Sta Travel

2020-Feb-15, my son booked his flight through STA for his Study Abroad Experience departing 2020-Mar-6. In his itinerary and booking confirmation (***), the rules repeatedly stated: “Ticket is refundable minus a $400 penalty prior to departure”.
Students were notified 2020-Feb-28 at 5:54 p.m. that the trip was cancelled. Several conversations followed including:
2020-Feb-29 at 1:28 p.m., Manager Shelby B emailed, “Just to confirm, Hayden’s ticket is refundable prior to departure minus a $400 penalty.” and at 8:11 p.m. on 2020-Mar-2 she wrote, “There have been no updates from the airline in regards to the waiver for cancelation penalties. I can confirm the ticket is refundable minus the $400 penalty prior to the originally schedule [sic] departure date.”
2020-Mar-03 at 11:56 a.m. Petra emailed, “In case of cancellation, you will receive a refund or [sic] around $1400 USD. If you wish to proceed further with the cancellation, please confirm the last 4 digits and expiry date of your card.”
2020-Mar-4 at 4:09 p.m. Booking Agent Doug M said, “We would have to cancel it with the $400 cancellation penalty. We can wait another day if you would like.” And the next day at 8:33 p.m., “Just reply back to me when you want me to cancel the space. I will be in till [sic] close tomorrow so we can give it as much time as possible. Just make sure to let me know by 9 p.m. Eastern. If you would like me to take care of it right away with the $400 fee, I can do so right away.”
At 8:15 p.m., Mr. M wrote, “Unfortunately, the flights are still operating, and a waiver has not been issued. I am going have the ticket refunded for you with the $400 cancellation penalty.” We received an updated Booking Confirmation that stated the refund would be $1,529.37.
On 2020-Mar-20, Mr. H called and Lynn informed him that STA had changed their refund policy and were no longer going to honor the contract and refund the money they had repeatedly promised.

I've contacted STA regarding my refund for booking number *** on 3/13/20. Due to the COVID pandemic, my flights were csncelled. I spoke to Betti and Rucsandra and was guaranteed a full refund to my card. They stated that the refund might take up to
20 days to actually go back to my card. So I contacted STA on 4/6 to followup on this matter and was told that their policy changed and cannot refund my ticket? Why would you tell me that the refund was processed at the first place via 2 separate emails? Even if your policy changed, someone should've notify me of this change. This is just ridiculous.

Dear STA Travel Management,

I am writing to you to request a FULL CASH REFUND for the cancellation of Lufthansa Airlines flight ***. My daughter *** was booked on flight *** from Marseille, France to Frankfurt , Germany and flight *** from Frankfurt, Germany to Detroit, Michigan. This flight was cancelled by Lufthansa on March 12, 2020 (see attached) with no re-booking. Per communication with Lufthansa and a order by the US Department of Transportation; all airlines MUST "fully refund airfare to passengers whose flight have been canceled during the outbreak of Covid-19, the US DOT ordered on Friday, April 3, 2020.

I have contacted your agency on three different occasions and was informed that STA Travel will 'NOT be giving cash/credit card/debit card refunds', only vouchers. This is unacceptable...per DOT and Lufthansa...my daughter (***) is due a FULL return flight refund (which is 40 to 50 percent of cost of ticket). Also, I am requesting that the $300.00 charge to change ticket be refunded as well due to Lufthansa cancelling all re-booking fees during the COVID-19 crisis.

Your agency has been horrific in the way it has treated me during these difficult times and I would never do business with you in the future. Your agents has been very rude and unaccommodating when speaking with them by phone, after waiting for hours on hold. Your unethical business practices are not going unnoticed and I believe that you should not be allowed to treat your customers in this manner.

Lastly, I am requesting a additional refund for the cost of the American Airlines flight (see attached) that I had to book due to your agency staff member Drew falsely stating on 3/13/2020 that he would contact me back with a resolution to re-booking my daughter a flight home per the original cancellation of flight ***, after waiting on hold for more than four (4) hours.

With a humble and understanding deposition, I thank you for your prompt attention to this most Urgent matter.

