Do not be fooled by their so-called "Travelstart exclusive"

When applying for my Schengen visa I needed to provide proof of my flights into and out of the Schengen area. I was going to be spending close to a month in Europe but did not have my exact itinerary planned as yet. I booked a flight from London to Rome on a date I thought appropriate at the time on Travelstart. There was an add on that I could pay for, a so-called "Travelstart exclusive" called a "Cancellation Refund Guarantee" for R700 which would refund you for your flight as well as taxes. When purchasing a ticket on their website the "Cancellation Refund Guarantee" is advertised as follows: "Should you wish to cancel your flight for ANY reason prior to departure, we'll give you a FULL REFUND of airfare and taxes."

The breakdown of what I was paying for was as follows: Flight with Vueling Airlines: 640 Taxes Vueling Airlines: 1,647 Cancellation Refund Guarantee: 700 To any reasonable person "a FULL REFUND of airfare and taxes" would be the R640 (airfare) and the R1,647 (taxes) (which is as per the fare breakdown as per Travelstart as shown above).

However, when I contacted them to let them know that I wanted to cancel my flight, there was all of a sudden "non refundable service fees" of R1,955 as well as an airline penalty of R640. The amount that they were going to refund me was only R452, and this would only be after I paid them a refund admin fee of R250!

No where in the Terms and Conditions does it mention "Non refundable service fees". If a consumer is to make an informed decision this, and the amount thereof, should be mentioned. Instead they advertise this extra as a "Travelstart Exclusive" implying that this is a great product for the customer which is highly deceptive.

After querying this with numerous emails to them, they changed the amount they would refund me and I ended up receiving R1,544 after paying the admin fee of R250. This is still not what was advertised to me when purchasing the product (640 + 1,647 = R2,287). Their deception of the consumer is clearly not in line with the Consumer Protection Act.