1 reviews | Active since Jun 2013
******* / ******S ! SHOCKING – STAY FAR AWAY
DO NOT USE - YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED - I Would give a ZERO
My girlfriend and I planned a holiday to Zanzibar but needed to arrange connecting flights from Cape Town to OR Tambo. I used Travelstart to look at prices and they seemed to be good. (Sometime cheap is more expensive in this case) As our flight to Zanzibar is at 7am on a Saturday morning we thought lets book the connecting flight to OR Tambo at 10 pm getting in at 00:05am. We would then hang out in a lounge until boarding. We bought our tickets only to find out that the Lounges close at 00:00am. We contacted travelstart to change the time to 18:30pm the same day getting into OR Tambo at 22:30pm. They said they can do this and would only cost R750 for the change. I accepted this. BUT due to the fact I was “too” late letting them know that amount then shot up to R1781. I had already paid for my original ticket and times so I said no ways lets then keep that 22:00 flight as that penalty is the same price as two new tickets. I was then told to keep the original time its going to cost us R1505. I could not get any joy from any one by email and both myself and my girlfriend tried calling them. We would stay on hold up to 15 mins and then got cut off. Eventually someone called us that evening to see what the problem was at 20:00. Damitia was the ladies name on the other side of the call was rude and degrading. We eventually got her to agree that our return flight (OR Tambo dack to CPT) was still in force. We told her to then cancel that flight to JHB and refund us. Here is where to rob you again. From the full cost of the one-way flight they refunding us R267,22. Their costs of penalties. OF which will only be returned 6 to 8 weeks’ time. Dealt with Melony who is so used to trying to calm these situations down. BUT would not help at all. So much for customer services and gelp. We have found the airline that offered the earlier time which we requested and is MUCH cheaper than Travelstart. My hint to everyone is. Use travelstart to look at available flights. Then GO DIRECT to the airline and book that flight. They will be cheaper, better customer services and you won’t have this mess we have had.
I want to firstly start by saying thank you so very much for taking the time to write to us, about your experience.
As we do try to be customer centric and although there was a delay I do wish you would accept our apologies.
With regards to the change request, please allow us 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 purchased 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 into consideration when making changes to your existing ticket.
Looking at the history of your booking, you requested a quote on the 01st July and we had quoted you R350.00 per person for that specific amendment quote and the deadline given given was 10:29 South African time that same day.
The following was also mentioned in the quote:
- "Please be advised that once a change of reservation has been made we cannot change it back the original flight without any booking penalties."
- "Once we have received the above-mentioned confirmation to change the booking, we will create an invoice for the change which we will email to you. Please adhere to the time limit stipulated for payment when you receive your confirmation and invoice."
As we had not received a response within the required time, that quote was no longer valid and we needed to send a re-quote.
This time the change fee quoted was R890.50 per person, which you had accepted by responding to the email within the required time, where you responded with "Yes please change and i will pay now".
The following morning we had noticed that payment had not been received by deadline of 22:00 on 01st July and a follow up email was sent, notifying you that we are no longer able to guarantee the fare and taxes quoted for the change as well as unable to guarantee that the airline won't cancel the reservation of the new dates, due to payment not being received.
This is when you requested to keep the original flights booked, however as mentioned in previous emails:
"Please be advised that once a change of reservation has been made we cannot change it back the original flight without any booking penalties."
Our agents had quoted you for booking in the old flights again, but you are not happy to pay for the re-booking.
As per your request, the confirmation of your Mango flight on the 24th August, has been resent to the email address used at the time of making the booking.
As discussed over the phone, a cancellation quote was sent and was requested that you reply in writing, you confirmed you did not want to and felt it best to confirm cancellation of your Kulula flight over the phone. The refundable amount per passenger was made known to you, and you accepted this. We have now sent this through to our refunds team who has now started the refund process.
If you have any further queries or would like a call back, please feel free to email us at feedback (at) travelstart.com and we will be more than happy to contact you.
Kind regards,
The Travelstart Team
I want to firstly start by saying thank you so very much for taking the time to write to us, about your experience.
As we do try to be customer centric and although there was a delay I do wish you would accept our apologies.
With regards to the change request, please allow us 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 purchased 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 into consideration when making changes to your existing ticket.
Looking at the history of your booking, you requested a quote on the 01st July and we had quoted you R350.00 per person for that specific amendment quote and the deadline given given was 10:29 South African time that same day.
The following was also mentioned in the quote:
- "Please be advised that once a change of reservation has been made we cannot change it back the original flight without any booking penalties."
- "Once we have received the above-mentioned confirmation to change the booking, we will create an invoice for the change which we will email to you. Please adhere to the time limit stipulated for payment when you receive your confirmation and invoice."
As we had not received a response within the required time, that quote was no longer valid and we needed to send a re-quote.
This time the change fee quoted was R890.50 per person, which you had accepted by responding to the email within the required time, where you responded with "Yes please change and i will pay now".
The following morning we had noticed that payment had not been received by deadline of 22:00 on 01st July and a follow up email was sent, notifying you that we are no longer able to guarantee the fare and taxes quoted for the change as well as unable to guarantee that the airline won't cancel the reservation of the new dates, due to payment not being received.
This is when you requested to keep the original flights booked, however as mentioned in previous emails:
"Please be advised that once a change of reservation has been made we cannot change it back the original flight without any booking penalties."
Our agents had quoted you for booking in the old flights again, but you are not happy to pay for the re-booking.
As per your request, the confirmation of your Mango flight on the 24th August, has been resent to the email address used at the time of making the booking.
As discussed over the phone, a cancellation quote was sent and was requested that you reply in writing, you confirmed you did not want to and felt it best to confirm cancellation of your Kulula flight over the phone. The refundable amount per passenger was made known to you, and you accepted this. We have now sent this through to our refunds team who has now started the refund process.
If you have any further queries or would like a call back, please feel free to email us at feedback (at) travelstart.com and we will be more than happy to contact you.
Kind regards,
The Travelstart Team