Tripsta Reviews 7

They have locked down nearly $4000 on hold on my account after we tried to pay for a flight and they took a pre-authorisation (the same as a deposit on a hotel mini bar or rental car) without telling us or sending a receipt or a booking confirmation. The website didn't tell us this and instead told us the "payment" had failed as there were no more flights at this rate and to book another flight. We did . It took another pre-authorisation ( both $1864 - nearly $4k between the two) again no confirmation , no receipt , no knowledge a payment had been made or a pre-authorisation taken place. They have locked down the cash before checking the flights were available and didn't tell us they had done it. We then went to book from another website to find our account had been cleared out including the money to pay our mortgage. We have been informed by the bank to contact tripsta as they need them to authorise the release and it can take weeks or months to come back depending on tripsta. Unfortunately we have had no reply to emails we have sent from their contact form , no response on their $1 per minute enquiry phone line and no answer on the phone number listed on google adwords which is disconnected. (They must make a fortune off the enquiry line as you will be on hold a long time)

Pre authorisation problems looks to be a common thing at tripsta because they have a section of their website buried deep in the t&cs about it. They blame the bank and the bank can't do anything without them. It's a disgusting practice of taking your money without having seats available. Also the pre-authorisation method to book flights is always going to be the worst business model designed to benefit tripsta and hurt its clients. For more information read the information from their website below and see how bad the practice is (sorry the link was deleted). They essentially blame the bank for holding your money when they illegally took unauthorised pre-authorisations instead of payments and then did not communicate it or respond to enquiries and instead made money off a premium line in response to their preset trap.

Source - Tripsta FAQ Page
There is a charge on my credit card but I haven’t received a confirmation email. Is my booking successful?
No, the air tickets you tried to book have not been confirmed, due to a temporary technical issue of the airline (s), in the itinerary you have selected during the booking procedure.
This resulted in a failed booking while a pre-authorization of the corresponding amount had already taken place.
What is a pre-authorization and how will the hold on my credit card be released?
A pre-authorization is a temporary hold of a specific amount of the available balance on a credit / debit card and may occur during an online transaction. This could happen due to various reasons: miscommunications between multiple systems involved in the transaction, expired shopping session, delays in authorization of the payment from the bank of cardholder. The pre-authorization is not a charge but a bank practice of blocking the amount on the cardholder’s account until the clearing of transaction, in order to avoid unnecessary transfers between bank accounts. Therefore, you will not be charged if the transaction has failed.
Tripsta sends an automated cancellation request to the bank for the hold to be released. This request states clearly that our company will not charge the hold. It is the bank’s responsibility to release the hold from your account and it depends on its policy when you will have the blocked amount available on your account.
In any case, we advise you to contact your bank and ask for more information regarding this issue.
If you wish to proceed with a new booking, we advise you to try again from a different browser.

The only positive is a slightly reduced ticket price compared to other companies. THE worst customer service of any travel company I have used, and there have been a few stinkers. Have never got through in less than 30 minutes on hold, even on the premium cost number (which in Australia is $1/min!). Today, after the line cutting off twice (after about 10 mins each time), the house phone battery died after a further 25 minutes on hold. I have now called back from my mobile so I can leave it plugged in, which will no doubt cost me a lot more, until the call is answered... Just been cut off again after another 10 minutes...

I emailed these guys Sunday about the change as I was in the UAE and unable to call them from there, only international premium rate numbers were available. I still have had no response to this email and the flight I need to change is tomorrow.

I had to change the flight once already, and Tripsta charged me almost as much as the airline change fee on top. This is where they are making their money, by scamming customers with hidden fees and premium rate customer support numbers which remain unanswered for long periods.

Farcical. I will never use this company again. Save yourself the agony.

