Travelstart Daylight Robbery

RAR said:
Long sob story and update in original post.Thanks for all the responses.Cheers
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Well done for the good spirited replies despite all jibes!

So it seems the very high date change charges were more as a result of Travelstart sneakily upgrading your ticket on the first date change to a different class?
Really diabolical for them to do that without making that clear to the customer, what a bunch of cnts!
 
airborne said:
Well done for the good spirited replies despite all jibes!

So it seems the very high date change charges were more as a result of Travelstart sneakily upgrading your ticket on the first date change to a different class?
Really diabolical for them to do that without making that clear to the customer, what a bunch of cnts!
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No, I don't think it's a sneaky upgrade. I'm assuming she booked the original tickets because they were the cheapest available. When she changed there weren't equivalent seats available on the new dates and the tickets had to be upgraded.
 
Speedster said:
No, I don't think it's a sneaky upgrade. I'm assuming she booked the original tickets because they were the cheapest available. When she changed there weren't equivalent seats available on the new dates and the tickets had to be upgraded.
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But they didn't make that clear to the op nor try to help by giving cheaper options on different dates.
I know what it’s like, dealing with a lazy agent and they just can't be bothered to put any effort in despite the enormous added cost to the customer.
 
for a schengen visa .. always type up my own itinerary without a paid air ticket .. that is quite sufficient.
 
SauRoNZA said:
Flying to Windhoek is like flying to Nelspruit...crazy expensive.

So R1900 sounds just about right.
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Google flights show the difference between direct and transit flights for CPT to WDH to be around only a quarter of that.
 
airborne said:
But they didn't make that clear to the op nor try to help by giving cheaper options on different dates.
I know what it’s like, dealing with a lazy agent and they just can't be bothered to put any effort in despite the enormous added cost to the customer.
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When you book, you specify the cabin class (Economy, Premium Economy, Business or First) that you want. Most airlines have one ticket class for First, Business and Premium Economy, but multiple ticket classes for Economy.

A change in ticket class is not necessarily considered an upgrade, you'll likely get the cheapest ticket class within the cabin class that you selected. There are usually a certain number of tickets per ticket class, which is why flights tend to get more expensive closer to their dates (the cheaper ticket classes would have been sold out).

I don't see anything here that Travelstart did wrong and it's likely that OP would have faced similar charges regardless of whom they purchased the tickets from.
 
sjm said:
When you book, you specify the cabin class (Economy, Premium Economy, Business or First) that you want. Most airlines have one ticket class for First, Business and Premium Economy, but multiple ticket classes for Economy.

A change in ticket class is not necessarily considered an upgrade, you'll likely get the cheapest ticket class within the cabin class that you selected. There are usually a certain number of tickets per ticket class, which is why flights tend to get more expensive closer to their dates (the cheaper ticket classes would have been sold out).

I don't see anything here that Travelstart did wrong and it's likely that OP would have faced similar charges regardless of whom they purchased the tickets from.
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Yup it's kek but don't see any fault on their part.

As someone who has canceled and changed dates before this is all par for the course... Travel agent or not.
 
Zellephant said:
This generally doesnt work anymore. A few years back you could make changes direct with the airline if you booked with a third party, but not anymore (at least not in my experience the last 3 years with Emirates, Qatar, Kenyan Airways, Swissair and British Airways).

You can make seat changes but that is about it, anything else they refer you back to the travel agent you booked through, and Travelstart is just an online travel agent.

There is really very little reason to book with Travelstart though. They have by far the worst customer service of any company in the travel industry. They are virtually impossible to get hold of in an emergency, and they are seldom if ever significantly cheaper than booking direct with the airlines themselves. The only time they are a little bit convienient is if you want to structure an itinerary with flights from multiple airlines. But after the trouble I had with travel start during the COVID lockdowns, I won’t even use them for that. I will just book individual flights directly with the airlines.

Travelstart used to be a good place to check all the various options for a specific route, but Google Flights is better than them for that, and gives you multiple options of where to book the tickets for the best possible price. But unless the saving is massive, it’s still better to just book direct with the airline.
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I must admit, I last did this with Qatar prior to 2020 without issues, booked via the now defunct STA, but selected seats and changed tickets directly with Qatar without an issue.

Now that I think of it, a colleague was flying on Qatar, think it was 2021 or so, and had to change their ticket. Qatar referred them back to the travel agent, so yeah, YMMV.
 
Bill Clitnon said:
Google flights show the difference between direct and transit flights for CPT to WDH to be around only a quarter of that.
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When you go direct it’s about 6k-7k on average and that obviously varies depending on when.

So if you look a bit deeper you can easily spot a price variable of R1900 is quite possible between different airlines and options.

But it really all depends on any given date and time. I’ve saved a R1000 a pop with flights from Cape Town to Jo’burg going with SAA which includes food and full luggage options over the supposedly “cheaper” airlines that you need to pay for extra luggage still and get your own food.
 
SauRoNZA said:
When you go direct it’s about 6k-7k on average and that obviously varies depending on when.

So if you look a bit deeper you can easily spot a price variable of R1900 is quite possible between different airlines and options.

But it really all depends on any given date and time. I’ve saved a R1000 a pop with flights from Cape Town to Jo’burg going with SAA which includes food and full luggage options over the supposedly “cheaper” airlines that you need to pay for extra luggage still and get your own food.
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SAA (and Mango R.I.P) however is subsidised compared to private airlines. Tax payers helped pay for you ticket. Just 38 Billion, officially anyways. Mind you, not sure if it includes the previous 50 billion.
 
RedViking said:
SAA (and Mango R.I.P) however is subsidised compared to private airlines. Tax payers helped pay for you ticket. Just 38 Billion, officially anyways. Mind you, not sure if it includes the previous 50 billion.
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I mean if you look at it that way…all the more reason to use them instead and get something back for your money.
 
SauRoNZA said:
I mean if you look at it that way…all the more reason to use them instead and get something back for your money.
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Unfortunately not, that is just towards the debt. The corruption and incompetence has not stopped. Tax payers will continue to pay towards the debt for the next 1000 years.
 
RedViking said:
Unfortunately not, that is just towards the debt. The corruption and incompetence has not stopped. Tax payers will continue to pay towards the debt for the next 1000 years.
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Either way my point was rather that shopping around especially on a cross border flight getting a R1900 price difference from different sources isn’t extreme at all.
 
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