Travelstart: make a sale. That is the start and the end for them. How you travel, that is your problem. But just don't disturb them.

Is this ********* business practice? Either way I won't use Travelstart again unless this situation is address. And I would caution any one else to use this business with caution, to me it appears that the sale is what matters. Whether it was a valid sale. Well, that isn't their problem now is it?

Over the Easter Weekend I booked a flight for my children aged 10 and 14 to fly to Durban. Having done this before I am fully aware that SAA are the only carrier to fly unaccompanied minors and that other airlines will not allow bookings to be placed on their system if you book directly with them. I assumed that Travelstart would not be able to bypass such regulations, especially when it comes to increased regulations around this matter.

On the date I selected there were many flights departing to Durban and as it turns out there seems to have been a Mango and SAA flight departing at the same time. I am fairly confident that I clicked on the SAA icon to book the flight, and felt that I was paying SAA rates for the tickets. The only anomly on the ticket which read South African Airways and had the flight details was a tiny subtext saying "flight operated by Mango". Although this detail caught my attention I did not follow up on it because I knew full well that Mango do not fly unaccompanied minors and that tickets on their airline can not be purchased unless they are paired with the details of an adult.

Needless to say I would not be lodging an endless series of complaints which have not been responded to if the flights I had been sold had not been with Mango.

Whilst I am always happy to accept consequences of my own errors and in this case would have accepted the extra costs of having to then pay for the tickets to be "converted" to a SAA flight (written off as an instance of idiot tax) my grievance with Travelstart is that they sold me tickets that could not be honoured by the airline. Regardless of whether I intended to book an SAa flight because of prior knowledge, or was a naieve user the tickets could not be redeemed. The tickets that I purchased were unusable, and that was based on information that I had accurately provided them.

I have no doubt that they have a legal team that can defend this action because of the terms and conditions of the sale. I just think that there is a huge difference between an action that is legally defendable because of clauses, and one which borders on an exploitative business practice.

If Travelstart even took a basic level of responsibility to notify people that the airline in question may not honour the sale because of their (the airline's) policy then any error of this nature (and I am still very certain that I booked an SAA flight) could have been avoided.

I have sent a number of e-mails complaining about this. The only response I got was to say that they can not compensate me, but they will definitely forward my idea of getting the booking system to flag the issue of unaccompanied minors.

Bottom line: how many industries allow people to sell things that can not be redeemed by the buyer? I think the one word that is used to describe these transactions is: **********? That pairs with another word: *********. The next: exploitative.

It is up to Travelstart to demonstrate that these words do not apply.