“Hi Ali,
Hope you are having a wonderful time I am sure, but certainly not me.
I had a flight this evening with Virgin Atlantic from London to Mumbai and then Goa which is apparently
rescheduled. As per Jenna and Martin, I have been told that my flights were changed to morning 11.15 flight. Also on request I have been provided with email that was sent to me from customer services on 23rd October which I have never received.
I called this morning to ask for PNR number to my evening flight so I could register on Air Suvidha, I was told my flight has already departed and was changed to morning flight without my consent/ confirmation or knowledge.
I am extremely gutted to here this, and hope you can imagine how difficult it is to be in the situation where you have planed so much ahead with urgent matters that need to be attended on time as well as the loss that come with it in terms of time and money for Covid certificates etc.
I would really recommend if you may take some time to hear the recording while I was speaking to both I mentioned above, they are just so un professional and have no telephone etiquette of simple things like please and thank you. I have begged them to help me and they are just so cold and unsympathetic, not helpful at all. Both of them kept saying its your fault before even sending the email which I never received or listening to my concerns. What kind of service is this you provide? There is no sense of listening or empathy. I kept asking for a solution and the customer agents kept blaming me and saying 'its your fault'. In fact when I got little upset, I did not swear or insult, I was told the phone will be hanged on me, how disrespectful is that and making me literally beg to her. This shows the work culture and your team is not trained on handling situations, these two are bad listeners. Service industry needs a team that is trained on service recovery, dealing with situations , handling complaints and you cannot have team that are using provocative language. Simple steps you need to follow on complain handling could be HEART model ( Hear, empathy, apologise, react , respond ) I am afraid I have gone little dip here, but I am really shocked the way I am treated. Jenna in fact told me that she has other customers waiting that needs attention, making me feel so little. This is just not right.
As per Jenna, my flight has already left at 11.15 this morning, which I never confirmed. And when I asked Jenna to confirm if I had a seat on that flight, she said - it does not matter because its left and I did not attend the flight. This makes me think you are hiding something here and making me feel that my flight has left and I have lost money. I have asked numerous time to Jenna, but she says she cannot confirm this. Is this the resolution you provide ? by asking me now to pay extra money for a flight that is available on 27th if I pay extra £185? as the earlier flights are around £900 plus
I asked Jenna repeatedly to tell me if there was any other email, calls, text send to me after 23rd Oct email which I did not receive. But she denied to give me any information. I would expect at least a call, text or a second email if I have not responded to you in time. I sincerely did not receive your email you sent on 23rd October.
This is extremely bad and owe explanation and solution to this disastrous and shambolic service i received from your organisation.
I will be taking this further on all channels and try to get a quick response and solution to this.
This is a disaster, and I will appreciate is this can be dealt professionally with some respect and empathy, without quoting "IT's YOUR FAULT".
While typing this email, I had a call from Mark ( he was professional and listening ), I personally think he tried his best to explain the matter, however being on the loosing side, I am not happy to pay the difference of £185 for a light, plus extra £65 for Covid certificate and loss of time and things that were suppose to be done in this time. The whole experience is awful and left a bitter taste, specially when I used Travel Up for the first time - NEVER AGAIN, sorry.
I will be taking this higher up to all online channels, newsletters including Berkshire Live, consumer rights, airline, citizen advice, civil aviation authority etc.
Regards
VIBHAV HALDANKAR”
“I am not here to write a review or do a rating on the company, but I would just like to mention that Janki from the Ticketing Department was very helpful with changing my flight time two days before.”
“Customer service agents Brian and Sean were knowledgeable and efficient in reissuing me my new e-ticket for my rebooked flight. Thank you, I really appreciate your help!”
“Here l am in the uk working as a front line worker. I bought a ticket from this company on 19/11/21. Was told 2weeks later my flight cancelled. I still waiting on an email to explain why and my refund. I am broke and desperate for my refund. Been push around each time l Call. Do any one know the legal why to get your money back”
“Customer Care A Total Joke. AVOID. (Part 2).
This is a follow up to the review I posted a couple of weeks ago (1st Nov)- in which I outlined my utter frustration at this shambles of a company.
Travel Up responded with a typically half-hearted apology. They said "We are very sorry... we have requested that Brian to reply to you as soon as possible as we would like to get this resolved".
