Misleading and false flight bookings

Good day Mr Hoosen

Thank you for your feedback  and patience

Please allow me to clarify some information regarding your booking below:

The booking was made on the 02 October , 1 day after International travel was permitted in and out of South Africa. Everyone still very unsure of many aspects related to entry requirements, but the President allowed for international Travel and therefore we offered  flights on our website taking into account all available information.

Prior to issuing any tickets for passengers, we made sure that passenger were aware of some important information regarding International travel.

The email read as follows :

Flights Hotels Cars
Dear Traveller

Thank you for your international booking that you made with Travelstart

President Ramaphosa announced the opening of the South African borders from 1st October 2020. Travel will not be allowed to and from certain countries that have high infection rates (high risk countries). The current list has 57 countries, please see list below .

Currently we have outstanding questions regarding protocols and documentation needed for inbound and outbound travel. We have addressed these questions to the relevant authorities and await their response.

We would STRONGLY recommend that you wait until we have clarification on these questions .As information becomes available we will update this link : https://www.travelstart.co.za/lp/essential-travel

What we know so far
- Travellers will only be able to fly out of one of the three main airports: King Shaka, OR Tambo and Cape Town International Airport
- On arrival back into South Africa, travellers will need to present a negative COVID-19 test result not older than 72 hours from time of departure- from your country of departure. The PCR certificate needs to be presented on departure from your destination as well as on arrival back in South Africa - a recognized health practitioner needs to conduct tests and this certificate must be signed off and stamped by the practitioner
- Where a traveller does not have written proof of a negative COVID-19 test, they will be required to remain in mandatory quarantine at their own cost
- All travellers will be screened on arrival and those presenting with symptoms will be required to remain in quarantine until a repeat COVID-19 test is conducted
- Please make sure that you check your entry requirements for your destination-do I need a visa, do I need to quarantine on arrival, do I need a PCR test for my arrival. A Covid-19 negative certificate is required for ALL passengers travelling to or transiting via the UAE so when travelling on Emirates and Etihad. A printed copy must be presented at the airport (digital and sms copies will not be accepted).
High Risk Country List : announced 30 Sep 2020-will be reviewed every two weeks
Albania
Argentina
Armenia
Austria
Bahrain
Belgium
Bolivia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Brazil
Chile
Columbia
Costa Rica
Croatia
Czech Republic
Denmark
Ecuador
France
Georgia
Greece
Guatemala
Guyana
Honduras
Hungary
Iceland
India
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
Israel
Jamaica
Jordan
Kuwait
Lebanon
Luxemburg
Maldives
Malta
Mexico
Moldova
Monte*****
Nepal
Netherlands
North Macedonia
Oman
Palestine
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Portugal
Puerto Rico
Qatar
Romania
Russia
Slovakia
Suriname
Switzerland
Ukraine
United Emirates - I assume they mean UAE
United Kingdom
USA
Venezuela

As airlines are still finalising their flight schedules in/out of South Africa there is a possibility that after you book your flight that the airline may change the time or date. The flight that you book today is not guaranteed to depart on that date or time. Unfortunately until airlines can assess demand schedule changes are likely to occur.

If you would like us to still issue your ticket please respond to us within 2 (two) hours of receiving this email via our contact us page
https://www.travelstart.co.za/lp/contact-us
Please navigate to the bottom left hand side of this page, complete the details and select the following category on the contact form "RETRY MY PAYMENT" with a message " Please process my booking"

You accept all liability and any potential costs related to any changes that may be required to your booking once Government clarifies all international travel regulations. Please ensure that you check all entry requirements for your country of destination and possible transit requirements where applicable. Should you opt for us to issue your ticket now and there is a schedule change we will advise you by email.

Stay Safe
Travelstart- Your Freedom to Move

With the above being said , I completely understand that the situation you found yourself in was nothing less than traumatic and for that I am very sorry. This is exactly why we recommended that passenger not travel Internationally as yet, as per the above email. 

I see that the Refunds Team has asked Emirates to advise what the refund values are on your tickets, as we do not have access to them any longer. When you got to the airport ,it seems the airline took ownership of your ticket and did an exchange. We cannot see what it was exchanged to or if it was used or not and therefore we need to wait on the response from the airline.

Once our refunds Team has an update from Emirates they will be in contact with you. We cannot assist with changes to this ticket either, for the exact same reason.

If you require any further assistance please let us know. 

Hope you have a wonderful day further!

Regards
Lee-Anne 

Hi Mr Hoosen

Thank you for your response and understanding. 

The airlines service level agreements are tremendously compromised due to Covid 19 impacting influx inquiries. The airlines and industry has been badly affected by the global pandemic and have had to let most of their staff go as they were unable to keep them.  Thus processing could take longer than expected. 

The refunds Team will keep following up with the airline, in order to provide feedback to you as soon as possible.  

If you want to follow up with the refunds team  you can get hold of someone to assist you on our chat service to check your booking and follow up with refunds team. 

Hope you have a wonderful day further!

Kind regards
Lee-Anne 

Good day Mr Hoosen 

Thank you for your feedback,

I apologize for the confusion, the agent advised of this because in normal circumstances we would refer passenger back to the airline if we do not have access to the ticket as we cannot do anything to assist if we cannot work on the booking. The Refunds agent sent an email to the airline to request the coupon refund values as a gesture of goodwill, but it will all still need to be handled by Emirates. 

The ticket that we have access to is the one that you purchased with Travelstart, however that coupon, as explained is exchanged by the airline to a new ticket which we do not have access to. The new ticket could be open for refund or could have ben used to get you home and until we have a response from the airline we cannot advise.

Travelstart is a registered third party supplier and acts as a search engine for good fares between the airline and passenger.  When purchasing a ticket via our website the money for the tickets go directly to the airline and not to Travelstart. 

I have chatted to the Team Lead of the Refunds Team who has sent anther follow up to Emirates, once they have reverted back to us we will be in contact with you. 

Hope you have a wonderful day further!

Thank you and kind regards
Lee-Anne