STA Travel UK 

I'm in absolute disgust with sta travel .I'm writing this has I've just received an email off a full of sarcasm . they've been about as much use has a chocolate fire guard .I know it's terrible with what's going on but surely nearly a month after I was due to fly they would of been in touch.
I've had to get in touch with them .And now to add to my frustrations they are taking the pi## out of me .
I will never use this company again .
They are breaking every rule in the book .
They are saying they waiting for refund off Emirates who I know have refunded them .
Like I say they are disgusting
Just to add sta are trying to get my post removed . hilarious .
The truth hurts my post is factual and correct .
I have to ask myself this question ?
They've got staff on here complaining about the post .but you try and get in touch with them 🤣🤣.
Trust pilot if you need to get in touch I can provide all the facts and the shockingly unprofessional emails etc etc

STA changed their policy to issue full refunds to customers who have booked a flight if the airline is offering full refunds also (e.g Qatar). The communication has been bad but it is understandable at this time, I flew with STA last year on almost the same flights and everything was perfect and most importantly, I saved money.

Since they have decided to give me a refund I will happily book with STA again - but will consider including accommodation/a tour to make sure it counts as a 'package holiday' meaning you get a cash refund for definite. At the beginning of the crisis, an STA travel adviser even told me this would be a good idea (which I, as a genius, ignored) and he offered to help me add this to my booking to change it to a package which is a good example of true customer care.

No one could have seen this coming, however, some companies had measures in place to respond better than others. Hopefully STA will build its response for the future.

Refusing to return money from round the world trip that was now cancelled. Told I can only change the date on tours that have been cancelled and get a credit note for Flights. It is disgusting that they think that this is ok as their new terms and conditions say so, completely disregarding the terms and conditions from when I booked. When I ask questions I get no answers, simply passed to different assistants and now have been told that they will no longer correspond with me on the refunds I am owed. Very unhelpful. I have waited over 2 months for a response from Customer Care to a separate issue, for which they have no excuse as the complaint was sent in February and I am still waiting for them to respond. I will not use them again and am very disappointed in what I thought was a reputable company who were safer than booking direct with the tour companies - if more expensive.

Awful service. No help. Not answering any calls

I hope this is a company that doesn’t survive the Covid-19 impacts. They don’t deserve it. Holding customers money when flight companies and hotels have refunded them, criminals! Never booking with them again, lost customer trust. Paid using credit card, got money back using chargeback (as they changed their terms and conditions afterwards to keep our money!), and they’re trying to challenge it to get our money back. Absolute criminal company. Karma in the business world is real!!

AWFUL!!

This company is a disgrace. Paid for flights with them and even though the airline is offering refunds they are refusing to do so. They have my money and won’t give it back! They also say in the emails that they will not discuss this matter further. A disgrace!

I've just got back from a trip organised with STA travel Islington and wanted to say how completely brilliant they're been, especially my travel adviser Emmy Wieksza. I booked my trip to Thailand, Laos and Malaysia in February 2020, little knowing that a small thing called Covid 19 would come along and disrupt the whole thing... I was lucky enough to be able to go on my Sunrises and Street Food tour of Laos and Northern Thailand with G Adventures which I would HIGHLY recommend. Particularly loved Luang Prabang and the long boat on the Mekong river which was truly memorable experiences. However by the end of the trip in March I did have some trouble getting home as many airlines were suspending flights - including my own with Malaysia Airlines - which made things uncertain and unsettling. I have to say that despite all this uncertainty, I had complete trust in Emmy and STA to get me home safely and felt reassured and updated by them the whole time. Since getting home, Emmy has even managed to secure me a credit from the airline which I will be able to spend with STA Travel within the next 18 months once we're able to travel again. In spite of the amount of queries their small team must have been processing during this time, Emmy has been outstanding. My mum even went as far to describe her as exemplary which is high praise for a mum panicking about her daughter being forever stuck in Thailand... Thank you STA and Emmy. I look forward to my next trip with you already!

