Travelstart Reviews 

Waiting for days to get alternative booking on flight that was cancelled. Zero feedback, no solution and I have to phone twice daily to try and get answers. I will never use their services again. I am stuck without a flight and still not feedback. Do not rely on them to assist!

I made a booking from your website to book a flight with Qatar airways from 23 December 2023. My flight will be scheduled on 1 February 2024. But until now I couldn't find my Qatar airways data. And Qatar airways also said they didn't find my data! Are you guys a fraud!? Please fix this mess. I called your number but unfortunately it's not registered! I tried to email you guys but no answer! I have reported the payment to paypal!

EDITED (2 January 2024)
After trying hard to contact them on holidays to no avail. I finally managed to contact this travel agency on January 2. I immediately contacted the head office in Sweden and thankfully someone picked up immediately. I told them the chronology and they gave me a new booking number which was totally different from what they had sent. And after I checked the booking number on the Qatar Airways website, I was able to find my data there and my husband. I don't understand why they gave me a different booking number. Obviously this doesn't make sense. In all my years of flying, this is the first time I've experienced something like this. But clearly for the future I will not book again from this one travel agency. For February 1 on the day of my flight, I will update further here how it will be later whether I managed to check in or what?

Latest update:
I managed to fly safely to my destination using the last booking ticket number provided.

Worst Agency Ever. Never Ever Book with Travelstart
I booked a flight through Travelstart from JHB to Boston. The booking had 2 stops before my arrival at Boston, one was in Paris and the other in Amsterdam(1hr layover time). The airline was AirFrance. When I arrived at the airport I was informed that there is a problem with my ticked and that I could not board the plane because I needed a Schengen visa for my 2nd stop and was not allowed to make 2 stops which form part of the Schengen sections without that visa. I had the correct VISA to USA and did not even have intentions of ever doing a Schengen visa(especially for a 1hr layover). This was never communicated, even during the booking, the screen did not show a message to indicate that I need to have an additional visa for the second layover, nothing. I contacted TravelStart while I was on the AirFrance desk, and they told me that it is not their responsibility to inform customers of VISA requirements when they booked a ticket. I previously called their call center when I initially made the booking to confirm if my booking was proper and nobody mentioned this to me. AirFrance informed me that I should try to cancel my flight in order for me to get a refund, but the ticked was basic economy so I couldn't get my refund. I had to book a one way which cost me a lot because of this blunder and travel much later than the time I had planned to undertake my trip. Now Travelstart got their money, I was out of pocket because of their blunder with their bad and non-informative booking system and the person who had to bear the financial brunt was me. Do not ever make bookings using travelstart unless you want terrible service and to lose money.

Bad service. Used to be good but no longer. Do not use this service to avoid disappointment

If I could give zero starts I would. These people are absolute charlatans and you should avoid booking flights through them. Just book your flight through the airline.

In 2022 I booked a flight with them and the flight ended up being cancelled by the airline. When you book through an agency it is their responsibility to book you onto another flight, they told me that there was nothing they could do for me and I had to nearly BEG the airline to put me on another flight. Travelstart doesn’t offer any real services so you may as well just book through the airline.

This year I booked a flexi ticket through them, in the past I’d made the mistake of booking trips that were shorter than intended so I thought this would help me extend my itinerary if I wanted. These criminal wizards proceeded to quote me R8000 for the new itinerary while the new flight itinerary in question was only R4000, although there should have been no charges!! When I contacted the airline they said they could only help me 48 hours before the flight and would only charge me 60$ for the date changes. When I informed travel start the sent me an email stating that if I chose a different date then it would come out cheaper!! How can you charge someone R8000 “airline changes” when the flight is half of that, and the ticket in question is a flexi ticket (suggests one free date change). These people are CROOKS and just like other travel agencies, their days are numbered. Don’t give these people your money! They are money hungry witches!

Booking error on their web page caused wrong dates booked. Not able to refund as "LLC" supposedly does not refund. Got quoted on date change and the price ended up more than what I would pay should I book the flight myself!!! Including the discount of the price I've paid for the original booking. What a joke. Steer clear of this lot. Stay away from supporting the local small boys. They rubbish asnd so are their customer service.

Ive spent an hour in the phone with my bank. Still no result. You say 3-7 working days my bank says 7-14 days. This is ridiculous !!!! You can charge the amount with in seconds from my account and I have to follow up with getting my funds back. Travelstart should wake up !!! I don’t have the time to spend hours on a call to claim back funds. When this is a problem with a virtual card for multiple clients, WHY don’t you state a line saying or advising clients ???? The history sounds like a normal problem to you or something that happens often.

As a private client with FNB i need to hold on to calls and get transferred multiple times just to receive no result what so ever. I always pick travelstart for the convenience of flying… but when a client needs assistance ASAP with a fault that is not from the client the service becomes poor.

I need an answer on why this is taking so long when you can take funds in second's and i have to wait two weeks ?? Also give a heads up to future virtual card clients that these duplicate charges happens VERY OFTEN as stated in you email to me. Just some friendly advice.

My flights were changed. I called Travelstart, as my flights were bought through them. They said it was not their issue. Then I called the airline (AirSerbia), which said the same. This went on and on for a while, until Travelstart was able to request a refund.
I still have not gotten a reply for my refund, Travelstart says they are waiting a response from the airline. I now tried to call them again, as I cannot use their new option of WhatsApp services, since they request a booking number of 10 digits and the TravelStart booking request I have is of 8 digits. I called them, however, the assistant had such a strong accent so I could not understand her and neither did she understand me. I do not know if it was intentional, but the call was cancelled at one point, which left me nowhere. Definitely not recommended!