UPDATE: After another 45 minutes on the phone, Tripsta told me the minimum cost to change my flight was going to be A$525 (£310), and more expensive on the day I wanted to move my flight too. I called the airline direct and asked to clarify the cost of the change as I didn't trust my travel agent. The cost to change on the day I actually wanted, was the A$175 (£100). So even with the A$75 change fee Tripsta put in the small print, they were still trying to overcharge me A$275 (£160), or more for the day I wanted to fly, and making out that the additional charge was from the airline.

When I explained this to the airline, they made the change for me, saving me getting fleeced for an extra A$350 or more.

Disgusting. Stay away.

Very bad.
Had flight from Bangui to Nairobi via Douala. At the airport, we found out the ticket had been changed to Bangui - Nairobi directly. We had only one option: to pay supplementary 350 USD and flight directly 4 hours later, or not to fly at all.
We tried to call Tripsta without success, sent emails with no answer.

Later, Tripsta just stated that the modification was done by us, so nothing to do.

Never ever again !!!

Recently I booked a flight from Athens to Kiev, Ukraine with Tripsta then a couple of weeks ago I was informed that the airline reschedule the flight of a difference of 25 min earlier which makes a big difference for me since I would be coming from an international flight and 25 min makes a lot of difference. So I sent an email to Trispta asking for the refund and the answer was that no refund would be given.
Everyone knows that when any air line company reschedule the flight, even for 1 min difference, that gives flexibility to the customer to either change the flight without fee or get full refund. I am sure that Tripsta knows that really well.
So I tried one more time explaining my rights but the answer was: Please note that for a flight cancelled by the airline  the schedule change policy usually allows the full refund when the time change is for signifier  time change . Please note that this is not the case due to the fact that the flight that you have original booked was not cancelled and the time change is for only 25 minutes earlier.
If I had bought straight with Ukraine airline I would have get my refund like always.
Never buy with any travel agency, specially with Tripsta. Also if you need to change your flight, you always need to deal with the agency and besides they changed you a lot more to change because they charge their fee and air line fee on top of the change.

I got to Tripsta using Skyscanner. Very easy mobile booking navigation BUT way too many hidden fees. To purchase additional checked in baggage is also tricky! I ticked to purchase, but never receive it-itinerary showed that I didn't purchase. And customer service can only taglk /reading off their manual. Unfortunately I didn't take a screen shot of the summary saying we have purchase the baggage and the total price. So no proof, no service. And beware of 'international transfer fee' from credit card. As Tripsta has .com.au. I assume it I had a branch within Australia and all transaction would be as normal but it WAS NOT! It's an oversea company and will incur international transaction fee!

IN SUMMARY: I WILL NOT BE USING IT EVER AGAIN AND DO NOT RECOMMEND TRIPSTA TO ANYONE.

Hi
I am very unhappy with the service at tripsta. I have been calling for 15 minutes straight and no one will answer. no one will reply to my emails. i went to book flights with you and after i got to the pay screen it said the flights were not available but you still took my money! $1400 i need to get back. i need to get in contact with tripsta somehow to get my refund and the customer service on your end is so poor.
please help!
thank you
ashlee

I booked my ticket home to Denmark for the 4th of July through Tripsta, and it went smoothly. I paid and got a confirmation email showing me the times of my departure, and a note that I would receive my e-ticket within a few hours. Instead of the ticket I get an email, from another address, saying that my booking has been delayed. I write to tripsta, several times, to inquire about this, and what it means. I get no answer over email. Then I decide to call them, not only is the call $1 per minute, which is in itself outrageous when I have to wait for 24 minutes before I got through. When I finally got through to the customer service, I talked to a guy with mediocre English, which I wouldn't have minded if I hadn't had to wait for the better part of half an hour for him to pick up the phone. He tells me, that he will look into my delayed ticket and send me an e-ticket and another confirmation right away. This has also not happened.
Then I try to read some reviews about tripsta and see many similar stories. I also see, that they occasionally write back to these reviews. Tripsta if you are reading this, please help me. If you help me out, and this all gets sorted soon, I will write a better review of you when I get home.
Thank You