SAA luggage tampering
Herewith a letter I have just mailed to SAA customer care!
Sir
We have recently returned home to Zambia having spent a week in South Africa flying SAA from Lusaka to Durban.
Yet again our luggage was tampered with, on flight SAA 555 from OT to Durban
This is the 5th time in 18 months that this has happened to us
It is totally unacceptable.
My daughter has lost school stationary and jewelry, my husband expensive perfume he was bring home and several other personal items.
If I were to start on all the incidents our friends have experienced it would take a whole page, often the locks are broken and cable ties cut but with nothing missing.. That too is a crime. I suspect many such incidents dont even get reported, lots of your “valued customers” have given up complaining,we just shrug our shoulders and accept it as part of life in South Africa, “at least nothing is missing” but we must fight against the eroding morals of our country and her people.
We reported the most recent incident to the baggage desk at Durban international where a very helpful lady listened to our frustration and anger and seeing how incensed we were suggested that, at our convenience, we take our luggage to Frasers to be repaired.
On business trips we do not build in time to run around putting right your problems so she willingly arranged to have my husbands luggage collected from our hotel to be repaired. I have to commend how efficiently Frasers repaired the suitcase as it was collected and returned within a couple of hours..no doubt a at handsome cost to SAA ,
A sad inditement that you have a standing arrangements with Frasers for what is a far too common occurrence of interference by airport staff to your passengers personal effects.
What are you doing about the source of the problem? namely thieves stealing and criminals looking for valuables at OT?
It is all very well to throw money at fixing the results of their crime but what of the criminals themselves?
I suspect the whole outfit, like our country is rife with crime and corruption.
Woe to the many many unsuspecting tourists soccer fans coming for the world cup.. easy prey and soft targets. The baggage handlers must be waiting with delighted anticipation at the easy pickings they will have then.
And you ask us to fly SAA and be
Proudly South African
There is increasingly little to be proud when we are reduced to being relieved if our luggage arrives at its destination without being interfered with..
Oh sad and sorry South Africa and it lack of morals.
Where is SAA’a commitment to putting a stop to all this.
In my husbands place of work you are fired for theft………….
Carte Blanch have investigated it exposed it and yet it continues.
A disgrace for our country and SAA
I await your reply
Sincerely
Jenny Strathern
We are incidentally still waiting for settlement from a claim for missing goods since July last year Claim reference DPR LUNSA 42976
CC to Carte Blanche and
Proudly South African
SAA Sucks
March 2nd, 2010 at 11:19 pm
Hi there,
I just googled out of fury a website like this. Its almost 23:00 but cant go to sleep before ‘desteaming’. I travel from OR Tambo to East London nearly every week and was proud to be a frequent flyer member…untill now.
Yesterday morning on the 5:50 flight to EL i found my bag has been tampered with…every zip was open and i thought ‘o well…nothing is missing, and this is the first time, so hopefully a once off incident’. Arriving back in joburg tonight on the SA Express flight at 20:30 i found my lock broken off my luggage and all my possessions upside down…even my vanit case opened. I was in total shock, then so mad, i felt sick! Now when arriving home, i checked and found a necklace missing from my luggage.
From now on I’m not checking in my luggage…it cause much inconvenience…but if that is the lengths one has to go through to protect your possessions, i’m doing it. I agree with this person…the soccer fans all over the world coming to SA will get a shocker…and the damn baggagehandler thieves of this country will think its ‘christmas’.
Its the airline’s responsibility to ensure the safety of our luggage and tampering and theft twice in a row if outrages.
Something must be done… Cant wait to send a complaint to SAA tomorrow.
March 16th, 2010 at 1:53 pm
in december 2009,i travelled from the uk to lilongwe and from lilongwe to jo’burg.my luggage went missing @ or tambo international airport only to be associated with it on january 2nd 2010.it had been tempared with it.all the xmas presents were stolen in the value of £650.00.sadly i was only companciated £80.00 only to be told about the warsaw convention and us$20.00 per kilogram.or tambo international airport is a paradise for thieves wondering if its because of economic climate,social backgrounds,culture,ignorance,arogance,lack of formal education,third world approach etc…sinc e being told saa is not the only airline suffering this fate.its only a shame they are hosting the world cup,i personally feel sorry for the football fans who are going to pass through or tambo airport.
after my odeal friends have told me saa is the worst airline in africa when comes to loosing buggage and everything.
