TravelStart
reviews and complaints

I booked a ticket on the 23rd of June 2022, did the card payment! I get an email with e-ticket and everything! 25th of June 2022 I get an email saying the booking was cancelled, I enquired as to why, the email that the payment did not go through! So I booked a new ticket, used another card though, and this ticket was more expensive as well, but everything was fine this time! Day before departure, I get the first ticked saying to check-in online! I tried both ticket numbers, and both worked, so now I had 2 tickets for the same flight! When I asked the ticket to be refunded, they say I was a no-show, and it's a nun refundable ticket! They do not accept my explanation that it was a fault on there side, not mine! They want to refund me R 144.46 for R 1247.96 I paid!?

I have been waiting from Jan 2022 for my refund and have sent through numerous requests but have not had any joy. There after sales service is pathetic.

On 13/02/2022, through TravelStart, I booked a Kulula flight for 14/03/2022, which was then cancelled later that day, due to the Comair shutdown.

On 31/05/2022 I received an email from Kulula confirming that they had refunded Travelstart and that I should contact them. I forwarded the exact email from Kulula to Travelstart and was eventually able to telephonically contact an agent as I got no reply from my email.

I followed up weekly with TravelStart, each time being told they were processing my request and trying to ‘locate the funds’.

On 30/06/2022 I received an email from TravelStart stating that my request had been resolved, which it had not as I had not received payment. Almost simultaneously, TravelStart sent an email saying that the delay was due to the airline (Kulula) not sending funds, despite the confirmation on the 31st of May that TravelStart had been sent the funds.

Almost 4 months (16 weeks) have passed without refund.

Yester day I was book flight ticket islamabad to riyadh ksa and after all complete and payment was done by mada card I recive error masage that tihs flight is not avalable longer and serch again.

Now amount of 3337.99sar.

My mail. Khan73. [protected]@gmail.com

Contact number [protected]

Payment from ban al raji.

Name tahira shaheen

On the 19th of April 2022 I booked a flight with Travel start for my trip to London. My departure date was the 1st of June 2022.

I applied for trough TLS contact for my Visa and was told I will receive my Visa in three weeks’ time.

On the 23rd and 25th of May 2022 after two trips to TLs contact that was applying for my Visa, I had not received my Visa back and the consultants at TLC connect had no idea what was going on.

I called Travel Start to find out what my options is if I don’t receive my Visa in time, they told me that I must call them on 30th of May 2022 then they will suspend my ticket and I will pay R299.99 and they will transfer my booking to a new date. I had travel insurance that I took out with Travel Sure and the consultant advised me she will call them and also put a hold or temporary cancelation on the insurance so I can use it with my flight that I don’t loose my insurance. I never heard back from her or the insurance.

I did call them.

On the 31st of May 2022 I received my notification that my Visa is ready and I immediately went on to the webpage of Travel Start to see if my booking is still valid as you can check on their website.

My booking was valid and I called them and the lady from Travel Start told me my booking is valid and I can fly tomorrow the 1st of June 2022. I was happy as my bags was pack and I was ready to leave.

Then while I was on the phone with the consultant, I was watching my booking on my computer I told her what happened then she went and canceled my flight! I asked her why and she could not give me an answer I told her to fix it and she said she could not.

PLEASE NOTE ALL THEIR CALLS ARE RECORDED FOR SECURITY REASONS

My calls to travel start was the following for your record if you want to listen to our conversations.

1. 26/05/2022 at 11:17 call duration 15min 46secs

2. 30/05/2022 at 11:01 call duration 12min 14secs

3. 31/05/2022 at 8:22 call duration 47min 5secs

4. 31/05/2022 at 17:34 call duration 39min 0secs

5. 31/05/2022 at 18:16 call duration 34min 17secs

6. 31/05/2022 at 19:16 call duration 1Hr 43min 35secs

She then went on to try and book me a new ticket with an additional cost of R12800.00 she also sends me an email confirming my additional payment on my previous ticket for the 1st of June 2022 to pay I told her I am on your website and I can find a brand-new ticket for less than R10,000.00 how do you expect me to now pay R12800.00 on top of my R9010.00 then my ticket will be R21800.00 that is ridiculous. I told her to just refund my ticket in full I will just get a new ticket as my son is very sick and I had to go and see him it is an emergency flight that I have to take.

