Broadway Ticket Refunds

Broadway Ticket Refund Policy - Can You Really Get A Refund?

Below are the policies for Broadway ticket refunds. Broadway ticket vendors often state "All ticket purchases are final and tickets may not be exchanged or refunded" but this is not totally accurate. There are a few things you can do to get a refund or an exchange on Broadway tickets.

Tickets Are Refunded Automatically If The Show Is Cancelled

In the case of a show cancellation, all Broadway tickets are automatically refunded and you do not have to do anything to get refunded. If the buyer purchased from a ticket broker, they sometimes will make the buyer apply for a refund, but that is highly unethical and only the most egregious and peripheral ticket brokers would ever do that.

Buying Broadway Ticket Insurance

Many shows now offer Broadway ticket insurance that offers a full refund if you cannot make the show for any reason. This is a great idea if you are dealing with kids, elderly or coming from a long distance to the show. Flights are often cancelled and this insurance makes sense for people from out-of-town.

Most ticket insurances do not require that you tell them ahead of time that you cannot make it, you can do it after the show - but check with your own insurance to make sure of their policy as they often differ.

The other ticket refund/exchange options below will assume that you did not buy ticket insurance.

Getting A Refund If You Cannot Make The Show For Legitimate Reasons

Visit The Box Office:

Visiting the box office at the theatre well BEFORE the show will reap the best outcome as they will often exchange or refund tickets on a case-by-case basis, although they are not legally obliged to do so, but usually will.

Going to the box office AFTER the show has already performed, has a less strong chance of getting a refund, but a high chance of ticket exchange for another date in the future. If you do not make it to that new date that they give you, then they will do nothing more for you and you will have to eat the loss, despite whatever excuse you may provide.

The more popular the Broadway show, the more likely they are to offer a refund before the show, as they can easily resell them to another customer. The top 5 Broadway shows will offer refunds all day long, as there is always a line of people waiting to buy them. The bottom 5 Broadway shows, not so much.

Call The Box Office:

Unfortunately you CANNOT call the theatre box office as they do not have phone lines for the public to call on. Their ticket phone lines go to call centers that will do nothing for you and just recite the age-old policy of "No Refunds" and will just hang up on you.

Email The Box Office:

The same can be said of emailing the show, they will do nothing for you except recite the policy of "No Refunds or Exchanges of Tickets"

Other Solutions For The Worst Case Scenarios

If you cannot do any of the above, then the only option left is to sell your tickets privately or give them away to someone.

Sell Tickets To A Ticket Broker:

This is always good option for popular shows, as they will be happy to buy them from you, but they will often only offer 50% of the price of tickets, but the transaction is over quickly and you can move on with your life.

Sell Tickets On Stubhub:

This option means that you will get much more money, but will have to manage the ticket sale and you could be left holding the tickets if you price them too high or leave it too late to list them. Electronic tickets are a lot easier to sell than physical tickets.

Sell The Tickets Outside The Broadway Theatre At A Deep Discount

New York City law says that you cannot do this, but people who cannot get a ticket refund will often dump their tickets to people waiting outside theatre or at the TKTS line at a steep discount to get rid of them. Typically this is done an hour before the show curtain. Price is dependant on the show, in some cases you may get more than you paid, in others less.

Donate To Ronald McDonald House

When you have exhausted all these routes and still have come up wanting, you may consider just donating the tickets.

The New York City Ronald McDonald House charity will happily take unused Broadway tickets right up to curtain time. You get to take a nice tax deduction and get to feel good that you helped a family in need take their mind off the stress that they are going through.