Goway Travel
reviews and complaints

Questionable Action by GoWay Toronto in flights cancelled by the Airline

We contacted GoWay in October for a trip to Malaysia and Singapore on March 09.
Received the quote XXXXXX of US$18,232.84.
First payment made in November for the land deposit and air tickets.
We received The Booking Status Summary with errors of passenger names, birth dates and addresses despite our correct information was sent both in email and fax. It took two more versions before the information in the Booking Status Summary are correctly corrected (meaning there were still errors in the subsequent versions !)
Final payment on January 06.
After we received the Fully-PAID BOOKING STATUS SUMMARY in January from GoWay, we could not log in the airline website using the Airline Locator given in the BOOKING STATUS SUMMARY for selecting seats, upgrades, and check in. Contacted GoWay on January 19 of the problem and was told that it should be working and it is the airline problem, not GoWay's problem. We NEVER HAVE that problems with ALL the airlines that we have used, either booked on our own or booked by the travel agencies. The airline told us to contact GoWay with we want to upgrade our seats. GoWay never responded to our request (phone and email) on seat upgrades. (Very strange to me at that time because GoWay would make more with our seat upgrade of more than US$4,000.00)

On February 07, (beyond the 30 days window of the Travel date of March 09, we contacted Goway about the option of rescheduling (NOT CANCELLING) the trip because we saw the coming problem with COVID-19.
GoWay did not respond until we were in the 30 days window with the statement: (quoted)"With that being said, full cancellation fees unfortunately do apply, even if you want to move to another date. The fee right now is 100% for all arrangements. "(quoted)
We DID NOT ask for CANCELLATION. We want to reschedule the trip to a future date once the COVID-19 is over. GoWay did not respond until we were in the under-30-day period !
On March 09, we did not take the trip and we DID NOT CANCEL THE TRIP. We want to keep the air tickets OPEN.
On March 22 the airlines CANCELLED our return flights to comply to the new travel ban order from the government. The Airline offers the voucher for future use for passengers of those specific cancelled flight. The airline told us to contact GoWay because GoWay booked the flights.

We contacted GoWay asking GoWay to contact the airline, ON OUR BEHALF, about the offer made for passengers of those cancelled flights.

GoWay responded that, requoted below:
"When you chose to not go on your trip, the airline was flying as normal and there were NO travel advisories for Singapore and Malaysia. Normal airline fare rules applied.
When choosing to not fly, that is your choice and again, all fare rules apply accordingly.
I am not able to get you a credit or monies for the flights not taken as this was your choice not to travel - there is nothing to refund or credit."

That response is a very twisted response:
We never ask for any refunds from GoWay. We asked GoWay to do their contractual responsibility of an Agent representing their client to contact the airline.
On March 22, the airline CANCELLED the flights and they offer options for passengers to those specific flights. Our not taking the departure flights on March 09 is irrelevant to the tickets for the flights on March 22.

I started searching on the web and saw this review website.
Will search for all customers who have the same problems with GoWay.

No one is perfect, errors are made sometimes, BUT I want to customer of GoWay to be aware of these pitfalls::
1. NOT RESPONDING until the NON-CANCELLATION time window goes to effect.
2. RESPONDING with confusing message, non relevant to the issue raised.

Using their purchased mileages to pay for our air tickets? NO UPGRADES, NO ONLINE UPGRADE, SEAT SELECTION ?

Problem February 10 Goway Travel reference ID. My credit card was charged with about $50,000 by Goway Travel ('Goway"). Bijal K. ("Bijal") of Goway helped me with flights, accommodation, and tours for several countries in Asia. There were two (2) sets of Trips (Trip No. 1 and Trip No. 2). I expected each set of trips to be separate. Instead, Bijal combined both Trip No. 1 and Trip No. 2 into one itinerary and processed both as one transaction, which is a big mistake from the start. I had problems with Bijal to split the combined itinerary into two separate itineraries for each Trip No. 1 and Trip No. 2 as I had to cancel Trip No. 2 in March . I was NOT given an invoice by Goway. I asked Bijal for an invoice on February 8. Bijal gave me a so-called invoice (***) with large amounts totaling $42,524.68 which Bijal charged to my credit card between December 11, and January 20. I DON'T KNOW WHAT EACH AMOUNT REPRESENTS AND I AM DISPUTING IT. Bijal ignored my requests for a detailed itemized invoice with a brief description of each item and cost. Another team member Katherine S. handled the Australian portion of my trip and has already given me an itemized invoice (***) for $7,129.39. BIJAL COULD PROVIDE ME WITH A SIMILAR ITEMIZED INVOICE, BUT HAS IGNORED ALL MY REQUESTS EVEN THOUGH I SENT HER A COPY OF KATHERINE'S ITEMIZED INVOICE ON MAY 2 FOR HER GUIDANCE. I think it's easy to generate an itemized invoice with costs, as Katherine provided me this information quickly. Bijal is being stubborn and uncooperative and lacks good customer service. *** She guesses amounts and doesn't follow basic record keeping and accounting principles which is important for business. To date (May 13) Bijal has NOT given me an itemized invoice/receipt. I should also mention Bijal and Katherine never discussed or offered me travel insurance information. As a result, I wasn't covered for travel cancellation insurance or travel interruption insurance for Trip No. 1. Unfortunately, I had to end Trip No. 1 while in Bali due to the Coronavirus outbreak in China and the spread in other parts of Asia and Australia. I had to take health and safety precautions and return to Toronto ***. Goway hasn't offered me a refund or credit voucher for Australia & Fiji, and Katherine didn't try to cancel hotels & tours in Australia & Fiji during the 2-week period from January 28 to February 11. Goway said that 100% of the Australia & Fiji trip was non-refundable, so I lost over $7,000 for Australia & Fiji when I could have possibly recovered the hotels and tours portion of that trip. Goway doesn't care about customer health and safety and only cares about profit, not genuine customers. I can find reliable, honest, and satisfactory service at other Travel Agencies that keep their customers satisfied and happy and take the time to discuss, suggest, and offer travel insurance, etc. What a TERRIBLE experience with Goway Travel!