South African Airways Reviews

On 8 February 2016 I booked a flight for Jaco ** on a SAA flight from East London to Johannesburg. Booking Ref: **. 30 April 2016 to depart 9.15am from EL to Jhb. Jaco was suppose to get on a Air Mauritius flight in Johannesburg to fly to Mauritius at 13.35pm for his brother's wedding. He arrived at EL airport 2 hours prior to departure time. They were only told after waiting that the flight has been delayed. So it went on. If someone could have said the flight was delayed and would not be taking off for entire day he could have gone to Kulula to book their next flight. By the time they were told that the flight were not to happen the Air Mauritius flight in Jhb has already left... He was eventually flew to Durban then from there to Jhb.

He only the next day got another flight at 13.35pm from JHB to Mauritius. AT A COST OF A EXTRA R 6100. In total he spend more than a day at the airport. Lost his flight to Mauritius. Lost a day in Mauritius FOR WHICH HE ALSO ALREADY PAID THE ACCOMMODATION AND then extra trip from the airport to North of Island (he was suppose to drive there with group and not pay another R 2100 for the trip up). ONLY TO BE TOLD BY SAA that they only need to get him to his destination of booking, whether on time or not.

Is this the type of customer service you obey by? The flight being delayed indefinite caused him to lose OVER R 12 000. DON'T GET ME WRONG I understand things go wrong but surely SAA could have put him on a SAA flight to Mauritius?? And not have a NO CARE attitude... I am not asking for a refund but a goodwill sort of agreement. Can SAA then at least give him credit of a flight to Mauritius that was lost due to SAA. I hope I will get a reply to this mail as it's really sad what has happened. What if he did not have the R6100 he had to pay in at airport to get to Mauritius? I can email all supporting documents as proof.

This same thing happened to me and my kids earlier this year on our way back to Gaborone from Washington Dulles. After waiting for four hours at Gaborone Airport despite having been on a 16 hour flight with two toddlers, I was told I would be informed when my luggage gets to the appropriate destination only for them to call me to come pick it up and I had to make a 2 hour trip back to rectify a problem I didn't create in the first place. And to top it, the desk staff were so unfriendly and cold. Now, same thing again happening to my husband in a country he is not a resident of. I do not think this is the way Star Alliance to which SAA proudly admits to being a member treats its clients. I have called the complaints desk severally and was put on hold for hours unending. This is so upsetting and I wish there was a way I could make them pay. Bottom line, don't fly SAA except your life depends on it.

Coming back to the ticket counter that ** lady left her post and I was helped by a different lady. She took my ticket and booked me in on my original/old ticket, with JMJ, to Pietermaritzburg and back. Now I am trying to get refund for second ticket which I was forced to buy and never used. Airlink says "No it is Travelstart." Travelstart says "No it is Airlink problem." In other words: To MY opinion Airlink made a mistake by not accepting initially my driving license. But the customer is sent from "pillar to post". Can Airlink at least try to correct their mistake made by their employee.

I also received a call from the SAA rep saying that the bags got lost completely. How on earth could it happen? They say it is impossible to steal there as there are cameras everywhere. But the bags couldn't just disappear!!! We even provide them with the photos of the bags to make it easier to look for them... There were a lot of valuable gifts in those bags and personal stuff and it is obvious to me that they just attracted somebody's attention at the airport as we know for a fact that the bags' content gets scanned. I am shocked if not to say more! Terrible customer service. Nobody replies to emails. And they do a huge favor talking to you on the phone. SAA doesn't deserve even a 1 star. I will never ever fly with this ridiculously awful company and will recommend everyone to use something else.

I have never been inconvenienced like that in my life, we paid SAA for God sakes. I was in tears, stood there hopeless for 4 hours waiting for Lundi to tell us if we were getting our bags or not. This guy sat in his office the whole time and we had to run after him, in and out of his office and yet he knew where we were sitting. The wedding was at 14h00 and we only arrived there 4 hours later. We deserve more than just a compensation, reimbursed us for the clothes we had to buy. We deserve a good explanation as to why our bag didn't make it to ELS. After reading reviews I have concluded that SAA is not what I thought it was; no wonder they are doing so badly every year and exhausting funds from the government. They desperately need training on customer service.

