TravelStart
reviews and complaints

Having previously believed Travelstart to be a trustworthy platform for travel bookings, I am devastated to have my faith thoroughly shaken. My family and I were faced with an unfortunate circumstance of flight delay, which led to a ripple effect of missed connections. This caused an irreplaceable emotional loss – the inability to attend my father’s funeral. While I fully understand that flight delays can occur, the way Travelstart handled my situation was truly unacceptable. There was a significant lack of empathy, understanding, and professionalism. Not only was there a failure to acknowledge the emotional impact of my situation, but my repeated attempts to communicate were met with deafening silence. This is far from the customer service I expected, and I advise potential customers to think twice before booking through Travelstart. One star is, quite frankly, more than they deserve in this situation.

Travelstart ripped us off of R50k

I booked flights through Travelstart for a family holiday to Abu Dhabi. The flights were on Qatar. I specifically booked this flight for it's shortest travel time as I have an autistic son with severe anxiety and the airport waiting times are a major issue for him. Lack of sleep also is a massive struggle for him. This whole trip was part of his therapy for overcoming a disasterous flight to Abu Dhabi 7 or so years earlier. He finally felt ready to conquer his fears so that our family could travel again. After paying for the flights I received an email stating that the flight times had changed and that our layover would be lengthened by hours. Obviously this was not going to work. That is how my nightmare with Travelstart began. I only booked through them because they offered the best price on the google page. I would have saved about R1000 so I booked through them. That decision ended up costing me HOURS of phonecalls and messaging AND R50 000. I'm devastated. After hours of my time, it was agreed that they would give us a full refund (highly unusual and I thought I was being given a special service), only to find out that I actually will not be receiving a cent back. Once we were assured of our money back and I accepted their offer, I used my credit card to book the families flights on Emirates instead and fly directly to Dubai without any stops. I kept telling my husband not to worry, Travelstart were in the process of refunding. When I inquired they said that it would take 8 to 12 weeks. Now that the 12 weeks are past, I once again contacted them only to find out we will not be getting a refund because according to them I never accepted the refund quote. They say Qatar confirmed that we were a no show for the flight! Travelstart are very sly. They insert a link in an email that you have to click on to accept their offer. You have no proof that you have done it. Only they do. Whether they are outright lying because they have a fault in their system which meant they didn't cancel the flight on their part, or whether the link they sent wasn't working, or whether this is just what they do, I KNOW THAT I ABSOLUTELY ACCEPTED THAT QUOTE. Why would I not accept an offer to a full refund when they had been wanting to take thousands off for admin before I got hold of their SA manager, John Friel.

R50 000 gone. No sorry. This company is shocking. I wish I had come here to check before trying to save thay R1000. Please, save yourselves the stress. These people are not ethical.

A criminal organization I must say. All mistakes are not genuine as they orchestrate some of them. I was sure when I booked a flight for 2 people with this Agency and I am 100% sure I didn't make any mistake. Their system mis-arranged the names even though correctly spelt. They refused to take responsibility and each time you call their customer representative they try to sell you what makes them get the best commission. Your right to consumer protection is also not respected and their so called supervisors are rather clueless on what customer service should mean. I ended up paying 130€ for a mistake that was definetely made by their system.

Avoid this organization by all means or bear the risk like I did.

I booked a flight for my daughter to South Korea, she was due to start work on Monday 22nd May 2023 so we decided that she should fly on Friday 19th May so that she could reach South Korea by Saturday evening and get rid of the jet lag on Sunday by resting and getting ready for her work on Monday. But this was not the case. Travelstart messed up her flights and instead of landing 2 hours earlier to board an international flight, they gave her 10 mins to run from domestics to international and by that time her bags were already offloaded from the plane and the doors were closed on her. I had to reschedule her flights for Saturday 20th May 2023 causing a delay in her travel plans

I made a booking and the money was deducted from my account and the rest i had to pay via transfer, which i did straight away. That was a week in advance. I waited for an answer regarding the money to clear up until saturday and out flight was for the 2nd may. Then the ptices went up considerably. I did not have the rest to pay so i the lady said the money will be refunded back into my account and the money i transfered will be held towards a new booking. I have not heard from her since. My ID number is [protected] and my email [protected]@gmail.com.