Horrific company and there lieing to us telling us Qatar are not giving refunds ,ive spoken to qatar and thay have refunded sta in full so it turns out sta are just keepin hold of are money ....sta didnt even tell us thay had been cancelled STAY AWAY FROM STA

Absolutely dreadful! How can they get away with breaking the law. Their complete disregard for customers will lead to this company's downfall. Which might be a good thing as customers will then get their money back through other means. Have they never heard of customer loyalty? When things get back to normal they'll wonder why they haven't got any customers!

If I could give them less than 1 star, I would. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, they changed their policy so that all refunds would be processed as travel credits however weeks before this policy change, I changed a flight and was due my refund in money which I have in writing. As they failed to process my refund before the policy was changed, they decided to tell me that I could now only get my flights in travel credits. THIS IS STEALING. They have confirmed that they have received the refunds from the airline but are not prepared to release it to me. They are now not replying to my emails.
I have also been assured that I will be refunded for my travel insurance as I cancelled within the cooling off period and I have still received nothing. They are not only stealing but they are losing all public trust. Never felt so mislead and lied to by a company.

I have to put 1 star as there is no minus!!! Apparently the law and travel guidance do not apply to STA. Keeping my money that has already been refunded by the airlines, no doubt getting interest on it too. I dont want a credit note or vouchers thank you, I want the cash refund I am entitled to by law. I will not be able to make the trip in the future but STA dont care about that. They have almost £4000 of my money. Immoral and lawless.
DO NOT USE IN FUTURE, LETS REMEMBER THE COMPANIES WHO DID NOT ASSIST IN THIS TERRIBLE TIME.

Absolutely disgusting company

Will keep your money if things go tits up and will treat you like crap

Follow highly illegal practices as well

The true colours of a company are shown by how they respond in a crisis. And unfortunately for STA Travel they have proven themselves to be completely untrustworthy, uncaring and dishonest.

After my flight to NZ was cancelled I was instantly told by my local office that there would be no refunds as STA Travel has decided that EU law doesn't apply to them. There has been absolutely zero response to multiple complaints to their website form. Absolute radio silence since the end of March on their social media.

In these times people are stressed enough already. Customers understand that refunds for thousands of people will take time, but we need assurance that our consumer rights still apply. To completely deny customers refunds of thousands of pounds worth of trips, that with the current situation are probably unlikely to be able to take place anytime soon, and making themselves completely uncontactable is immoral.

For those saying we need to take care of travel businesses at this time - sure, if you can afford it, fine. However STA Travel have shown complete disregard of customers who need this money back. People who could have been made unemployed, have financial concerns of their own and need this money to sustain themselves. Let alone disregarding ....the actual law.
(Also STA Travel are owned by Swiss company Diethelm Keller who had a revenue of 11.3 billion CHF in 2018 - I think as a company they'll be fine, I just hope their (probably underpaid) employees are ok.)

The time will come again when we will all be desperate to travel again. However companies who behave in this manner in times of crisis do not deserve our pity, and definitely do not deserve our money again.

Sadly Corona virus meant that my long awaited holiday to Borneo was cancelled, I had been planning and looking forward to my trip for almost a year. I booked with Gemma who took great care in helping me plan the perfect trip. So the cancellation was disappointing but not unexpected given the global pandemic.
I contacted STA travel to ask what happens next and got a returned call the same day from Mark in Manchester (impressive!). I was given a full breakdown of my options with a great deal of flexibility to re-book when ready. Although a full refund would have been preferable, I am not actually out of pocket and I will be able to re-book my trip in the future. This gives me something to look forward to which I know I will be ready for when it is safe to travel again.
This pandemic is a global crisis. The staff are doing their best in an unprecedented situation which is not their fault. If firms issued refunds to everyone they would go bust. This is why firms are offering credit. It is not just STA who are doing this, other companies and airlines are doing the same. It is a protective action to save the travel industry for the future.
Of course I would have liked the money back in my account but looking at the wider picture, it is a holiday which can be taken eventually. Right now the priority is keeping people safe. This pandemic is affecting every country and people are losing their lives. Putting everything in perspective the holiday can wait.

