Travel Center UK
Reviews and Complaints

Problems. Ever since 1 booked.

1. Your email confirmed direct flight. Then I been told to pay extra for direct flight. Conversation if recorded can be heard. I specifically asked.

2. Hotel problems Orlando. When we reached there the lock of the Vila broken. Had to wait night time with 4 kids to get it sorted.

3. New York changed hotel from 4 star to 3 star. But I paid same price.

4. The hotel don’t give breakfast even tho I paid for it and I have been told it’s included. I do have DLL documents to prove.

This is really disappointing. If I want I can take the company to court for miss selling the whole package.

Booking ref was Edward I was making payment.

Originally given a 5 star review on Trustpilot as I kept getting pushed for a review and at the time we had just paid for the tickets so had no reason not to. Then it all started to go wrong. Basically what they do is take your money, give you a reservation reference number, which means nothing, then they try to find cheaper flights so they can make more money. My wife was flying alone with two kids to Australia so we were looking for the easiest flights, which we though we had booked. What we ended up with was not what we ordered and we were told it was Emirates that made the changes, after calling Emirates this was not true, as TravelcenterUK did not book the flights the price went up and we were told by TravelcentreUK and extra £800 was needed, which was ridiculous. So my wife ended up with a 10hr wait in Dubai, and an additional return flight via Singapore with no baby seat.

Sorry Agent Charles Anthony, but you failed and I regret giving you the 5* in the first place.

Truspilot will also remove any negative review of them.

I booked tickets however wasn’t asked if I wanted to book my seats. The customer service is very poor and the chat is the same as well I’ve only paid a deposit so I haven’t paid anything else however I don’t know what else to do. I thought choosing this service would help and I didn’t have the fund’s straight away but now seeing this I’m stuck. I thought doing this would help with the income that I’m on however seeing these reports I’m worried that I’m paying all this money and it’s going to be too late.

Janine Stevens-majeed
Mon, Nov 8, 5:54 PM (22 hours ago)
to complaints

Dear Complaints Department,

I am making a formal complaint about the incompetent staff that dealt with my flight plans to Australia. Confirmation number MCBNRW that should have been on the 1st November 2021. The primary agent was Rex Gunner. I have used the Travel Centre before and not had any problems. Due to all the different restrictions I choose to go through a travel agent rather than booking directly with an Airline so I would have up to date knowledge of any restrictions to travelling and assistance if required.

On point 16 of the travel information attached to the confirmation it reads "if you require any further details in respect of any travel arrangements or any other service please contact us. I have several instances where that did not happen. I was told they would help me and not to worry but this did not happen.

Point 20 ABTA Y6438 P7124 " we are obliged to maintain a high standard of service to you by ABTA Code of Conduct" I don't think this happened at all with being given a direct number that whenever I called it gave me an out of service message to non answering of emails. Because of this non-information, or wrong information I missed 2 flights that turned out I should never have been booked on. All I got was agents telling me not to worry that they would sort everything out. Well, I'm still waiting!

I first contacted the Travel Centre in September 2021 for a flight to Australia. I have a sister living in Brisbane and a brother living in Sydney. I was happy to go to either destination but I was not willing to pay £2500 to Quarantine. It was then announced that from the first November there would be no need to Quarantine.

October 17th I had asked why my friend was being quoted a much lower figure to fly to Sydney. I was told via email that he "can get a flight cheaper than those which are advertised online but those airlines wont operate" So again I felt like going through a Travel agent was the safer and more reliable way to go.

October 25th I emailed Rex Gunner asking for updates on flights to Australia. He phoned me to offer me a flight to Melbourne. I initially thought this was a flight into Melbourne but then carrying onto either Brisbane or Sydney. He said no it's just to Melbourne. I told him again that my sister is in Brisbane and my brother is in Sydney and my mother is in Christchurch and I am only interested in one of those 3 destinations because my whole purpose of travelling was to visit family that I have not seen for several years. He asked me several times if I had been double vaccinated and each time I told him I had the 3 vaccines because of my job.

October 28th I informed Rex I now had the COVID passport. I asked again where the information for the PCR test was as it still hadn't shown up. I also informed Rex that his direct phone line was not receiving calls. I kept getting a message saying that the phone was temporarily out of order. It stayed out of order for the rest of my dealings with him.

October 31st He asked me if I had a visa to travel to Australia. I said no because I was travelling on a New Zealand passport. I emailed him to say I had Googled travelling to Australia on a New Zealand passport and it said I would be fine but they may issue me with a special category visa on arrival. I asked him if this was right. He replied on 31st October ``Yes. Even I checked it should be fine now since the borders are also open and you have immediate family members in Sydney. This was 7.35pm. So as far as I am concerned I had taken all reasonable steps to ensure I was clear to fly with the added knowledge the travel agent has also confirmed it.

1st November I was stopped from flying because I had not filled out an Australian Travel Declaration - which I had not been told about. I have also reread the terms and conditions and still can't see where it is written that I would need to fill that out. I should also mention that I was travelling on a New Zealand passport but I also have a British passport. I was able to get the Australian Declaration done with the help of my brother in Sydney (Rex did not help at all with this even though I told him I was not able to do it on my phone. He said he would help but didn't) I was assessed and passed for meeting the criteria for not needing to Quarantine. Despite the Australian Government stopping this on the 1st November. I should have arrived on the 2nd of November. Dubai to Sydney flight EK 414. I was then charged a further £571 to change the ticket. For something that should have been null and void.