Never ever book flight with Travelstart
this company is a joak.
They have canceled my flight December 2022 and they didn't refund me after almost one year. very bad service.

Hi,

I traveled to Thailand and for the majority of the trip I was sick. I am still currently sick and in hospital as I type this message, with Covid 19 and a bacterial infection on my chest. I am extremely ill and declared unfit to fly. I asked for our tickets to be moved by a week to allow me heal and be declared fit to fly. I am told to pay difference in fare, difference in airport taxes, airline change penalty fee as well as admin fee. I have huge medical bills and I can't afford another blow in cost. They would rather risk me flying in a poor health conditiom with the risk of infecting other passengers than rather helping.

I am so disappointed in the lack of empathy and understanding.

Gwen from travelstart was helpful on email to help me confirm my E-Ticket number on the Airlines website, appreciated the prompt responses

Never book with Travelstart. I have booked 3 flights this year with them to Europe. On the last one I chose economy with a 23kg luggage allowance for R10,800. They issued me an Economy Lite ticket priced R9,800 that allows no luggage. Call centre was useless and despite seeing my ticket said Economy not Economy Lite and seeing the price difference I was told I had to pay to bring luggage. Who travels to Europe without a suitcase? Never ever use these people. They will only ever say no to you, nobody will ever help

Booked a ticket through their website, paid and received a confirmation but without any files related to the actual booking like tickets and/or receipt. Email states that I should be able to arrange further details (like additional luggage and check-in) through the airlines website with the credentials sent by Travelstart but the airlines tell me these credentials are invalid. Tried to email Travelstart and raise a support ticket to resolve this but even their own website says my booking reference number is invalid. Tried to call them to get it fixed via a customer rep but you get put on hold and after 15 minutes the connection just gets cut. I'm out of 85 Euros (although I will initiate a chargeback) and still have no tickets while I have to take the flight soon.

EDIT: Contact was quickly established after publicizing this negative review, go figure. Explained the issue and they said they'd have their backend team look into it and to wait 48 hours. Backend team got back to me stating that the credentials they sent me to manage my booking didn't work (as was already established by myself, hence the service request) and to go figure it out with the airline directly because they wouldn't pursue any further actions to remedy the situation. First and last time Travelstart for me, I'd advice anyone to avoid Travelstart at all costs.

I booked the flight ticket a week ago, it was €1,5xx at final. When it switched to PayPal, i confirmed everything and clicked Pay button, some seconds later there was an error and I could still able to click pay again. This time it worked. And then my bank has popped up two notifications, one is €1,5xx another one is 1,7xx. I was shocked and immediately checked my bank account. It was pending and the next day i checked again, they deducted €1,7xx. Of course I wrote email to Travelstart. Am I so naive and wishing them to reply? Of course they never replied me. So don’t ever try to book anything from them.

Travelstart does not refund money for canceled flights.
I bought 3 tickets to Zanzibar last year. As the flights were cancelled, I demanded my money back, which I still don't have after a year.
Although Travelstart says it has to wait for the money from the airline, Qatar sent the money to Travelstart a long time ago. This company has been illegally withholding almost 3,000 euros for a year.
I have now filed a lawsuit and am waiting.
Please do not buy anything from this company!!

No. Just no. I received my e-ticket after making a booking on Travelstart. Day before flying I go on the Airline's website to check in. Booking doesn't exist. I contact airline, they say booking was cancelled as they did not receive payment from Travelstart. I contact Travelstart. Have to wait 20 minutes online while they "try to see what they can do". Reluctantly I let them hang up with the promise they will phone back (of course I will phone back in a few minutes if they don't). They phone back. Some dude who I can hardly hear, but boy can I hear every word of some youtube video he's watching in the background. He tells me I never selected baggage option. So why do I have a TICKET??? Ok he will se what he can do. He phones back. Ok he has a new booking for me and he emailed me the ticket. I have nothing. I ask him what email address he sent it to. It's wrong. He argues with me over WHAT MY EMAIL ADDRESS IS. Then he realises he made a mistake with my child's name on the ticket. He will fix it and phone me back. An hour later I just go onto the airline's site, fix it, and check in. He phones me to say he fixed it and emailed me the ticket. Yeah, I checked in already. Still waiting for the email.

i’m pissed off with your service

booking : ZA11083265 . i’m stuck in New York but i paid for my flight.

worse experience ever

i have been waiting for my refund of tickets for almost 2 years now. Travelstart says to contact airline and the airline says contact agent.

To avoid this company. I had planned my holidays with my boyfriend in March 2023, bought the tickets that same month for September 2023 and 20 days before the flight the company incompetently communicates to us via email that our flight has been cancelled with no solutions from their part. Their method to proceed is to basically hand off all potential contact or calls with different representatives in their company so your problem is not solved and you are cornered to request a refund. Avoid at all costs buying tickets with Travelstart you will waste your time as you are handed off to a customer service center that will not solve your problem.

DO NOT use this company. I booked a flight to Nigeria from Cape Town and the plane left early with NO schedule update. Travelstart said they’d refund me R400 from a flight that cost almost R7k !! It took them WEEKS to even respond to that refund query. They said they actioned the refund on July 25, today is August 16 and there is still NO refund from my account. Absolutely rude customer service. Very unreliable. It’s disgusting honestly.