“Oh my goodness. In my 15 years as being legally classed as an adult and having to deal with companies, I genuinely have not had such a unpleasant experience as the 4 hours of my life that I lost wading through the endless incompetence of so-called travel company, TravelUP. Now I certainly don’t want to over dramatize this but I’m assuming the feeling that I had in the dark week of soul searching, wondering how the human race could of barfed up an entity as useless as TravelUp, must have been very similar to how people feel when laying on their deathbed, just waiting for the icy grip of the grim reaper to free them from their unbearable mortal existence. At least that’s what I felt like while being on the phone to TravelUp. Literally, if it was the choice between driving a formula 1 car to victory, getting out, then taking a penalty that won England the world cup in front of the 100 sexiest women of all time, but having to do all of that while on the phone to TRavelUp. Or, having my favourite childhood pet (Professor Rummage, the Guinea Pig, in my case) mangled by a threshing machine, but NOT having to ever be on the phone to TravelUP, I would say bring on the cute animal and dangerous farming equipment every time. All things considered, I probably wouldn’t recommend them.
So what did they do? I booked a flight through them for a big Christmas reunion. Turns out the flights didn’t exist. I.e the airline does not actually fly to that destination. Full Stop. They didn’t tell me about this until I rang them (If I hadn’t done this, I’d probably still be blissfully unaware that my flight didn’t exist and any hope of getting to my destination would rely on me turning up at the airport and flapping my arms vigorously on the runway until the police led me away for a bit of a talking to about the laws of physics and why it’s generally not acceptable to that at Heathrow airport. ).
Then all hell broke loose, they refused to sort the problem so in the end, I had to ring the airline directly and sort out the mess. TravelUP agents hung up on me when I asked tricky questions like “When am I going to get my Money back”. Overall, the whole experience cost me and extra £200 in last minute flights and a severe denting of my confidence of other human beings being generally well m
eaning individuals.
Congratulations TravelUP you have genuinely made me question my faith in Humanity. If you get a chance, please stop existing.”
“They never provided me with the confirmation code for my hotel. When I called my hotel they had no way of knowing if I had a room. I contacted TravelUps customer service 6 times on the issue (I am currently waiting on the phone for over an hour again) and every time I am told to wait while they contact their supplier and they will get back to me. They never do with anything helpful (once they replied with a job posting instead). I am two days out from my trip with no place to stay. I am 99% sure they are a scam.”
“I spent $1800 on a hotel resort, for travel up to send me a “voucher”. The hotel had no clue what this voucher was and told me to get a confirmation number. After many attempts with speaking to a man with terrible broken English, they ignored me and stole my $1800!!! They are a bunch of crooks and I hope they are investigated and shut down!!”
“Avoid using this company. We have been waiting since September 2020 for a refund on a cancelled ticket due to COVID. Despite promising no refund has emerged and they will not answer emails nor telephone. Will not be using this company ever again!! Exterior poor customer service”
“I booked my flights with TravelUp to Bangkok. Then covid-19 struck! The Thai governments visa amnesty runs out on 26th September and after some emails/messages Fleming sorted my return flight with no extra charges
Thank you!”
“If there was a 0 would use. Booked flights to Istanbul last year to fly out in April 20, due to Covid 19. BA cancelled the flight. So requested a refund. Paid £464.02 for flights and received £229.92
No explanation, why. I now understand they charge £75 per person admin fees, what for and 2% charge. Will now dispute .
Disgraceful company, will not be using them again or recommending them”
“Absolutely no response to emails letters and a dead phone line
No refund on flight booked April - total misinformation about their customer service. So many people doing so much good in response to the pandemic and then there is Ali Shah CEO of TravelUp...”
“Rubbish company not giving customers the assurance they require and especially changing their terms and conditions after purchase to take money off refunds
The CMA has announced full refunds but this company has chose to ignore this information”
“DO NOT RISK YOU MONEY with this swindling company as it will only bring you pain and hassle which they should not be rewarded for!
I booked a return trip to Geneva for early April through Travelup with British Airways that was cancelled by the Airline due to grounding their flights because of COVID 19.
I have tried to speak with Travelup, sent several e-mails that were ignored and then used their recommended enquiry form twice to no avail.
