STA Travel
Reviews and Complaints

After tons of emails and whatsapp messages I eventually got hold of Travelstart. I have to rebook a flight that was cancelled due to covid. I need a link to make a payment but there is no number to call nobody answers whattsapp or emails. The service is absolutely terrible no customer service at all. The given address for the agency is no longer in use and every telephone number is unavailable.

I payed for a trip in September 2019 the deposit and signed the contract and in January I payed a further r20 000 for our trip to Thailand. On the 16th of march I was promised that I will get the refund for cxl my trip due to the covid 19 pandemic. After I informed them about the cancellation they said that the terms and conditions now have changed and that I will only get a travel voucher valid for 18 months. I said no I want a refund and ever since then I did not hear a word from sta. I just want my money back as we had a contract and they broke it.

Booking Number 2912591 with Sta Travel Chermside 07 [protected] phone number Contact Manager Phoebe
We paid and booked for 3 Airline Tickets in July, from Cairns to Auckland leaving 261217 PR218, we were advised in September Phillipine Airlines had pulled the flights out of Cairns.We had the option to fly via Sydney to Auckland with Qantas who took over the booking, however only 2 Tickets have been issued my ticket ie [removed] and [removed] to date.My daughter's still has not been issued her Name is [removed] . Her ticket was on a Triple 000 ticket booked through STA TRAVEL through another agency so I have been told today by the name of AVIA International Germany contact phone number is +498955253373through a Rep who is overseas it appears. Her booking Reference is [removed] . I have been phoning Sta Travel every week as to why her ticket is not issued as the Qantas flight we are now on is getting heavily booked. She is to travel with us on QF0925 Cns to Sydney 26/12/17 departing at 10.55
QF0149 Sydney-Auckland departing at 17.55pm
I just keep getting excuses that it is Philippine Airlines fault, I have phoned them several times and they have advised me it Sta Travels(Booking Agent) that has to issue, I paid my monies to Sta Travel Chermside who say their hands are tied and have tried to follow up so I have been advised., However I need tickets as we are leaving in 8 weeks and 8 weeks have passed and still no outcome, just keep blaming. I have phoned Qantas again and they say they can see a seat is on hold but not ticketed.I just want this matter resolved. I live some 28 hours away and have been in constant phone contact every week and still no progress

I booked a flight with this scam company, and when I turned up at the airport a day later, I was told by the airline that the ticket was fake. I contacted STA Travel and I was told I needed to send a copy of my bank account and passport, if I wanted the ticket. I couldn't believe their demands - I was at the checking desk! When I got very angry, their customer service representative actually laughed at me.

I ended up making the journey back to the hostel I was staying in (over an hour drive away). When I called a day later - shocked that this company not only cancelled by ticket but also took my money - demanding they refund my money, I was told the same. 'Send us a copy of your bank card and passport.'

I have since contacted their head office in the UK, and of course, was ignored. I contacted them through ABTA, who were not very helpful. I have received a message saying my bank would have to reclaim the money, if I didn't want to send them a copy of bank card and passport. I have since contacted the police who advised me not send my information. The police also recorded it as a fraud.

I am still waiting to have my money refunded - it's been 5 months. My bank cannot reclaim from their end due to the time it's taken - even though I contacted them about the matter over 2 months ago after I received my crime reference number from the police.

I am now going through the police route to try to get my money back.

I would advise youto AVOID this sham of a company. I really don't know how they can try to pull something like this. It's a scam and not a business. You just wouldn't buy a dress from a retailer, have the retailer take the dress back and refuse to give you your money back, but at STA Travel that's exactly what they do!

Avoid, avoid, avoid! Unless you want to turn up at an airport in the middle of the night and be told your ticket is fake, and spend the next 5 months chasing your money!

I was misled by STA and it cost me $400! Apparently they are only required to tell you what cities you can pass through in Asia on your way to Europe. I was very clear that I was interested ONLY in stopping for a single night of sleep in ANY Asian country en route to Europe. I was looking for a location with the cheapest accommodation and a schedule that would let me land, got to a hotel and sleep, get up and leave the following day. I was told Singapore was my "best bet" and believing her, I took it. The flight landed at 6AM and left again the following day at around 11:30PM. Singapore accommodation is expensive even for a 12 person dorm and I would have to wait around after a 12 hour flight to heck in and then wait all day and night to fly our again. I eventually decided I had to change and insisted that she double check that there was nothing better. There was! A airport hotel in Bangkok cost $25 for a lovely single room with airport shuttle service and a flight was available that got me in around dinner time and out around lunch time the next day. The Singapore flight that she assured me was my best bet was possibly the worst. Yet I had to pay $388 to change my booking simply because I trusted her. I will NEVERuse them again.