I would personally like to thank STA for sorting out my daughters flights back from Australia to the U.K. in particular Elly at the Manchester branch . The current coronavirus situation is causing a lot of anxiety and uncertainty particularly in the travel industry . The service and advice I’ve had from STA has been very professional and excellent. I understand everyone at STA must be working under quite some pressure at this time , this did not come across , emails were answered promptly and research done . Thank you , my Easter hasn’t been too stressful 🐣 I hope you were all able to enjoy some of the sunshine ☀️ XX

Avoid - do not honour law regarding flight refunds or respond to emails. Keeping £1,200 and not even issuing the voucher they offered (despite law saying cash refund).

Before C19, i was very happy with the service but sadly i was unaware of the flaws until i have had to ask further questions and for full refund back from them due to C19. Since the beginning of March i have been trying to cancel my trip £5,000+ . I've managed at the beginning of March t get half back. I was told you can not have a refund only credo=it note for 1 year, then when checked law had included a credit note until end of July, but it was the customers choice or round. But since then have emailed, telephoned Resolve, STA Travel, Abta etc Getting very mixed messages from STA doesn't help. I have a phone call 2 weeks ago saying they will refund me £1,700, but there is a discrepancy of £500. And promised the next day another phone call once they had broken down the checked everything. As the most recent invoice i have, has 4 different amounts on, nothing is clear and even if i wanted to go through the insurance company i cant as i don't have clear documentation and not received anything from STA with regards of what has been cancelled.
What i have learnt is that all my flights have been fully refunded without any charges back to them, plus the 3 extra trips i organised through STA, have been cancelled and that STA only pay the 3rd party once I've been on the trip.
I continue to try and communicate with STA by telephone only to each time get cut off and emails just do not get answered!
Additionally i have also found out that most of their staff have been furloughed, when surely it would have been better to sort out customer service???
NEVER EVER will i use them again!

I have booked with STA TRAVEL three times on a bit over a year since they offer matched discount with G adventures.
Two previous trips have no difficulties as G adventures are great and STA were there just for the transaction.
In February this year I went to Tanzania. In Zanzibar G adventures moves us to a different hotel that was a lower grade than expected. After coming back, I contacted STA Travel for them to sort out the situation and asked for a price difference refund.
I received 0 answers.
I then reached out directly to G Adventures who sorted it out straight away, confirming that I will receive a £85 refund on the hotel price but since the booking has been done via STA Travel, STA Travel was supposed to get in touch with me with the next steps (this was all confirmed first week of March).
I followed up with my agent with who I booked and he directed me to a number that doesn't exist.
I then filled out gazillion support and complaint forms on their website only to be redirected in circles to other departments.
Finally, my agent told me that although G Adventures have confirmed that they will be paying out £85, STA TRAVEL has decided to issue a credit note instead and if I still want to get a refund, I should contact their by the looks of it non existing customer service. It's been a month and this customer service never wrote at any point and there are no numbers to call.

Needless to say in times like these you can truly see what the company is all about and they have basically stolen money from me and have chosen to loose a loyal customer just to pocket £85.

Congratulations!