This was over 10 days ago and since then we have heard.. NOTHING (surprise!).
This 100% reflects all the other transactions I have had with this company.
Lame apology.
No action.
No reply.
Utter frustration.
I am past being amazed at the low level of customer service this company offer.
We have contacted the Austrian airlines directly about our cancelled flight and they told up that 'Travel Up are not being honest' when they said they were waiting for a refund from the airline. Travel Up bought up lots of tickets and sold one to us- our money remained with Travel Up.
They should be offering us 100% refund NO QUESTIONS ASKED.
Please note that all the 5* reviews on here are prompted from the booking process - i.e. 'it was easy to book' (Yeah!) and NOT from their follow up or customer care: which are uniformly 1* reviews.
Travel Up have essentially stolen our money.
Ali Shah (owner) should be personally ashamed.
I will say it again: Avoid this company!
DO NOT TRUST TRAVEL UP.
NO STARS!!!”
“Janki from customer service is extremely kind and helpful and sorted out any question about my flight. I couldn't be more happy with such skilled staff doing this difficult job for us to give us peace of mind when we have to travel. Top 10. Thank you Janki.
Erico”
“They are a vile company who employ rude scumbags masquerading as Customer service agents. Do not touch this company Spread the word Do not book with these fraudsters”
“Booked and paid deposit. Checked 3 weeks later with hotel and no reservations found. Turns out travel up had refunded me with our any communication. If I hadn’t of checked with the hotel I would of been none the wiser and travelled with no place to stay. I have also read that they are fraudulently fixing good reviews. Cowboy company!”
“NEVER USE THIS COMPANY (So glad reviews.io knows that TravelUp is skewing their ratings and notifying us! Thank you!). I’ve had the worst possible experience with TravelUp. Been waiting 1.5 years for a deserved refund, after following their rules for cancellation. I’ve been lied to countless times (the staff are incredibly rude and manipulative), and they never contact me back when they say they will. The airline has refunded my flight, and TravelUp are still offering less than 20%. They keep claiming I was a “no-show “, despite having cancelled with them and the air carrier. Based on past experience, they’re probably lying and making a profit off of it, but if not, then it’s down to their negligence rather than anything I did wrong. Did I mention they also told me to call an “admin” line where they siphoned >£10 off me while I waited and was then lied to again?
Despite giving them evidence I followed protocol, they still keep failing to call me back and give me a real refund. And now I see they’re posting fake reviews across loads of websites because it must be cheaper to do that than conduct even mildly fair/honest business…”
“Terrible service, Do not use this travel agency.
They gave us an open ticket as we could not travel because of covid lockdown. When i tried to rebook flights they charged me £555 extra in the name of fare and tax difference although when i checked on their website the ticket price was same as what i already paid 6 months ago but they still charged me £555 extra.
1 week before flight i checked the flight status on virgin atlantic website, it was cancelled but on one advised me that flight was cancelled. I had to face lot of hassle because of them and had to buy very expensive ticket from somewhere else. Now they are refusing to give full refund, they are offering me about 50% refund. I am going to take them to the court”
“Offered me a flight which I immediately accepted. Over the next week I emailed and called them to get confirmation of the booking but they did not respond. As a result I had to book the flight elsewhere. They will not respond to requests to provide details of their complaints procedure so I am taking them to court. They respond to these complaints saying they will look into the problem. They won’t, they don’t care and they are dishonest. Please avoid!”
“I was awarded a full refund plus costs for cancelled flights against Travelup in June of this year at a small claims court.
Unfortunately after Travelup failing to follow court instruction and pay my refund I am now in the process of going back to court.
The date and venue for return to court will be revealed on this site.
I will not give up on my refund and do whatever I can to expose these people who are little more than thieves.
Avoid using and deal direct with the airlines.”
“Lilly Adam from customer service is amazing, she understands customer needs and gets the job done quickly and efficiently. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Great prices and easy to communicate with, I thoroughly recommend this company.”
“AVOID! FRUAD!
I bet that all the good reviews aren’t genuine!!!!
They have cancelled my flight on July 21 right after my booking - well known scheme to help their cash flows.
Almost three month chasing my refund, they ignoring emails, phones, their refund approval, putting the phone down, rude.
I would love to get their team to reply here and to be visible here and share the info I have.
