If you have a duplicate Umrah transfer booking, because two people in your family booked the same airport transfer or one person paid twice, do not cancel anything straight away. First confirm that the two records really describe the same journey and check what status each one has. Then keep the one with the right details and the right lead traveller, and request cancellation of the other through the booking account it was made in. Cancelling the wrong one, or both, is a common mistake and much harder to undo.

This guide explains how duplicate bookings happen with Pilgrim Taxi, how to tell a genuine duplicate from two different journeys that look alike, what each booking status means, how to ask for the extra booking to be cancelled, and how to stop it happening next time. It is not about receiving the same confirmation email twice; that is usually just a repeated message, covered in the confirmation email arrived twice.

Four-step diagram for sorting a duplicate booking: find both records, compare details, check each status, keep one and cancel the other

How duplicates usually happen

Most duplicate bookings come from good intentions. Typical causes are:

  • Two relatives both help. A brother books the airport transfer for his parents, not knowing his sister did the same the night before.
  • Two accounts. The same person books once while signed in and once with a different email address, so neither account shows the other booking.
  • A payment that looked as if it failed. The payment page is slow or the connection drops, the person tries again, and both attempts go through.
  • A saved basket used twice. A basket link emailed for review is completed by two different people.
  • A copied request. Someone reuses an old search to “check the price” and completes it without realising.

Knowing which of these happened helps you find both records and explain the situation clearly.

Before you try to pay again

Many duplicates start with a payment that looked as if it had failed. If a payment page hangs, shows an error or closes unexpectedly, check before trying again:

  1. Your email, including spam and promotions folders, for a booking confirmation or payment receipt.
  2. Your Pilgrim Taxi account, for a booking showing as paid or awaiting confirmation.
  3. Your bank or card app, for a pending payment. A pending amount can appear even when a payment did not complete, and it may disappear later, so treat the account and email as the better guide.

Wait a few minutes and check all three. If there is still no booking in your account and no confirmation email, the payment most likely did not go through and you can try again. If you are unsure, ask the booking team through the contact page before paying a second time, and give the time you tried and the journey details.

Step 1: Find both records

Each Pilgrim Taxi account shows the bookings made in that account. If two relatives booked, each must look in their own account, or forward their confirmation email. Collect for each record:

  • the booking reference;
  • the pickup place and destination;
  • the pickup date and time in Saudi local time;
  • the passengers and luggage;
  • the flight number;
  • the lead traveller named on the booking;
  • the payment status and amount.

A screenshot of a price is not a booking record. If someone says “I booked it” but can only show a quote, see the quote screenshot that loses its context; a search result is not a reservation, as explained in a saved search is not a reserved vehicle.

Step 2: Decide whether it really is a duplicate

Put the two records side by side. They are only true duplicates if the journeys are identical in every detail that matters to the driver.

Compare Same in both? If different
Pickup place (airport and terminal, or hotel) Probably two separate journeys
Destination Probably two separate journeys
Date and pickup time One may be wrong, or they may be two different days
Passengers and luggage One may be for part of the family only
Flight number Check which flight is correct
Lead traveller Decide who should be the contact

Sometimes what looks like a duplicate is actually two correct bookings: the family’s arrival and a relative’s separate arrival on a different flight, or an outward journey and a return. In that case, keep both and make sure everyone knows which is which. If you find one correct booking and one with a mistake, the mistake is what needs fixing, not necessarily the whole record.

Step 3: Read each booking’s status

The status tells you what stage each record has reached. In your Pilgrim Taxi account you may see:

  • Not paid. The journey was prepared but not paid for. It is not a booking the team is acting on.
  • Paid, awaiting confirmation. Payment has been taken and the booking team is checking the journey and driver availability. A status update normally follows within twelve hours of payment.
  • Confirmed. A driver has been confirmed for the journey.
  • Cancelled. The journey will not operate.
  • Refunded or partially refunded. Money has been returned, in full or in part.

If one record is Not paid and the other is paid, you may not have a duplicate booking at all, just an abandoned checkout. If both are paid, you need to act.

