Please contact SAA urgently
I am a platinum voyager member, which means I spend well over R250,000 pa with SAA. Usually I book through my travel agent, but when urgent trips come up after hours, I book online which I did late on Friday afternoon, a simple trip from Durban to Johannesburg on Monday 03/11.
Soon after booking online I received a sms from SAA informing me that credit card payment for Ref 46MSOY was unsuccessful, and that I must please contact SAA urgently on 0861 359 722 or +27 11 978-5313 , otherwise I cannot fly on Monday.
I immediately phoned as I know my credit card has ample funds and I go through the normal
Press 3 for reservations
Press 1 for domestic flights
Press 1 for existing reservations, and then I am left waiting, 5mins, 10mins, 15mins ……. your call will be answered by the next available operator.
I tried at least 10 times on Friday, each call between 5 and 20 minutes, but no operators. (I do not know how they record these calls for quality purposes because the calls are never answered).
On Saturday morning I tried at least another four times to contact SAA, the last call I eventually gave up after holding on for 35 minutes. Even the recording “your call will be answered after the next available operator” eventually stopped as I am sure she got tired of repeating herself.
SAA has never been the greatest airline, especially over the last 14 years, I know this from the pilots and technical staff that I know who have gone on to greener pastures, as well as my experiences of flying domestically and internationally for the past 25 years.
I find it disgraceful that a company like SAA can treat customers, irrespective of whether the fly once in thier lives, once a year, or even if they hold SAA platinum status the way they do.
As I can not get hold of them, I have had been forced to cancel and fly with a opposition airline, after they have wasted so much of my valuable time.
One would think that these so called “Hot Shot” high flying executives would be able to sort SAA out, let alone a simple system that even a child could put in place (like SAA contacting the client and not vice versa, because at least they will be able to contact us without any fuss), especially for loyal members (especially platinum staus), who always pay for their flights with the same credit card, irrespective of whether theyI book through their travel agent or online, who have never once defaulted with payments in the past.
SAA wake up and smell the roses, you are going to the dogs, even with all the taxpayers bail outs, and I hate to think of the chaos that awaits in 2010.
Contribution By Ian
Tags: Bookings, Credit Card, Customer Service, Helpdesk, Helpline, SAA
November 30th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
I hear you, what the hell is going on.
I’m trying to get two minors from Durban to JHB, which means i cant book online but have to go through their ‘help desk’. What a joke, been trying for 3 days. I finally get thru to confirm the approval and get told i took so long to get back to them that they have canceled the reservation.
So hear i sit, have the reservation rebooked but cant get thru to confirm this one either.
December 7th, 2009 at 7:12 am
Hi booked my 7 year old son on a UM flight (unaccompanied minor) on Sat to fly on Sunday. I phoned back to confirm the flight, and they lost the booking. So I made a new booking. Then I phoned back again to confirm later, and they took my cars details and said it is all sorted. Arrived yesterday at the airport, and there is no booking!! Had to stand in a reservations queue for an hour to rebook a new ticket on a later flight at the double the price. This left my 7 year old son sitting at the airport for 4 hours!! This is terrible! I want an apology, a refund!!