Lost Baggage
My wife flew from Johannesburg to Accra during August. Her flight left Johannesburg on the Wednesday. Her baggage was lost when she arrived in Accra. 8 days later, 36 phone calls and 17 e-mails, the bag arrived in Accra.
The incompetence of the SAA people to track the bag is mind boggling. The absolute inability to get the bag from lost and find to dispatch is pathetic. I had to navigate them through the process to ensure the bag is ready to go onto the flight to Accra. The dispatch papers where not forwarded with the bag, but no one follows up to get the papers. I though someone wanted the bag to stay behind again to disappear again, this time for good. Is this a way to get hold of passengers’ bags which is perceived to be valuable??
I have now subscribed to BA’s Executive club and have already used four flights which could have been SAA flights. I have done the same with Kenya Air. They provide me with better service but a bit more expensive. No problem for me, as I have a trouble free flight.
SAA will NEVER get it right. Their staff is not capable of delivering good service to clients.
Ben Botha
Tags: Baggage, Complaints, Customer Service
February 7th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
I am interested to know if Ben Botha’s wife every received any compensation from SAA?
March 31st, 2009 at 11:45 am
I am a regular SAA Voyager member with a Gold card and a regular sucker keep on using there service, or non-service? I lost a bag late last year to Ghana and had to navigate the incompenant baggage manager to get my bag back after 10 days. I have now lost two bags on my way to Dubai and they are blaming Emirates for this, after they flew me from Nelspruit, arrive too late and lost my bags. Absolutely useless!!!
March 31st, 2009 at 11:47 am
On Anna Forbes question, I did not bother claiming. Can you imagine what frustration that would be?
April 1st, 2009 at 8:01 am
We tried to & even delivered certified copies of all expenses incurred & copies of the luggage tags stuck to our cases from countries we have not visited. Of course, we received a response that they had forwarded all information to BA! Our tickets were issued to SAA. You were wise to save yourself the frustration of trying to claim. Our expenses, due to their incompetence were R25000.00 and we were extremely lucky that a Santiago chemist gave us all need chronic medications for our trip (at a price!). NEVER again will we fly SAA & hope that many other people boycott this airline.
April 1st, 2009 at 8:08 am
Re your SAA v Emirates problem: I suggest that you join Emirates’ Skyward Club. We will only travel Emirates or Air Malaysia to go overseas now! It is very obvious that Emirates does not trust SAA due its free wrapping service at ORTIA! What does that tell you?
April 20th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
The above all sounds very familiar. my parents, mother in law and i have just arrived back from a 9 day trip to india, the purpose of which was to purchase indian garments etc for my upcoming wedding. little did we know, that our luggage would only arrive 5 days later. all our clothing measurements, shopping lists and itineraries all went to waste. weight was already a huge problem since we were shopping for most of our family back home, but we had to purchase clothing and toiletries for the days we were left without anything! i agree totally with ben when he says that it is unbelievable the way a bag cannot be tracked. im sure that a national airline should have measures in place for this sort of incident to be dealt with. it was our good fortune that the exchange rate was manageable, but what would have happened if this was in the uk or usa for example? we would have had no money left for the main purpose of the trip. most of the trip was wasted due to the fact that our measurements only came 5 days into the trip and garments could not be stitched in time for our departure from india. i havent claimed from them yet but am curious to see what will happen if i try. reading your posts, however, i am tempted not to even bother.
April 22nd, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Kajal, if you ever bothered to try to claim from SAA for your mislaid luggage, it would be interesting to read the results!
My daugher recently flew back from a business in Boston, on SAA and, of course her luggage did not arrive with her in ORTIA. We searched on the website for baggage search only to see ‘No information available’! After 3 days, I took her to ORTIA International Lost Baggage Enquiries, who were absolutely no help. After a tip off, we also went to Domestic Baggage collection only to find her 2 cases lying open on the floor with all locks broken. When we challenged the staff about this we were told that Customs forces open all unaccompanied cases. My daughter had her tickets and passport and asked why she had not been allowed to enter the Customs checking area to open her own cases in front of an Officer? She was told that it was normal procedure. My question is, if any illegal contents had been alleged, how would they prove it had been brought in by her? Apart from an expensive bottle of whiskey being broken and the contents of her case smelling of whiskey, nothing was missing. She has never been compensated for her cases being totally damaged by the locks being destroyed.