We were suppose to fly today and now without getting that refund, we dont know when we will fly.

Hi,

Following the flight cancellation by the airline company in Dec 2021 due to Covid situation, I requested a refund at the beginning of the year 2022 for my booking paid to the company Travelstart and containing 2 flight tickets with the following details:

- Date of departure :17 December, 2021;

- Booking number: TVDEHE.

- The amount paid for each flight ticket is 376 Euros . The total amount of the invoice is 752 Euros (376*2 flight tickets) paid on 17.10.2021. The invoice is available and can be provided upon request.

It has been more than one year now that I am doing the follow-up with Travelstart to receive the full reimbursement as promised. I had several calls with the agents and sent a significant number of emails to the support team but in vain.

Thank you in advance for your support.

TRAVELSTART is the worst company ever i have been following up from past 5 months with regard to my refund status it's been more than 5 months i still did not receive my refund and even a proper answer why it's taking so long. You guys have cheated clearly here and i have all the evidence with me and i have planned to file a complaint in CONSUMER FORUM. I will only wait for your reply till 24 hours. PLEASE NEVER BOOK FROM THIS WEBSITE THEY ARE CHEATING

Booked a flight to Christchurch New Zealand. The flight landed in Perth then you will be taken to Merlbourne with a domestic flight. Herw is the problem we needed to do a visa for Austrailia. Not a transit visa wich we had and the lay over is oly 5 hours. On arrival at Johannesburg airport my son could not fly and we had to pay 10000 rand extra. We still cant find any information that you require a visa for domestic flights. Quantas do not work with thirdparty. Why didnt they tell us that on the booking. Quantas and travelstart is dishonest. Will never use travelstart again.

Travel start are the biggest disappointment. Their systems don’t work and so the customer suffers the consequences. I pay for tickets with my credit card, their admin fee goes through but the portion for the Arline doesn’t, but they insist I put in the wrong details. Then I pay again with an immediate EFT and still no tickets and they still cannot see the payment, despite me sending them a POP. Their response was I need to wait and should they not be able to issue the tickets I paid for, they will use the monies towards other tickets and I will have to cover the cost of the ticket increase. Honestly they should close shop if they cannot offer a proper service. First time and last time I will ever use them.

Dear support team,

Following the flight cancellation by the airline company in Dec 2021 due to Covid situation, I requested a refund at the beginning of the year 2022 for my booking paid to the company Travelstart and containing 2 flight tickets: TVDEHE. The amount paid for each flight ticket is 376 Euros . The total amount of the invoice is 752 Euros (376*2 flight tickets) paid on 17.10.2021.

The amount I received only on 13.12.2022 from Travelstart is only 261.54 Euros which does not cover one flight ticket!

It has been almost one year now that I am doing the follow-up with them to get the full reimbursement as promised. I had several calls with their agents and sent about 100 emails to the support team but in vain.

Outcome desired: Refund of the outstanding amount: 490.45 Euro.

I hope you could help.

Thank you.

I booked a flight from Johannesburg to Bangkok Thailand. The ticket was from 16 November 2022 till 16 May 2023 when I would fly back to South Africa again. I planned to visit my 1 son in Bangkok Thailand for 6 weeks and while I am in Bangkok book my flight to my other son in China. There I would stay for 3 months and then dly back to Bangkok for the birth of my grandson. Then I would fly back to South Africa. My flight was sceduled for 07:50 on 16 November ‘22 and when I had to book in, they told me I cannot have a ticket for so long without a visa. I DID NOT KNOW IT. They said I had to change my date to 3 months. I could not get hold of any help of Travelstart. The number I called said they open at 8 o’clock. I was DEVASTATED.. I could not fly… Tried several times to contact Travelstart after 8 o’clock without success… After every 15 minutes of holding on, I was cut off automatically… So at last I came through and the woman said I had to book a new ticket. I had to pay R6,449.00 to change the date.