I reached out separately to BA who were very responsive and sympathetic and who informed me they have refunded my ticket but this had to go to Travelup.
Since then and a further enquiry form calling this out there is still no communication from them apart from the generic FAQ e-mail which appears to be trying to discourage applying for refund via my credit card who I also spoke with and was advised they can pursue the refund if I wish two weeks after the flights if Travelup still have not responded.
Screwing your customers during this crisis is not a long term sustainable business model especially when we know the airlines gave our money back to you!
Being a UK company based in Berkshire means you can't hide so don't be surprised once the lockdown is revoked when angry customers turn up to expose your lack of business ethics.
Do the right thing and pass on the refunds!”
“Not happy with this company. Having booked flights which are cancelled due to the current situation, Travel Up are refusing to fully refund the cost of the flights. In fact they are trying to reduce the amount refunded by £200 and saying that the refund will not be paid for 7-10 weeks. This is an absolute disgrace. I have used this company before and thought they were reputable. Clearly they are not interested in their customers, despite British Airways offering full refunds and vouchers on their website. Having not accepted their unreasonable request, they are now not responding to my emails. I would not recommend using them, plenty more companies out there who are doing the right thing.”
“This is disgusting. Phone lines shut down, from the reviews below my experience isn't unusual. I have sent multiple emails, filled out two online enquiries as requested, cannot call as phone lines are shut down (tried many times, some phone lines you need to pay 10p/min for!) Feel like I have been robbed. No acknowledgement of the 240 pounds of mine they have. My flight has come and gone and I've been trying for weeks to cancel or change. TravelUP has handled this terribly.”
“Absolutely agree with all comments and thought I was alone. They are disgusting and it hasn’t taken me long to form the view they are trying to deny a refund. However I intend to take this further. If anyone knows who is best to report the company to please advise in the meantime I will take action.
Definitely, this so run by a family and are not a legitimate company. If I am able to proceed successfully I will post who to report them to. They should be allow to trade going forward.”
“TRAVELUP ARE UNSCRUPULOUS – MY GRIEVANCE WITH THEM HAS BEEN REPORTED TO TRADING STANDARDS!
I hope that if you are reading this review that you are yet to give TravelUp your custom. However, if like me you neglected to read the numerous negative reviews please accept my commiserations.
While TravelUp probably make only minimal income from bookings, it seems that it is significantly more profitable for them to impose dubious fees on customers; albeit totally immoral.
Despite following TravelUp’s guidelines and notifying them of a wrongly spelt passenger name within their given time constraints they (without providing satisfactory justification) chose to cancel the arrangements at a significant cost to myself. Having contacted the airline directly, they were happy to amend the error (which they did) and said that if I contacted TravelUp that they would be able to reissue E-Tickets. TravelUp refused to reissue tickets.
Having scrutinised TravelUp’s terms and conditions I am confident that they acted unjustly. I notified TravelUp of how I felt that they had breached our agreement and offered them the opportunity to resolve the issue amicably. TravelUp made no attempt at any stage to offer a solution in order to retain my custom. TravelUp’s definitive response was (grammatical errors included) “I already advised you every thing at the time of cancel the Booking .”
If you have also experienced similar unscrupulous treatment from TravelUp then please consider notifying the Citizens Advice Bureau who can forward your complaint to Trading Standards. I did this and they provided me with a prompt and informative response, as well as confirmation that Trading Standards would be notified of my grievance against TravelUp thus, providing them with “vital intelligence on how a trader is conducting their business.”
I hope that those of you who have also suffered ill treatment and been subjected to unreasonable charges will also opt to notify Citizens Advice Bureau so that, collectively we can ensure that TravelUp are held accountable for their abhorrent treatment of customers and brought under the scrutiny of Trading Standards.
Notifying Citizens Advice Bureau is very straightforward and here is an overview of what to do:
If you think TravelUp has broken the law or acted unfairly, you might be able to report them to Trading Standards. Although National Trading Standards cannot help members of the public with specific complaints or advice about goods or services, you can contact Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) who will pass information about your complaint on to Trading Standards (apparently you can’t do this yourself). You can contact the CAB consumer helpline, use an online form or, write to the consumer help line. Make sure you mention that you want to report TravelUp to Trading Standards.
