TravelStart
Reviews and Complaints

I'm so disgusted in Travel Start's customer service. My flights were cancelled due to Covid. Cathay Pacific are wavering all fees and refunding in full but Travel Start are keeping 20% of the price due to "service fees and security checks". It's impossible to get in contact with them telephonically and email replies are always a copy and paste. Heartbroken to lose so much money to them.

One name on the ticket is wrong a lady by the name of Melissa said she will see if she can help me to get a full refund on my flight tickets from Airlink, that was on the 14th July 2021 already and when I ask her about it she reply with I will phone the rep now and come back to you. But that just never happens. I send her several messages to find out whats happening but it seems like she is ignoring me now. I need to know what I must do next just a simple yes we will help you or no we not going to help you. How difficult can that be.

I booked a flight through Travelstart.

Obviously with the situation sometimes flights need to be changed.

I emailed travelstart on the 9 July because their phones or not working. I requested a change in my tickets. I received an email that they will get back to me in 48 hours.

This was an urgent change since I needed to leave earlier than expected for days that did not reply countless emails were sent.

There after I found a watsapp number and on the 11 of July and 12 july I finally got through to an agent.

The promised me emails that I never received.

I then requested them to change the tickets to a later date and bought new tickets because I was not receiving any emails or responded back.

By the 15th of June I received an absolutely horribly rude email from them telling me I changed my mind now so which tickets should they change

Not going to type out a long message again. Already done on two other platforms but will do everything in my power to let everyone know what terrible service Travel start has delivered. Will never use them again. Lost a lot of time and money so will certainly discourage anyone even thinking about using this company
This cost us so much time as unbeknown to us the company never confirmed our flights yet their recommendation for car hire company had taken our money and refused to reimburse us. Shocked at the reality of this service

I bought a ticket from Travelstart Nig.com on the 14/12/2020 from Lagos to Monrovia in Liberia and paid for excess that covers, hospitalisation and illness.
Unfortunately, Travelstart did not issue the policy despite my payment for the service.
I traveled to Liberia and got sick and was admitted to the hospital.
After long telephone conversation with my daughter Travel start Insurance company issued a policy dated 04/01/2021.
This policy was issued after my journey and the insurance company is not ready to entertain the claim.
This is a negligence on the part of Travel start and they should be responsible for paying all my hospital bills and subsequent flight ticket to the United Kingdom as stated in the contract.
The total cost is £6500
Your action is being solicited
Felix Jackson Ikuloburu-Billy

REF TPLRWG

I booked through Travelstart flights for 4 people on 14 March 2021 to Cape Town and back to Durban on 19 March 2021. We are Masters swimmers and our Nationals are held every year in a different province. This year it is Cape Town. However, due to a further lockdown last week from the Government due to Covid-19, South African Masters Swimming Association has had to unfortunately cancel the event this year and postpone it to 2022.

I contacted Travelstart and they advised me that Mango do not do refunds. Firstly, I did not book directly with yourselves but through Travelstart and secondly, I cannot understand how you can not, in these difficult times, refund us our money. We are giving you more that 2 months notice of the cancellation. Kindly revert to me on [protected] or e-mail me at [protected]@gdlkptn.co.za as a matter of urgency.

Za08002608: my daughter booked a flight to visit us in the netherlands earlier this year. Unfortunately, it had to be cancelled due to the lockdown caused by the covid-19 19 pandemic, thus no fault of her own. She received a voucher which we were happy with. She has been granted a residency permit in the netherlands thus she can fly to the netherlands. The time has now come to redeem the voucher. We originally paid r8417.00 we were very happy to see that flights on your website cost r5599.00 (for a one way ticket which is what she now requires) imagine our shock, disgust and unbelief when she told us that she received an email from you stating that she must now pay in a further r 5020.37 thus bring the total cost of the ticket to r13437, 37. Upon further investigation we found that a flight from emirates directly is currently r r7125. How can you possibly explain this? We feel that this is totally unacceptable and that you should provide the flight at no additional cost. You have kept the money from her flight ticket in your account for the past 8 months, we had originally thought to ask for 's money back however we realize that covid-19 has caused though times for everyone, one would think that such a gesture would be rewarded but you have instead decided to penalize us for it.
We also feel that we have a moral obligation to warn others against your unethical business. I suppose that we now also must wait another 24 hrs for a response? This is really bad customer service, and we are terribly disappointed my contact details are w.J. Olivier