I have now received an email from them stating that they will refund me R6496.40 this is not acceptable as I used Travel Start again to book a new ticket and there for, I would appreciate my full refund of R9010.00

Following up refund for AE06382420, been 3 years now and no update!

I booked with travelstart and paid an immediate r5813 amount. The flight was still cancelled and up to date no refund paid into my account. I am still waiting. Reference number for this flight was reference number is za09745819. Pathetic service and no contact number that actually works where you may state your enquiry. I am never again booking with travelstart. Book direct with safair which was amazing service.

ZA09602829 Travel start customer service after sale is worse I was told that I will get my refund after 3 months but now no one is replying my email as as another day tried to call them I spend almost 1 hour on the line actually no one respond Iam just deciding to let attorney from clientele to deal with this hence they rob on my refund as British say l was supposed to get full refund this are the people who damage the reputation, Especially when you’re black person forget as l see they’re racist too so people open your eyes these are crooks company

After booking on the 2nd May I got an error

message saying that the booking was unsuccessful and on the 3rd I tried to book again and I got the same response but after a few minutes I got emails confirming successful booking for both tickets and when I check my banking balance both tickets were deducted. I tried to call them but couldn't take my calls and also didn't respond to my emails. After some days I got them and I was told to claim from the bus company but I didn't understand because it was their fault. After trying several times to contact the bus company they told me that they can't refund me because it was Travelstart's fault.

Good day,

I have sent numerous emails via the Travelstart platform and have to date not yet received any reply.

I booked the above air tickets on the 17th February 2022 with Airlink Airways to travel to Port Elizabeth. On the 27th April my husband suffered a stroke while laying in the Mediclinic Hospital in Ermelo. After he was discharged 4 days later I contacted his Neurologist at the Buasmed Modderfontein Private Hospital where he was admitted into the ICU unit where he underwent numerous tests, MRI scans and 2 angiogram investigations and it was established that he suffered a stroke while in the Ermelo Mediclinic where he was treated for a lung infection.

As my husband suffers with Parkinsons disease, vertigo, Myasenthia Autoimunne disease and very high cholestral, Dr Wynand-Ndlovu advised strictly not to fly until my husband has fully recovered. She wrote a letter which I would like to send to Travelstart so that I could change the dates for flying to Port Elizabeth in October.

I eventually contacted Louis Jordaan at Airlink who advised that he has put the tickets on hold until we can fly at a later date.

We would like to know fly to Port Elizabeth on the 4th October and return on the 11th October 2022, but due to no replies received to our correspondence with Travelstart and with a limited airtime bundle on my phone, we cannot get in touch with Travelstart. We are SASSA pensioners and it took us a longtime to save the money for these tickets which we do not want to loose.

I would like to forward all the correspondence to you for your perusal and careful consideration. I require your email address to do this.

Now I plead with you to please assist me in the matter and your immediate reply to [protected]@gmail.com or on cellphone number [protected] will greatly be appreciated.

Kind regards

Maud Pelser

Tel no. [protected]

I booked a flight and then decided to change my ticket dates. Its a flexi ticket meaning no penalty fees for flight change

1. First time i reach out to them, they give me a crazy weird cost estimate that is practically more than the original price of the ticket.

2. They end their whatsap chat immediately they respond, impossible to continue the conversation.

3. I write back, I get a new estimate, I may payment, no ticket change

4. I write them, the person they replies give me a completely new estimate, almost as if he/she does not even know that I have already paid because I have already been given a quote. and ENDS the chat. So I have to contact them AGAIN.

