“Neil advised me of,and sent through a revised e-ticket confirmation as the airline had changed its schedule, and was very helpful in doing so.
Austin claimed it would cost over £5000 to make a change to a different flight, which was ridiculous as five new flights would only have cost £1020.........mmmmmmmm”
“I called to book a 2nd ticket for my wife on American airlines, [ I had already booked 1 ticket for myself in January for £445] the customer representative told me it was £743 while on the TripAdvisor website the flight came up as £514 !”
“On Saturday I tried to book return flights from Heathrow to New York. My first attempt ended with the flight no longer being available and directed me to select another flight. My second choice produced the same result. I went back through the selection process only to find that this time there was an error with the website! Frustrating, to say the least. Anyway, I decided to close the page and reload it and went back through the same selection process. This time I managed to get through to the payment section, input my card details and clicked on the Pay Now button only to be told that there was a problem with the booking and my card had not been charged. I had had enough by then so rang instead. The man on the phone took all my details and finally came up with a booking from Heathrow to JFK and back again but the cheapest he could offer was £499 compared to the web price of £442. I decided to go back and try my luck again on your website. Two attempts later I was still getting flights have changed messages so I decided to book from Gatwick instead. This went through! Finally! I paid and waited for the confirmation email only to notice that I had booked to fly out of Gatwick to JFK then return from JFK to Heathrow! I did not notice this when I confirmed this booking so I rang straight away in the hope that I could change it as obviously we wish to return to the same airport where we'll be parking our car! However, your policy states that cancelling or changing, even after just fifteen minutes from booking would result in a fee of £75 per person - £300 for 4 of us! I am keeping the booking and taking the shuttle bus from our return airport to Gatwick at a cost of £52 but I am not happy. As the website had messed up so many times I really don't see why I shouldn't be able to change my flights because I am not entirely convinced it was my mistake. I am usually very diligent about such things, especially as I was spending over £1700 and cannot think how I would have missed this! I have never experienced so many issues when trying to book such a simple thing as flights.If I had my time again then I certainly would not use Travel Up's website and book with British Airways direct. The whole thing has taken the shine off of booking our main family holiday and has left me feeling incredibly stressed. I would normally then vote with my wallet take my business elsewhere but to do so now would cost me dearly so I'm left with no choice.”
“I booked through Travelup a few times and little things have gone wrong (e.g. meal preference not going through to airline), but I kept booking due to price differences.
Due to my last experience I'll NEVER book through them again and STRONGLY advise others NOT to do so either. It cost an extra £165, and almost 2 hours on the phone to correct their mistakes.
Here's what happened for those interested.
Reason 1) The TECHNICAL ISSUES, which could've been forgiven:
- My partner booked a return for us
- The first card we used resulted in an 'error' page, with a link to 'try payment again'
- We had to complete ALL our details over again (although linked to the same flights) and tried again with the same card. The same thing happened
- We filled our details in for the third time with a different card (still on the same flights), which worked. We checked flight details and our own details every time we completed it again. However, when we checked our booking after payment, we found our flights were still on the same dates, but at different times
2) The HORRENDOUS customer service - what really ticked us off:
- CALL COST & TIME: I called Travelup to let them know what had happened and ask the flights to be corrected. I was put on hold a very long time, and with almost every question I asked I was put on hold again. This resulted in a 30-minute long phone call, on an extortionately expensive phoneline (0871 250 2510). In total, the day's calls cost over £15 and almost 2 hours on the phone (had to call back several times)
- LACK OF COOPERATION AND MANNERS: I was informed by the person, who spoke bad English, that we had to pay for THEIR technical glitch - a £75 admin fee to change the flights. It was this or paying £75 EACH to cancel the flights. I reluctantly agreed after trying to discuss other options, but being rudely interrupted or put on hold every time, until I agreed (this call took a whopping 30 min due to being put on hold).
