Travelstart South Africa - Travel Agency Reviews 

Look we had been trying to get flights back home since Saturday ( maybe it's out of working house but then the service was bad)...... The today the 22nd got to chat to Eugene who was very helpful and made sure he speeds up my request that was so helpful of him

I had a family emergency in south africa so I needed to amend my domestic flight there. It was impossible to get hold of an actual person, the Whattsapp is absolutely useless. Eventually I get an email saying there are no tickets available on the day I wanted. Needless I went onto Safair and booked a ticket for myself on the day I wanted ??? Service...I think no..avoid at all possible

Don’t book with Travelstart. My 80 year old grandmother was left stranded in Lisbon airport after a delayed airline made her miss her connecting flight. With no help from Travelstart, we had to rebook her a new ticket so she could get to her destination. It’s now been 10 days and still no follow up from Travelstart regarding her return flight which apparently is now not valid for her to use to return home. This happened on a Sunday and Travelstart employees told me their customer care line closes at 3pm but someone will get in touch with me in an hour. Then was told 72 hours. It’s now been 10 days. She would’ve still been sitting at that airport alone. As an eldery person that’s travelling alone and sitting in an aiport for hours and hours, this is disgraceful.

I booked an air ticket and insurance which I had to cancel with plenty of lead time. The cancelation fees were really high, and the travel insurance was not going to refund the insurance I had booked through Travelstart, which I would never use. The agents at Travelstart quickly ensured that my refund was actioned for the insurance and called to explain the fees which helped a lot.

Great service! Eugene helped me to confirm that my upcoming travel dates were successfully changed.

Friendly efficient and responsive service

What should have been a joyful honeymoon trip for my sister and her fiancé became a 6-month nightmare with Travelstart. They confirmed her prize trip to Sun City, only to pull it away, then reinstate it, then retract it again. Replies took weeks or even months, and every time they “honoured” the prize, the terms mysteriously changed, the car became a shuttle, the hotel was downgraded and finally the accommodation disappeared altogether. No apology. Just flights with absolutely no where to stay. This is definitely not how an ethical company treats people.

Please note:

I will never book with you, or recommend to anyone. I will in fact do my best to dissuade people from using you at all.

You have NO customer service or support. I actually had to book new tickets directly with Qantas at an additional cost if R36400, BECAUSE you cannot be contacted, do not send payment links and are beyond appalling with customer service.

On every platform, you Travelstart have failed!

Never again.
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Dear valued client.

Please be advised that the email address you have contacted is a no reply inbox.

Please follow the instructions on your email to register your response.

Regards

Travelstart

The agents were way too helpful and answered all my queries

Ive used Travelstart.co.za for many years and mostly never had an issue with their service, however the last two occasions was a complete change for the worse. Their customer service is simply unacceptably shocking. When you customer service you can hardly understand the person due to their poor English. I needed to make a date change and selected "Flexible ticket" but they still send me a quote for R 3490, "are you F serious!"
When I called AGAIN and queried this charge I was told that they made a mistake and resend me another quote for zero charge. If I didnt check this and phoned them they would have luckily accepted my money and not have refunded me. 48 hours to make a date change is shocking. I will never make use of their absolute useless service again. Travelstart should be embarrassed!!

Really had to appreciate the agent!!They were friendly and helpful and cleared all the doubts!!

Yusrahs service was amazing

I have used Travelstart for many, many bookings and also decided to upgrade to their membership programme. I booked a flight when Travelstart was running their Black Friday promotions for “free flexible travel dates”. I used the travel “concierge” to query a flight change today -
And below was the correspondence:

-No!! the booking does not include flexible travel date product - 12:16 PM

I then advised;
-Please can you check again. I did book flexi it was a promo for Black Friday.
-Incorrect
-It was a promotion you were running that day.

Travel start:
-Sure i am trying to check with team on this
-Please allow me sometime
-I am sorry its taking much time than expected
- I am still checking with the team 13:31 PM

I received no further feedback after that despite having access to travel concierge as a supposed member. I don’t know why I paid the annual membership / for what benefit?

If I took the “No!! the booking does not include flexible travel date product” from the staff member at fave value I would have been actually deceived. Imagine the older population? Shocking.

My invoice says the below;
Add on's
Flexible Travel Dates
Preferred Meal Service charge (Per Adult)

Adult x 1
Taxes and Fees
Voucher
Flexible Travel Dates***
Preferred Meal Service charge

How can this be misinterpreted? Starting to see why Travelstart has the rating it has on trustpilot and why the google listing and reviews are also taken off. If you compare it to flight centre / who take their reputation and clients so seriously / travel start is like a mom and pop shop.

I have forwarded the invoice and correspondence from Black Friday (when I queried the benefit offered) and was advised by my friend who is an attorney that if I wanted to be difficult and take this up legally / I would win - just currently considering whether it’s worth the effort.

Don’t make promises you can’t keep.
Don’t lie to customers and say they they don’t have a benefit which they do.
And don’t leave customers hanging because your staff has to scramble when they’re caught in a lie.

The slow or lack of response from this company is exhausting. And as a travel agency, I would expect them to pay attention to details. We booked a multi-city flight with them from OR Tambo to Italy and return and we were using Lufthansa as it is a reputable airline. When I looked at the tickets, there is no provision for checked baggage. Lufthansa indicated that they sold us a "Light" ticket with just hand luggage. We can rectify this by paying extra, but it is a lack of attention to details on the part of the travel agency which (luckily) I picked up. You can imagine arriving at the airport with your luggage and being told there is no provision for your case! And they are very slow to respond to emails and trying to call their number is impossible. And the modern use of "Chatbots" doesn't solve the problem, that is AI at it's worst. And the process indicates what I refer to as "Price Creep". You get given a price, and then little things keep getting added on. A bit like a restaurant who feel they are entitled to add a service charge on top of their advertised prices on their menu. I consider this an unacceptable practice. Additionally I have just chatted to ASATA and this travel agency is NOT a member of ASATA. (The Association of Southern African Travel Agents which is the industry body which promotes professional standards.

I was under pressure of booking an international flight for 34 people,i called on friday and people were flying on Tuesday,Mr Abdul Cliton made everything at easy and managed to help me wholehearted and i am super super satisfied with everything

I want to complain about the blatant robbery that Travelstart is committing.

I booked on Black Friday and have paid over R21 000 through 3 payflex instalments ,with 1 more instalment of R7000 due 10/01 and a further R17 000 for my first booking change.

Now again due to VISA processing delays I have to postpone my trip till the next school holidays.

I received a change quote requesting payment of R8767.

To say that R54 000 for a return trip Durban to Christchurch in April ie.booking 4 months in advance is daylight robbery is an understatement!

I now want to cancel my entire booking and will seek legal advice on the way forward.The penalty will be R9186(gasp!) and can take 6-12 weeks to finalize.

I thank them for disappointing a South African who was willing to support this CPT based company.

I will be taking up this matter with all relevant authorities etc. so be WARNED all potential passengers from ever engaging with this organization in future

Worlds worst companyyy. Never use

I called to change my fligh the lady took all my details and new dates gave me the change rates.
And nothing happened.
I had to call the airline direct after 2 days to make the changes.
Poor services will never book a flight again with Travelstart.