$450 is over 40% of a child's fare! $1350 was 38% of the total fare paid. Their terms and conditions are clear as mud. I'm trying to find something on their website of the different charges for different fares, nothing is clear! If I knew they were going to charge me that much I never would have cancelled! Terrible service, terrible company! Don't fly SAA!!!

She emailed me a new electronic ticket and we thought all was well. In the event, it was a complete mess. Every leg of the flight was cancelled and no bookings were in place. The return trip to Johannesburg had to be fought for at Cape Town Airport, with Mango and SAA both accusing each other. The Munich-JHB return leg was missing and I had to contact a friend in SA to fight to get it reinstated.

On arrival in Munich we discovered we were one of many who had their bookings either cancelled or shifted. There was a crowd around the check-in counters. The flight was grossly overbooked. The German check-in agents tried their best. In the end a number of people were bumped up into Business Class!! (Not us). What a slap in the face for those passengers who had actually paid the Business Class airfare. The flight itself was good, but the aircraft is tired. The seats are broken, the TV screens poor, the hostesses are surly. I will stay away from SAA wherever possible. It's a bankrupt airline with incompetent management, bailed out constantly by taxpayer's hard-earned money.

The SAA supervisor suggested we contact our travel agent in the U.S. We had no working phone or computer and asked if she would please help us. She turned and walked away! We were abruptly left completely on our own 9,000 miles from home, frightened, in a hostile international situation, receiving no customer service - no help of any kind whatsoever - from the airline we had chosen. My wife and I are 70 years old, and after six orthopedic surgeries, she is handicapped. Our advanced age and my wife's handicapped condition were of no importance whatsoever to the SAA staff. We did not let age or infirmity prevent our taking this long-awaited "dream trip" to South Africa. But it instantly had become a nightmare that was about to get much worse.

With great difficulty and expense, we finally contacted our travel agent who said we should simply be put on the next flight to Cape Town. When we convinced her that SAA would not even consider doing that, she investigated further and called us back to say SAA was demanding more money to "restore" our tickets - a lot more money - $699.20 US, 9,800ZAR. A close friend in the U.S. made the necessary phone calls and arrangements, and this exorbitant penalty was paid to SAA through our travel agent. Then, and only then, were our 5 remaining flights restored to us - same times, same flight numbers, same seats, same exact everything. We felt robbed in broad daylight. We felt kidnapped until we could pay the ransom. This penalty completely wiped out our personal expense funds for the remainder of our trip.

I read every word on our original tickets, including the fine print. There's absolutely nothing said about this egregious penalty should we be made late for any reason, let alone when this troubled nation was in the midst of unnerving political turmoil and civil unrest. In my opinion, this is rank corruption. We were "held hostage" by SAA. In Accra, Ghana, we were also forced to remain on the plane while it was being fumigated and made very sick. We've made appeal after appeal to SAA for a full and comprehensive review of this matter, but have heard nothing.

From reading many other reviews, this seems par for the SAA course. This incident has also been reported to the United States Embassy in Pretoria and to a representative of Star Alliance, who assured us this is not the way Star Alliance should ever treat its customers. There was no respect, no human compassion whatsoever, shown to us by SAA. A bankrupt airline cannot gouge customers like this to achieve solvency. We will never fly with SAA again and have written this to warn all others!

Our bags were only checked thru to Jo'burg (and we had to collect them upon arrival and needed to get boarding passes for the flight we had been "automatically" re-booked on to Dulles leaving at 20:00 that they were holding for us. An arrangement we were not even informed of until we landed. Upon arrival to Jo'burg going down the slippery jet way steps to the shuttle, Mr. ** slipped and sliced open his right big toe which was profusely bleeding and was immediately reported to SAA agents who didn't even have a first aid kit with a bandage, requiring him to use toilet paper to absorb the bleeding. We collected our bags in Jo'burg and went to the baggage recheck desk and waited in line for 30 minutes for the "supervisor" to tell us we needed to go to another desk to get tickets before she could book our bags.

