Travelstart.de Reviews 15,470

My flight was cancelled by TAP because of COVID in spring 2020. After fighting travelstart for 4 years I received only 30% of the money saying because they don't return the cost of baggage. I had no baggage. They are playing games and hope people give up.

The customer service is not bad, it is simply extorsion and scam. You are asked for every contact to customer service to pay upfront 40 Euro, but you get no ticket for the case, no follow-up, no results. So what to do? Contact them again... but you know what happens right? yes, the MFs ask you for 40 Euro again to see what is going on, and so on and so forth. This is no company, this is Organized Crime, a mafia dedicated to scam European and world citizens. The European Union/Interpol has to stop them now.

This company has the worst customer service I have ever dealt with. Over 2 years ago they changed my flight to an unconvenient time, so I cancelled the booking. I have been chasing them for a refund they agreed for over 2 years now but all they keep stating is their concern department is investigating. Avoid this company at all costs, doesn't deserve even 1 star!

The one star i gave is because I have to click on a star to give my review,worst agent ever,they cancel flights and you keep on calling and calling,its an african agent very unprofessional,the way they handle issues is very unprofessional,lies after lies,don't book from them if you don't want stress

A refund that was delayed repeatedly with conflicting responses. We booked a flight through them about 4 months ago, and the flight was canceled 5 days before departure. We had no one to talk to and were forced to purchase a much more expensive ticket.

Regarding the refund we were entitled to, we received evasive responses, and they kept delaying us again and again. I believe the company is based in Africa and is not subject to the European Union’s refund policies. When I asked the company for their refund policy, they avoided providing it as well.

Only after I started gathering their statements to pursue legal action with a lawyer, the refund suddenly arrived the next day. I have screenshots and full documentation of everything, and I am still considering how to proceed with this.

This is simply a company that does not respect its customers and plays games with your time and money. I will never use their services again.

Booked flexible flying and when we tried to use it and change our flight date one day earlier they wanted to charge us €1541.65 / R30000 per person as penalty for wanting an earlier date.
Also they give you very short layover times that leaves no room for error if your flight is delayed which happened. Our incoming flight was more than 30 mins delayed and they ended up canceling our return flights bc we didn't make the flight on time
Wanted to charge us for everything again!

Never use this website or app. My flight was cancelled and 4 months have passed but still I did not get my money.
BIG THIEVES - STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY.

Horrible service, wasted money, lost my ticket because the air company canceled and they couldn't do anything about it, I asked for a refund and in the end they converted it to wizzair credits that would need to be used within a year as if I would ever use wizzair and travelstart again, thankfully it was not so much but I feel ripped off, absolute scammers under a legal entity, unfortunately I don't think money I'd be spending on a lawyer would be less than the money they would be compensating and that's what they're betting on

SCAM ALERT!

The customer service over chat is just an insult: it's a kafkaesque nightmare. They constantly change from one person to the next one during the conversation. Then, they always end up saying, that they lost the chata data. After several trials, I realized that it's a bot, since the messages are exactly the same each time, so no real agents, which is a fraud. Who are they trying to fool with that cheap technique?

They changed randomly one flight before a connecting flight to a much earlier one (and of course, cheaper one), resulting in a unbearable increased stop time, whilst the original flight does still exist and is still purchasable.

They falsely accuse the airline company as the responsible for the change. Then, they said that I accepted that change, which is absolutely untrue.
To get my original flight back seems to be completely impossible, as the customer service is conceived to drive you crazy.

I cancelled my flight and wanted to redeem the voucher that my airline had issued. It was impossible. Incapaple Customer Service giving wrong information, basically lying to me. lost 500€ this way. they suck!

In the chat and on the phone they delay the conversation to another department. Which makes you wait forever - not recommended!

I needed an invoice of my flight and travelstart support was very helpful and the website provides this at a fingertip - from my past experience this is not something I take for granted.

They are scam. I bought a ticket with full refund option, but when I had to cancel due to visa issues, they only gave me 20%. I lost 1000euro due to their dishonesty.

good prices but a really bad and unbelievably incompetent service via chat. reimbursement of fees and taxes of my no-show flight was wrongly advised. despite the fact that the airline must legally reimburse taxes and fees in this case if you can present a certificate, the colleague only said:
No refund, which means there is no refund amount in case of cancelation. If you cancel, the ticket is gone, there is nothing left in your account.
madness. never again!

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Worst company ever... I do not recommend anyone to book through them because you will lose all your money and you will not get anything in return. I booked a ticket 3 months ago and after the airline changed the flight date many times. All Travelstart did was cancel my booking... and now I have paid 2000 euros to buy a new ticket for my wife and daughter even though I was booking a flexible ticket with Travelstart and I paid a large amount for the flexibility

SCAM
I had a round trip booked, the first leg was canceled. Called customer service and waited 15 mins, The employee had obviously NO IDEA WHAT SHE WAS DOING. then said that they will refund me but also cancel my return ticket also, because apparently everything is in one ticket. now I have to pay 2-3 times more for the return ticket, because of this. and I'm not even sure If I'll ever see the refund.