- LACK OF STAFF KNOWLEDGE: I was told I could pay and change the flights over the phone. I was then told that no, I had to first send an email to Travelup confirming details of the flight corrections, so I did. I was then told that no, they would need to email ME with a payment link. They sent it to my partner's email, but he could not access his email as coincidentally had just left on another long-haul flight. When I asked them to send it to my email or accept payment over the phone, they refused (even though I was a named passenger). When I told them my partner could only check it later, they told me that if we did not make the payment before 23:30 UK time we would need to pay extra charges. Fortunately my partner was landing before that time so I let him know to make the payment
- INCONSISTENCY BETWEEN STAFF: When my partner checked his email, he noticed the 'new flights' they had booked and were charging us for were in fact the same (i.e. wrong) ones we were already on!!! Thankfully he noticed this before paying to 'change' the flights, and he called Travelup to tell them they had AGAIN booked us on the wrong flights. He was then told that they were too busy at that time and would call him back 'soon'. They didn't call back within two hours, when my partner had to go into a meeting, so he asked me to call. I called again, and the person I spoke to this time told me they were now charging us £75 EACH to change the flights!! I again agreed, and at least this person agreed to send the email to me rather than my partner this time around (inconsistent procedure).
- NOT FOLLOWING UP ON PROMISES: The person promised the confirmation email would be sent within one hour. It never arrived, so I had to call (again) to ask the email to be resent. I now finally have it, almost 12 hours after booking the original flights.
Travelup's unacceptable mistakes cost me £150+£15 calling costs, almost two hours on the phone, and a lot of stress. Probably don't have my vegetarian meal as usual either. Never again.”
“Flights changed, which is not their fault, but they refused to speak on phone, would only correspond by email, promised call backs which never happened, just made the whole process difficult and stressful”
“Rearranged flights following schedule change by airline, which meant a different connection was needed. Help fulfil clarification of change when phoned to query.”
“TRAVELUP ARE UNSCRUPULOUS – MY GRIEVANCE WITH THEM HAS BEEN REPORTED TO TRADING STANDARDS!
I hope that if you are reading this review that you are yet to give TravelUp your custom. However, if like me you neglected to read the numerous negative reviews please accept my commiserations.
While TravelUp probably make only minimal income from bookings, it seems that it is significantly more profitable for them to impose dubious fees on customers; albeit totally immoral.
Despite following TravelUp’s guidelines and notifying them of a wrongly spelt passenger name within their given time constraints they (without providing satisfactory justification) chose to cancel the arrangements at a significant cost to myself. Having contacted the airline directly, they were happy to amend the error (which they did) and said that if I contacted TravelUp that they would be able to reissue E-Tickets. TravelUp refused to reissue tickets.
Having scrutinised TravelUp’s terms and conditions I am confident that they acted unjustly. I notified TravelUp of how I felt that they had breached our agreement and offered them the opportunity to resolve the issue amicably. TravelUp made no attempt at any stage to offer a solution in order to retain my custom. TravelUp’s definitive response was (grammatical errors included) “I already advised you every thing at the time of cancel the Booking .”
If you have also experienced similar unscrupulous treatment from TravelUp then please consider notifying the Citizens Advice Bureau who can forward your complaint to Trading Standards. I did this and they provided me with a prompt and informative response, as well as confirmation that Trading Standards would be notified of my grievance against TravelUp thus, providing them with “vital intelligence on how a trader is conducting their business.”
I hope that those of you who have also suffered ill treatment and been subjected to unreasonable charges will also opt to notify Citizens Advice Bureau so that, collectively we can ensure that TravelUp are held accountable for their abhorrent treatment of customers and brought under the scrutiny of Trading Standards.
Notifying Citizens Advice Bureau is very straightforward and here is an overview of what to do:
If you think TravelUp has broken the law or acted unfairly, you might be able to report them to Trading Standards. Although National Trading Standards cannot help members of the public with specific complaints or advice about goods or services, you can contact Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) who will pass information about your complaint on to Trading Standards (apparently you can’t do this yourself). You can contact the CAB consumer helpline, use an online form or, write to the consumer help line. Make sure you mention that you want to report TravelUp to Trading Standards.
