Flight Centre N1 City : Once they have your money they dont care!

FLIGHT CENTRE N1 CITY After saving for 25 years, we finally had enough money to have a family holiday overseas, as we always dreamed of. I went to Flight Centre N1 City in Cape Town. A travel agent named Clayton, helped me and what gave me confidence further, was that he had just come back from a trip to Thailand with his parents. The first thing I said to my travel agent was : “I am doing this for the first time and this is why I am here at Flight Centre because I don’t know what to do as this is my first time booking overseas travel for my family. I need assistance making sure everything is in place.” Under the auspices of Flight Centre, the travel agent agreed to assist me. Nine months before our trip date our flights were booked and paid for in full. I announced to my family that day, that we were going to Thailand! We were all so excited! A few months later, I had not heard back from our travel agent and messaged him to ask him if we could come and collect our tickets. He had left Flight Centre shortly after our last contact. We got a new, very inexperienced agent named Devon. He said he could email the tickets to me. I said no, we will come into the offices to collect as this would give us a chance to check all our requirements with the travel agent face to face. At this meeting the travel agent printed out our tickets and handed it to us with no further consultation. I was shocked! I then called our agent a few times thereafter to ensure that we did not need anything else, but he said we were in order. I even went back to the offices thereafter and asked the agent to look at the passports as I was concerned about the expiry dates. He insisted it is all in order. I could not believe things went so well. I still wondered to myself “Why didn’t we do this years ago, it’s so easy.” On the day of our travel, I checked in at the airport, only to be told, that we had a 17 year old son who did not have the correct documentation. I did not know about the UnAbridged birth certificate because I had never booked overseas travel before. That’s why I went to Flight Centre so that they could assist me with information on all my requirements for the travel. I called them while at the airport and they said that the agent that did my travel has left their business and as they cannot guarantee what that agent advised me, they take no responsibility for the lack of information given to me . That is why I went to a company like Flight Centre as a client and they should assist me even if their agent went to another company. Having a tick at the Terms and Conditions box should not resolve the travel agency from giving good service and making sure the client has the info they need to have a successful travel experience. The result is that me and my family are now without a trip and we were told that Flight Centre would take off R30 000 for their costs which they cannot explain to me. Is this really how travel agencies are allowed to ******* hardworking citizens who save for a lifetime for that one trip?

DO NOT EVER USE FLIGHT CENTRE IF YOU VALUE YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY!!