“Based on my recent experience, I seriously suggest avoiding this organisation. Last September, our party of seven booked flights from London via Johannesburg to Gaborone, Botswana to travel in July/August this year. The London to Johannesburg leg was with Virgin and from there to Gaborone was with Air Botswana. All this was fine, the price seemed good, we received our confirmations and thought no more of it.
Unfortunately, owing to unforeseen circumstances, some months later we had to make a small change in our travel plans, which meant we did not require the flights from Johannesburg to Gaborone, but still wanted and needed the already booked long haul flights from London to Johannesburg. This is where the problems began, as we contacted Gotogate to advise them of this and they told us that they could not simply remove the Gaborone flights from our booking, but that we would have to rebook on a new itinerary and there would be charges from both the airline and themselves to do so, as we had a non-flexible ticket.
Being experienced travellers and realising we had non-flexible tickets, we were expecting to pay something, as this is the cost of getting a low price in the first place, but we were staggered by the amount. The extra cost of the flights from the airline was £175 each, an increase of 33% on the price originally paid. This was bad enough, given that we were using the same long haul flights as originally booked and were giving up the short haul leg altogether, but apparently allowed by IATA rules, confirmed by Virgin - shame on them all. Whilst none of that could be laid at Gotogate's door, what made things much worse, adding insult to injury, was the fact that they then added their own fee of £80 each or £560 total for administering these changes. These were made in the course of a ten minute phone call to them, when I spoke to a single member of staff, who presumably pressed a few buttons on a keyboard and relieved me of payment by taking my credit card details. When challenged on the level of their charge for so little work, Gotogate had no answer and didn't want to know
So I would say, use these guys at your peril and just hope nothing goes wrong, because if it does you will be opening your wallets and paying far more than you could have done by avoiding them in the first place. That is what I shall be doing henceforth and would urge anyone else to do that also.”
“Awful awful customer service - will never use again and advice all others to stay away.
First I book a ticket with them. A change is made by the Airline I am flying with.
I send a request to Gotogate to ask if I can change my reservation because of it. They say they can't do anything until I buy a 25USD service package.
I buy it and ask that they check if I can make a change.
Now they come back to me and tell me they can't make a change unless I pay 120USD + any airline fee's (I can basically book a new flight for 130 USD).
So I call the airline directly to ask if I can change my ticket. The Airline is about to make the change free of charge but then notices that it's booked through Gotogate and she says she can't change it.
I try calling Gotogate and follow the phone instructions. Two times I get told that I am not calling the right person and need to select a different option. That I need to speak with the customer service department because there are charges involved (which would have been free if I booked directly with the airline).
When I finally select the right option I have been waiting for over 20 minutes on the phone. Phone keeps saying if you can't wait you can contact us by email while all my emails say I have to contact them by phone to make the change. Pretty f-ing stupid customer support.
I am guessing I will have to buy a new ticket as I am not even getting through to make a change.”
“Very negative experience. Their 'Flexible ticket' offer is nothing but SCAM.
When purchasing 'flexible' ticket, you supposed to be able to change dates of the flights which was what I needed.
First, to make a change you have to call them and the wait time is insane. And of course they are not be helpful. I was offered to pay a fare 'difference' which was equal to the price of the new fair. As a result, I lost the return ticket.
When emailing, they were continuously denying the fact that it is unreasonable that the difference cannot be equal to the price of the fare.
Overall, DO NO RECOMMEND. Highly recommend to consider other dealers”
“Let me share my experience! they do whatever they can to charge you... They changed my email that I gave them during the booking to their own system generated email so they block me from contacting the airline directly so they can charge me again for customer service. they are unreliable and very difficult to deal with.
If anyone hasn't booked with them yet, try to avoid them at all cost”
“I booked a return flight to and from Russia from England.
The price was good and it was easy enough to use.
Unfortunately I received notification that my return flight had been cancelled about a week before I was due to set off. I had booked the tickets about a month in advance.
So then I had to find a new ticket (with a different company)
The return flight was with the airline Atlas Global. When I checked on the Atlas Global website it said that there was no such flight. I don't know if it never existed or if the airline simply changed their mind. I was never able to find out.
I would not particularly have been bothered by this as it worked out okay and I just paid for a new return ticket. HOWEVER, Gotogate said that they will give me a refund for the return flight and that it will take 2-8 weeks due to administrative reasons.
Now if you are not going to deliver what the person paid for you should simply give the money back right away. There is no logical reason it should take so long. It has been 4 weeks now and I have not got the money back yet... I hope I do.
In regards to customer service. I get quite exasperated that every time I e-mail them I get a response from some completely new person. The answers also seem quite "cut and paste". I did also call the company and got through very quickly to an Indian gentleman who was kind and polite and answered my questions.
I should add that I got on the outbound flight without any problems and this was totally fine.”
“I booked a return flight to and from Russia from England.
The price was good and it was easy enough to use.
Unfortunately I received notification that my return flight had been cancelled about a week before I was due to set off. I had booked the tickets about a month in advance.
So then I had to find a new ticket (with a different company)
The return flight was with the airline Atlas Global. When I checked on the Atlas Global website it said that there was no such flight. I don't know if it never existed or if the airline simply changed their mind. I was never able to find out.
I would not particularly have been bothered by this as it worked out okay and I just paid for a new return ticket. HOWEVER, Gotogate said that they will give me a refund for the return flight and that it will take 2-8 weeks due to administrative reasons.
Now if you are not going to deliver what the person paid for you should simply give the money back right away. There is no logical reason it should take so long. It has been 4 weeks now and I have not got the money back yet... I hope I do.
In regards to customer service. I get quite exasperated that every time I e-mail them I get a response from some completely new person. The answers also seem quite "cut and paste". I did also call the company and got through very quickly to an Indian gentleman who was kind and polite and answered my questions.
I should add that I got on the outbound flight without any problems and this was totally fine.”
