Zero stars - FlightCentre ClearwaterMall chose not to help when they easily could have.

I bought an accommodation package through Flight Centre in Clearwater Mall. It was a 3 night stay in Zimbali (28-30 May 2024). 2 days before check-in, I was hospitalized and advised by my Dr not to travel. I was traveling from CPT to Durban. I had the necessary medical certification. I called the hotel directly and they were more than happy to reschedule my check-in for the end of the week, at no further costs. They just needed an email from Flight Centre advising of the new date as they were the ones who booked the stay.

I contacted Flight Centre Clearwater Mall to request that they send the email. Tshabo, the consultant who made the booking would not send the email despite explaining to her that the hotel was already in agreement and that they just needed her to email them as she was the one who made the booking.

She then referred me to Mphumi, the Clearwater Flight Centre, Manager. They were insisting that I had to first cancel my existing booking, which was non refundable, apply for the new dates and even then, there was no guarantee that the date change would be honoured. This was absurd! They expected me to cancel a non refundable booking in the hopes that their supplier would allow a waiver for the date change but they would not advise beforehand whether it would even be honoured. They were forcing me to cancel and they'd get my funds without having to honour a booking and maybe, just maybe, they might allow a date change but they couldn't say because I had to cancel first. This made absolutely no sense!

I explained that I merely needed to reschedule, I did not want a refund and the hotel confirmed availability and were happy to honour it yet Flight Centre Clearwater Mall refused to assist. This was definitely a matter of not wanting to help even though they could. They simply chose not to assist. This was an easy way for them to get the money for the deal and not have to honour it and they didn't seem to care one bit. Despite my attempts to find a reasonable compromise, they were simply not interested.

This was not a matter of not being able to, it was a matter of them not wanting to assist. This was proven by the fact that The Capital Hotel honoured the booking for the end of the week as per my initial request. I explained to them about my various attempts at getting Flight Centre to assist but they refused and chose to be difficult instead. It was always possible, the hotel was willing to and did honour it in the end.

Flight Centre Clearwater Mall just chose to be difficult and chose not to assist.

Absolutely zero thanks to Flight Centre, all credit to Capital Hotel, Zimbali, we were able to have a wonderful stay afterall.

Very bad experience with Flight Centre Clearwater Mall. Would not recommend going via this branch ever! They could have made this happen but chose not to. Terrible.