April 10th, 2010 at 12:36 pm
I travel a lot (on SAA) and also find that invariably my bags are tampered with when travelling through OR Tambo airport — typically the locks or the zips are broken, but nothing is stolen. It happened twice this past week and several times last year (probably 3 or 4 times). ACSA and SAA are cleary not on top of this problem. 10/4/10
April 11th, 2010 at 9:38 pm
We recently travelled Cpt – Jhb with SAA. Upon arrival at the airport (5h00) we found an utter shambles at SAA check-in. ALL DESTINATIONS were checking in at the same counters. We would NEVER be checked in on time. We pleaded with the business terminal to check us in, which they did. Upon return to Ctn the same thing. This time we waited, only to be told later that the flight had been overbooked. An indignant Mrs. Daisy Demas, “manager-in-charge” arrogantly confirmed to me that it is indeed SAA policy to overbook flights on purpose “as all airlines do it” A later flight was also cancelled due to “tecnical problems” according to the floor manager. It seemed as if there was also stranded paasengers from another flight. Miraculously there just happened to be an SAA Intl Airbus going down to Ctn and it also, as if by magic, accommodated all the stranded passengers, all 317 of them. It now makes sense why the check-in was a shambles: it provides the cover/smokescreen whereby SAA can manipulate their flights! I would wager a guess and say that the cancelled flight never existed in the first place!
I have had untold problems with SAA and by now I realise they have no intention to solve complaints or even act on them. My problems with one Lungile (yes, the one that does not answer her mail) is well documented. On the above flight our baggage was also pilfered. When we reported the theft the SAA clerk nodded his head knowingly and declared “I know EXACTLY what happened” There was an article published in The Cape Argus a few days ago where it alleges that ACSA (SAA?) employs the services of an arganisation that exclusively provides ex drug addicts and homeless people to handle the luggage at the airport, and by the looks of it, without supervision! (Is this what the clerk meant? Was this already an existing problem?)
SAA is a disgrace to South Africa and somebody should do the tax payers of this country the favour and challenge SAA’s use of “South African” in the airline’s name. It thereby implies that they represent South Africans, to which I object vehemently. The quicker they are restrained to interact with consumers, the better this planet will be off.
April 22nd, 2010 at 11:36 am
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May 15th, 2010 at 4:20 am
Do they not have cameras in the airport where they can see who is tampering with the luggage? In December a collegue and myself traveled from South Africa to US and back. His suitecase’s zip was broken and I could see that some-one had been tampering with my stuff but nothing was lost. What is the Airlines doing about this. They have all this security checks but not on their own staff. They should concentrate less on how much gifts and perfumes the people are to bring back and concentrate on getting their house in order.
August 7th, 2010 at 4:39 pm
This luggage issue has been a problem for a very long time and nothing has changed. They dont seem to care. they must NOT have cameras because the audacity that these people have is scary. SAA is the worst airline and South Africa is THE WORST country to fly to because your luggage WILL get tampered with, especially if you have a lay over they have time to go thru your stuff, lock or no lock. VERY VERY BAD for a country that receives such accolades from the world, just terrible….
August 11th, 2010 at 12:18 pm
I travelled on Air Zimbabwe last night from Johannesburg to Harare, I had two bags which where locked and cling wrapped, to my shock and horror when I arrived in Harare at 2230hrs, I received one of my bags, which was a polo suitcase completely unwrapped and the polo combination key brocken off and missing! All my things had been gone through, everything was upside down,, with all zips and pockets inside opened. I am still extremmely angry about this up to now. When i checked, nothing was missing, but one would think that should be a relief, but it’s actually not…. i feel so exposed and invaded, How can I ever feel safe to send my luggage on a plane again? I did everything possible to make sure my luggage was secure… but it was not enough…. so what to do now? I really don’t know.
The problem is not necessarily with any airline, but actually with the handling company. The civil aviation of South Africa must do something about this horrific behaviour at OR Tambo. If it wasn’t for the weight limitations, I would definately not check in any of my bags as it is not safe at all if you are going through Johannesburg airport.
WHO is going to do anything about this? I really wonder.
August 16th, 2010 at 9:23 pm
The absolute arrogant manner in which SAA treats it’s customers must by now be abundantly clear. They are really taunting the consumer, very secure in the knowledge that they do not have to make a profit, they will simply run to their political bosses and demand more money being skimmed off the taxpayers to foot the bill. Get this, you are paying these louts to insult and violate you.
The time has come to take this to the next level. Everyone should tell people OUTSIDE SA what is really happening. They should discourage everybody they know to fly with these crooks. Publish your letters on FOREIGN blogs and websites. Write to travel agencies. SAA is not a South African company, it is a government sponsored entity that provides safe refuge and sheltered employment for criminals. How else can you explain the continued and unabated luggage tampering going on. It is simply impossible NOT to monitor it…….unless you actively support it.
Take action. DEMAND to take your luggage with you through check-in and ask the cabin crew to place it in the cargo bay, not the luggage handlers. Better still, don’t fly SAA