I opted to use the online form to ensure that my grievance was properly evidenced and undeniably legitimate, here’s the link:
https://ssl.datamotion.com/form.aspx?co=3438&frm=general&to=flare.fromforms
For details on the other options visit:
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/get-more-help/if-you-need-more-help-about-a-consumer-issue/”
“BEWARE LIARS AND COWBOYS as one of the customers pointed out!!!
I wish to retract the FIVE STARS and good customer review that I gave Travelup(I would call them traveldown) yesterday. Originally I had booked a flight to travel to Seychelles for 24/2 to visit a critically ill 98yr old lady all things went smoothly until the lady died yesterday and I had to change my flight. The Sales agent who I must say at the time was nice looked for alternatives for me and only came up with Ethiopian Air to travel on sat, tomorrow 10/2. She sent me an itinerary to my email and asked me to confirm before 5.15 because she was finishing work at 5.30pm which I did. In turn she wrote back to me to say that they will now cancel the previous flight that was booked and book me a seat with the alternative Ethiopian airline that was leaving tomorrow.
I called after 5.30 to check if Jasmine was there I was told she had left. The guy who spoke to me confirmed that they had sorted it out and that I would get the eticket in the morning.
Morning arrived and by 10.00am I started feeling unease about the whole thing. I thought it was strange that Jasmine had not contacted me and no eticket sent. I proceeded to call them. After waiting for what felt like a long time for Jasmine to pick up her call she answered. I thought her voice was a bit subdued. She told me that only “errors” kept coming up to give her an hour to sort out the problem. I told her I am attending a funeral on Monday and I need to know. “I am doing my best” she said but was eager to get off the phone. An hour came and went. Two hours came and went. Finally at 12.30pm I called back and asked to speak to Jasmine. I waited a while and David came back and said that Jasmine was busy on the phone can he help. I said, I am dealing with Jasmine but if you think you can help please help. Straight away he knew who I was was aggressive and defensive. Talked over me. When I said if you knew this morning that you had a problem why didn’t you contact me and gave me an option to go elsewhere, he said they didn’t contact me because they had no options. I said you did have an option. He was not having it. He said that I was on a waiting list. I said last night no one mentioned that I was being put on a waiting list. I said both times I had to call, you knew I had to travel tomorrow to attend the funeral. They had no compassion. No apologies given. He said read the terms and conditions. We are giving you a full refund. I asked for his Manager he said the manager was not at his desk and he would ask him to call me.
Eventually I got an email from Jasmine who said that they were in the process of doing a full refund. I wrote back and said pls confirm back via email that the full refund had been done. No reply. Eventually, I called back and Jasmine picked up. I asked if the full refund had been done she said yes but I then asked to speak to the Manager she put me through. He was rude and had no concern to the fact that they now have my money and I can’t go ahead and book another flight elsewhere to attend the funeral. It was an emergency and unexpected. No moral conscience whatsoever. I gave him so constructive criticism but instead of taking it in he was defensive. When asked if my refund had been done he said that I don’t give them orders what to do that it was in the process. I said i’d Just been told that it been done, he wouldn’t confirm and said that when he heard from accounts an email will be sent. I was not going to put a bad review originally but I mentioned that I could do but he’s attitude was go ahead and do it we don’t care! Therefore, please if you want excellent customer service make sure to stay with reputatable companies. I will now miss the funeral. Instead of Travelup it’s down down down. Despite the let down I would have been a happier customer if they had called me first thing this morning to tell me there was a problem instead of me calling them. Customers are always right.”
“COW BOYS! DO NOT DEAL WITH TRAVELUP! No ABTA! BE PREPARED TO LOSE MONEY!
