Travelstart South Africa - Travel Agency Reviews 74

I would actually rate them -1 if I could. They held onto our refund from Emirates for eleven and a half weeks and only made payment after 4 phone calls the last one being very heated and threatening them with legal action. Me r got full amount and they made interest on our money while they held onto it. Then had to phone bank to get it cleared after two days. MY ADVICE NEVER USE TRAVELSTART.

Terrible experience Travelstart took their commission and then their website bombed and I did not get a ticket I now have spent more than an hour proving that they have taken my money. Do not use !!!

Zero Customer Service - Impossible refund system.
Denied right to fly as we did not get a British Visa for the 1 hr layover in London. (No information on UK.gov confirming that a visa is needed). Tried to rebook flight via different airline however funds where "locked in", so lost a lot of non refundable money on accommodation and car hire already paid for. Despite the situation no assistance given by TravelStart.
By January 2026 we decided that we would need to get a refund as travel was now out of the question as so much money had been lost. Asked for refund, quote was sent and accepted. 4th Feb 2026 followed up with call centre to be told the refund request needs to be done online. A link is sent to me and I fill in the refund request. Follow up again on 31st March 2026 as I was informed refund would take 6 to 12 weeks. Call centre said there was no record of my request online and therefore needed to start the proceedure again. Call centre agent completed the request on my behalf and confirmed it was submitted, advising I needed to wait a further 6 to 12 weeks for refund.
Phoned 19 May 2026 to be told there is no record of me accepting the refund quote, despite having done this process TWICE. I requested that the matter be escalated to management. Agent reassured me that they will respond via email as to when to expect refund. Within 20mins I receive an email stating my enquirer has been closed as my query has been resolved!!!!! NO IT HAS NOT.
What is the next step? The call center is being answered by people in India who are difficult to understand, unlike my previous interactions with locally based in South Africans.
Has the South African operation gone into liquidation? Is this just the normal run a round that all your clients get?
FOLLOW UP: After lots of backward and forwards I was contacted by Nawaahl, from Travel Start who has worked on fact checking and acting as a liaison between myself and management. We have come to an amicable compromise, thanks to her efforts. Despite this taking 5 months to resolve, I have increased my rating from 1 star to 3 starts, encouraging readers to be aware of the shortfalls of not dealing with a travel agent.

Appalling service,,failed to notify my husband his flight had been cancelled by SAA. He only realized when he tried to check in online. Now they are impossible to get hold of for a refund. How are people like this still in business?! I wish I had read reviews before I booked this flight for him and I would strongly recommend not using them for any bookings. Luckily we have small claims court and NCC as not refunding this money is theft!

Avoid like the plague. We paid online and did not receive the flight tickets or insurance policy we paid for. After many emails and a lot of panic, we got the flight bookings - but we never obtained the travel insurance. Go elsewhere.

If I could give them a zero I would. Their service is so bad. Rather buy your tickets direct through an airline. With the recent cancellations due to the war I’ve heard stories from many about how they lost thousands because they only offered partial refunds where others who booked through the airlines got full refunds. This company is a scam.

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.

I had to rebook a flight urgently and Santosh assisted me exceptionally well. He was patient, explained everything extremely well and answered all of my questions before successfully changing my booking. Thanks Santosh.

Travelstart runs an excellent online booking system. But just don't make changes and get into the hands of their Customer Support whose incompetence is breathtakingly bad. After a long drawn out attempt to change the dates of our international flights I was charged +R6k and then rebooked ON THE ORIGINAL DATES THAT I WAS CHANGING FROM.
I must now drive all the way to their offices to try and get some sense out of them. Unbelievable.

I give Travelstart a 10/10 Excellent review. Syed Sarmad Ali helped me with making amendments on the airline in a short time and I really appreciated all the timeous assistance with this. Thank you very much Syed for an excellent service received today!!!!

Tried to get help with urgently changing a booking due to Family emergency...TERRIBLE, and USELESS...They LIE when they say they are an "African Travel Agency". They are not. They are just a front for a bad Indian Call Cntr, who move far too slowly & never call back. The SA based Office & SA Agents can't help at all. Just a useless postbox. Not worth any small saving in the ticket price. Definitely NEVER using Travelstart again!

They are scam. Don't try. No refunds

I’ve been using Travelstart since 2017.
I have no idea what has happened to their customer service but it’s appalling.
Turn around time for things I could get done at the drop of a hat are taking a day or more.
I got sent an email to confirm a quote at 09:09 by 10:30, on a Saturday, for a query I lodged on Thursday.
So guess who has to go through all of the headache of filling in another form and talking and trying to get through ANYONE in their unattended WhatsApp this ENTIRE weekend.

The people are nice enough but the admin and systems to book and change a flight are a nightmare, on top opf that they then screwed up a booking and did not pay the airline which resulted in huge admin for me the day or travel, only stars beacuse of their people -otherwise a one star

Look we had been trying to get flights back home since Saturday ( maybe it's out of working house but then the service was bad)...... The today the 22nd got to chat to Eugene who was very helpful and made sure he speeds up my request that was so helpful of him

I had a family emergency in south africa so I needed to amend my domestic flight there. It was impossible to get hold of an actual person, the Whattsapp is absolutely useless. Eventually I get an email saying there are no tickets available on the day I wanted. Needless I went onto Safair and booked a ticket for myself on the day I wanted ??? Service...I think no..avoid at all possible

Don’t book with Travelstart. My 80 year old grandmother was left stranded in Lisbon airport after a delayed airline made her miss her connecting flight. With no help from Travelstart, we had to rebook her a new ticket so she could get to her destination. It’s now been 10 days and still no follow up from Travelstart regarding her return flight which apparently is now not valid for her to use to return home. This happened on a Sunday and Travelstart employees told me their customer care line closes at 3pm but someone will get in touch with me in an hour. Then was told 72 hours. It’s now been 10 days. She would’ve still been sitting at that airport alone. As an eldery person that’s travelling alone and sitting in an aiport for hours and hours, this is disgraceful.

I booked an air ticket and insurance which I had to cancel with plenty of lead time. The cancelation fees were really high, and the travel insurance was not going to refund the insurance I had booked through Travelstart, which I would never use. The agents at Travelstart quickly ensured that my refund was actioned for the insurance and called to explain the fees which helped a lot.

Great service! Eugene helped me to confirm that my upcoming travel dates were successfully changed.