Not necessarily related soley to SAA, please will everyone be warned that the baggage check-in scales are frequently incorrect. We have proved this on many occasions and suggest this is a ploy to extort excess baggage fees from passengers. I have written to ACSA but, again, have never received a reply. Bidvest informed me that ACSA are responsible for checking the scales.
June 24th, 2009 at 8:22 am
I am so frustrated. My daughter recently won a competiton and the prize was to go on an expedition to Iceland with 9 other students from all over the world. Needless to say, that in Copenhagen her luggage was missing. Can SAA ever imagine the dispair on a teenager and a “first flyer’s ” face when she had to travel with Lufthansa to her destination in Husavik without any luggage? How can you ever compensate for the disappointment on her face? She is still stuck in Iceland without anything but the clothes on her body – the prices are sky high in Iceland. They are going on a hike tomorrow and sleep in a mountain hut and she does not have her hiking shoes (borrowed from a friend) or sleeping bag to join the rest of the group. A once-in-a-lifetime-experience turned out to be a disaster – thanks to the poor service and response of SAA. What will we do with the thousands of tourists who would like to visit SA next year? They are already so sceptical about SA? SAA you don’t do us proud!!
June 24th, 2009 at 8:30 am
I am so frustrated. My daughter recently won a competiton and the prize was to go on an expedition to Iceland with 9 other students from all over the world. Needless to say, that in Copenhagen her luggage was missing. Can SAA ever imagine the despair on a teenager and a “first flyer’s ” face when she had to travel with Lufthansa to her destination in Husavik without any luggage? How can you ever compensate for the disappointment on her face? She is still stuck in Iceland without anything but the clothes on her body – the prices are sky high in Iceland. They are going on a hike tomorrow and sleep in a mountain hut and she does not have her hiking shoes (borrowed from a friend) or sleeping bag to join the rest of the group. A once-in-a-lifetime-experience turned out to be a disaster – thanks to the poor service and response of SAA. What will we do with the thousands of tourists who would like to visit SA next year? They are already so sceptical about SA? SAA you don’t do us proud!!
July 18th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
In a span of two months my luggage has been delayed twice by SAA. Phone calls to their offices are unanswered and they really don’t care about the inconivience the cause to passengers. I was among a crowd of passengers at Hosea Kutako airport (Namibia) SAA baggage claim office and the staff made it clear that luggage delay etc was normal and took our complaints casually. Three days after my arrival in Namibia my luggage was not found and had to drive 40KM to the airport to find it lying somewhere in the arrival hall!!!
I have a return flight to Joburg on SAA and I have a feeling that my luggage will still get lost again.
Avoid this airline if you can pliz pliz pliz
October 18th, 2009 at 10:03 am
A point to note if you’re checking in luggage is that many of the travel accessories that are sold as luggage security items (locks, cable ties, security seals, etc) do not actually work to protect your luggage. You’d think for the money spent on these things it would take time to break into a bag, but it’s as simple as several seconds with a paperclip or even a pen. And people wonder why there is a problem with luggage theft.
February 21st, 2010 at 4:51 am
My girlfriend boarded an SAA flight to Livingston and yes…she arrived without her baggage.
She was told it will probably arrive the next day!
I don’t understand how this happens…I mean here’s the logic:
your bag is scanned at baggage handling and taken to the plane you’re boarding.
On your arrival, it is offloaded and taken to the collections area where you should be collecting it.
How does it get lost?
It’s like going to the kitchen to fetch a glass of water and losing the glass on your way back to the living room! Unbelievable!