ABSOLUTE DISASTER with Flight Centre SA – “Travel Experts” Who Miss the Basics

I'm writing this review as a warning to others. Our experience with Flight Centre South Africa was an absolute nightmare.

We booked an MSC cruise from Durban and flights from Cape Town to Durban through a “Travel Expert” at Flight Centre. What followed was a masterclass on how not to be an expert. In fact, our Uber driver gave us more useful information about the cruise than she did!

- She didn't provide any advice or suggestions about our flight timing, despite booking the flights and cruise.

- When we booked our cruise in May, the cruise was scheduled to depart at 18:00. About a week before the cruise when trying to figure out drinks and internet packages on our own (another issue) we saw we have to check in for the cruise. With no prompt or any assistance from our Travel Expert. With a shock we saw that the cruise is scheduled to depart at 16:00, with boarding closing at 14:00 and a check-in time of 09:00. Our flight was scheduled to land at 12:30 in Durban, with a 40-minute drive to the terminal. Our Travel Expert didn't flag or inform us about any of this, keeping in mind our travels are starting in 7 days.

- When we asked her about this, she was not aware of any of this and her response was "I suggest you move your flight to an earlier one". Are you kidding me?! She could have suggested this in May when we booked and paid. She was no help at all in changing flights, which we did ourselves in the end, costing us thousands of Rands.

• To add to the insult, at this point we have not even received our flight booking reference so that we are able to manage and digitally check in for our flights.

- We also had to book additional accommodation in Durban and fore fitted our fully paid Cape Town accommodation due to her incompetence.

- We received zero information about the cruise from her. No bag tags (which everyone at the terminal had on their bags), no info on drinks/internet packages. We had to figure everything out on our own, luckily MSC staff were very helpful, unlike our travel agent.

- When we asked her questions about the cruise, she was unresponsive. Later, we heard she was on leave, but didn't provide an alternative channel for us to communicate or ask questions.

We asked for the issue to be escalated and to date, STILL NO RESPONSE.

How does a "travel expert" not know basics like needing to arrive a day before a cruise?! It's unacceptable that we were left to fudge things ourselves, incurring huge extra costs because she couldn't do her job.

Flight Centre SA must be held to account for the company’s and its staff’s inability to assist, protect and inform. Advertising as “experts” and posing as an agent is borderline *****ulent. Our expectations of a travel agent are normal and perhaps even below industry standards, but when your lack of information and “expertise” is costing me financially, I’m calling you to task to take accountability for your company’s and staff’s incompetence.