Must say underwhelmed by STA and their response to getting us home from New Zealand ,paid £7500 for two business class flights to New Zealand with Cathay Pacific ,two days after arriving in New Zealand Cathay cancelled our return flight, after a day sorting it out myself we had flights again but a day early so had to change internal flight at cost and book hotel in Auckland ,those flights cancelled two days later and put on one later than our original departure , couldn't take this so they offered to fly us to Paris then on to Manchester ,we agreed but the last flight was with Flybe and they went bust , STA said there was no flight from Paris now have to sort it out ourselves, saw there was a flight to Heathrow and suggested this by email ,they phoned me to tell me there was a flight to Heathrow did I want it ,I said I told you that and they said I had 10 mins to accept ,took flight but offered no onward flight to our destination,they said they could get me on a BA flight but it's £350 but limited availability and we would have to wait 12 hours for our connection to Manchester, panicked and accepted but on checking BA the flight was only £260 ,when we arrived at Heathrow the fantastic BA staff got us on a earlier flight that STA said wasn't available ,so paid all that money for our trip ,got stressed out whilst away ,cost £700 extra for flights and hotels and didn't even get back to where we we had paid to return to ,Moral of the story steer clear of STA at all costs and Cathay Pacific

The experience I've had with STA is extremely disappointing - and just to clarify, most of my bad experience was BEFORE the coronavirus, the recent emergency has just added to my disappointment.

I went into a store to enquire about a 12 month round the world trip. From the minute I sat down with the agent, I could tell he was trying to make me immediately put a deposit down by giving me any story to get me to sign up straight away (apparently between the thirty seconds of me saying I'm not ready to book and putting my coat on, he got an email from his manager saying he could give me 10% off). I still refused to book as I wasn't ready. The agent kept calling me and hassling me and in the end, gave me an offer I couldn't refuse - 20% off the tour I was looking at and a £300 cash card - so I signed up and paid the deposit. Low and behold, when I got in touch with STA again I was told that the agent had left and they had no record of that discount or the £300 cash card - and annoyingly it had all taken place over the phone.

When I went to book flights and additional elements, the new agent I was dealing with again kept making me offers to try and sell me things. He told me that one of the tours I was looking at "only had 1 place left"and to get it with a 5% discount I had to pay in full that day, despite the tour still being eight months away. I didn't sign-up and contacted the tour company directly who informed me the tour was empty and the agent told me "STA always lie". (I did book the tour but with the tour company directly, FYI, and got a better discount)

When I was ready to book a couple of other things I was handed over to a new agent (after being ignored for weeks) who I have to say was very good, but again, put so much pressure on you to buy things. I was looking at signing up for three G Adventures tours and was told if I didn't sign up that day, I woudn't get the 10% off, I was hesitant because it was almost Black Friday and knew there would be good deals, but was advised that none of the tours I was looking at would be in the sale and if I don't put deposits down today, wouldn't get the 10%. So I did... BIGGEST mistake. I basically paid £1500 more than if I had waited, and also noticed you get an automatic discount when you book multiple tours with GAdventures anyway - so why did I have to put the deposit down on that day?

The trip was meant to start this March and with it being 12-18 months, there are lots of elements to it so I was planning to spend over £10,000 with STA. With the coronavirus, the first leg understandably got cancelled but I am being refused a refund. The frustrating thing is the lack of communication from STA on the t&cs of a travel credit - all my emails are just being ignored. I am also seeing horror stories of people stuck abroad and being ignored by STA.

STA position themselves as a flexible and long term travel company for young people - but yet when something goes wrong, they go into hiding and refuse to help. People are booking long term travel with this company, some people like me have saved for YEARS to do so, and others are taking extended trips before university etc. yet now being told there is no option for a refund. It's a disgrace. What if we can't rearrange a 12 month trip?!

Coronavirus aside, I would potentially book with STA again but with extreme caution. My advice is book with tour companies directly as they are much easier to communicate with and when things go wrong, are much more supportive of their customers. Also don't let the agent put any pressure on you to book, whatever they are telling you is likely a lie. As soon as you have paid the deposit you will be the bottom of the pile (until you want to buy something again)

With coronavirus in mind, don't book with them. The way they have treated their customers is a disgrace. If I had booked directly with airlines I would have all my money back. Remind me again STA why anyone should book with you in future?