Step 4: Choose the one to keep

When both are paid and identical, keep the booking that:

  1. has the correct flight number and pickup time;
  2. names the traveller who will actually be at the pickup as lead passenger;
  3. sits in the account of the person who will manage the trip, so changes can be requested from there;
  4. is further along, for example already Confirmed rather than awaiting confirmation.

If the two records are split across these points (one has the better contact, the other the better status), ask the booking team through the contact page which they would prefer to keep before you cancel anything.

Agree the choice within the family first. Our note on when a different relative takes over the planning covers settling who manages the booking.

Step 5: Request cancellation of the extra booking

Only the account that made a booking can request changes to it. In that account, open the booking you are not keeping and choose Request cancellation. You are asked for a reason. Write something specific that identifies both records, for example:

“Duplicate of booking [reference of the one we are keeping], made by my sister for the same flight and passengers. Please cancel this one and keep the other.”

A few things to know about the request:

  • It is a request, not an instant cancellation. The account shows it as pending until the booking team approves it. Keep the journey in your plans as possibly active until the status changes.
  • One request at a time. A booking can have only one open cancellation request.
  • Charges and refunds are reviewed. Under the cancellation and refund policy, a booking the customer cancels is subject to our cancellation terms (free cancellation with a full refund up to 48 hours before pickup; inside 48 hours the deposit element of the price is kept), so say clearly that it is a duplicate. The booking team reviews each request and confirms the outcome in writing. That is one more reason to deal with a duplicate as soon as you spot it.
  • Any refund goes back through the payment route. If the booking team agrees a refund, it appears in the account as Refunded or Partially refunded once processed.

Do not ask your bank to reverse the payment while a cancellation request is being handled. Two routes to the same refund can take longer to resolve than one.

When the duplicate is only in a basket

Not every apparent duplicate is a paid booking. If the second record shows Not paid, or it never reached checkout, no action is needed from the booking team. Simply do not complete it. If you are using a shared basket link, tell the family which basket is the one being paid, so nobody completes the other.

Remember that a price in a basket is checked again at checkout. An old basket that someone completes days later may show a different price and may no longer match the plan.

When the second booking is with another company

Sometimes the duplicate is not with Pilgrim Taxi at all. A relative may have booked the same airport pickup through a hotel, a tour operator or another transport company. In that case:

  • decide which provider you want to use, based on the booking details, the cancellation terms each offers and who can be reached on the day;
  • cancel the other booking with the provider that holds it, under its own terms;
  • make sure the traveller knows which company, vehicle and contact to expect.

Two drivers from two companies waiting for the same passengers helps nobody. Our note on travelling with friends who booked separately covers the related case where different parts of the group use different providers on purpose.

If both records are useful after all

Occasionally you can keep a “duplicate” by changing it into something the family actually needs. For example, a second arrival transfer might be turned into a relative’s separate journey on another day. But a Pilgrim Taxi account only lets you request a new pickup time or a cancellation online. A different route, date and flight in one booking, or a different number of passengers, is not an online change. In practice it is usually cleaner to cancel the extra booking and make a fresh one for the new journey, so each record matches exactly what will happen.

What to tell the traveller while it is being sorted

The person being collected does not need the details of the mix-up, but they do need one clear instruction. While a cancellation request is pending, tell them:

  • the single booking reference they should rely on;
  • the pickup time and meeting instructions from that booking;
  • who to contact if anything is unclear on the day.

Avoid forwarding both confirmations “just in case”. A traveller holding two references and two sets of instructions is more likely to go to the wrong place, or to answer the wrong driver.

Questions families often ask

Will two drivers turn up? If both bookings are paid and neither is cancelled, both may be operated. That is why a duplicate should be dealt with as soon as it is found, and why the traveller should rely on one reference only.

Can the extra booking be used for a different journey instead? Only a new pickup time can be requested online. A different route, date and flight in the same booking is not an online change. It is usually cleaner to cancel the extra booking and book the new journey fresh.

Who receives the refund? If the booking team agrees a refund, it goes back through the payment made for that booking, so the person who paid for the duplicate is the one who sees it. If one relative paid on behalf of another, settle that between yourselves.

