Holiday from Hell

STA clearly hires ******** and clueless travel consultants that have never travelled and have no idea what’s going on !!!

Raese, from STA travel made a royal mess of our holiday , We paid STA R2500 for transfers that weren’t booked or confirmed , we arrived at the airport in ****et and the supplier said we not on the list because STA never confirmed , we had to pay our own taxi which we paid 2400 bht (R1200) for the 4 of us and then we had to pay and then our own ferry 4 tickets cost 1****ht (R3600)

That was just on arrival !!!! We paid STA directly for the transfer and nothing was booked , we had to pay for the minibus transfer inbtw ferries

When then arrived at the hotel that I had requested STA travel to book for us because we where there the previous year , when we went to check in and it was the wrong hotel that was booked , I asked Raese from STA Travel , to book us into the same hotel as the previous year - we went to check in and big surprise they didn’t have our booking - we walked back 4 hotels down to find that only my son and I where checked in and they couldn’t find the other booking , how do u book a flight for 4 people but accommodation for only 2 people but Kelsey from STA phoned them to fix this for us, after an hour and a half of waiting , we where exhausted from flying and all we wanted to do was shower , unpack and enjoy our holiday on phi phi island.

The next issue is I requested we go to phi phi then Koh Samui if it wasn’t to far apart and if it was do-able and he said “yes sure “ he proceeded to book a trip , this is where things went pear shaped , he booked Koh Samui and booked a transfer there but nothing back to ****et , where we would be flying back out of to go home to SA , only when I paid my final amount and queried this did we pick up the mistake and Raese had already left STA Travel, to apologize for this STA paid our flights from Kho Samui to ****et which was kind of them.

But the worst was still to come, We lost a whole day traveling from phi phi to Kho Samui the transfer that STA Travel boomed was from 8am to 18.45 - the transfer that was booked was horrific - 9am ferry (1.45min) , then mini bus ride , then 4 hour bus trip followed by 2 hour ferry followed by 40 min in a taxi , inbtw each we where standing waiting in the sun , to get to a hotel to find out we booked without breakfast - seriously !!!!!! What sane travel agent would book a transfer like this for people that are staying 3 nights at a destination , none of this was disclosed to us I would never have done this , I travel overseas 4 times a year , I’ve never experience this incompetency ever

This has been the worst holiday of our lives !!!! He booked us a flight from hell back , just to put the cherry on the top. We flew from Koh Samui to ****et then sat 6 hours in the airport , when then flew to Doha where we had to sit 10 hours before boarding our flight to Johannesburg , with this incompetency we spent more time flying, sitting in airports , on ferries , in taxes , driving in buses, and sitting waiting , then we where on holiday - our annual family holiday was ruined. STA refunded the transfer, but nothing has been done about the horrific holiday that was ruined - a SORRY just doesn’t cut it !!!!! I want to be compensated for this mess , not monetary but with a complimentary holiday , or week end away or something nice to make up for the messed up holiday that my family experienced and I want to warn other people , that they don’t go through what my poor family had to go through !!!!!!

Kelsey & Fayyaadh did everything they could to help and where just as shocked as us with the messed up arrangements , STA are lucky to have 2 great consultants

Just a note .... I have booked a trip to LA via Istanbul with STA and the ******** STA consultant advised me to get a visa for Turkey online and we should go site seeing on the way back because of the time lay over - which I did ( got 2 visas ) which cost me money ! they called me back a day later to tell me not to because they were wrong about the times and we only there 6 hours *** !!!!