South African Airways Anmeldelser 

I booked a flight with South African Airways for travel in early January. Unfortunately, I fell sick, and I couldn't go for the flight. After I contacted South African Airways directly, they confirmed that they had processed and sent a refund back. . When I contacted SA airline to claim my refund, they refused to process it and have provided no clear explanation.
This lack of transparency and accountability is extremely frustrating. As a customer, I trusted SAairline to handle my booking and any related refunds professionally, but they have failed to do so.
I would strongly advise others to be cautious when booking through them, especially when it comes to refunds and customer service.
I am still awaiting a fair resolution to this matter.
I can't believe they just robbed me of 1.3 million naira!

Ticket number :08321333569**
Refund Reference :4120*11*47

What an absolute shit show!!!Dropped my brand new luggage bag, damaged.. and left in Perth!, left in Cape Town for 4 days without luggage! To wait 5 days for them to get my lost luggage, to a Business Class passenger or any passenger, is disgraceful.
It was the most frightful experience I’ve ever experienced in all the years I have been flying around the world. The plane shook like a dog after a bath on take-off, parts of the interior (pieces) fixtures, etc falling open, was the first sign. The stewardesses were NOT happy or helpful, one told me, she thinks it was built around 1990?? and she said it shouldn't be flying anymore. They were gripping their seats in fear when taking off also. The Aircraft, in Business Class, was their first design… It was horrific!! so old and broken!
1. No privacy, whatsoever - could hold hands with my random passenger...
2. The seat was seriously uncomfortable, and my leg extension wouldn’t recline. It took 2 stewardesses in the dark, to get it to work, by having to lift the seat completely out and manually adjust some knobs…. shoved the seat back in, threw the blanket & pillow back, and walked off without any word! They had obviously done this many times, as they knew exactly what to do. Then the “so called” screen divider wouldn’t stay up between me and the stranger, beside me, again the stewardesses had to shove napkins in the top of it, to stay up! By this stage, I was getting serious anxiety. It was that bad. The food was stone cold, rock hard poached eggs, and some sort of diced potato that tasted like chunks of oily mash.. then I was GIVEN 2 pieces of pumpkin on a bed of sumthin? soggy distasteful rice? And some un-ripened fruit. Inedible!!! The toilets were disgraceful, and filthy! During departing the plane, my daughter & her partner & I, were met by the pilot exiting the cabin, he asks "How was your trip"? I began to tell him, and his response was, "well, your travel agent should have looked up/googled the plane and checked, the plane your were on!" WTF??? Who says that> Again, not even 1 STAR, but certainly, not 4 star!!!!! DO NOT FLY WITH S>A>A :(

Worst customer service
Flight cancelled, I'm literally begging for my money
Customer service Zero

Booked a flight for 18:45, got there.

We were told that the flights are full, how? Told that we will have to rebook for the following day costing 6.6K!!!!! Then the next excuse is that we were late? How were we late? Which is which? Were we late or the flight is full? No the flights were fully booked!!! We forfeit our money yet the flights were full????? I want my refund!

In October 2025, flew into East London SA my baggage was broken, I initially received excellent service from Siyabonga Zukani at the airport, who took photos of my case, and gave me a claim form, which I completed and sent electronically to him, once I reached my destination in Port Alfred, he responded promptly and professional to my email, and forwarded onto claims dept, with several email address since returning to the UK (with a new case) I have sent numerous emails with absolutely no response. I then looked on their website for customer services email so I could included them however this email says Address not found. Hopefully someone in SAA may read this and respond
Update within hours of writing this review I received a email stating claim declined in line with their T&C's my case had a wheel complete ripped off, a large hole and a 4 inch split their T&C's basically are they are not responsible for scratches, dents, cuts, any missing protruding items, like wheels, handles , straps, pull handles or water damage. So why bother giving mea claim form ! And taking 5 months to respond, however in future I can take out luggage insurance with them.

Worst customer service!!
First they put me in a very difficult situation because they didn´t inform me my flight is cancelled and now I need to beg to get my money back??
Unbelievable. 0 communication

SAA give you the option to upgrade and leave open seats next to you then book them to others anyway. Don't bother wasting your money. Unenthical behaviour.

Extremely disappointed with the service. Luggage was left behind on a flight, and clear instructions not to send it to the destination were completely ignored. The bag was opened without permission and delivered late, causing major inconvenience.

This level of negligence and disregard for passenger instructions is unacceptable. Handling of baggage and customer service needs serious improvement to prevent others from experiencing the same frustration.

To make matters worse, when I arrived at the airport six hours early for my return flight after my trip and asked if I could move to an earlier one, I was told I would need to buy an entirely new ticket rather than simply paying a change fee. This is outrageous, especially when many airlines are able to assist passengers in these situations.
In the end, it was actually cheaper and far easier to book a completely new flight with FlySafair.

Their online booking process was simple and their staff were helpful and professional. Based on this experience, I would strongly recommend booking with FlySafair instead.