My brother paid it for me.

PLEASE HELP. Why did Travelstart not inform me about a booking for more than 3 months?

Let me know.

Regards

Henda Oosthuysen

I was due to fly Qatar from Heathrow (London) to Doha on Friday 18th November. on arriving at Heathrow Qatar check in, I was informed that Travelstart had changed my booking and that I was now travelling British Airways from a totally different terminal. I had no knowledge of this change and would never opt to fly British Airways. I was travelling business class on this ticket. I needed to get a train from the one terminal to another resulting in me being a late boarder. A very stressful trip indeed. I have been trying to inform Travelstart and the email returns sending me a form to complete, there is no category that relates to my complaint and also it says my reference is incorrect, which as far as I am concerned it isn't.

They cancelled a 20h before departure, i paid them but I must request refunding to an airline company... No one is responsible. Just run away from this company

I am waiting for more than a week now for travelstart to come back to me regarding my flight date change, which are pending..I need to know how much and where to make payment.

Johanna graham - [protected]

[protected]@toyota.Co.Za

please call me urgently!

i am currently in scotland and need to be back in sa on 5 december.

My ref numver is za10085863

I have booked flights through Travelstart. My flight got changed to an unreasonable time with a ridiculous layover. This is not what I booked or paid for. So far, I have been on the phone to "Customer service" 3 times for at least 2hrs each time. For some reason they are incapable of simply changing my flights again. They charge a service fee which is fine even though ridiculous. Now they also state that I will have to pay the difference in fare prices but for the life of me I can get no one in this useless company to tell me how much this is going to cost me. They just want me to blindly change my flights, pay their service fee and then receive a surprise bill about the flight price difference. This is an absolute joke. I wish there was somewhere to report this scam of a business so they can stop ripping people off.

Good Day TravelStart. I called in to change my flight booking. Your consultant was extremely rude and was calling me a dom lady ... eish this lady is so dom .. shame shame shame. I want to enquire as to the caliber of people TravelStart is hiring and how can you allow your staff to talk to clients like this ? It is totally unacceptable. I am appalled by the way I have just been treated.

I booked through Travelstart and paid fully for two tickets from Amsterdam to Lisbon on flight KLM KL2757 on July 5, 2022. At the airport we were informed that we do not have E-tickets. We reached to Travelstart through phone, website and wahtsup with no help at all. We ended up paying from our pocket. When we reached out to Travelstart for over two months, we only received promise to resolve the issue and until today no response and no refund.

Fahad Alqahtani

My contact is: [protected]@hotmail.com

I booked flights for my daughter and myself on the 20th of February for a flight in April 2020. Due to the pandemic we couldn't travel and these tickets were "banked" until Dec 2020. Delayed due to restrictions and in April 2021I requested and was quoted on a refund. Accepted refund only to be told I wasn't eligible for the refund and the flight date had passed. My daughter needed to travel to Australia to activate her immigration visa in Feb of 2022 and as Qantas were not flying to or from SA I had to book her on Qatar via Doha.

2022 arrives and I am flying in October to Australia and asked to have both tickets issued as a voucher to be used against a business class ticket on the same route and same airline. No can do according to Travelstart, definitely can do according to Qantas but as the ticket is still held with Travelstart they need to resolve the issue. I have been bounced between both companies endlessly and have had no success in getting this sorted. Travelstart are sitting with R30,000. of mine and they are not interested in helping me as a customer.

I would appreciate some help in getting them to either refund me for the tickets or issue a Qantas voucher that I can use against a future flight.