Travel up - show us you care
Order confirmation R5EUL3”
“Without doubt the worst customer service I have ever received.
I booked a flight to Vancouver via TravelUp for November 2020, which was easy enough and I received the 'booking reference' and 'e-ticket' upon payment. This is about as far as the 'easy enough' trend ends.
The day before the flight, I attempted to check in online only to find that the 'booking reference' didn't exist on the TravelUp website or the Carriers website (First red flag). Naturally, I tried (multiple times) to call TravelUp to see what was going on, only to find that their '24 hr emergency helpline' wouldn't connect and obviously doesn't exist either (Second red flag).
After failing to connect with TravelUp via any 'helpline' or webform, I resorted to calling the airline directly to see if they could help.
The airline customer service agent informed me that the booking reference I was providing had previously existed but been cancelled BY TRAVELUP and replaced with a different reference number, which had then also been cancelled BY TRAVELUP (Third red flag).
None of these changes or cancellations were communicated to me by TravelUp, meaning that without being able to contact them, I was due to fly the next day, with a ticket that didn't exist. Therefore I had to purchase a new ticket directly via the airline, which cost and extra £90 than the original booking had.
The next morning, enroute to the airport, I called TravelUp's customer service helpline. After multiple attempts, I finally got through and spoke to an incredibly useless agent named Leo, who claimed to see nothing wrong with my booking and refused to hand me over to a manager or to investigate further for me, telling me to e-mail their complaints department and expect a slight delay in response as they were very busy dealing with complaints. (SHOCK). (Fourth red flag).
(December 1st 2020, upon landing in Canada): Already annoyed with their poor service, I e-mailed multiple TravelUp e-mail addresses explaining the situation and kindly requested a refund, as the problem I was facing was completely due to a mistaken cancellation from within TravelUp.
(December 21st 2020, no response from initial email):
(Fifth red flag) I forwarded the initial e-mail and added screenshots of proof of booking and reference and the cancellation that I didn't ask for provided by the airline.
(17th June 2021, first response from TravelUp):
Reply from Rhys Turner in the complaints department, asking that I provide a different reference number as the one I quoted wouldn't work for him - DUH, that was the whole issue at hand!! (The red flag just continue...)
Keeping it more simple, since then I have had incredibly slow, on and off correspondence with Rhys who has continually changed the narrative, initially contradicting Leo by admitting he could find no such booking under the reference number and moving on to claim to be waiting for a response from the airline in regards to a refund. Which is clearly irrelevant as the booking was cancelled by TravelUp, leaving the airline no longer connected to the issue. He also claimed that TravelUp don't do refunds etc for cancelled flights, luckily I'm positive the flight wasn't cancelled as I flew on the exact same one with my new ticket!
3+ months down the line since TravelUp's initial response, I have now been offered flight vouchers valid for 12 months after the initial flight date (LOL that's less than 2 months left to use them) or a cash refund, deducting booking fee's and a £50 admin fee to cover their staff who are working from home (What?).
Ofcourse, neither of these options appeal to me as I have no desire to use this company to travel ever again. As well as the fee's connected to the cash refund being absolutely outrageous given that the problem exists BY NO FAULT OF MY OWN and COMPLETELY BY MISTAKE WITHIN TRAVELUP.
Needless to say I, or anybody I know will never be using Travelup's services again as they are clearly just money-grabbing thieves with no regards for customer care after payment.
Despicable.”
“6 months for a refund with lots and lots of chasing them. Their customer attitude is rude and couldn't give a hoot. £50 admin fee is over the top. My refund was £200 less than it should've been and to top it off i only found out my flight was cancelled a few days before flying and that was because i checked on my flights, never heard a thing from them or the airline. WILL NEVER BOOK WITH THESE PEOPLE AGAIN”
“Poor service, no respect. Booked my flight for hubby. At tht time been told one free change. Now when we asked to change the return date, they asking for nearly 130 Gbp to change the date as taxes n fees without explaining what's tht for. Where is my free change when I'm paying 130 Gbp Extra. Very rude, arrogant, disrespectfull. No help at all, gutted. Don't b fool, money grabbers. Think money grows on tree. Keep you on hold, can't speak proper English ( don't knw where is the call centre based, if you try to say something will try to shut u up or hang up on you. Very un professional.”
