Gotogate is a real, licensed online travel agency, not a scam that disappears after taking your money. But it carries an F rating with the Better Business Bureau (503 complaints on file), an “Average” 2.7-out-of-5 Trustpilot score from roughly 150,000 reviewers, and a well-documented pattern of slow refunds and last-minute price increases. Whether it is “legit” for you depends on how you book: pay by credit card, screenshot the price before you confirm, and keep your PNR so you can deal with the airline directly if Gotogate’s support goes quiet.
Affiliate disclosure: some links on this page are affiliate links. If you book through them, Destinations.ai may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. This does not affect our review of Gotogate’s ratings or complaint history below.
What Is Gotogate, Exactly?
Gotogate is an online travel agency (OTA) that books flights, hotels, and rental cars, with flights as its main business. It is owned by Etraveli Group, a Swedish travel-tech company that also runs Mytrip.com, Flightnetwork, TripStack, and Flygresor.se. Etraveli Group is currently majority-owned by private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, with KKR added as a minority investor in 2025.
Gotogate, Inc. has operated in the United States since 2017, with a Miami, Florida headquarters and a Toronto office for its Canadian entity. It holds a Florida Seller of Travel license (number ST40907), which is the basic registration required to sell airfare in that state. That license, plus nine years of continuous operation, is real evidence the business is what it claims to be: a licensed travel agency, not a fake booking site.
What Gotogate is not is Booking.com. In 2022, Booking Holdings agreed to buy Etraveli Group for roughly $1.8 billion. On September 25, 2023, the European Commission blocked the deal on antitrust grounds — the first time it had ever prohibited a merger purely over “ecosystem concerns.” Booking Holdings said it would appeal, and in the meantime Etraveli Group’s existing commercial partnership with Booking.com was extended through 2028. In practice, that means Gotogate and Booking.com share some airline and fare-supply relationships, but they are separate companies with separate customer service teams.
Is Gotogate Legit or a Scam? What the Ratings Actually Show
Gotogate is legally registered and does fulfill the large majority of its bookings without incident. That is what “legit” means in the narrow, legal sense. It is not, however, a highly rated company, and the two independent rating sources that track it tell a consistent story.
| Rating source | Score / status | What it’s based on |
|---|---|---|
| Better Business Bureau | F rating, not accredited | 503 complaints on file, 10 unresolved at time of writing |
| Trustpilot (www.gotogate.com) | “Average,” roughly 2.7 out of 5 | Approximately 150,000 reviews; the largest cluster of 1-star reviews cites refund delays |
| Years in business | 9 years (Gotogate, Inc. since 2017) | Florida Seller of Travel license ST40907 |
An F from the BBB does not mean fraud: it is largely a function of complaint volume and how many complaints go unresolved, and OTAs that route millions of low-margin flight bookings tend to score poorly regardless of brand. But it is still a meaningful signal: an F is the bureau’s lowest rating, and Gotogate has held it consistently for years, which points to an unresolved, structural customer-service gap rather than a one-off bad quarter.
See Related: Best Travel Apps & Websites for Deals
What Customers Actually Complain About
Reading through BBB filings and Trustpilot reviews, the complaints cluster around four recurring issues, not a random scatter of one-off problems:
- Refund delays after airline-initiated cancellations. Several BBB complainants describe the airline cancelling or changing a flight, refunding the money to Gotogate, and then waiting months (in some cases over a year) for Gotogate to pass the refund on.
- Price increases mid-checkout. Customers report the fare changing after they have entered passenger and payment details, sometimes attributed to seat-selection or “flexible ticket” add-ons that are easy to miss during booking.
- Unresponsive phone and email support. The most common single complaint theme, especially when a customer needs to change or cancel a booking outside business hours in their timezone.
- Confusion about which company to call. Because Etraveli Group’s fares surface across Gotogate, Mytrip, and metasearch sites, some travelers do not realize which entity actually holds their booking until something goes wrong.
Three BBB reviews, quoted as filed (initials only, per BBB’s own display convention), illustrate the pattern:
“I have been attempting to secure a refund for a cancelled flight for over a year. Despite numerous follow-ups, I have received no tangible progress.” — Lekha M., BBB complaint
“I got swindled for about 800 dollars for a fare (base + seats + baggage) that airlines was charging less for.” — Sur N., BBB complaint
Not every review is negative; a meaningful share of the roughly 150,000 Trustpilot reviews are 4- and 5-star, usually from travelers whose booking went through cleanly and who found the fare genuinely cheaper than booking direct. The risk is concentrated in what happens when something goes wrong, not in the baseline booking experience.
A Documented Case: How a $670 Refund Turned Into “Buyer Beware”
In January 2022, CBS Chicago’s Tim McNicholas reported on Ned Milic, co-owner of an Elk Grove Village, Illinois freight company, who booked a $670 flight to Serbia through Gotogate. When his plans changed, he could not reach anyone by phone to adjust or cancel the ticket. His bank issued a refund, then reversed it and sent the money back to Gotogate instead. At the time, GoToGate held an F rating from the BBB based on 736 complaints, 73 of them unresolved. Once CBS contacted the company directly, Gotogate promised a full refund within hours and acknowledged customer-service issues it said were being addressed.
That pattern — slow or absent response through normal channels, faster resolution once a journalist or regulator gets involved — recurs across the BBB complaint history reviewed for this piece. It is the single biggest practical argument for paying by credit card: a chargeback gives you a second path to your money that does not depend on Gotogate answering the phone.
Is Gotogate Actually Cheaper Than Booking Directly?