Is a duplicate refunded? A duplicate is still a paid booking, and the policy treats a customer cancellation as subject to our cancellation terms (free cancellation with a full refund up to 48 hours before pickup; inside 48 hours the deposit element of the price is kept). Contact the booking team as soon as you spot it, explain what happened and quote both references; the team reviews every request and confirms the outcome.

A worked example

Amina, in Leicester, books an airport pickup at Jeddah for her parents, landing on the 12th at 14:05, from her own account. Two days later, her brother Yusuf books the same transfer from his account, not knowing she had done it.

Finding the records. Amina’s booking shows Confirmed; Yusuf’s shows Paid, awaiting confirmation. Everything matches except the lead traveller: Amina named herself, Yusuf named their father.

Deciding. They want their father as the lead traveller, because he will be at the airport. But Amina’s booking is already confirmed. Amina writes to the booking team through the Pilgrim Taxi contact page, gives both references, and asks which to keep and whether her father can be added as the contact on the confirmed booking. The team confirms that Amina’s booking is the one to keep and explains how her father’s number will reach the driver, so Yusuf requests cancellation of his.

Cancelling. Yusuf’s reason text quotes Amina’s reference. The request shows as pending, then the booking changes to Cancelled, and the booking team confirms the outcome for the payment in writing.

Afterwards. The family agrees that Amina submits all future journeys and Yusuf reviews them before payment.

How to prevent it next time

  • One person submits. Choose one family member to complete bookings. Others can help plan, but only one person pays.
  • Review before paying. The Pilgrim Taxi basket can email a secure link to the basket, so a relative can look over the journeys before the organiser pays. The person reviewing should not complete the checkout themselves.
  • One account per organiser. Always sign in with the same email address, so every booking appears in one place.
  • Wait for the status after a slow payment. If a payment page seems to hang, check your account or email for the booking before trying again.
  • Keep a shared list. A simple list of journeys, with reference and status, stops a second person from booking what is already booked. Our note on four clear words for travel status suggests wording the family can use.
  • Keep receipts and confirmations together, as described in keeping the receipt and journey confirmation together.

When several families travel as one group

Duplicates are more likely when a few families travel together and one person organises for everyone. A group organiser may book the airport transfers for all the families, while one family, not realising, also books its own. To avoid this:

  • Tell every family in writing which journeys the organiser is booking, and that they should not book those themselves.
  • Share the booking references with each family once the journeys are confirmed, so each family can see its own transfer is in place.
  • Agree what families book themselves, for example a separate outing or a relative’s late arrival, so those journeys are not also booked by the organiser.
  • Keep one master list with every journey, its reference, the lead traveller and its status, and update it whenever something is booked or cancelled.

If a duplicate still slips through, the steps above apply: find both records, compare them, keep the one with the right details and lead traveller, and request cancellation of the other from the account that made it.

After it is resolved

Once the extra booking shows as Cancelled, and any refund shows in the account, update the family’s shared list. Remove the cancelled reference entirely, rather than marking it “ignore”, so nobody forwards it to the traveller by mistake. Keep the cancellation confirmation and refund record privately, in case you need them later.

Checklist when you suspect a duplicate

  1. Collect both booking references, from each account involved.
  2. Compare pickup, destination, date, time, passengers, luggage, flight and lead traveller.
  3. Check each record’s status: not paid, paid and awaiting confirmation, confirmed, cancelled or refunded.
  4. Agree within the family which booking to keep, and ask the booking team if it is not clear.
  5. Request cancellation of the other booking from the account that made it, quoting both references.
  6. Treat the cancellation as pending until the status changes.
  7. Tell the traveller which single reference is now their booking.
  8. Agree who submits future bookings.

When you are ready to book the next journey, one person should open the Pilgrim Taxi ride finder, build it in the basket, share the review link with the family, and only then pay.

If you cancel, cancellation is free with a full refund up to 48 hours before pickup; inside 48 hours the deposit element of the price is kept, and your statutory rights are unaffected. If we or the transport provider cancel, you receive a full refund for the affected journey.