STA travel Multi-Flex pass and flights

I wouldn't call it a rip off, they are a generally good company offering a service at a charge that you are free to choose or not. Saying that, it is far from necessary to get it either. Of course they are keen to plug it, they are trying to make a profit after all, but as said, you do not have to get it. And no, it is no better or worse service than you get with other companies.

We found STA's Multiflex Pass absolutely useless and stressful. It did not provide the flexibility that we needed (and what is almost worse, that we thought we had) during our four-months trip around South East Asia. It meant a total waste of time and money.

Communication was painfully slow and frustrating. The only way to get in touch with the STA team dealing with Multiflex Pass is via email, and the first thing you receive is an auto-reply saying they can take up to 5 days to respond. We think this is unacceptable in a context where changes are needed at relatively short notice and where fares change fast. In addition to the slow response pace, we found the quality of the service very poor and unprofessional.

The cost for changing our flight was unacceptably high. The best option STA could find within a six weeks window in March/April was £700 for three travellers (over half the cost of our original tickets). So we ended up booking new flights (this time directly through the airline, of course) after having wasted a few stressful days waiting for STA's slow and unhelpful responses. A phone conversation / online chat with an agent would have made things so much easier.

On our return, we contacted STA's customer service and customer relations. Again, appalling "service". I have been a customer of STA Travel for a number of years but will never use them again.

ps: I wish I had seen these reviews before deciding to purchase the Multiflex Pass or booking flights with STA Travel:
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g1-i10702-k5380512-STA_Travel-Air_Travel.html
http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews87900.html

I've never posted on here before but I feel so angry and let down by STA travel that I figured people deserve to know and be warned before thinking about handing over their money to them.....
I purchased a round- the- world ticket from STA and was sold the multi-flex pass for an extra £100, which the agent said would mean that I could make unlimited changes to my flight dates, for free. This seemed like a great idea to me as I was travelling for a year and would no doubt need to change the dates of some of my flights. Low and behold a few weeks into my trip I decided that I wanted to bring my flight onwards, forward by a couple of weeks, and also the subsequent flight. I emailed STA and was told that to change the 2 flights would cost myself and my partner £660!! We were absolutely disgusted by this but really needed to change the flights and so followed the link in the email to change the dates. I entered my credit card details and as far as I was aware the transaction had been completed. I however received no confirmation email and so a few days later emailed them again to find that the transaction had not gone through. STA said that there was a cheaper flight available (would only cost us £500!) but it would mean cutting our stay in California even shorter which was not ideal but money is short and so we said we'd go for this new flight instead. Next thing I know the flights have been changed and the credit card I had previously used to try and change the flights had been charged. I found this rather worrying as they clearly had my credit card details (different card to the one I used to buy the rtw ticket) but had not bothered to book me on the first flight.
My sister is also currently travelling with an STA rtw ticket and has also had problems. She was charged £200 to change one of her flights from Fiji to NZ. She followed the online link to change her flight but never received a confirmation email. Luckily she went to the airport anyway in the hope that it had been changed and it had. If she had not then she would've missed her flight!
I have emailed a complaint to STA which I was told has been forwarded onto their complaints department. 3 weeks later I still haven't heard anything, or even had confirmation that they received my email. Now that STA have my money they don't care about my trip and their customer service is appalling. Anyone thinking of going with STA- DON'T!!