Good day,
I write to you in dismay in an unusual manner because I have acted ignorant of the fact that the monies have been refunded for a quite a while by the airline to the agency and have patiently waited upon the agency to do the needful.
Not only have they deliberately withheld the funds refunded and requested to paint a false picture and blackmail against the airline of whose tickets were purchased from the agency to withhold customer funds refunded after a long period of time and several demands made from the customer.
Upon their actions of refusing to refund such funds after several demands and yet unethically, deliberately and wickedly withheld the funds till now as I write, claim for all funds in full as to the tickets of concern, interest for the period the said fund has been withheld by your agency and damages caused to the customer at this critical economic times.
I by this mail requested no further correspondence from and demanded that the full sums for tickets
(077-[protected] & 077-[protected]) be refunded not later than wednesday end of business (5pm of 7th october, 2020). Up till now no response from them as to the monies.

Hi, i would like to cancel my flight flight due to fast spreading corona virus and Saudi Arabia ban to travel in and out so possibility to travel. And then emirates officially allownced to free cancellation and date change due to the corona virus in this case travelstart refund charge deducted 500SAR. Actually my flight ticket total cost 1440SAR and i request to cancel the ticket its response to refund amount 900SAR . how its possible its not my fault to cancel the my journey due to global problem but travelstart make profit also this global issue

Yesterday I search the net for plane tickets from Bloemfontein to Cape Town return flights for 2 people.
There was a special for R660 pp. There was also a blue block in which it stated that this special will expire in 2 days.
This morning I wanted to book and...the special was gone...
Now I had to book for about R900 more.
The blue block in which they said it will expire in 2 days was just above the ammount.

[protected]@gmail.com

I am Complaining For:

Paying for food during my booking and the aircraft didn't serve food, customer service is claiming that it is the air carrier's fault, but as a travel agent they should also stand up for:

1- Delays
2- Poor service
3- Bad aircraft quality and unclean seats

Which they don't do.

I wouldn't recommend to a dog to take a flight booked through their online services. They are simply not trustworthy...

I had booked a ticket for my daughter to travel from Dubai to New York return through travelstart.ae I had paid extra money for securing her luggages in case of flight delay, cancellation, lost or delayed. My daughter's onward journey was fine while she returned back to Dubai on the June 2nd through Kuwait Airways, her baggage didn't arrive with her in the same flight. Kuwait airways had provided a memo regarding the same and my daughter received her baggage almost 27 hours later disrupting her planned return to India. It was severe mental stress and we did contact travelstart.ae for compensation within 24 hours of the flight arrival though we submitted all the documents they requested. I have called them, spoken to them and have mailed all the documents to the staff in Dubai. Everytime someone picks the phone, they pretend as if they don't know anything but all the mails are their in the system. I am really frustrated to call them again and again and decided to put in the media so that entire world knows it is a cheating company and try to avoid it. Please ever avoid this website and don't repent in the future about your great loss.

On the 06/03/2018 I requested a refunds To date I have still not received my refund for the baggage payment I made. After sending numerous e-mails to Travelstart I still haven't received by refund:

From: Travelstart Info [mailto:[protected]@travelstart.com]
Sent: Monday, April 16, 2018 16:00
To: Bernstein, Crystal: Absa
Subject: RE: Baggage refund Travelstart reference ZA03745899 (CID:22wz825n$6y8h280kg)

Hi there Bernstein,

Thank you for your email.

Kindly be advised that the refund was done by the airline and a timescale of 7-21 bank days was given and due to public holidays those affected the processing of the refund.

Please note, we will get in contact with the airline to do a follow up on your refund and request for an invoice of the refund to be sent.

I trust you find the above all in-order.

It was a pleasure being of service.

Kind Regards,
Denusha