We wait for another 30 minutes for the people at that desk to tell us that we had to go back to the line we were just in, because in the hour that we had been waiting in line, they couldn't hold the flight any longer and had closed the gate. We were sent back to the original desk with the "supervisor" who told us that there was no flight being held for us, no one ever told us that, and we were being booked into a hotel and being re-booked on a flight 24 hours AFTER the original flight we had missed. As we're walking out of the airport, all of our bags in hand we run into the gate agent for the flight to Dulles, who informed us that, Yes in fact the flight was being held for us but they were told that no one else was coming and to close the gates. Additionally South African Airways refused to book our final leg from Dulles to Tampa saying that we would have to take care of that domestically when we land in Washington, DC.

At this point, we have no idea when we will be returning back to Florida. We are scheduled to work on Monday and won't be arriving back into Dulles until early Monday AM with no connection back to Tampa as of now and Zero options offered by South African Airways. We have people that we are paying to watch our pets that will need additional compensation, we are missing out on a day of work, possibly more. We are stranded in Jo'burg, hoping to get on an international flight to the USA with no guarantees and South African Airways refusing to make any other accommodations or provide any other options on other airlines. We can't even tell our own employers when we'll be back to work, because we don't know which puts our jobs in jeopardy. There is a tremendous breakdown in communication amongst SAA employees, a huge lack of customer service and I am not surprised that this company participates in an annual bail out.

I wish I had done more due diligence when booking our flights, because it seems as though our circumstances are not the exception, but the rule. The way this company does business is shameful, the way they treat their customers is deplorable. I'm apprehensive to even send this now as we are still stuck in SAA purgatory and I fear a complaint lodged prior to our safe return to American soil will strand us even further. At this point I am looking for domestic flights from IAD to TPA and considering just booking one to ensure that I do in fact get home. This experience has been expensive and awful. We had a great vacation, spent a lot of money in this country, we did our part to stimulate the economy but SAA makes me VERY hesitant to ever return here.

Addendum: I'm glad that I didn't send this when I had because our experience has gone from worse to unfathomable. We were booked onto flight 209 out of Jo'burg. While waiting in the gate security line, the searching agent who went thru my bags insisted that I give her one of the packs of cigarettes from the carton I had purchased as a gift before letting me thru. Flight 209 was then an hour delayed, sitting at the gate because there was "no cork screw on board" according to the captain so we waited on the plane for AN HOUR until catering came to bring a cork screw. Because of the delay we missed our connection at Dulles to Tampa which was supposed to depart at 8:30 am.

We have been re-booked a flight at 17:30 pm! After speaking to Krystal at customer service, who has been the ONLY semi helpful person employed by SAA, she managed to have Lilly, supposedly the ONLY representative for SAA in a major International Airport to come to speak with us as we are now stuck here for 10 hours and as an additional slap in the face, she offered us $15 meal vouchers. This alone is shameful and completely unacceptable. The infuriation and disappointment I feel with South African airlines is beyond words. This company has cost us not only valuable time but also several thousand dollars in lost revenue and put our employment and livelihood in jeopardy.

While we understand that there are unforeseeable things that happen, especially with international travel the complete lack of customer service and indifference regarding our loss of time and money, the lack of willingness to do anything to accommodate us at all is what we find unacceptable. We are requesting full reimbursement for the S. AFRICA to USA leg of this trip for passengers ** and **. In addition the monies spent on oodles and beverage while stranded in Dulles Airport over the $15 issued by SAA (receipts will be provided). We do not want a voucher or credit as we Never intended to fly SAA ever again.

Since then, there has been no word form SAA as to when it will be sent to me in Munich. I call Munich, Frankfurt and Johannesburg several times a day and they said that there has been no communication or update on my luggage. All they have to do is just put the suitcase on the next plane to Munich and they just ignore the requests. And judging by all the comments I have heard about theft, I am afraid that anything valuable in my luggage, my evening gowns and jewelry won't make it if or when I ever get the suitcase back.

After 2 hours the attendant in charge sent me to a seat next to a woman they had not socialized this with. She was angered to have someone sit in the empty seat next to her and yelled at me and threw (not exaggerating) her pillow at my face, so I promptly returned to my broken seat. The flight attendant came along and asked so I told them what happened. They told me (ordered me) to go back there, saying if she complained again they'd 'put her in her place as no rider gets away with that on their flight'. Of course I didn't go back there as I wasn't interested in being the attendant's pawn to make their case for them. It was lost on them to just let me go to one of the other many empty seats.

