ByWhatAllSay Editorial TeamFact-checkedUpdated Nov 1, 202610 min read

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VerdictGood fit for fixed dates

Gotogate is an IATA-certified ticket agent inside Sweden's Etraveli Group, searching 550-plus airlines in 75 countries. It is a good fit when your dates are settled and you want the lowest fare on the route. If the trip might move, price the airline's own site too: changes run through Gotogate and carry a per-passenger service fee.

Cost to useFree to search; you pay the fare plus any add-ons you select
Catalogue550+ airlines, plus hotels and car hire
Markets75 countries, 35 languages, 24/7 remote support
AccreditationIATA Certified Travel Agent; part of Etraveli Group
Before you bookConfirm your booking reference on the airline's own site once the email lands
6.8

A compiled score, not a hands-on one. Gotogate scores well on choice, price and the booking flow itself, and lower on what happens after the ticket is issued, which is where the published feedback concentrates.

How we made this estimate

We did not book a trip ourselves for this piece. The score is compiled from ten published sources read on 1 and 2 November 2026: Gotogate's own about, travel-conditions and support pages, Etraveli Group's company disclosures, the US Department of Transportation's refund rules, four rating platforms (Trustpilot, Google Play, the Apple App Store and Sitejabber) and one independent writer who documented six bookings across the group's brands.

Every price, fee and policy below is quoted from one of those sources. Where the platforms disagree, we say so rather than averaging the disagreement away.

What Gotogate actually is

Gotogate is an online travel agency, not an airline. It sells tickets on behalf of carriers, which means the airline sets the fare rules and Gotogate handles the transaction and the paperwork around it.

Its own about page puts the catalogue at “over 550 airlines to choose from” and says the company operates “in 75 countries worldwide” and serves “over 40 million travelers annually”. The same page describes the staff as “IATA Certified Travel Agents”, runs sites in 35 languages, and states plainly that support is 24/7 but that “in-person customer support isn't available”. Alongside flights, the site also sells hotel stays and car hire.

The parent is Etraveli Group, founded in 2000 as Seat24 and headquartered in Stockholm. Etraveli describes itself as the largest technology company selling flights in Europe, with over 48 million travellers a year across more than 75 countries, 3,200 employees and 11 offices. CVC Capital Partners bought the group in 2017 and KKR took a minority stake in 2025.

One detail worth holding on to: Etraveli also runs Mytrip and Flightnetwork. Those are sibling brands on the same platform, so switching between them rarely changes the economics or the support path.

Is the fare genuinely cheaper?

Often, yes, and that is the whole reason the site exists. Agencies like Gotogate can price below an airline's own published fare because they buy inventory on agency terms and make their margin on volume and add-ons rather than the headline ticket.

The independent writer we read, Kosupa Travel, found the group's brands competitive on specific long-haul pairings including London to Tunis and Tokyo Narita to Dubai. That is route-level, not universal: a fare that beats the airline on one city pair can match or trail it on the next.

The practical move is the one that writer and others recommend: compare the final total, not the first number you see. Add the bag you need and the seat you want on both sites before deciding, because a cheaper base fare that excludes checked luggage can land above the airline's bundled price.

Quick check: open the airline's own booking page in a second tab for the same dates and cabin. If the totals land within a few pounds or dollars of each other, booking direct buys you a simpler route to changes later for no real extra cost.

What you pay beyond the fare

Gotogate publishes a service-fee schedule in its travel conditions, which is more than some agencies do. These are the agency's own charges and sit on top of whatever the airline charges for the same action.

ServiceFee per passenger (US, VAT included)
Finding an alternative flight after the airline changes its timetable or cancels$17
A change or cancellation you request, or manual help such as adding a passenger$45
A refund enquiry raised after the original departure date$73
A refund request where the airline cancelled your flightNo agency fee

Two of those are worth planning around. The $45 is the one most travellers meet, because any voluntary date change goes through the agency rather than the airline. The $73 applies once your flight has already departed, so a missed flight is the most expensive moment to start a refund conversation.

