SHOCKING SERVICE - USE WITH CAUTION!!

In February I booked a trip to Holland using Travelstart online booking service. On Monday 28 May I sent an email to them asking them how I should go about pre-booking seats on the international legs of my journey. I was advised that I could do this using the SAA online service.

When I logged into SAA web site I noticed that my flight departing at 17:05 from Durban to Johannesburg had been cancelled and that I had been provisionally booked on a flight that would arrive in Johannesburg three quarters an hour before the departure time of my flight to Munich. I consequently contacted Travelstart and was advised that my only option was Mango flight SA 2052 which departed Durban at 14:25. I requested that I be booked on SA 554 or SA 2046 which are scheduled to leave Durban at similar times to my original booking. I was told that these flights were fully booked yet I could book seats for them online using the SAA booking service. When I received an email from Travelstart confirming that my only option was Mango flight SA 2052, I was very unhappy so I tried to contact the person I was dealing with at Travelstart but she would not return my calls or answer my emails.

While waiting for Travelstart to contact me I logged on SAA website to try and book seats on the international legs of my trip. I was able to do so as the booking was “open”. I consequently contacted SAA call centre and was told that in order to pre-book seats on my international flights they had to sort out my booking as it had multiple errors. SAA removed the cancelled flights and confirmed my booking using the flights nominated by Travelstart.

On Tuesday 29th and Wednesday 30th I received SMS requesting that I confirm flight SA 2052. I responded by email on Wednesday 30th and again on Friday 1st June requesting that I be put on flight SA 554. Later that morning the person I had spoken to on Monday phoned me to stay she was away and that she would try and get me onto Mango flight SA 2046. I received an email to this effect later that day. She phoned me yesterday morning (Sunday 3rd) to say that I would have to pay penalties and other charges if I changed my booking to a later flight. I expressed my extreme dissatisfaction at the manner in which a schedule change had been dealt with by Travelstart and implored her to assist me in resolving this mess-up. A little later I received an email for Travelstart stating that I would need to contact SAA directly if I wanted to make any changes to my booking.

So this morning I contacted SAA and was told that it would cost me R2294 to change flight SA 2052 to SA 2046 even though a one way flight to Johannesburg only costs R1272. I was also told that I could not cancel flight SA 2052 and book a new flight to Johannesburg as it would reflect as a no show and invalidate the rest of my ticket.

I am a very dissatisfied customer, and sent an email to Travelstart management asking why; a) Travelstart didn’t inform me of the flight schedule changes - I discovered them by accident. Had I not done so I could have missed my international flights. b) We have been booked on flight SA 2052 which I never wanted as it will result in my wife and I being stuck in Johannesburg for 5 hours. Besides I am very concerned that my luggage may go missing as has happened to me before when taking such an early flight. c) My requests to be put on flights closer to my original booking seemed to have been ignored. d) The agent I was dealing with did not call me back timeously. She only phoned on Friday after receiving numerous emails from me. Her late response has directly resulted in us not being able to change our booking without incurring ridiculous penalties.

If you believe that Travelstart have provided me with good service then go ahead and book through them. My advice however is to rather do it yourself or through a local travel agent who you can sit across the table and talk to!