5. Its now DAY 4 and I am still trying to get travel's start attenntion that they should change my ticket which they have given me a quote for and I have paid.

Easily the crappiest customer service I have ever experienced.

Dear Sir,

Last year I have booked flights through Travelstart which has been cancelled by Qatar airline. Now I want to re-book it for end of this year. The total payment I did last year was ZAR 20156, which includes ZAR 1399 for flexible travel date. The new flight cost as shown on the Travelstart website is ZAR 21789. The new invoice is asking much more (ZAR 4569.92) than the difference of the above two prices (which is ZAR 1633). May I request you to kindly help me to resolve this issue? Now it is more than a month I have to sent emails to explain this and there is no result. It is not I who is changing the flight, but because of the cancellation I have to book a flight.

My booking reference number is ZA08940595.

Your cooperation is greatly appreciated.

Thanking you,

With regards,

Amartya Goswami

(email: [protected]@uj.ac.za)

Travellers

Ms SUTAPA ADHIKARI

Mr AMARTYA GOSWAMI

Itinerary:

QR 1366: JNB 27 Nov 2021 08:00 - DOH 27 Nov 2021 17:20

QR 540: DOH 27 Nov 2021 18:55 - CCU 28 Nov 2021 02:00

QR 541: CCU 16 Jan 2022 03:10 - DOH 16 Jan 2022 06:45

QR 1367: DOH 16 Jan 2022 07:55 - JNB 16 Jan 2022 15:30

QR 1366: JNB 26 Nov 2022 08:00 - DOH 26 Nov 2022 17:20

QR 540: DOH 26 Nov 2022 18:55 - CCU 27 Nov 2022 02:00

QR 541: CCU 13 Jan 2023 03:10 - DOH 13 Jan 2023 06:45

QR 1377: DOH 13 Jan 2023 08:00 - JNB 13 Jan 2023 15:35

It is impossible to get in touch with anyone at Travelstart. I have left countless messages for them to come back to me, to no avail. They refuse to come back to me. They have a telephone number that informs you when you get through that you have a 45 minute wait to get help. they then give you an advert every 15 seconds but never tells you how much closer you are to getting served. This is also a non-toll-free number so you have no idea how much this will end up costing you. They are hopeless and I would not recommend anyone uses them.

I made a booking ZA09473705 in 1 February 2022 however there was no flight booked with a service provider. As a result, I had to book a FlySafair FA278 flight on the day at the airport 2 February 2022 as well as a return flight on 8 February 2022 FA265. I was not contacted by Travelstart throughout this terrible experience even after I initiated the communication and my extreme frustration on Whatsapp on 2 and 3 February 2022. I then lodged a complaint with Old Mutual Rewards around the third or fourth week of February 2022 as the Travelstart booking was done from the Old Mutual Rewards programme and was routed to the Travelstart website. I received a call from an Old Mutual Rewards consultant who promised that she would contact Travelstart and request that they contact me. I called the Old Mutual Rewards consultant again after about two days as there was no contact made and omce again the Old Mutual Rewards consultant advised that she would request Travelstart to contact me again. To date I have received no feedback from Travelstart and am prepared to take this further and post this complaint on Hello Peter.

I booked a return flight using travelstart.com. Unfortunately, the flight got cancelled 2 days before. I called them and also applied for a refund. But customer service was super slow and did not have any idea about what are they doing. After continuous calls, they agreed to refund my full amount in 2 weeks. But it's been more than 5 months I am waiting for a reply. whenever I call the customer call centre they tell me that they are waiting for the airline company's approval. When I personally contacted the airline, they mentioned they have not received any such request. I have been called travel start many times and they always say it's under processing. they would say that they would escalate the process but I don't understand what is it taking them more than 5 months to provide the refund. I am quite fed up with the travel start. I don't know how long I have to wait till I get my money back. I will never book with this site again !

We booked tickets to Australia. Due to Covid, our tickets were placed on "hold".