Gotogate also sells a “Cancel For Any Reason” add-on at booking. Its terms refund the original booking minus the cost of the add-on itself, which makes it a straightforward insurance calculation rather than a free option.

What happens if plans change

This is the part of the decision that matters most, and it is the part most buyers skip. Because Gotogate is a ticket agent rather than a carrier, a rule many US travellers rely on does not reach the booking.

The US Department of Transportation's 24-hour rule, at 14 CFR 259.5, requires airlines to let you cancel within 24 hours of booking for a full refund when you book at least seven days ahead. Gotogate's own support pages confirm the rule does not apply to tickets bought through an online travel agency, and that as a third-party agent the company is not subject to it. Ticket agents fall under a separate obligation, 14 CFR 399.80, to make a “proper refund promptly” when the service cannot be delivered as contracted.

On timing, the travel conditions say a refund payment is initiated within 48 hours of Gotogate receiving your cancellation request. The money itself still depends on the airline releasing it first, so the agency's 48-hour step is the start of the chain rather than the end of it.

Good to know: Kosupa Travel's advice after six bookings was to keep screenshots of every support exchange and to expect refunds to need follow-up rather than arriving automatically. Treating a refund as a tracked task, not a completed one, matches what the published feedback describes.

What the ratings actually say

Gotogate is one of the more heavily reviewed travel brands anywhere, and the numbers do not point the same way. We read four platforms plus one first-hand account.

SourceScoreSample
Trustpilot (gotogate.com)2.5 / 5151,923 reviews
Google Play (Gotogate app)4.1 / 5~31,900 reviews
Apple App Store (Gotogate app)4.7 / 5~5,700 ratings
Sitejabber (now SmartCustomer)3.7 / 53,420 reviews
Kosupa Travel (independent, Sept 2026)5 of 6 bookings problem-free6 bookings over a year

The Trustpilot distribution is the most informative figure on the page. Of those 151,923 reviews, 34% are five-star and 34% are one-star, with only 9% at three stars.

That shape tells you something an average cannot. Most customers either have a clean transaction or a difficult one, and few land in between.

Why the scores disagree

The gap between a 2.5 on Trustpilot and a 4.7 on the App Store is not noise. The two platforms capture different moments in the same journey.

App-store ratings are prompted inside the app, so they mostly reflect searching, booking and checking an itinerary. That part of the product is well rated across both stores, and the Android app was last updated on 20 October 2026, which suggests active maintenance.

Trustpilot and Sitejabber attract people who went looking for a review site, and travellers rarely do that after a trip went to plan. Sitejabber's own summary notes that the complaints there cluster on customer service, card charges and full refunds, which is the post-booking stage rather than the booking itself.

Read together, the sources agree more than the headline numbers suggest: the search and purchase work well, and the friction sits in the handful of cases where something has to be undone.

What works well, what to check

What works well

  • Genuine breadth, with the company's own about page citing over 550 airlines across 75 countries.
  • Fares that beat airline-direct pricing on specific routes, per the independent account we read.
  • Strong app ratings on both stores (4.1 Google Play, 4.7 App Store), covering search, booking and itinerary checks.
  • IATA-certified agent inside Etraveli Group, a 25-year-old Stockholm company serving 48 million travellers a year.
  • Service fees published in the travel conditions rather than discovered at checkout.

What to know before you buy

  • Confirm your booking reference on the airline's own website once the confirmation arrives; the independent writer we read treats this as a routine step after any agency booking.
  • Check whether a checked bag is included before comparing totals, since cheaper fares often exclude it.
  • Voluntary date changes carry a $45 per-passenger agency fee on top of the airline's own change cost, so price flexibility before you buy it.
  • The US 24-hour free-cancellation rule does not cover agency bookings, per Gotogate's own support pages.
  • Support is remote only, and multiple customers on Trustpilot and Sitejabber report that refunds needed follow-up; keep a record of each exchange.

