A ten-day window from purchase, written plainly and applied in good faith.
The Pass-Holder may request a full refund within ten calendar days of the date of purchase, provided that the credential has not been activated — that is, presented for scan — at any partner gate. This window is somewhat longer than the industry norm in Egyptian tourism, reflecting our view that heritage travel is planned further ahead than most short-break travel, and that a traveller should not be penalised for a considered change of plan.
Once a credential has been scanned at any partner gate, it is considered activated and no further refund is due. For multi-day and multi-site passes, this means that the use of even a single admission voids the remaining refund entitlement. We have adopted this single-scan rule because the alternative — a pro-rated system — proved administratively fragile in our first eighteen months of operation and generated more correspondence than it resolved.
Where one or more partner sites are closed on days the credential is active — through circumstances announced by the Supreme Council of Antiquities or by the site itself — we apply one of two remedies at our own expense: a credit day added to the pass's validity, for multi-day tiers; or a partial refund, calculated by reference to the gate value of the affected site, for Single Site credentials. In either case we act on our initiative, without requiring the traveller to petition us.
To request a refund within the ten-day window, write to [email protected] quoting the credential reference number. We acknowledge every request within one business day and settle the refund within seven to ten working days, to the same payment instrument as the original purchase. Where the original payment was made in a currency other than US dollars, the refund is settled in that currency at the rate prevailing on the day the refund is processed.
The Annual Scholar Pass is, by its nature, a longer commitment; we offer a thirty-day refund window on the Annual tier, rather than ten, provided fewer than three admissions have been logged. Gift credentials may be refunded to the purchaser within thirty days of the gift's issue, subject to the same non-activation rule. Corporate and Group passes are governed by the specific terms of their invoice, which we are happy to negotiate.
Nothing in this policy limits the Pass-Holder's mandatory consumer rights under the laws of their own country of habitual residence, where those rights cannot be waived by contract. Specifically, travellers resident in the European Union retain the fourteen-day right of withdrawal under Directive 2011/83/EU, which takes precedence over the ten-day rule above where it is more favourable to the Pass-Holder.
A refund dispute that cannot be settled by correspondence with our office may be escalated to the Egyptian Consumer Protection Agency or to the Cairo Economic Court, in accordance with the Governing Law clause of our Terms of Service. In practice, very few passes have required such escalation; we prefer to err on the side of the traveller where the facts are unclear.