I was furious with STA Travel for a number of reasons. I booked a trip to Central America with STA to visit 7 countries over 3 weeks which was very ambitious but they assured me it would be fine. I was booked onto a tour for my first 2 weeks after which I had 7 days to travel 4 more countries alone using a Bamba Pass they sold me which states it requires a minimum of 7 days. This is absolutely ridiculous. I told me tour guide my plans when I got there and he amongst many others said it really is not possible. The only possibility of getting through these countries was to spend the entire time on a bus and therefore not seeing the country at all! My shortest travel day was 12.5 hours and longest 16. I was on a bus the entire time. STA travel shed no sympathy on my situation when I contacted them and offered no help.

Prior to this they also booked me an airport transfer to collect me in Mexico which never turned up. This was all done through another agent as mine seemed to disappear as soon as I'd paid all the money. They also gave me a cash card to use aborad stating it works everywhere but I ended up using it perhaps twice as nowhere accepted it.

They forgot to inform me that I had no where booked to stay my first night and no airport transfer. I pay a travel agent to do all this for me and they sat back and let me realise it for myself very last minute.

I was appalled at their lack of empathy and shocked as I have used STA before and they dealt with everything. You have to be very careful when booking with one of their advisors as whilst some are extremely experienced and well travelled etc, some have no idea and are completely clueless... they just want to make a sale.

I had been working on booking an around the world package for several days with STA Travel. I had a strict deadline to abide by during this time. I called up the STA Boston office and spoke to a representative named Eric. I told him I was working on an around the world trip with another agent. I told him it was vital that I be called back before the end of the day as the shop was closed for the upcoming holiday season. He never provided the message to my representative. As a result, I had to start my search completely from scratch. This apathetic customer service was appalling especially considering the amount of money I was going to spend with the firm. Please proceed with caution if using this firm or this representative.

Myself and four friends have recently returned from a round the world trip booked through STA Travel in Portsmouth. During the trip, STA Travel had failed to correctly book a flight for the four of us from New Zealand to Fiji. We had to seek accommodation for a few days, as it was a weekend and STA Travel were closed in the UK. Eventually we spoke to them on the phone and they charged us £244 each to rebook our flights, and advised us to make a written complaint to claim this money back.

We did complain, and after a lengthy process, where they admitted to the ticketing error, we were offered only 50% of our expenses (£163).

I then complained to ABTA, who took almost a month to get back to me, and then their response was to tell me that I could pay for their arbitration services.

We are already over £400 out of pocket each, and considering that they admitted to the error, I'm pretty gutted by their response. I can't believe a company can get away with this sort of thing.

Hello,

The STA Travel Office at 52 Grosvenor Gardens in Victoria is misleading customers with their advertising. I was told by the customer service clerk that they had the "cheapest" deal on holidays. They also have many posters offering refunds for lower pricing. On this basis, I booked a holiday.

When I got home, out of curiousity, I searched and found a holiday with the same parameters I stipulated for £200 less.

STA Travel are saying that because it is for a different 3 star hotel, that they will not refund me the money. I said that I did not specifically ask for that hotel and that I was given false assurances. The manager told me that I should not have trusted anyone in the first place.

I think I deserve a full refund and an apology for having my time wasted. They have refused.

Having paid 1000's to travel to New Zealand with my partner all seemed ok, until the booking agent STA forgot to amend my flight home. I paid for and agreed that this would be done in April 2010 however we are now in December and my flight still hasn't been changed. Our current details state that we should be leaving New Zealand 27th December however we can not leave until April. STA are not responding to any of my emails or calls. They seem to think they can just palm me of with "its not my department, contact..." People pay allot of money to see the world and you pay a "professional" company to assist with this, putting your trust in them and they leave you stranded. If anyone knows of an email for a senior member within STA I would be very grateful for the contact details as i currently seem to be writing to a Customer Service team who ignore and offer the opposite.