Sometimes, yes. As an OTA, Gotogate can bundle fares across multiple airlines and occasionally surfaces prices lower than an airline’s own site, particularly on international routes with codeshare or interline itineraries. The savings are rarely dramatic once you account for optional fees, and several reviewers report the displayed price shifting once seat selection or a “flexible ticket” option is added during checkout. Compare the total (not just the headline fare) against the airline’s direct site and a metasearch tool like a flight price tracker before you commit, and take a screenshot of the final price on the payment page in case it changes. If your card is charged more than the confirmed total, that is exactly the kind of discrepancy a chargeback with your credit card issuer is built to resolve.
Gotogate vs. Expedia vs. Booking.com vs. Kayak
| Site | BBB rating | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gotogate | F | Occasionally lower international fares | Refund speed if the airline cancels or you need changes |
| Expedia | A+ (BBB-accredited) | Bundled flight + hotel packages, 24/7 phone support | Bundle pricing can hide the per-item cost |
| Booking.com | Not BBB-rated (primarily lodging) | Hotels with free cancellation, property reviews | Flight search is a newer, smaller part of the platform |
| Kayak | A (BBB-accredited) | Comparing fares across airlines and OTAs before booking | Kayak is a search engine: you still book through whichever OTA it points to, including Gotogate |
Notice the last row: Kayak, Google Flights, Skyscanner, and Agoda frequently surface Gotogate as one of the booking options for a given fare, especially on international routes with airlines like Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines, or Air France that Gotogate has fare agreements with. Checking a flight on Kayak or Skyscanner does not avoid Gotogate; it just shows you the price. Read the merchant name on the final checkout page, not just the search-results page, before you enter payment details.
See Related: Are You a Travel Snob? Here’s Your Test to See! | Holafly vs Airalo: International Travel SIM Card Options
How to Protect Yourself If You Do Book With Gotogate
- Pay by credit card, not debit. Credit cards give you a chargeback right that does not depend on Gotogate cooperating; several of the fastest resolutions in the complaint record came only after a chargeback was filed.
- Screenshot the final price before you submit payment. If the charged amount differs, that screenshot is your evidence for a dispute.
- Get the airline’s own booking reference (PNR), not just Gotogate’s. Once you have the airline’s confirmation code, you can call the airline directly for schedule changes, seat assignments, or cancellations without going through Gotogate at all.
- File complaints in writing, and keep a paper trail. Gotogate’s own refund/complaint process asks for a written form within a set window after your trip; email (not phone) creates a timestamped record if you later need to escalate to your card issuer or the BBB.
- Consider travel insurance or a refundable fare for anything non-refundable and high-value. The complaints in this article overwhelmingly involve non-refundable or partially-refundable tickets where Gotogate held the money the airline had already returned.
Should You Book With Gotogate?
Gotogate can make sense if: you found a meaningfully lower fare than the airline’s direct price, your itinerary is simple (one airline, no connections you’d need help rebooking), and you’re paying by credit card so you have a fallback if something goes wrong.
Book directly with the airline or a BBB-accredited OTA instead if: your trip involves a tight connection, a multi-airline itinerary, or a date you might need to change; you want same-day phone support; or the price difference versus booking direct is small enough that the added refund risk isn’t worth it.
See Related: Best Tours in the World for Avid Travelers
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Gotogate a scam?
No. Gotogate is a licensed travel agency owned by Etraveli Group and has operated in the US since 2017. It fulfills the large majority of bookings correctly. Its problems are concentrated in refund speed and customer service responsiveness when something goes wrong, not in taking payment and never delivering a ticket.
Is Gotogate the same company as Booking.com?
No. Booking Holdings tried to buy Gotogate’s parent, Etraveli Group, for about $1.8 billion in 2022, but the European Commission blocked the deal in September 2023. Etraveli Group remains independently owned (majority CVC Capital Partners, with KKR as a minority investor since 2025), with a commercial fare-supply partnership with Booking.com that runs through 2028.
How do I actually get a refund from Gotogate?
Use Gotogate’s written refund/complaint form rather than relying on phone support, submit it within the timeframe stated in your booking confirmation, and keep records of every submission. If you don’t get a response within a few weeks, contact your credit card issuer to start a chargeback and file a complaint with the BBB, which tends to prompt faster responses based on the pattern in public complaint records.
Why does Gotogate show up when I search on Kayak or Google Flights?
Metasearch engines like Kayak and Google Flights show fares from many OTAs and airlines, including Gotogate and its sister brand Mytrip. The metasearch site is not selling you the ticket; whichever merchant name appears on the checkout page is who you’re actually booking with, so check that name before entering payment details.
Related Resources
- Best Tours in the World for Avid Travelers
- Most Romantic Getaways in the World: Destinations for Couples
- Affordable Travel Planning Tips
Sources
- Better Business Bureau, Gotogate, Inc. business profile (F rating, 503 complaints, license ST40907) — bbb.org, checked 2026-07-18
- Trustpilot, Gotogate reviews (www.gotogate.com) — trustpilot.com/review/www.gotogate.com
- CBS Chicago, “Customer Service Complaints Have Piled Up For Travel Agency GoToGate,” Tim McNicholas, January 6, 2022 — cbsnews.com/chicago
- European Commission press release and Booking Holdings statements on the blocked Etraveli Group acquisition, September 2023
- Etraveli Group corporate site, “Our Brands” and company history — etraveligroup.com
Last updated July 18, 2026: rewrote this review from scratch with current BBB and Trustpilot data (previously undated and largely unsourced), added the Etraveli Group ownership history and the blocked Booking Holdings acquisition, added named complaint examples and a documented refund case, and added a comparison table and step-by-step protection checklist. Removed unsupported claims from the prior version, including a vague reference to “official certifications” that did not name any accrediting body.
Leave a Reply