“DO NOTE BOOK FLIGHTS THROUGH TRAVELSTART!!! My husband booked and paid for three economy premium return tickets from Cape Town to Bangkok via travelstart. He contacted them and paid for a change of the one connecting flight due to a very short layover. He paid R5000 for the change only to discover that they incorrectly downgraded our entire flight to economy. I only discovered it when I logged on to see if I could book extra leg room seats. There are now no seats available in premium economy and all they can offer is a refund of R2000 for three of us. Its literally *****. This was meant to be our family moon after our wedding and I am so disappointed. When travelling with a 6 years old over night, every bit of extra comfort makes the difference. I also travel out for work purposes the day after I get back. Just do yourself a favor and book direct with the airlines or through a reputable travel agency. There are so many bad reviews and our first mistake was ever using them to book our flights.”
“Sizi was definately a 10 in assisting me to accept the quote for a date change, Patient, speaks clearly, walked me through the process step by step and arranged for payment link to be send.
Thank you awesome service to a very stressed client
Nanetta”
“Very unprofessional and unresponsive, in today’s day and age communication should be prompt and ability to change without waiting hours to make the change , impossible to work with agent that respond from no reply email, if you respond it take another 4-5 hours”
“There customer service people push you into using an external payment service when the website service doesn't work and they say its copied directly from last one, but mine was not and I ended up paying 30% more to correct there mistake.
They should train there CR's to recheck travel dates and not push the external payment without proper verification.”
“Most disgusting service ever received.Certainly not a business being runned more like a circus.Not kosher on business dealing at all.Really and truly unacceptable😡😡😡😡”
“I received the worst service from Travelstart. Booked my flights through them a month in advance for a family holiday, checked online and 2 hours before my flight departed, I called them to reschedule our flights (after contacting the airline to offload us)which they did way after the flight had departed & charged us at double the return flights. Did not even suggest a reschedule to the following day! Long story short, missed the flights and cannot get a refund (which is not indicated on the tickets).Basically lost 4 flight tickets to Capetown through them!Its been a long tedious back and forth with these people and honestly feel robbed!I wish i had read these reviews before booking through them! I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone! Use them at your own peril!”
“When you try to alter your flight, it is impossible to get a hold of anybody. It took Travelstart more than 72 hours to respond to our question if and what the costs would be to change our return flight. The response after 72 hrs was that we would have to call them, only an SA number provided. It then costs us a fortune to talk to some guy in India with poor English to then be told they would send us an email.....Really not worth it, better to book directly with the airline.”
“I was confirmed a different connecting flight in Germany than the one I had chosen - which was very inconvenient for me. I tried WhatsApp, "no reply" email and finally got another email contact for Travelstart. This resulted in an agent - Mahender - to phone and assist me. He was absolutely professional, helpful and polite and he booked me on the connecting flight I had chosen. Thank you very much Mahender”
“I recently booked a flight through Travelstart and unfortunately made a small typo, I accidentally typed an "M" to the passenger's first name. I noticed the mistake immediately upon receiving the confirmation and tried to contact the agency right away via phone, email and WhatsApp to correct it.
To my disappointment, Travelstart could do absolutely nothing to assist me. I was charged R599 for a name correction fee and an additional R910 for the airline change fee and a booking fee of R329. A total of R1 838 just to remove a single letter. A simple, honest error that I flagged immediately.
As Travelstart kept on telling me they're just the middle man and they can't actually help in anyway. Booking through them was of zero benefit.”
“Useless and incompetent staff.... unable to deal with any changes to bookings, and everything takes 24 - 48 hours to provide feedback! Information provided was inconsistent. Had to help myself by calling the airlines directly to resolve my issue. Not comparable with other online travel agencies... who have after hours service. Will be out of business very soon if they continue this level of service! Will never use them again!”
“I am more than IMPRESSED with TRAVELSTART! We had to change our booking back to South Africa after the sudden death in our family! We spoke to Raj and Ansonela!! They both went out of their way to help us change our tickets to a earlier date! The phoned us back when we had new problem or felt uncertain about a date!
Thank you Travelstart !! You will be our go-to every time we plan to travel again!❤️”
“As soon as you have a Problem, no one can help phoned 3 times. Two emails, to change my flight from Singapore to Japan can't sit 31 hours at Singapore airport 🤔.. Now more than a week and nothing no reply... Still waiting...”
“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”
“Totally useless - a waste of money, rather book direct with the airline.
Changes not sent timeously; calls redirected to India, where they were "offline, so sorry"”
“Extremely Disappointing Experience with Travelstart – Avoid at All Costs
I had a truly frustrating experience with Travelstart, and I feel compelled to share my experience to warn others. My ordeal began when I booked a flight through Travelstart and, due to unforeseen circumstances, I had to cancel it. This led to an even worse situation: a delayed and unresolved refund process that has now dragged on for nearly a month.
After canceling my flight, I was issued a refund voucher by Qatar Airways for the unutilized ticket value of ZAR 16,223.74. The instructions I received from Qatar Airways clearly stated that I needed to contact Travelstart to process the refund. However, this is where the problems began. Despite reaching out to Travelstart multiple times and following up consistently, I have received no assistance or resolution regarding the refund. It’s incredibly frustrating to be stuck in this endless loop with no end in sight.
To make matters worse, I’ve received no acknowledgment of the serious issues at hand. I’ve filed a formal complaint and provided all necessary documentation, including the refund voucher, but Travelstart has completely ignored my requests. It feels as though my money has simply vanished, with no clear explanation or apology from the company.
The complete lack of customer service is astounding. Travelstart’s team is unresponsive and unhelpful, leaving customers stranded with unresolved issues and no recourse. This is not only highly inconvenient but also feels like a breach of trust. As a customer, I expect a certain level of professionalism and promptness when dealing with financial matters, yet I’ve been met with nothing but silence and frustration.
This experience has been an absolute nightmare, and I will never be booking through Travelstart again. Their lack of transparency, failure to fulfill their obligations, and overall poor customer support have destroyed any trust I had in them. I would strongly advise anyone considering Travelstart to look elsewhere for their travel needs, as this company has proven to be unreliable and unprofessional.”