I am a frequent traveler, and I used to always choose STA Travel whenever I booked a flight because I liked the student tickets they offered on their website. As I booked my last flight, I made a mistake and called STA Travel to change the flight. All I got was an arrogant response that STA Travel does not rebook flights, and that the airlines I booked with would say the same thing. All I could do was cancel the flight and book a new one (the fee was almost as high as the ticket itself). I immediately called the airline and heard the complete opposite. The airlines told me that they have no access to the ticket, and only STA Travel can change the flight by calling the airlines. I was shocked when the airlines told me that STA Travel was probably trying to get rid of me or just too lazy to rebook the flight. After several calls and written complaints, the customer service finally said that they could change the flight, but by then all the flights on the date I needed were gone. In the end I had no choice but to cancel the flight. It cost me just as much or even more that if I would have booked directly with the airlines. I chose that it is not worth the money and hassle to ever book with STA Travel again.

I booked flights to India totaling 855 pounds. STA without my consent changed the original main flight i had booked for 600 pounds (with Kingfisher Airlines), to a flight for 350 pounds(with Air India). STA told me that the change in Itinerary was a flight reschedule but this was false - STA changed the booking to a completely different Air Company; the change was made without my permission/consent and what is more for a worse Airline on what would be the cheapest flight deal if I had booked it myself. I had to chase managers/staff over the phone for a day during which time I was repeatedly lied to with reference to changes in my booking (i.e. told flights had been canceled/rescheduled when they had not been); I asked several times for a full refund so I could go elsewhere, but was ignored. Finally, when I got through to the branch Manager STA had already changed the Itinerary and put the booking through; which must amount to fraud, as these changes were without my consent and are also 250 pounds short of the original flight value (as they re-arranged the flights with a cheaper company). STA did not refund my money and I refused to accept the revised itinerary they tried to force me to accept, and I refuse to accept their lies. I have missed a wedding in India for a close friend because of this; and I have had no positive feedback with reference to return of my money/compensation. This has all been very distressing and awful.

I booked my ticket with sta travel in Canberra for Mexico to leave in January and return at the end of June. I paid 3060 dollars for the ticket; equivalent to 6 weeks of pay, working full-time. I arrived in Mexico without a problem, and it wasn't until my trip home that the problems began.
First of all I arrived at the airport 3 hours early to catch my flight from Mexico City to LA- 'i'm sorry miss we have no record of you booked on this flight'-
'no i booked this flight in September you must be mistaken'
'No we have no record of you on any of our systems.'
I arrived back at the house i was staying in and had to wait until 9 am Australian time to call sta travel.
'No your ticket here is different to the one we have'
Eventually the emplyee said because the mistake had been on the end of sta travel.
He told me he'd call me back but eventually i called 5 hours later.
He could get me a flight from mexico city to LAX. The ticket from LAX to Sydney was a little more dodgey and he gave me a confimation code with Tahiti airlines saying if i called them- they would know what i was talking about.

I got to LAX and was flying Tahiti airlines through Tahiti, New Zealand and Aukland-
I went to Tahiti Airlines where they said without the paper ticket from my travel agent they couldn't let me on board the aeroplane. Crying by this stage.
I went to Quantas where Ali an employee found the cheapest online rate for another ticket, let me use his mobile phone to call my parents and phoned Tahiti Airlines. We were unable to phone sta travel as it is not open on the weekend.
My dad bought another ticket for 1140 US dollars. And after being stranded at the airport for 13 hours i got home. The next day we compiled all the documents we had into a formal complaint we mailed to the branch of sta travel. A email was returned by the emplyee in question that it was not his fault,
then we added the email to the complaint which we sent to head office.
'We will get bac to you in 3 weeks time' Nothing, and its been five weeks. The behavior of sta travel has been disgraceful towards my family and I. I frequently travel to Mexico, but never would i book anything with them again. I would recommend no one ever makes the mistake of trusting them with any sort of travel arrangments, or duty whatsoever. They have no concern with customer service.

I was hoping to purchase an annual ITIC card. Due to some issue on the application policy, I proposed to the service personnel to mention to the company to review its policy. And the service provider arrogantly told me:
"We are a big company!"
"We are not interested in customer's feedback."
"We don't send back your documents if you are not buying the card. You have to come to our office to collect the documents. Unless you buy the card. Then we will post it to you."

STA is a big company I can't denial. But does that give the company rights to be rude and uninterested to improve? These days, BIG can collapse too!

BTW, the service provider is not a Singaporean. Good customer service is viewed as a serious matter in Singapore.