Best Regard,
***

EMAIL: *** PHONE:

I booked a flight through STA travels. At the time of the booking, my scheduled connecting flight had sufficient transfer time. However, my second flight *** had a time change and no one from STA travels notified me or change my flights to accommodate for the change.
Thus, this left me with only 40 minutes to transfer at AKL (Auckland, New Zealand), which is insufficient amount of time. I didn't make the transfer and the flight left without me.
No one from Air NZ can help me because the ticket holder is STA Travel. I tried to call STA Travel but the NZ company is independent from the US/UK so they wouldn't help me. I tried to email and tweet, but due to high volume of calls the STA travel messaged me back 2 hours after I made the inquiry. The email replied "Please contact our sales department on 9 AM Pacific time at +*** option 1" But I was at New Zealand time and would've like to go home as soon as possible. I also had no international call with my phone carrier.
I tried to make inquiries for 5 hours at AKL. I finally got someone from United Airlines to help me reschedule and purchase a new ticket to LAX.

My original destination is SFO. I paid $830 extra for the flight to LAX and $1040.22 for the original flights.

I also spoke to a manager who told me I will be getting a fast (next day) reply, but it has been under "investigation" for about a month now and no one has sent me any updates to my case. I had to pay out of pocket for a mistake that STA travel made.

Very upset with STA travel. My opinion is STA relies on taking advantage of students.
My daughter bought a ticket from them and the main parameter were shortest flights with 2-plus hours layover in between flights. She found the perfect flight meeting all requirements. For the return flight STA contacted her stating flight was changed, it now entailed a 3 leg flight with a 1 hour layover at one of the airports. She agreed to the change with the understanding that if the original flight was re-scheduled, STA (Francisca N- agent) would honor the original booking.

Two weeks before the flight my daughter found the flight she was originally booked. About 7 phone calls and transfers to agents from STA, they refused to do anything. We have yet to hear from the agent (Francisca N). (Proof of e-mails attached below ).

I purchased an package of flights from STA travel (Boston to London Heathrow, London Gatwick to Athens). The package they sold me had an unfeasible connection time between Heathrow and Gatwick which was made even shorter when the first leg of my journey was delayed. When we arrived in Gatwick, the flight to Athens had already departed. I called STA Travel from Gatwick to receive assistance in rebooking the second leg and they were unwilling to assist me. My traveling companion and I were forced to rebook a new flight at our own expense. I have been in contact with the airline (Virgin) and STA Travel for the last seven months about receiving a refund. Virgin has acknowledged that we are entitled to a refund for the first leg of the flight and says they sent a check to STA Travel in July. However, STA Travel claims they have not received the check and have been completely unhelpful throughout this whole process.

I was contacted by STA and believed that I had to book my study abroad flight through them. They sent me over about 5 different flights options because everytime they sent me one they said that the offer would expire within the hour or in the next fifteen minutes. Being as I did not live on my computer I was unable to book the flight until about a month and a half before my trip because they "were unable to send my an itinerary any more in advance" I eventually booked my flight to Barcelona for a little under $1,500. At the same time I was looking at flights on the exact days I had told them for $700. I went ahead and booked with them because I thought I had to. In addition I requested a flexible ticket so that I could change the return date if needed for no additional fee. My STA agent Jessica Rogers informed me that STA does not have a flexible ticket. While my other friend who booked with STA has assured me that she in fact does have a flexible ticket through them and does not have to pay a change fee. Jessica also neglected to inform me that STA offers student discounts that I was eligible for. I requested to change my return flight and received an email saying I would have to pay $100 for the change fee and an additional $69 for the change in fair. However I am looking at flights for half the price of what they are saying once again. When I expressed this concern for where they're finding these expensive flights they stopped responding. In January I also wrote to Jessica and STA asking why their flights where so much more expensive than what I was finding, and once again they stopped responding.

My friend and I were scheduled to go on a trip to Amsterdam this Saturday (11/18). Last night I unfortunately fractured my foot and per doctors orders am on bed rest, making travel impossible. We booked our flight through STA so after receiving the doctors order I immediately contacted their emergency line, as I was instructed to do by one of their customer service representatives. I called in and explained the reason for my cancellation. I was then told that my cancellation fee was equal to the price of my ticket and there was no way for them to refund me. After speaking with them, they later said they could refund me only $100 or change my flight date. This offer was later rescended and they claimed no compensation could be given. I explained that this was a medical issue, one I could not control. They said I had the ability to cancel but no money would be given back to me despite my circumstances.

This clause is written in tiny writing on their itinerary page and is not revealed upon purchase. Additionally, it was not told that our tickets were under the same refund policy as any other ticket. The $400 is an exorbitant and grotesque amount to be charging for a cancellation especially when it is due to a medical emergency. I am writing to the Revdex.com as my last hope as the company is unwilling to offer support to a college student.

I hope you will do your best to help rectify this issue and offer some sort of compensation.