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desiree.erasmus desiree.erasmus
1 reviews | Active since Jun 2017
02 Sept 2019, 13:12
Poor after sales service
I booked a flight with Travelstart and due to unforeseen circumstances needed to make a date change. Travelstart does not answer the telephone. I then sent an email request which they took half a day to respond to and then quoted me a ridiculous amount to change dates. The new cost is more than cancelling and rebooking. They gave me an explanation that does not make any sense about low cost fares which I can see on the airline's website that there are still low cost economy flights available. Service when you need assistance is shocking. They have taken your payment but very poor assistance afterwards. The customer service response on email was condescending and rude with little or no resolution to my query.
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Travelstart's replyOfficial
02 Sept 2019, 14:23Dear Desiree
I want to firstly start by apologizing for the delayed response to your email and for the struggle in trying to get through to our call centre.
In response to your review, regarding the change request, I would like to take this opportunity to explain the airline fares.
Fares are quite complicated and fare displays depend entirely on the airline seat availability per booking class (fare class) at the time that a search/request is done. A fare that is available now may not be available in a minute's time due to the fact that the reservations system is available to all airlines and travel agents worldwide. There are constantly seats being taken due to being sold, and seats being released due to booking cancellations.
The airlines might decide to introduce a last minute special fare because the seats on a specific flight are not filling up as quickly as they had expected, or a fare adjustment is made to bring it in line with the other carriers operating the same route etc.
Once a ticket is issued, the fare restrictions become applicable. So even if a week later, due to the reasons explained above, a cheaper fare becomes available we cannot down sell to that fare because we need to take the fare restrictions, of the passengers' existing ticket, into consideration when making changes.
I have checked the notes in your booking and I see that the amendments team has been trying to get the most cost effective fares around the dates you would like to change to. Therefore we are not able to book the flights as per the low cost economy fares displayed on the airline's website, as this is a completely different contract to what was purchased originally.
I hope this explanation has been helpful.
Please let me know if there is anything else I can assist you with.
Kind regards,
Melony at Travelstart
Customer Relations Team
I want to firstly start by apologizing for the delayed response to your email and for the struggle in trying to get through to our call centre.
In response to your review, regarding the change request, I would like to take this opportunity to explain the airline fares.
Fares are quite complicated and fare displays depend entirely on the airline seat availability per booking class (fare class) at the time that a search/request is done. A fare that is available now may not be available in a minute's time due to the fact that the reservations system is available to all airlines and travel agents worldwide. There are constantly seats being taken due to being sold, and seats being released due to booking cancellations.
The airlines might decide to introduce a last minute special fare because the seats on a specific flight are not filling up as quickly as they had expected, or a fare adjustment is made to bring it in line with the other carriers operating the same route etc.
Once a ticket is issued, the fare restrictions become applicable. So even if a week later, due to the reasons explained above, a cheaper fare becomes available we cannot down sell to that fare because we need to take the fare restrictions, of the passengers' existing ticket, into consideration when making changes.
I have checked the notes in your booking and I see that the amendments team has been trying to get the most cost effective fares around the dates you would like to change to. Therefore we are not able to book the flights as per the low cost economy fares displayed on the airline's website, as this is a completely different contract to what was purchased originally.
I hope this explanation has been helpful.
Please let me know if there is anything else I can assist you with.
Kind regards,
Melony at Travelstart
Customer Relations Team
Travelstart's reply02 Sept 2019, 14:23
Official
Dear Desiree
I want to firstly start by apologizing for the delayed response to your email and for the struggle in trying to get through to our call centre.
In response to your review, regarding the change request, I would like to take this opportunity to explain the airline fares.
Fares are quite complicated and fare displays depend entirely on the airline seat availability per booking class (fare class) at the time that a search/request is done. A fare that is available now may not be available in a minute's time due to the fact that the reservations system is available to all airlines and travel agents worldwide. There are constantly seats being taken due to being sold, and seats being released due to booking cancellations.
The airlines might decide to introduce a last minute special fare because the seats on a specific flight are not filling up as quickly as they had expected, or a fare adjustment is made to bring it in line with the other carriers operating the same route etc.
Once a ticket is issued, the fare restrictions become applicable. So even if a week later, due to the reasons explained above, a cheaper fare becomes available we cannot down sell to that fare because we need to take the fare restrictions, of the passengers' existing ticket, into consideration when making changes.
I have checked the notes in your booking and I see that the amendments team has been trying to get the most cost effective fares around the dates you would like to change to. Therefore we are not able to book the flights as per the low cost economy fares displayed on the airline's website, as this is a completely different contract to what was purchased originally.
I hope this explanation has been helpful.
Please let me know if there is anything else I can assist you with.
Kind regards,
Melony at Travelstart
Customer Relations Team
I want to firstly start by apologizing for the delayed response to your email and for the struggle in trying to get through to our call centre.
In response to your review, regarding the change request, I would like to take this opportunity to explain the airline fares.
Fares are quite complicated and fare displays depend entirely on the airline seat availability per booking class (fare class) at the time that a search/request is done. A fare that is available now may not be available in a minute's time due to the fact that the reservations system is available to all airlines and travel agents worldwide. There are constantly seats being taken due to being sold, and seats being released due to booking cancellations.
The airlines might decide to introduce a last minute special fare because the seats on a specific flight are not filling up as quickly as they had expected, or a fare adjustment is made to bring it in line with the other carriers operating the same route etc.
Once a ticket is issued, the fare restrictions become applicable. So even if a week later, due to the reasons explained above, a cheaper fare becomes available we cannot down sell to that fare because we need to take the fare restrictions, of the passengers' existing ticket, into consideration when making changes.
I have checked the notes in your booking and I see that the amendments team has been trying to get the most cost effective fares around the dates you would like to change to. Therefore we are not able to book the flights as per the low cost economy fares displayed on the airline's website, as this is a completely different contract to what was purchased originally.
I hope this explanation has been helpful.
Please let me know if there is anything else I can assist you with.
Kind regards,
Melony at Travelstart
Customer Relations Team