I purchased a flight early November 2017 to travel in mid Dec 2017, The terms and conditions allowed me to change my flight dates with an admin fee of £220 and any difference in cost of the seats, unfortunately 2 weeks after (mid November)I purchased my ticket, I found out that I could not travel in Dec as I had to look after a sick relative, so i called travel up and spoke to a very rude and unprofessional "Jimmy" and asked to change my flight dates to January, he advised me of the conditions and I said I was happy to pay the charges, i had a preferred date of travel but soon he told me there was no flights for me on that particular date, then I gave him alternative dates and he kept on saying he could not find any flights for me, as he was checking the flights so was I on the internet checking and to my amazement I was finding flights advertised by travel up on many dates and this "Jimmy" kept on saying he could not find any for me! he hung up on me! he was very rude shouting and saying "do you not understand I have no flights for you", "you should forget about your current flights ( i had paid £600) and you must buy a new flight" I found at least 10 flights on different dates when i was happy to fly all advertised by travel up! I emailed them with each and every search and they never responded to any of my emails. I also wrote to them and complained and I never even got a response! These boys are Cowboys! apparently its only 4 of them operating from a shabby terraced house in Reading, they are not ABTA controlled so you are not covered at all, I have reported them to the Trading Standards and they will be on to them soon, BUT WHAT I WOULD LOVE IS SOMEONE TO TAKE THEM TO COURT, daylight robbery, I will be reporting them to rip off Britain and once its all over TV their business hopefully be finished! just going to make sure they do not treat any customer the way they treated me!”
“Recently my husband and I had an experience with TravelUp that requires me to express my displeasure publicly. We became pregnant unexpectedly which required us to cancel (or postpone for many months) a trip from the UK to New Zealand under orders from my doctor (the trip would be far too close to the due date for travel to be safe medically). We informed TravelUp about the cancellation three months in advance. The cancellation fee even with a medical certificate was £175 per person. A bit extreme, but we figured you get what you pay for. Even though we called the airline themselves and they said they would charge us nothing (but since we booked through TU we must go via them).
However… Despite multiple emails on the subject making it quite clear that we could not travel, them requesting a medical certificate, us providing it, etc. and TravelUp asking for future travel dates (which we told them we could not yet give them), eventually including emailing a week before the trip asking for outright confirmation that there was nothing left for us to do (an email they did not respond to, unlike previous ones) they day of our cancelled ticket came and went. Almost immediately after that day we were told the fee was now £350 per person as we failed to travel! What the hell? Obviously we failed to travel - our tickets were cancelled (or certainly should have been).
We are considering legal action, just to prove a point.
Short version: They should pay you to buy tickets from them. Stay away from these creeps - they are running a scam. Shame on them. If they refund our money we will amend this post with that fact - certainly not holding our breath, however. We have enough on our plate and didn’t need TravelUp to add to our stress levels.”
“My overall experience was one of lies!! Do not use them if you would like to book a ticket far in advance, or may require any possible changes!!
I bought a return British Airways flight from London to Bahamas for my mother last year March 2017 for Oubound Travel in August 2017. The Travelup cost was about £50 cheaper than British Airways, so I booked via the travel agent.
Due to illness/hospital appointments, my mother needed to change the Outbound date so I contacted TravelUp directly, and was told "changes are NOT permitted on this flight" and "as per the airline rules your ticket is 100% non-refundable".
Of course, I didn't want to lose the value of a £900 return ticket, so I contacted British Airways myself, provided them with the ticket reference number, and asked them for the rules of the ticket. British Airways told me I needed to go back to TravelUp directly, but to rest assured the ticket wasn't non-refundablen& non-changeable but was in fact a changeable ticket and the change fee should be around £100/£150. They said if TravelUp had issues changing the ticket, to please ask the agent to contact them directly.
After repeated calls, including a conference call with British Airways and TravelUp, I was advised by TravelUp that "changes are permitted on this flight with a penalty fee of £375.69 /-per person". Which I then paid.
Fast forward now to January 2018, and again, my mother needed to change the Inbound Journey date of her ticket, and so I contacted TravelUp. They advised "changes are permitted on this flight with a penalty fee of £537.69 /-per person. This is the cheapest option available on your requested date".