So 30 minutes later they let me sit somewhere else. All this time they had turned out the lights as quickly as they could and literally proceeded to yell at anyone to sit down who dared stand up to get out a bag or go to the bathroom (again, not exaggerating here). There was no turbulence, and the safety belt light was not on, they just didn't want anyone stirring. The crew continued to yell at everyone to go to sleep who got up for any reason... including me who got up to use the facilities and get my bag that was still up in my broken seat I didn't have access to. This went on the entire 8 hour flight.

I have 'never' been on a flight where the riders were yelled at for getting up during lights out. ;-) After long arduous travel, and 8 more hours on another plane, nerves are frayed and this crew escalated vs. de-escalated all stress on board. As soon as the crew in Dakar switched, there were no issues. Needless to say, the first two hours with nothing to read, hear, or watch + 8 hours of hearing them yell at riders including me...was awful under the circumstances. Never again SAA. I'm going through Europe next time regardless of the cost.

What is SAA and the authorities in SA doing about all these thefts? It appears...nothing. The online complaints go back years and there was a video recently doing the rounds showing the baggage handlers throwing luggage around and smashing pieces against each other and the conveyor. I have put in for compensation and will see what happens. So many people have luggage damaged and items stolen and have had for years, so clearly the SAA management and the aviation authorities must know about it. I recommend tourists to Southern Africa but until such time as I receive compensation and the issue is resolved I will not be recommending anyone flies SAA.

I subsequently approached the Lead attendant and asked him about this. He then asked the baggage handlers to retrieve my bag and then put it in overhead stowage in Business Class. When I collected my bag in Frankfurt I noticed that my bag had been opened and checked the contents. I found that one of my shirts had been stolen. Why must the baggage handlers steal? - also in such a short time - Is there no supervision with regards to this? Shame on you South African Airlines!! I feel that this was not handled correctly, and feel that South African Airlines' flight attendants are trying to prove a point causing me to lose clothing. Had my laptop or camera been checked I would have lost it. Why, when the lead attendant discovered he had made a mistake was he able to put my bag on the overhead stowage? I could have put my camera bag under the seat in front of me.

FlySAA, I just want my luggage back. These people you have employed to help passengers are not doing a good job. Right now you do not even deserve a one star rating. I am shocked that in this day and age a person would have their baggage lost for this long! The luggage reference number provided, it doesn't even work on your baggage tracer page. It's frustrating, disheartening, distressing that you have lost what belongs to me, when I trusted you with it!

This is insane. By far the very worst service I have every received from an airline. I made a point of asking upon check-in if our luggage would arrive as I wanted to be sure our children would get their Christmas presents. The agent said for sure it would. Over half of our plane did not receive their luggage. The check-in agents should have been made aware of this problem so that people could bring in their carry-ons any necessities.

Other issues... We departed at midnight. When we got on the plane, the lights were left on for all but the last hour of the flight. A movie was turned on but no sound available and a meal was served - it was MIDNIGHT. All we wanted was for our children and ourselves to sleep. Service and knowledge of agents when calling the baggage claim line is terrible. We had a fabulous time in South Africa. However, I strongly suggest not flying with this airline.

Again my luggage was not on the flight. I have been to the airport twice a day since Monday to no avail. I visited SA offices today in Dakar and could not see anyone as the country manager was out of the station whilst his deputy had some important guests he was attending to. I resorted to ranting on Twitter and a response from flysaa us advising that they didn't like what I was saying on Twitter and gave me their email address to send my complaints which I did. However I received an automated response stating that my query will be dealt with within ten days. I'm desperate and believe SA has no handle on my problem. It appears they really do not care about their customers and do not have any regard for me as a customer. I will ensure the whole world hears about this.

On arrival at Dulles, Washington she was accused of trying to enter the US illegally as she was a permanent resident. When we explained the situation to the border and customers police, they said SAA did not know what they were doing. I wrote to SAA customer services and after 2 months received a reply saying no action would be taken as we had not presented the I-797 notice of action form. I wrote back to them and attached the document to show the customer service people the form we had presented and explained that the representative said she would not accept anything but the "original green card that looks like a credit card" Customer service have not replied to my emails.