1st november email to Rex. I asked him "I have everything I need now, don't I?" That was at 1644 He replied at 1645 "Yes everything is done" and at 1828 "Please don't worry, I will get it sorted for you"

1st November I asked Rex, if I had everything I needed now. Immediately after receiving the E ticket. The ticket he had promised to send me at 4pm but arrived at 2245. No calls were ever returned in the time frame given by him either.

1st November Steve Smith sent me the voucher for the hotel 2 hours after I had checked into the hotel. I emailed him to say I have the E ticket, PCR certificate and declaration for Australia. Did I need anything else? No reply up to today. The email from Rex came after this

2nd november Trying to check in again and I was told I needed an exemption visa that Rex had told me the day before I didn't need. My visa was refused as I did not meet the requirements. I emailed him at 0713 and received a reply at 0931 and he told me to apply for a visa. Despite already being refused because I didn't have a spouse, de facto or child who was an Australian resident. From day 1 he knew I wanted to visit siblings. He should have told me that that was not enough to get into Australia instead of booking my flight, charging me £571 to change my flight and telling me to book into a hotel so I could fly the next day early. That was an extra £100 for the hotel and taxi fares. I sent several more emails about the exemption in the morning about siblings not being on the form for exemption. Then he stopped replying. He said he would call me when he got into the office and that was 7 days ago. I'm still waiting. Still no calls

2nd november Angus Stone re-sent the link for visa exemption after me saying that this was not the appropriate form as I had already filled this in and there was nowhere on the form to click for visiting a sibling. The first form was filled in by the person booking me in as I was having a panic attack and was not able to do it myself. I sent a second email asking if there was another way. He again re-sent the same link. Obviously not listening to what I had said. But did reassure me in a phone call that they would sort everything out and I would be fine to travel. Next flight booked was EK8 London to Dubai on 2nd November. Confirmation M99A5A.

In a phone call to Angus Stone he said they would go through all the emails and voice recordings to determine that I had done everything that was reasonably expected to prepare for my flights. I feel that the Travel Centre has let me down and either not listened to what I was telling them and also gave me incorrect information. I feel they should have known that I would not meet the travel requirements at this point but instead they were more interested in getting me to spend more money (£571 on changing a flight and another £100 on a hotel and taxi) They also knew what a vulnerable state I was in as I had several panic attacks at the airport because of the unnecessary stress they put me under despite knowing the full details for trying to travel to see my family. Now I have no idea where I stand concerning my flights and the money I have paid out. But I firmly believe that I should be reimbursed and that the Agents should have known the requirements and should have kept me informed. As this is their job. I would not have booked and paid for flights I would not be allowed to travel on if I had known. I did also try contacting the Australian Embassy but only received an automated response. The check in staff also told me that the Travel Agents should have informed me about what was required. They could not understand why they didn't as it wasn't a new requirement.

Yours sincerely

Janine Stevens-Majeed

This company fooled myself a disabled lady into what I thought was a good deal and without the proper options or advice from them during covid.

I was GARUANTEED a full refund if rules changed for trip to Iceland during covid
Needless to say after booking and paying large deposit on the trip a few weeks later the covid rules changed and there was no way at any time holiday could have been taken.

I did not panic as I was told at time of purchase if covid rules change I would get a full cash refund without hesitation.

Sadly this clearly was a lie and a sales pitch only as when it came to the crunch I was told i would be getting nothing if I did not change dates I explained due to disability and life situation I could not go a year later

To cut a long story short after constant calls and arguments about how his was a disgrace i was told could get half and to reply to an email requesting holiday be cancelled

This i did and voila no refund has been given when again questioned I was informed easy jet can take up to 9 months to refund which is a total fabrication as my best friend owns his own travel agents and verified it as being lies when looked into.

I called again to state this asking for full refund and why when was told 5 to 10 days had nothing.

I again was told various stories and fobbed off with ten percent voucher which did not arrive either.

Sadly I am still fighting this matter and have every intention of taking it further and I will not rest until I get my refund and not 9 months down the line

This company are scam artists and I beg you not to entertain them in any way you will regret it I can assure you

False sales
Using lies to pitch
Disgraceful customer service my list goes on...

I purchased 2 tickets on Virgin Atlantic with no dates I wanted but have been promised that I will get air miles on my BA frequenters flier account as they are cosharing and same group apparantjy .After I paid I asked agent to register my miles card he said he made mistake and no same group but will add miles which after I spoke to airline they say that doe st exist! I also had to change the date and was charged 440£ on top of my ticket as apparently they have different prices as airline ! They are way more expensive and unprofessional so please stay away unless you want to pay more than anywhere else !

Travel center uk also known as crystal travel are to be avoided at all costs. They are fraudulent and sell tickets at a fare which by far exceeds the airline fares. They justify this by saying things like they are upgrading you or you have an open ticket, fully refundable and changeable at no extra costs. This happened to me. I discovered I had economy seats not business class. When I tried to change the date of my return flight travel center could not get me back on the date I wanted and also told me I had to pay an extra £200 penalty to change the flight date which is not what I was told when I purchased the ticket. The ticket travel center uk sold me was about £120 more than what the airline charges - I only discovered this later from the airline itself. My advice would be to save yourself the hassle and upset and book your travel arrangements elsewhere. Do not use travel center uk or crystal travel unless you want to be conned