FLIGHT CENTRE - TRAVELERS BEWARE - DO NOT USE THEM

On the 4 December 2017 we booked a return airfare with Fight Centre for our daughter, who lives near Birmingham, from Heathrow to Durban. Our daughter has cancer and after 7 operations between April and November really wanted to come home to unwind. The flight was booked on SAA flight SA 237 on the 2 March 18 at 21.05 On the 1 March 2018 the " Beast from the East" ( very heavy snow) hit UK and a "Red Alert" ( do not travel was issued which stated stay off the roads and that coach and rail travel was suspended owing to the heavy snow and most flights from Heathrow were cancelled. Luckily my daughter had registered for travel alerts and was informed by SAA and other alerts on the evening of 1 March that her flight had been cancelled. She contacted us and we visited Flight Centre to see what we could do. The travel agent did not try to contact us at all and when she checked she confirmed that SAA flight 237 had been cancelled but she had been booked on SAA 227 which departed earlier. We phoned our daughter from the Flight Centre office and she informed us that because of the snow she had no way to get from Birmingham to Heathrow. As the snow was expected to continue on the 2 March we asked Flight Centre to book her on flight SAA 235 on the evening of 3 March. We were informed by Flight Centre that this would cost us R5200 extra. We then had 3 choices: to pay the R5200, cancel the holiday or my daughter would be considered a "no show" and we would forfeit the entire airfare. She eventually arrived in Durban on Mango Airlines ( the originally booked SAA flight was cancelled) some 3 hours late.

After speaking to other travel agents and frequent fliers we were informed that Flight Centre had no right to charge us the R5200 extra as not being able to get to the airport was an Act of God and not her fault. What followed was numerous emails to Flight Centre which supporting proof hoping that they would refund the incorrectly charged R5200. But after numerous e mails they totally refused and not in a pleasant manner to make any refund. We also contacted Flight Centre UK thinking that as they were in UK they would understand the problem with the heavy snow. All they did was pass our e mail back to the very same person in South Africa who had refused the refund. When I asked Flight Centre what we should do all they could say was contact SAA totally forgetting that they were the travel agent who had booked the flight. I had already contacted SAA several times and they never responded. The result of all this is that although not because of any fault of ours or our daughters we are R5200 poorer and Flight Centre and SAA just gain.

In summary: if our daughter had not registered for travel alerts she would not have known that her flight was canceled as Flight Centre made no effort to contact her, SAA cancelled her flight but we paid the extra R5200 fee. Does that seem right ???

We have used Flight Centre several times before but never again and also will never use SAA again.

Although Flight Centre might advertise themselves as the largest travel agent in the world do not rely on them for good service or any assistance.