We have a 4-year-old son and we need to get home. We are now told our tickets are non-changeable and non-refundable. We have emailed various departments in SAA only to have various staff either ignore us or simply refuse to help us. SAA now says we have to pay penalties of R10000. We don't have this kind of money. Please help us get home.

On my last trip to Namibia on May 22, I flew from Bangkok to Johannesburg via Thai Airways and from Johannesburg to Windhoek via SAA, both on business class. My trip to Windhoek from Johannesburg required me to obtain a SAA boarding pass at a transit counter check-in at OR Tambo International Airport, while both of my staffs had gotten their boarding passes in Bangkok. I was a bit surprise that when I approached a business class/Star Alliance Gold counter check-in, a lady at the counter just pointed at me to go to economy counter - without any greeting, smile nor asked me any question. So I had to explain to her that I was traveling on business class and I needed to obtain my boarding pass, only until then that I had gotten some services.

On the way back to Bangkok on June 14 via SA 73 with ETD at 07:15 am, it was my understanding that for international traveller, we need to check in two hours prior to departure. We arrived at Windhoek Airport at 04:55 am and we were the first persons to arrive at the business line check-in. There were two lines for economy class check-in, with two passengers on one line and three passengers on the other. By 05:25 am, there was no SAA representative who had arrived at the counter yet. At that time, I had to go to the toilet, but I told my staffs to stay in line.

At the time which I had come back, there were still two economy counters opened and it was approximately 05:30 then. My staffs had informed me that they think the SAA ladies wanted us to move to economy line, but at that moment, there were already many passengers queuing to be served. I decided to walk to one lady and advised her that I was on business class. She then told me to wait for other staffs to come and serve. By 05:36, one lady showed up. Then the lady at economy counter informed her that I had been waiting. She took a couple more minutes at the counter before she called me to her counter. By then another lady came into a counter next to her.

I handed her three of our passports and tickets, advised her that we need to check our luggage through to Bangkok. She then asked me whether all three of us were on business class. I informed her that only I was, but the other two were my staffs and they could not speak any English. Right then, this lady decided to say I was supposed to be checking-in at economy class, not business class. At that moment, I tried to explain to her the situations and I have been doing this all over the world. She then said I did not have to tell her how to do and she knew her job very well. She had also mentioned that she had been told to do this, and I was supposed to go and check-in at economy class.

At that moment, there were a big queue of passengers in economy line waiting for check-in and I still had to go clear my rifle with the police. I decided to keep my calm and talked to her politely. She then turn to her colleagues and spoke in African in front of myself. I have absolutely no idea what she was saying, but from her gestures and from what had happened, I could easily figure out that she was telling her colleagues that I was the only one on business class, watch how she would handle and sorted me out.

She told me with unpleasant tone that she would check in for us only this time. Next time, we all have to go to economy class to check in. She then started to work on the computer. After a while, there were two more passengers on business class line. As she did not acknowledge me on checking all the luggage through Bangkok, I decided to tell her again. She immediately showed me one of the tags that it was checked through to Bangkok and rudely said she knew what she is doing. When she started to attach this tags to the bag, I asked her to please attach an orange priority tags to the bag as I was on a business class and a Star Alliance Gold Card member. She plainly decided to ignore me.

So I decided to ask her again and told her that I do really need this orange priority tags in Bangkok, otherwise my bags will be greatly delayed at Bangkok Airport. She then told me that she had already attached SAA Premier Class tag and they are virtually the same thing. (My last trip departed from Harare, Zimbabwe in April 2013, even though we were all on economy class (no business class), all of our bags had this orange priority tags attached as I was a Star Alliance Gold class member without asking. Actually anywhere.)

When we were at the gate to board the plane to Windhoek, I then noticed that my boarding pass did not show my Frequent Flyer membership number (**). During this check-in, I decided to ask the lady to please correct with this matter. But what she had said to me was "Why did I not check it properly?" This was rude to me, so now it was my mistake to not check for it, not her colleague in Johannesburg even though it was in SAA computer system. And yes, I did not get this issue solved.

