Travelstart South Africa - Travel Agency Reviews 47

Yusrahs service was amazing

Date of experience: April 03, 2025

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.

Date of experience: March 31, 2025

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.

Date of experience: March 15, 2025

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

Date of experience: January 24, 2025

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

Date of experience: January 02, 2025

Worlds worst companyyy. Never use

Date of experience: December 01, 2024

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.

Date of experience: November 01, 2024

Shireen's my go to person in the travel industry! I requested some assistance on the 2nd September 2024 with an online booking. Shireen guided me through the process and subsequently sorted my booking concerns!

Date of experience: September 02, 2024

Do not book flights with Travelstart. Please save yourself trouble and money.
They informed us our tickets were issued and sent us a confirmation email. We booked a hotel.
We saw an email at 3Am that they sent email at midnight telling us they failed to issue our ticket.
The hotel said "no show" and refused to refund us nor give us credit.
A birthday vacation missed and lots of money lost.

Date of experience: August 19, 2024

Shivansh at travelstart answered my call. He helped me to change our flight date, and stayed on the phone until I paid and received our new ticket.
Shivansh was never impatient and really help me. Thank you Shivansh you made my day.
Kind Regards.
Elizabeth Rossouw

Date of experience: July 18, 2024

I seem to always find a deal here that suits my needs. Would be great if they can include their "admin" fee upfront in the flight prices and not at the end.

Date of experience: December 06, 2023

This is not directly the fault of Travelstart. However.... I booked a car at Europcar, Heathrow, London through Travelstart. Nett upshot - I got ripped off to the tune of GBP 1000. Interested persons should read Europcar Heathrow reviews in Google, Tripadvisor and Facebook. This is a common problem.
Travelstart must do something about it.

Later. The awful Travelstart Customer Care has not replied to my letters on the subject.
8th August I wish to get an email address to which I can direct my complaints. Travelstart's incredibly useless Customer Care is unable to give me one. I will visit Travelstart at the end of the month when I am back in Cape Town.

Date of experience: June 28, 2024

After initially experiencing great difficulties in getting a response from Travelstart, I was finally connected to a gentleman called Allan. What a wonderful staff member you have. He was courteous; took time listening to my issue; and sorted out the problem effortlessly. Thank you SO much Allan.

Date of experience: June 06, 2024

I’ve paid for my flight booking immediately via Nedbank EFT today and you have still not sent me an e-ticket. Now you are sending me constant payment reminders. Send me my e-ticket. I emailed proof of payment to your bankpayments email address. Your urgent attention to my matter is required. Thanks in advance.

Date of experience: June 01, 2024

My daughter asked us to travel through from Jeffrey's Bay to look after our 4mth & 2yr old granddaughters due to business commitments. Unfortunately we'd got the dates wrong.
On learning the correct dates, we attempted to have the appropriate corrections made yesterday.
This morning we received a reply that the changes would cost us R2870 per person Over and Above what was already paid.
Our original total cost for both of us. ~~~ R3340
Additional cost for both of us ~~~
R5740
Both costs added together ~~~
R9080 = R4540 per person Return
If we simply decided to forfeit the original cost and re-booked directly with the airline, our payments would be R3780 for both return.
A total amount of R7120
A savings of R1960
I haven't even approached our change in long term parking fees.
Is there someone that can give me a plausible valid explanation for the huge disparate cost anomaly?
Thanking you
John Haigh
Add

Date of experience: April 13, 2024

My wife has recently been diagnosed with a terminal cancer and I am unable to leave her as I am the primary carer.
I immediately cancelled my return flight to London.
This showed up immediately on my booking app as cancelled and as requested I sent through medical evidence to motivate the refund.
Since then I have had no acknowledgement of receipt or agreement to refund.
I have called several times and spoken to someone but got no assistance.
I have never had such bad service before and to make thigs worse my daughter who was accompanying me who had booked directly with the airline BA, cancelled her flight and received a refund within one week.
Terrible.

Date of experience: March 08, 2024

Worst customer serviced I’ve ever had. The travel start website said my payment was declined and then issued the ticket 2 hours later after other tickets were bought. Customer service refused to refund my ticket and said I must cancel with the airline, even though it was their error.

Date of experience: March 22, 2024

3 Days ago I wrote a bad review. I literally spoke to about 10 people and explain my query to them. Every time they told me they will call me back, but that did not happened. Today 14/03/2024 Allan Richard from Travel start had call me back. I Have explain everything to him and he was so helpful with all my queries. If it wasn't for him I would have still struggle to sort out my tickets.
With in 4 Hours he has sorted me out and I got my new tickets. Thank you Allan for all you help and you friendliness. Much appreciated. Five stars to him.

Date of experience: March 14, 2024

THE WORST COMPANY TO EVER DEAL WITH..... I will never recommend this company to anyone. Please don't waste your money, time and energy on these scammers. They charge you a fee for flexible date change but it goes into the company's pocket and not to the airline because you will still have to pay exorbitant fees. This company engages in daylight robbery!!!!!!

Date of experience: February 20, 2024

Thank you Khaya for the excellent service !! Much appreciated

Date of experience: January 31, 2024