Travelstart South Africa - Travel Agency Reviews

they are selling tickets that dont exist

What should have been a joyful honeymoon trip for my sister and her fiancé became a 6-month nightmare with Travelstart. They confirmed her prize trip to Sun City, only to pull it away, then reinstate it, then retract it again. Replies took weeks or even months, and every time they “honoured” the prize, the terms mysteriously changed, the car became a shuttle, the hotel was downgraded and finally the accommodation disappeared altogether. No apology. Just flights with absolutely no where to stay. This is definitely not how an ethical company treats people.

Please note: I will never book with you, or recommend to anyone. I will in fact do my best to dissuade people from using you at all. You have NO customer service or support. I actually had to book new tickets directly with Qantas at an additional cost if R36400, BECAUSE you cannot be contacted, do not send payment links and are beyond appalling with customer service. On every platform, you Travelstart have failed! Never again. Show quoted text Dear valued client. Please be advised that the email address you have contacted is a no reply inbox. Please follow the instructions on your email to register your response. Regards Travelstart

The agents were way too helpful and answered all my queries

Ive used Travelstart.co.za for many years and mostly never had an issue with their service, however the last two occasions was a complete change for the worse. Their customer service is simply unacceptably shocking. When you customer service you can hardly understand the person due to their poor English. I needed to make a date change and selected "Flexible ticket" but they still send me a quote for R 3490, "are you F serious!" When I called AGAIN and queried this charge I was told that they made a mistake and resend me another quote for zero charge. If I didnt check this and phoned them they would have luckily accepted my money and not have refunded me. 48 hours to make a date change is shocking. I will never make use of their absolute useless service again. Travelstart should be embarrassed!!

Really had to appreciate the agent!!They were friendly and helpful and cleared all the doubts!!

Yusrahs service was amazing

I have used Travelstart for many, many bookings and also decided to upgrade to their membership programme. I booked a flight when Travelstart was running their Black Friday promotions for “free flexible travel dates”. I used the travel “concierge” to query a flight change today - And below was the correspondence: -No!! the booking does not include flexible travel date product - 12:16 PM I then advised; -Please can you check again. I did book flexi it was a promo for Black Friday. -Incorrect -It was a promotion you were running that day. Travel start: -Sure i am trying to check with team on this -Please allow me sometime -I am sorry its taking much time than expected - I am still checking with the team 13:31 PM I received no further feedback after that despite having access to travel concierge as a supposed member. I don’t know why I paid the annual membership / for what benefit? If I took the “No!! the booking does not include flexible travel date product” from the staff member at fave value I would have been actually deceived. Imagine the older population? Shocking. My invoice says the below; Add on's Flexible Travel Dates Preferred Meal Service charge (Per Adult) Adult x 1 Taxes and Fees Voucher Flexible Travel Dates*** Preferred Meal Service charge How can this be misinterpreted? Starting to see why Travelstart has the rating it has on trustpilot and why the google listing and reviews are also taken off. If you compare it to flight centre / who take their reputation and clients so seriously / travel start is like a mom and pop shop. I have forwarded the invoice and correspondence from Black Friday (when I queried the benefit offered) and was advised by my friend who is an attorney that if I wanted to be difficult and take this up legally / I would win - just currently considering whether it’s worth the effort. Don’t make promises you can’t keep. Don’t lie to customers and say they they don’t have a benefit which they do. And don’t leave customers hanging because your staff has to scramble when they’re caught in a lie.

The slow or lack of response from this company is exhausting. And as a travel agency, I would expect them to pay attention to details. We booked a multi-city flight with them from OR Tambo to Italy and return and we were using Lufthansa as it is a reputable airline. When I looked at the tickets, there is no provision for checked baggage. Lufthansa indicated that they sold us a "Light" ticket with just hand luggage. We can rectify this by paying extra, but it is a lack of attention to details on the part of the travel agency which (luckily) I picked up. You can imagine arriving at the airport with your luggage and being told there is no provision for your case! And they are very slow to respond to emails and trying to call their number is impossible. And the modern use of "Chatbots" doesn't solve the problem, that is AI at it's worst. And the process indicates what I refer to as "Price Creep". You get given a price, and then little things keep getting added on. A bit like a restaurant who feel they are entitled to add a service charge on top of their advertised prices on their menu. I consider this an unacceptable practice. Additionally I have just chatted to ASATA and this travel agency is NOT a member of ASATA. (The Association of Southern African Travel Agents which is the industry body which promotes professional standards.

I was under pressure of booking an international flight for 34 people,i called on friday and people were flying on Tuesday,Mr Abdul Cliton made everything at easy and managed to help me wholehearted and i am super super satisfied with everything

I want to complain about the blatant robbery that Travelstart is committing. I booked on Black Friday and have paid over R21 000 through 3 payflex instalments ,with 1 more instalment of R7000 due 10/01 and a further R17 000 for my first booking change. Now again due to VISA processing delays I have to postpone my trip till the next school holidays. I received a change quote requesting payment of R8767. To say that R54 000 for a return trip Durban to Christchurch in April ie.booking 4 months in advance is daylight robbery is an understatement! I now want to cancel my entire booking and will seek legal advice on the way forward.The penalty will be R9186(gasp!) and can take 6-12 weeks to finalize. I thank them for disappointing a South African who was willing to support this CPT based company. I will be taking up this matter with all relevant authorities etc. so be WARNED all potential passengers from ever engaging with this organization in future

Worlds worst companyyy. Never use

I called to change my fligh the lady took all my details and new dates gave me the change rates. And nothing happened. I had to call the airline direct after 2 days to make the changes. Poor services will never book a flight again with Travelstart.

Shireen's my go to person in the travel industry! I requested some assistance on the 2nd September 2024 with an online booking. Shireen guided me through the process and subsequently sorted my booking concerns!

Do not book flights with Travelstart. Please save yourself trouble and money. They informed us our tickets were issued and sent us a confirmation email. We booked a hotel. We saw an email at 3Am that they sent email at midnight telling us they failed to issue our ticket. The hotel said "no show" and refused to refund us nor give us credit. A birthday vacation missed and lots of money lost.

Shivansh at travelstart answered my call. He helped me to change our flight date, and stayed on the phone until I paid and received our new ticket. Shivansh was never impatient and really help me. Thank you Shivansh you made my day. Kind Regards. Elizabeth Rossouw

I seem to always find a deal here that suits my needs. Would be great if they can include their "admin" fee upfront in the flight prices and not at the end.

This is not directly the fault of Travelstart. However.... I booked a car at Europcar, Heathrow, London through Travelstart. Nett upshot - I got ripped off to the tune of GBP 1000. Interested persons should read Europcar Heathrow reviews in Google, Tripadvisor and Facebook. This is a common problem. Travelstart must do something about it. Later. The awful Travelstart Customer Care has not replied to my letters on the subject. 8th August I wish to get an email address to which I can direct my complaints. Travelstart's incredibly useless Customer Care is unable to give me one. I will visit Travelstart at the end of the month when I am back in Cape Town.

After initially experiencing great difficulties in getting a response from Travelstart, I was finally connected to a gentleman called Allan. What a wonderful staff member you have. He was courteous; took time listening to my issue; and sorted out the problem effortlessly. Thank you SO much Allan.

I’ve paid for my flight booking immediately via Nedbank EFT today and you have still not sent me an e-ticket. Now you are sending me constant payment reminders. Send me my e-ticket. I emailed proof of payment to your bankpayments email address. Your urgent attention to my matter is required. Thanks in advance.