The first bag we had checked in weighed 27kg. Second bag weighed 19kg. And the third bag weighed 29kg. She said this bag was overweighed, and I should have checked this bag under in my name. I decided to tell her that our allowances were two pieces per person with 30kg weight on each and please check our tickets again. That was so much for knowing her job and so much for knowing what she was known she was doing. Forth bag, the last one, weighed 17kg.

Please believe me, during those times in front of her counter, she had threatened me at least five times about the fact that we had to go to economy line to check in or to check my staffs' bags. She kept saying that we were wasting other business passengers' times. The worst thing was I had to "BEG" her to finish checking us by saying "PLEASE" at least six times until it was over and done with. She had surely made herself seemed more superior and tried to tell her colleagues how to handle and sorted us out.

Why would an airline who has recently earned 24 out of 25 points from customer satisfactions survey from check-in counter want someone who does not have a service mind with bad attitude or perhaps does not even work at all, and most of all letting her servicing in business class? I must say that all transit immigration officers at OR Tambo International Airport have a much better service minds and attitudes as they were always smiling and greeting travelers, and they were government officers from public services, not a corporation or profit making organizations. Please kindly advise me. Should I go and check-in at economy counter for my next trip with SAA? If your answer is yes, economy. I will respect the answer and I will do so in the future with SAA.

Our 9-year-old then realized that she had left her little purse containing her iPod Touch back in the plane. We immediately rushed back onto the plane, and found 3 employees with uniforms marked "Security" on the plane. There were no other passengers. We told them that our daughter forgot her little purse on the plane, and one lady asked us to describe it, which we did. I noticed her exchanging glances with a man, also wearing a security uniform. She pointed to the floor near the plane's front exit, and said that a crew member had found the purse, and had handed it over to her.

When my daughter opened it, her iPod Touch was not inside. We informed the lady about this, and she and the other security personnel she had earlier exchanged looks with said that nobody opened the purse. We insisted that the iPod Touch had been in our daughter's purse, but this made no difference. At this time, the head of security came along and asked what the problem was. We explained, and he immediately asked the lady who showed us the purse why the correct procedure had not been followed - when passengers' property is found, apparently it should immediately be handed over to the head of security. The lady had no answer to this, only saying that a crew member had found the purse, and that all the crew had since left the plane.

We made a formal report to Baggage Services at Oliver Tambo Airport, but of course all they could do was document the complaint. I know it was just an iPod Touch, but the idea that the crew or the security personnel could steal from a child is particularly despicable. The irony is that it is also password-protected, so I doubt that the thief would even have been able to unlock the iPod Touch. It's the loss of all our daughter's pictures which she took, and messages from her friends, that really upset her.

My recent history: Travelling from Singapore to Sao Paulo by South African Airlines, I checked in my luggage in Singapore and when I arrived in Guarulhos (after a scale in Johannesburg), I was surprised that my luggage had not arrived on the same flight that I came. After long hours of complaint to the company, I finally received my luggage in the next day after 2330H (when the company promised to deliver it by 1800H). However, when examining the luggage (with the witness of the person who delivered the luggage), I noticed that the lock had been broken and the suitcase opened. Thus, I decided to check its contents and found the lack of two Mont-Blanc pens (which cost approximately USD1,000). I contacted the company and requested the return of the stolen items or the corresponding value. After a long journey of countless emails and phone calls, I finally got the answer that the company will not reimburse for the stolen items. Thus, I come to ask publicly to South African Airlines to return the value that was stolen from my luggage.

It is interesting to note that with the exception of the stolen items, the other contents of the luggage were intact, in the exact position in which I had arranged before traveling. Since the pens were placed in the bottom of the suitcase, I suppose that the luggage passed through some type of x-ray which helped the burglars to identify the exact position of the pens, which then could be removed without even changing the position of the other items, thus presenting an evidence of a well-organized scheme of theft.