I opted to use the online form to ensure that my grievance was properly evidenced and undeniably legitimate, here’s the link:
https://ssl.datamotion.com/form.aspx?co=3438&frm=general&to=flare.fromforms
For details on the other options visit:
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/get-more-help/if-you-need-more-help-about-a-consumer-issue/”
“I booked a flight from Dubai to Heathrow, Heathrow to Edinburgh. When I got to Heathrow I was told that I needed to get Gatwick as my flight had actually been booked from there. Following my eventual landing in Edinburgh I contacted Travel Up who were outright rude and said "you booked the flight its your problem" and would not provide me with a refund. I had to ring back and forth with BA and Travel Up and it was actually BA who offered a small refund. Anyone thinking of using Travel Up stay clear, the reason they are cheap flights are because they book them incorrectly and don't help you when things o wrong!”
“Unfortunately had to cancel a flight due to serious illness. Knew the ticket was non-refundable but needed cancellation confirmation for insurance claim. Service from Admin abominable and still waiting for cancellation requested 16th Feb. Would never use them again and cannot recommend them despite reasonable prices and having booked a flight in the past with no problems.”
“Booked tickets for son & daughter to fly to Sioux Falls from Manchester involving a lay over of 5 hours at Chicago going over and 90 mins coming back. When I checked the e-mail receipt I was horrified to see the lay over was 19 HOURS going out and 6 coming back. I emailed with details of the problem and next morning got an email from their sales dept asking if I had bought for the flights I had 'browsed' the night before (including the layover times I wanted). I tried to explain my problems but when the sales person heard I had bought tickets he was very abrupt and put phone down. I got and email later from the 'admin dept' and spoke to someone who insisted I had bought the ticket with the long layover times but said he could change the tickets for ....£450! He also said it was my fault because I had booked online instead of talking to someone over the phone, oh, and there were plenty of hotels near Chicago airport so that wasn't a problem ??? PLEASE do not use this company as there is obviously some scam whereby they think they can hold you hostage in order to extract more money from you. I just hope ABTA can help me out but in the meantime DO NOT TOUCH THEM WITH A BARGEPOLE.”
“Very dissapointed with their service .Never experienced such hopeless service from any other travel agents. Bought 2 tickets to Atlanta on line on the 4th Jan all paid for by card. Got a booking confirmation within a few minutes with the itenary with E Tickets to follow.Travel date was the 8th Jan. Waited till the 7th and no E Tickets yet . Rang them up and the agent I spoke to said he will call back in 15 mins. Waited for 30 mins and no call so I called back and was told to wait for another 30 mins as they had to sort this out. Again no call so I rang back and was told the matter had been passed on to another agent. This went on for quite some time and I was getting frustrated as we were flying out the next morning.Eventually I spoke to another agent and was told that due to some problem with the system they were unable to issue the E Tickets and if we still wanted to go on that flight we would have to pay a considerable more money.I rand the airlines to find out if they were still holding my reservation and was told the travel agent cancelled them on the 5th Jan.I was fuming at this point and rang Travel Up again with this information and they were having none of it. We ended the conversation on a sour note and they refunded the money back into my account.At this point the fares to Atlanta sky rocketted due to last minute and we were unable to go thanks to Travel Up”
“AVOID THEM. VERY POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE
I booked a ticket through Travelup and received an email saying booking confirmation is done and I should receive the e-ticket within the next working day.
I did not receive the ticket for three days and I had to phone them more than 5 times to chase it up. After 5 days of booking I received a phone call from someone called Peter saying they cannot issue the ticket due to a technical problem and they are going to refund the money and I should get the refund within three working days. He further said he is going to send me a confirmation email about the refund.
After two days I had to phone him back to get the email confirmation. After six days I received the money in my account.
Because of this I had to book my ticket through the airline directly and it cost me £50 more. Apart from the financial lost I had to bare I was going through lot of stress and I had to spent my valuable time to call them.”
“I booked a flight and was having on line payment issues and i rang Travel up spoke to Taha Siddiqui who understood the issue and provide me with support to help resolve the issue.
Booking was successful and I got the confirmation”