Just to be sure the price was correct, I contacted British Airways again. They advised the change fee should not be that high, due to the amount already paid on the ticket. I asked if there was anything that could be done, as I'd already had issues with TravelUp, so they took over the ticket and said the change fee was in fact £130.
Need I say more, on how much of a ripoff TravelUp are!!!!!”
“Booked and paid for a flight on the 17th November 2017 to be told 3 days after by email that the airline has cancelled this flight. I was offered an alternative flight but it was at 6:00 AM I declined their offer as that meant my son who is 10 years and I have to be at the airport at 4:00 AM !! I phoned and explained that and I was told to email them with the my request to cancel my flight. An email arrived from Travel Up a day after to confirm my cancellation and to inform me that I should receive my funds after 8 weeks. After many emails and many phone calls with different rude staff I got my money back today (11 weeks to get my money back for a flight cancelled by the airline). I had to borrow money to pay for new tickets from different agent while they hold my funds!!
I would strongly advice people not to use Travel Up.”
“I called the travel agent to verify there is only one luggage allowed which is not the case with Qutar air. During the call the agent said it is only 1 pcs and only 23kg allowed. I asked where is it mentioned that it is only 23kg. The agent dropped the call saying I should know that....
I had a similar experience in the past * strongly * discourage this airline.”
“Tried to booking flights with Travel Up today, they are listing fares and services which don't exist. Shockingly poor customer services, event told me they'd reported me to the authorities for threatening and harassment. AVOID AT ALL COSTS!”
“We booked flights with travelup Feb 2018, we wanted to cancel an internal flight which cost less than 100 pound. To be told we had to £550. Less than 12hrs later this had increased to £1000! To cancel a fight we had already paid for.. rude staff unhelpful and each time is was put through to someone they all gave me different reasons to why they justifyed £1000. This has made a trip off a life time very stressful. I wouldn't every use them again.”
“I had booked a ticket via their website and once my ticket was booked I realized that my surname appeared in my name and my surname. I tried changing it with them but my ticket was cancelled (£500) and no refund given. I tried to explain that I would bear the additional charges but the only option they suggested was cancellation and rebooking.
DONOT USE TRAVEL UP EVER!! THEIR WEBSITE HAS ERRORS AND HAS COST ME £500”
“Booked flights from Johannesburg to Rome. Went through to payment, received OTP and payment was debited to my account only for the booking page failing to refresh and then giving me an error. My bank confirmed the payment had been debited to my account however Travelup refused to assist and said they dont have anything on their side. I had to go through the whole ordeal of lodging a dispute with the bank to get my money back. There are horrendous reviews about this company on Tripadvisor airline blog....wish I had known earlier.”
“I bought flights with Travelup on the incentive of receiving £40 cash back. I complied with ALL the requirements of the cash back, sending in the flight details and claim form etc. after the journey, however after several months of hearing nothing I suddenly get told "cash back declined."
No reason was given. I queried this and was told "the terms and conditions of the offer weren't met." This was not possible - I had a kept a list of the terms and conditions. I provided a copy of this list to travelup customer services, asking which one they were disagreeing with. I heard nothing.
I sent a separate enquiry to customer services and heard nothing.
I feel cheated, and their rude, dismissive customer services is infuriating.
I will choose to do business with more honest firms in the future.”
“I booked flights to Orlando from Birmingham (via Iceland) with Icelandair. On 6 Dec 2017 Icelandair cancelled all Birmingham - Iceland flights. I contacted travelup. They said they would get back to me within 48 hours with options. They didn't. I contacted them and asked for a full refund. They said it would take 6-8 weeks (we were flying in 9 weeks).
Last Friday (1 week before we are due to fly) I received an email from Icelandair inviting me to book meals etc. I called travel again and spoke to David Rather. He said James Anderson had been forwarded my email and he would call me back yesterday (Saturday). I still haven't received a call. I can't decide whether some of their staff a deliberately obstructive or just incompetent. I would never risk booking with them again.”