After my long argument, she agreed to check for some vacant seat. When we got one, she went and told a gentleman sitting next to that seat, "This lady is creating problem and so she is required to sit here." In front of other passengers, she humiliated me. When I told her she should not talk to me like this, she pointed finger and said I should keep quiet. Since the gentleman was having lunch, I told her to let me know once he finished and I could go and sit. She never came to inform me. All 4 hours, I was sitting in a miserable position. I have developed serious pain on my lower back and neck. I would be returning to Johannesburg on the 7th. I strongly recommend that some action be taken against this lady, as if she is the crew leader.

What would her juniors learn? She insulted me in front of passengers and hence, I have gone through a lot of mental stress along with physical. Moreover, she is speaking against the company that has employed her and asking me to file case. If by Friday, actions are not taken against her and I do not receive any apology, I would be sending notice and I may even have to inform media about SAA service.

Unless action is taken and this investigated by SAA, ie, by cctv or lie detector tests for those on shift for SAA flight 234 from Joburg to Durban at 20.50 on 23rd of December, I will never fly SAA again!

I do realize and understand that SAA is not liable for any loss or damage to luggage but it is clear that someone had intentionally opened my luggage, gone through my personal belongings and stole my earrings. I have traveled with Mango, Kulula one time previously and my luggage was never tampered with. It is extremely frustrating and annoying to know that we cannot travel with SAA with a clear conscious and knowing that our belongings are safe. Our luggage needs to go from the check-in desk onto a conveyer belt and into the plane. It is no one's business to open and go through our luggage. If the SAA staff cannot be trusted, please provide free luggage wrapping.

Details: While I can walk some, I have a condition where I dislocate joints very easily. I dislocated my right knee while going through security at Denver International Airport. Thus, I was already in pain starting out on my long journey from Denver, Colorado to Johannesburg, South Africa. When I got to New York, I had to go through security again. I explained my condition, but TSA staff there did not listen, and they promptly dislocated my right hip. Now I was basically incapable of walking at all. The wheelchair attendant, according to SA policy, left me at the empty gate 2 1/2 hours before my flight, with no wheelchair and no way to move from my seat (please note that I do realize that I need extra care and attention in security, and thus I deliberately booked enough time between flights).

I was okay, until I had to go to the restroom desperately. I yelled over to a couple waiting in the next area. Luckily, they did not think I was insane, and they immediately went to find someone in charge. That person said that SA policy is to abandon disabled people at the gate, without a wheelchair or any way to move from their seat. However, they said that just in this one emergency, they would recall a wheelchair so I could go to the restroom.

I waited, in increasing agony and distress, for half an hour, but no one showed up. My dilemma - do I soil the only clothes I have on the inside and thus wallow in my misery and soil for a 15 hour flight? Or, do I make my clothes filthy on the outside by crawling on the ground to the restroom, which was only 200 feet away? Not willing to make other passengers suffer, I asked the couple to watch my bags and started crawling. As the floor tile was slick, I dislocated my right shoulder while moving my body one painful arm length at a time. I was half way there when the wheelchair attendant showed up about an hour after my first frantic call for help. Now I was in the middle of the hallway, with no way to get into the chair. We grabbed a box and I hauled myself up, dislocating my right elbow in the process. Finally, success, I made it to the bathroom and the inside of my clothes were clean for the flight.

Thus, by the time I got to the Jo-berg flight, I had a dislocated knee, hip, shoulder, and elbow on my right side. This made the 15-hour flight almost unbearably painful. However, Thulani ** and Emmanual ** of Swiss port (073-466-8515) met me at the Jo-berg airport. They saw how exhausted and how much pain I was in. They did not abandon me, but they stayed with me to make sure I actually got on the correct shuttle to the hotel. They made it possible for me to recover without their help. I would have collapsed and been vulnerable to any kind of crime. Please thank them profusely and sincerely. They did note that they were not supposed to stay with someone that long. Please understand that their doing so may well have saved me from a prolonged hospital stay and indeed, may well have saved my life. They deserve a special commendation for their initiative and clear thinking and their humanity.

Moreover, the next day I continued my journey to Port Elizabeth. Grace left her post and helped me to the handicapped waiting area, where I got help and I was able to wait for my flight in comfort and in close and accessible proximity to a restroom. Please thank her as well (Grace, last name unknown, manning the premier class ticket line November 23, 2011 at 7:30 am).