Travelstart ref ZA07123658

One of the travellers, Amanda van Jaarsveldt does not want to go anymore because she refuses vaccination.

The two other travellers, Sonja Nelson and Hannelie Wickham enquired about our tickets and on the 12th March 2022, "[protected]@travelstart.com" requested us to advise which dates we would like to change it to in order for them to give us an accurate quote, which was done on the 15th March 2022 via their website.

Our communication to them read as follows:

"Dear Travelstart

Thank you for your reply. In need to place the following under your attention:

1. It wil only be travellers, S Nelson [protected]) and H Wickham [protected])

2. The third traveller, under this booking, A van Jaarsveldt will not be able to go as she refused the vaccination.

3. Our new schedule will be as follows:

3.1 Fro OT (Jhb) to Dubai - 24 September 2022

3.2 From Dubai to Melbourne - 30 September 2022

3.3 From Melbourne to OT - 13 October 2022.

We trust to year from you as a matter of urgency."

Needless to say, we received absolutely no response to date.

Good morning.

I am highly dissappointed at travelstart and very hurt by the creepy service provided .9th March 2022 we booked a one-way flight from capetown to jhb, card payment declined and i used EFT to make payment and sent them proof i kept on following up sending countless emails and unanswered call to ask why we did not recieve confirmation and tickets.Two weeks later when i finally got hold of them they tell me my booking has been cancelled due to non payment and they offering a refund,so what now beacuse the refuned will only kick in after 4weeks so where do i get the money to book for another flight beacause i need to come back.I do not live in Cape.iam highly streessed out.if we were told the same day that the plane have been canceled we would have booked for another one.

Good day,

I have booked a ticket through Travelstart and I have requested for a refund in January 14/01/2022 and I have received an email from Travelstart that it’s been processed and it’s take 3-4 weeks. On the 02/02/22 that have asked my bank details to complete the refund and I have updated but then after there was no further updates . I have send multiple email in the last 2 weeks there was no satisfactory feedback. I have send an email two days back and now I got an email that your refund proceed today and it will take 3-4 weeks again. I have emailed them no response yet. Please look into the matter and do the needful as it’s really frustrating as a client .

You acting as a big reputable company and not able to pay my single ticket 760 SAR since 5 months ago...!

Shame on you 😏

I have sent cancellation mail since 30 sep 2021 and account of(help.[protected]@travelstart.com) replied me to more than half ticket 🤔 and till now I didn't receive any thing further the account(help.[protected]@travelstart.com) is not replying me🤣

We booked our trip to George with Travelstart from Johannesburg to George. We left on the 1st of January and was suppose to return on the 8th of January 2022. When we arrived at OR Tambo airport, we where told the Travelstart messed up our booking and we had to wait almost an hour so that the Airport could resolve this. They did a double booking on all 4 of us and caused a huge delay for us. but this is not the worst. when we arrived at George airport on Saturday to retun home... the airport was busy closing as the last plane for the day left. This was just before 15h00 on the 8th. Our flight was booked for 17h30 that day. they told us that Travelstart made a huge mistake. we where stuck at the airport with no place to go. we arranged accomodation and a uber. until today we battle to get hold of someone at Travelstart to speak to. the only flight we could get back was on the 10th of January later that evening. meaning that we both lost income due to unplanned leave and my toddler missed his first day of school. nevermind the fact that we have an infant... we had to pay extra to driving dynamics as they had to fetch our car at the airport again and we had to pay another 2 days. so we had to pay extra accommodation, uber, the car and food on top op 1 day loss of income for my husband an i... all because they booked us at the wrong time... our return flight was with Cemair and they informed us that this error was absurd and travelstart should feel ashamed. plus the airport was upset due to their double booking... to date... no one at Travelstart called us after I lodged numerous complaints. they dont respond on their whatsapp number either. I lost so much money due to this massive error and I want Travelstart to contact me for a refund. I am appalled at the fact that none of their numbers on google work.