The following contribution was posted by Galen Schultz and the original can be found here.

Dearest SAA

I have only flown about six times in my life, each time having been enjoyable and hassle-free. It was now time for me to fly back to varsity to write my final exams and enjoy my seventh trip in the air. I decided to go for the cheapest flight, which so happened to be South African Airways. I booked a ticket online at and all seemed to be in order. I only awaited my email to confirm the booking. (more…)

To Whom It May Concern

Why pay an extra R200,00 –R250,00 for cash tickets bought at ticket resertvations sevices for SAA at the airports

Viva Comair, Viva 1Time you need more flights to all destinations

It is a pity about Nationwide but sue the hell out of them and I hope they close down.
There are beter use for tax payers money.Our education and health care systems needs more funds.

I dont have have internet

Robert John

The following contribution was sent to us by Floh Thiele.

Many thanks for your initiative “SAA Sucks” – let’s hope it will get change going.

My story of continuous bad service started with a ticket purchase and promise for re-fund on 28 July.

Despite a number of follow-up calls and emails I never received the refund. (more…)

This contribution was sent in by Bradley Whittington and the original post can be found here.

SAA is a pile of pants. I urge you to travel using any one of the other domestic and international airlines.

Why is SAA crap? Well, here is a little saga: We (Mandy+I) bought two return tickets to Durban. We booked in advance so we got a very good rate. Only, by choosing the good rate (which was only R80 better than using another airline) we apparently signed away any consumer rights: (more…)

I submitted the attached document to SAA after an extremely disappointing experience while making use of their services or lack there of.

Their response was as follows: (more…)

It’s Luke’s birthday in November and as a special birthday gift Colette and I have decided to fly his grandfather and my sister (his aunt) down from Jo’burg to spend some time with him over this time. We figured that he could use a little familiarity what with us relocating to Cape Town so today I set off to book two plane tickets online.

My first choice would have been British Airways (R4,000) but they seemed way too expensive and I couldn’t see much difference between Mango (R3,100), Kulula (R3,200) or SAA (R3,477) so I decided to opt for an airline that was trusted to arrive on time and booked my two tickets with SAA. (more…)

I had to get to JHB from EL whilst on holiday quite urgently and made an online booking for a same day return flight on SAA but made a stupid mistake and instead of booking for the 28th March, I booked for the 28th April – I attempted to call reservations and after holding on for over half an hour, only to be told that I could not change the flight – my comment to the “lovely” lady was ” so what are my options – can I use this another time or is this just a complete waste of money (R1350) ?” – she duly tells me that there is nothing I can do and do not have any options – yeah right !

I have tried to phone a few more times to see if they could just change the name on the ticket, but am still holding for reservations to pick up since the 14th April – This is the second time this has happened to me with SAA in the last 4 mnths – can’t change a booking without breaking the bank. Incidently, the cost to change the reservation would have been over R2,000 – I booked a whole new flight on 1time for R1385. SAA did have seats availabe at special rates ! I checked ! As for the R200 admin fee they charge – hmph !!! They are a rip off and their client services stinks !! Oh – I can go on …

I made a booking on Internet and paid with my credit card. Upon arrival at the airport I could not produce the credit card as it was stolen ( I can proof this). I had to purchase new tickets to East London and the person at check in said I could claim back for the ticket not being used. I claimed on the 25th March and was told it would take 3 weeks for my claim to be processed.

Today I phoned again and was told by Alfred Brabzon it was never processed and will be put through today and will be refunded in 3 weeks time. I will also be refunded only the airport taxes. This is absurd and trying to speak to anyone but the call centre is an absolute nightmare. I will never ever again use SAA

My sister was up from Cape Town yesterday on some business. I got to have lunch with her, and then took her to the airport in the evening. Due to an incredibly light traffic route, we got to the airport at 5, quite a bit earlier than planned so we tried to get her onto an earlier flight, hers was at 8:30 I believe.

So we queued at the SAA ticket sales and reservations desk. After a while with the queue barely moving, I stayed there while my sister went to the Voyager desk to see if she could use her voyager status to arrange the earlier flight. She couldn’t. It was over an hour later when we got served. There were maybe 15 people in front of us, and 4 people working the desk, eventually we got served by a new arrival to the desk. (more…)