Leaving someone abandoned at an airport gate may be your policy, but it is truly unconscionable. Please work with other airlines at other airports to institute a handicapped waiting room for all flights at all airports. Thus, we can check in electronically, the airlines know we are there, and we can meet basic human needs. You can even charge an extra fee for this. I’ll gladly pay it!

Two months after I returned, I finally received a reimbursement check for my purchases in South Africa of only $375, citing that according to their "system" my luggage was only lost for 5 days. I was shocked at how unconcerned and irresponsible one company could be towards their customers. So now I will be wandering the internet looking for any forum to tell my story and warn people about the evil ways or South African Airways.

Also, I should mention that on my flight, they forgot to bring headphones on the plane. Anyone who did not bring their own was not able to watch the in flight entertainment. They also did not bring enough food so instead of having your choice of a meat or vegetarian dish, you got whatever was left over. Altogether a pretty disappointing experience.

Is there a loophole in the SAA website in presenting the consumer an error when submitting the credit card payment and allowing them to try another credit card yet in the end charge both credit cards and create two separate reservations for the same person? When a complaint is submitted, they end up trying to keep part of the money, in my case $300. When I contacted the airline refund department immediately after the booking, they refunded $1,059 of the $1,359. I m still missing $300.

After I questioned the additional $300, the response can be found below. Note that I am not cancelling one reservation for personal reasons; it was a duplicate error. I am still keeping one reservation.

"The refund amount of $1,059.22 is correct, and no additional refund is to be refunded. Please allow me to explain our position regarding canceled reservations and refunds. Promotional tariffs require approval by the governments of countries to which they apply. To advertise and market these airfares, an airline must enforce the rules or face discipline or fines by the regulatory bodies. Consequently, by cancelling this ticket, we are not able to counteract the rules and the cancellation penalties applies. A wide variety of fares were available for the journey planned, the discounted one chosen had a cancellation penalty. So that there could be no misunderstanding, the tickets indicated that restrictions apply. Additionally, it is for situations like these that we recommend all our valued passengers to purchase travel insurance.

The SAA staff really were the biggest bunch of lazy staff I've ever came across. Not only would they answer any question in a brusk and downright rude way, but they were also nowhere to be seen on the entire flight. No one came around with a drinks tray asking if we'd like something to drink or snack on. If we did use the call button, the attitude was just so unbecoming that my neighbor next to me, who was a stranger, and I would look at each other wondering if we were imagining the displays of apathy and rudeness.

Also, the toilets. Oh my. For staff who don't seem to be doing anything during a 10-hour flight, is cleaning the toilet once every few hours too much to ask? It was disgusting. Worse than a public toilet in a public park in the worst neighborhoods of South Africa. I am so disappointed that this is the level of service SAA provides and that they are totally okay with it. Now, I have another return flight which I am really not looking forward to. Next time, I will just pay that extra few thousand rands and fly Emirates. What I would really like is to complain directly to SAA, but there doesn't seem to be a medium to this online? I guess I will have to go directly to their offices when I am back home.

Check-in Online: Why does SAA offer online check-in if there are no special drop-off luggage counters at the airport? I almost missed my flight because even after performing the online check-in procedure, I had to be in the same line at the airport as all the other passengers. I asked the attendant why they don't have special drop-off counters as all other airlines and she said that she had no idea that such counters existed.

Seating: I chose my seat online while checking in (45 K) and confirmed this when I received my boarding pass at the airport. I got to the boarding gate and the attendant told me that the seats were canceled and no passengers were allowed to seat in the 45 row. I asked the reason and she had no answer. I was allocated a different seat at the back of the aircraft and to my surprise when I boarded the flight, I saw passengers seating on the 45 row. Why was I bumped off my seat if I carefully selected 45 K on the online check-in and was confirmed on my boarding pass?

Special Meal: As usual, with all my trips in many different airlines, I always request a Moslem Meal (MOML) well in advance. I did for my SA 052 flight as well. The hostess served everyone a meal and I asked for my special meal. The answer was, "no sir, you didn't request any special meal". I showed the confirmation and she insisted that "no sir, you didn't request a special meal otherwise, they would have loaded on this flight" (typical SAA). I'm looking forward at SAA's response.