Who Gotogate suits best

The brand fits a specific traveller well. If your dates are fixed, your route is priced competitively there, and you are buying a straightforward return or one-way, the agency does the one job you need and does it cheaply.

It suits price-led bookers on long-haul and multi-carrier itineraries especially, because that is where an agency can combine carriers in ways a single airline's own site cannot.

A different option may serve you better if the trip is likely to move, if you are travelling on business with changeable plans, or if you want one phone number that controls both the ticket and the flight. In those cases the price gap is often smaller than the value of a direct relationship with the carrier.

When another option fits better

The airline's own website

Prefer it when flexibility matters more than the last few pounds. Booking direct in the US brings the 24-hour cancellation rule into play, and any change or refund is a single conversation with the carrier instead of two.

Mytrip or Flightnetwork

Both are Etraveli brands on the same platform, so expect comparable pricing and the same support model. They are worth a price check on your route rather than a change of approach, and the independent account we read found Gotogate the easier of the three for looking up an existing booking.

A travel agent or a flexible fare

Worth considering for complex multi-city trips, group bookings, or any itinerary you expect to amend. Paying more up front for a changeable ticket can cost less than a $45 agency change fee plus the airline's own fare difference.

Is Gotogate a real travel agency?

Yes. Gotogate is an online travel agency owned by Etraveli Group, a Stockholm-based company founded in 2000 that reports serving over 48 million travellers a year. Gotogate's own about page describes its staff as IATA Certified Travel Agents. It sells airline tickets as an intermediary and does not operate any aircraft itself.

Who owns Gotogate?

Etraveli Group, headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. CVC Capital Partners acquired the group in 2017 and KKR took a minority stake in 2025. The same group runs Mytrip and Flightnetwork on the same technology platform.

Does Gotogate charge a fee to cancel or change a flight?

Yes, for anything you initiate. Gotogate's travel conditions list $45 per passenger (US, VAT included) for a change or cancellation you request, and $73 per passenger for a refund enquiry raised after the original departure date. If the airline cancels your flight, Gotogate states it does not charge a fee for the refund request, though finding you an alternative flight after a timetable change is listed at $17 per passenger. The airline's own change rules and fare difference apply on top.

Can I cancel a Gotogate booking within 24 hours for a full refund?

Not as a right. The US Department of Transportation's 24-hour rule applies to airlines, and Gotogate's support pages confirm it does not extend to tickets bought through an online travel agency. Your cancellation options come from the airline's fare rules, or from Gotogate's paid “Cancel For Any Reason” add-on if you bought it at booking.

How long does a Gotogate refund take?

Gotogate's travel conditions say a refund payment is initiated within 48 hours of it receiving your cancellation request. The arrival time then depends on the airline releasing the funds and on your card issuer. Customers on Trustpilot and Sitejabber commonly report needing to follow up, so keep your case reference and a record of each exchange.

Should I book with Gotogate or directly with the airline?

Compare the final totals with the bag and seat you actually need, then decide on flexibility. Gotogate often wins on price, particularly on long-haul and multi-carrier routes. Booking direct is usually worth a modest premium if your dates could move, because changes and refunds stay with the carrier and avoid the agency service fee.

Bottom line

Gotogate is a legitimate, long-established agency that does one thing cheaply: it finds and sells you a fare across 550-plus airlines. Our compiled 6.8 reflects that split personality, with strong marks for choice, price and the booking app, and weaker ones for what happens if the ticket needs undoing.

Confidence in this estimate is high on the company facts and fees, which come from primary documents, and moderate on the service picture, where a 151,923-review Trustpilot score of 2.5 sits against app ratings above 4. Book it for settled plans, compare the full total against the airline first, and check your booking reference with the carrier once it lands.