I don’t understand why it is so difficult for SAA to change bookings.

We regularly fly a whole lot of people from around the continent to JHB. Sometimes, they need to change flights at the last minute. In each instance, we have to cancel a ticket and pay for a new one and then wait for three months for a refund less the cancellation fee. (more…)

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. (more…)

Dear Fellow Sufferers

The following is an email from my wonderful travel agent in Franschhoek who can move mountains but not, it seems, SAA’s fares department. My husband & I are trying to go to Tahiti and for family reasons have to go via the UK. It seemed sensible and cheaper, therefore, to get a round-the-world ticket using Air New Zealand & SAA. (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…)

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