SA
Shihaam A

1 reviews | Active since Sept 2023

15 Sept 2023, 13:54

Poor advice and service

This is a review on Flight Centre Century City, Cape Town. I requested assistance to book flights from Cspe Town to Toronto in Canada. The consultant that assisted me advised me that I can book my tickets and that my Canadian visa wont take long. The visa global company advised that I was misinformed as it can take many months before I will have my visa finalized as its got Canada, and that the travel agent should not have booked my tickets as they should be aware of how long this visa could take. I missed my original flights that was booked as result of this misinformation. I then had to pay a penalty of R14,000 and was given frenewed light dates from jhbg via Frankfurt to Canada. This I was told was my only option. I then paid the penalty and settled for what I was told was the best option. No travel arrangements were made for my flights from cspe to jhbg. Now months later I received my visa, and requested my itinerary which was never provided, to discover no ape Town flights were booked. And I had an extra stop in Heathrow London which cameras a surprise. My sisters travel, arrangements which are separate dates to mine but made at the same time as mine with same Consultant, had renewed flights as well, as her Visa was also only ready after 7 months was told she was traveling via Frankfurt. Her itinerary, after having yo ask for it, showed Cape town direct to Munich and heathrow London to Canada. This was never the arrangements to ho via Heathrow. I then approached the Manager at the Century City branch. He immediately arranged Cape Town to Jhbg flights for me. He also said no flights from Cape Town direct to Frankfurt for me on my dates. He also took in my complaint as I felt the whole experience was substandard, and was costly as result if their poor recommendations and billings without giving advice as to not booking Canadian flights without visa. My expectation was for the manager to review the recommendations that were given by his staff member and to come back with the best revised flights. I was again told I have to go via jhbg while my sister is going straight from Cape Town. While I was aware of this I kept asking if there were no options straight from Cape Town where I resided and will be traveling from. I asked this question to the manager again today and he told me I have to stick to the original arrangements which he doesnt seem to accept to be what his staff advised yo my only option at the time. It would have made sense that when he became aware of the situation to review what his staff recommended and confirm that they were in fact the best option but instead seems he resolved only my jhbg flight, gave his staff member acwrittrn warning . I was told she had to pay R20,000 in so I must accept this as final. It's a pity she ha to do this and it really should be flight centre taking responsibility. It's also really not professional to tell the client this. Nevertheless, her loss was alot less than the additional costs I had to cough up due to her misinformation in the first place. I have again been following up with the manager from time to time to receive my revised itinerary and still waiting on my sisters flights to be corrected. Her flights were booked via Munich and Heathrow london instead of his Frankfurt, as explained initially with the Consultant. She too paid a penalty, and her Munich flights times are still in flight when she is supposed to depart from Heathrow. So the times completely out of sync. Still waiting for the manager to resolve this stuff up. I messaged him a few times for tjis as well. I called him earlier and called the branch and left message since my WhatsApp messages were not read and not rep**** to. He advised he is sorting out family that is stranded. This is totally understandable. However, it's been days or weeks since I raised this with him. It is still not resolved despite my follow ups.

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Replies (2)
Flight Centre South Africa
Flight Centre South Africa's reply15 Sept 2023, 13:59
Official
Dear Shihaam, 

Thank you for letting us know about your experience and we sincerely apologise for the frustration you have noted. Our Customer Experience team would like to investigate the matter and get to the bottom of this for you. Please expect direct communication from the team. 

~A.C 
Flight Centre South Africa
Flight Centre South Africa's reply22 Sept 2023, 10:53
Official
Dear Shihaam.     Thank you for your correspondence directed to Flight Centre Customer Experience and for allowing us the opportunity to address your concerns.        We would like to initiate this feedback by sincerely apologising for the break in service that occurred when you visited our store in Canal Walk to book a trip from Cape Town to Toronto. On behalf of Flight Centre Travel Group, please accept our sincere apologies for the frustration you have experienced. Once your concerns were received, we escalated the matter to the management of our Canal Walk store.   Flight Centre retail has a process that must be followed by all store agents when booking trips for our customers. By omitting important parts of your trip and subjecting you to a large amount of uncer*****y, your booking agent was found lacking in the basics of customer service that the flight Centre upholds. Being held financially accountable for her errors is a part of her duties that she is well aware of and how she was disciplined for this break in service is the standard procedure for all our store agents. We sincerely apologise that you were made privy to our internal discipline procedures and the manager involved has been addressed regarding this matter to ensure that it does not occur again.     I trust this clarifies the matter and would like to thank you, once again, for your feedback. It is only through feedback such as your own that we can evaluate our level of service to ensure that we are offering the best possible experience to our customers. The management of our Canal Walk store remains available to address any other concerns and ensure that your trip arrangements are up to standard.     Please do not hesitate to contact us again should you require further assistance as we remain at your disposal.         ~C.M