidence requirements vary by country and card network.
