Do not book your Fiji trip with STA

Hi,

in January I tried to visit Fiji and therefore I made a booking with STA Travel in Christchurch for an Awesome Adventures Trip. Fiji was flooded and the situation there was very insecure and definelty nothing like holiday: the state of emergency was called out, a boat sank, Nadi was flooded, Cholera was about to spread. STA was not able to get me more detailed information for Fiji neither were they willing to offer me a refund option. The contract I had signed was VERY onesided. I cancelled my trip last minute because the situation on Fiji got from bad to worse and asked STA Travel Christchurch to help me get me refund from Awesome. To cut a long story short: AWESOME ADVENTURES gave me ALL my money back (923 NZD) BUT STA kept a CANCELLATION FEE of 250 NZD.

I think this is a horrible way of making business: the sitution was very dangerous and I did not cancel because of my own will (which is clear - otherwise Awesome would not have handed any money back). The service from STA was miserable and rude. I recommend everybody to deal with Awesome directly or at least to look for a reliable (STA) agent. Anyways I talked to other travellers who told me that they had also been annoyed by STA Christchurch selling them more exensive tickets for Fiji as they would have had to pay locally. I guess that is sales talent when commissions are paid.

You could have taken out travel insurance - it is not very expensive for the Pacific, and I have had some excellent results.

You're mad to book anything through a travel agent other than air tickets.

With whom did you get your travel insurance? I'm in the US and planning a trip to Samoa, Cooks, Oz & NZ.

I diffenatly agree with Travel Insurance.....it's the next thing you need to buy as soon as you have your tickets.....you have no idea what can happen!! and if you think it wont happen to you....it probably will next time.....weither you get it from a travel agent or not....buy the way.....your not mad if you can get a cheaper ticket from a travel agent than you can online... I've had fantastic results from sta travel than I have on line, more than a few times, would recommend them to anyone!!!