No refund of 900 Euros after flight is cancelled
My flight got cancelled and I have requested a refund. However, it took 4 years till now that I have not got any refund back after getting all the fluffy general reply from the customer service that they are working on progress. It apparently shows that they do not want to give my 900 Euros back.
It's the worst travel booking company ever. If you intend to save some money with cheaper flights, eventually you will lose even more!

Never use these guys they take money the. Don’t hear from them when there is issues. Cannot check in with their references and no one helps

Yes they offer discounted tickets and it will be smooth if without any necessary changes between time of booking and flight itself. Otherwise, avoid this travel agency as their after-sales service is terribly incompetent just as I experienced.

We needed to change surname of my wife due to updated passport. And I requested about 2 weeks before our flight. They initially charged me 65€ for airline fee and service fee, I said it's okay and readily paid. After some time no feedback. Then all of a sudden they charged me another 188€ for "rebooking" difference, that they said is relayed to them by the airline (in my case Lufthansa). I asked wth? I asked to cancel the flight altogether but the customer service declined. So I still the amount just so the flight proceeds. But it felt like we were stuck with a bad partner and could not do anything.
Past forward 3 days before the flight, no feedback yet. So I called them. They gave a general statement "we will email you once we get feedback from the airline". 2 days before the flight and still no feedback. I called again asking them to notify me if it is possible to change name through them. A feedback yes or no is what I needed. Nothing came until 1 day before flight to my dismay. So I called Lufthansa to tell my situation and they readily helped. Change of name can only be made until 24 hours before the flight and good thing we called directly to Lufthansa in this emergency case. Just a good sigh relief!!
Long story short, expect no decent assistance from Travelstart after booking. If you can avoid them by paying a bit more, you will avoid worries and stress that come along difficult times.

Few days ago I have purchhased 6 flight tickets with extra money for flexible option service via travelstart.de. In the description of the flexible service it clearly says "no airline or travelstart fees will be charged, you will be responsible only for the price difference from your original ticket). By the way, it is apparently a scam, so don't go for it. Here is why: When I actually (only a couple days later) realized I need to change the flights to week later, first I waited for over an hour on online chat for someone to respond. Nothing. I receive an email in few hours that "you did not respond to our question and the conversation was terminated". A joke?!

So I try again next day, and this time I do get into conversation with someone on the online chat. Unfortunately, the person I tried to talk to had no clue about the "flexible tickets" or "rebooking". For original ticket price of 71 EUR per person she quoted me 230 EUR change fee per person!!! Regardless of what I repeatedly told that there should be no fees because I have purchased a flexible ticket. Finally she accepted that it was an error, and that I "only" need to pay the 230 EUR difference for all 6 tickets.

That is when it becomes interesting, as the original ticket price (both flights - to/from) was 71 EUR per person, and the ticket price for the next week flights (the same flihts, only a week later) was 81 EUR per person (to/from). Simple math says, 6 x 10 eur is 60 eur change. But, this is not the case with travelstart.de. The online chat representative continued insisting that the rebooking cost is 230 EUR first per person, then when I again and again said that I have a flexible ticket option, it suddenly became "for all". When I asked why there is such a difference between 60 eur (ticket costs) and 230 EUR you charge, and requested a supervisor, the answer was - call the phone.

So I did. After several attempts to communicate with representatives (by the way, the numbers given by the chat representative are Nigerian numbers?! +234 201 280 0661 and +234 813 984 2222) who had awful connection (they are apparently working from home as there was a background noises of traffic, children etc), and could not find the booking number - asked for "email with photo of the ticket ?!?)

I finally managed to call a german number listed on the web site and after series of 10-15 minutes on the automated system, I got to talk to someone who finally quoted me total of 302 EUR price difference in between the tickets?!? And also when I asked where does this number come from - said that there are "over 800 EUR fees waived...". Again, when I asked what is the actual ticket price difference, she reffered me to ask myself on the "airline web site, but just that I know, there are 800 EUR fees then". Unbeliavable!

Unfortunately, I had no option to decline as I must travel on those days. So, at the end, I feel robbed by te travelstart.de for several things:

First scam is the flexible ticket service. I paid 60 eur extra for this option, and was prepared to pay additional ticket price difference of 60-80 EUR (in case the ticket prices changed in a few minutes time between my check and the actual call).

Second scam is the attempt to charge me "per person" versus "all together". This was avoided on my insisting.

Third scam is "airline charges" as the "airline" was all of a sudden started charging changes for first flight and for the second flight "separately"? While at the same time when I am on the phone with a representative, on my computer screen there are two windows from the travelstart.de web site, one with my original flights ticket price of 71 EUR per person, and second with changed dates that are listed as 81 EUR per person. The same tickets!

Please, this is an issue for better business bureau and/or consumer protection agency, as such business practices are criminal. I hope no one else will fall for the "cheap tickets" at travelstart.de as advertised because they come with too much additional costs, at the moment you try to contact the awful customer service and request them to honor what you actually paid for.