STA Travel, the world’s largest youth travel agency, declared bankruptcy, and local victims have requested a refund.
The Swiss parent company of STA Travel declared bankruptcy last month, and the local STA Travel travel agency officially closed on the 9th of this month.
According to Li Xuejun, Chairman of the Singapore Consumers Association, from January 1 to the day before the 27th of this year, the Consumers Association received 11 complaints about STA Travel. The total value of the air tickets and travel package contracts involved reached around 23,000 SGD.
Some consumers filed complaints before Covid-19 and travel agencies closed. Li Xuejun pointed out that most of the complaints are consumers who want to cancel flights due to the coronavirus but have to pay cancellation fees or get only a partial refund.
There are also some consumers who ignore their complaints about refunding air tickets or travel packages because travel agencies filed for bankruptcy. In addition, some consumers claimed that the travel agency did not pay for the ticket, which made their ticket invalid.