Volo anticipato di 18 ore . Coincidenze perse e valigia persa. Non provate neanche a fare reclamo o chiedere rimborso perché è tutto un rimbalzare di uffici e neanche rispondono . Pessimi .

Terrible experience with South African Airways! 😡 I booked a flight and mistakenly misspelled my name. When I emailed them to fix the error, they told me I needed to upgrade my flight first, but didn't provide any way to do it online. When I called for help, they quoted me R1500 for the upgrade PLUS an additional R500 fee - on top of the R1200 I already paid! 🤯

Incredible customer service fail. For a simple name fix, they wanted me to shell out R3200. You cunning thieves, SAA!

We flew business class flight SA195 on the evening of the 17th February 2026. We flew with 2 kids(a toddler and a baby) firstly we were booked in different seats being a family that needed to be seated together. The gentleman that ran the business client facing firstly asked the lady next to me for her number whilst asking what she wanted to drink, they dropped and banged things around the front, we where ignoring on a few occasions, i had to hold a tray twice in my hands due to the kids which he walked past me 3 times looking at me and never offered to take my tray. They spent more time in conversation that helping us. I asked twice for something and he forgot. He looked very unenthusiastic about giving business class service. Iv flow a few times with SAA and this is the first time experiencing this. We spend ALOT more for these flights to have space with our kids and to feel like you wont be served or given that extra service because you have kids. He couldn’t adapt to us. By the time we were able to eat, Most of the food was finished.

I had an involuntary downgrade from Business to economy class, and promised a refund after my flight and was basically told 'please contact customer service after your flight to process your refund'- I did not raise any issues here as I tried to understand that they may have overbooked etc, as long as I got my refund. When I contacted them, I was intially tossed around and told to apply for a refund via the booking agency I booked the flight through. I did that and next thing they say is they cannot issue a refund because
"the booking class you purchased corresponds to our full Economy Class fare, and as such, no refund is applicable for the ticket". How is business class fare equals to economy, you can simpy check on line and and see it is different- I checked it for the very flight I flew. I have been offered vouchers which I do not want. This company
1. Provides false information and false assurances or compensation
2. Very difficult to get a hold of
I feel taken advantage of and very upset considering how hard I work to pay for the services I pay for.
If you value your money, would like to be treated with an ounce of dignity, please avoid at all costs

⭐☆☆☆☆ Shocking, Unacceptable, and Embarrassing for a National Airline

This was hands down one of the worst long-haul flight experiences I’ve ever had. South African Airways should be ashamed to put passengers through this.

On a flight from Johannesburg to Australia, they somehow thought it was acceptable to offer in-flight entertainment without earphones. Yes — movies with no sound. Completely useless. To make matters worse, there are NO charging ports on the aircraft, so once your phone or tablet dies, you’re stuck staring at the seat in front of you for hours. On a flight this long, that is absolutely unacceptable.

The situation didn’t improve at all during the flight. The bathrooms were never cleaned, becoming filthy and unpleasant very quickly. Basic hygiene was clearly not a priority.

When passengers raised concerns, the staff were rude, dismissive, and unhelpful. No effort to resolve issues, no apologies, no care whatsoever. It felt like passengers were an inconvenience rather than paying customers.

This airline delivers a budget, third-world experience at full-service prices. Poor planning, poor service, poor attitude. I would strongly advise anyone to avoid South African Airways for long-haul travel unless you enjoy discomfort, boredom, and being treated poorly.

Still waiting on a refund for accommodation/food we had to pay for when they cancelled our flights. I filled out their forms, sent it to them with my bank details and still no money. I emailed onlinerefunds@ as requested and don't even get a reply from them. Worst airline Ive ever used, I'll never use them again

They cancelled my evening flight to Cairo on Friday. Didn't offer a new flight until Sunday evening. Awful communication and will easily abandon you. Worst airline I have ever encountered and I have flown a lot, including around Africa.

Very good experience flying by this aircraft.
Gentle crews, Natasha and the other young gentleman. Good and hot food. Good service and safe travel with the pilots. 🙏🙏🙏

I cannot recommend SAA enough. Had an early flight from JHB to PLZ recently and back today. Both ways the service was flawless from check in to boarding to the flight itself. All staff were friendly and efficient. Thank you SAA

Tonight I called SAA UK reservations line for help. We were flying into JNB tomorrow morning and our domestic SAA flight to CT had been cancelled and rebooked to a later time.
This didn’t suit us at all as we were due to arrive in time for a wedding tomorrow afternoon.
We dealt with a KABELO NZIMANDI and she was OUTSTANDING!! She was polite, professional and extremely helpful throughout our call and managed to move the 3 of us into an earlier flight!
She literally saved the day 👊

I would like to formally express my dissatisfaction with the experience we had on our recent flight from Mauritius to Cape Town. The original flight from Mauritius that I paid for was cancelled and replaced with a flight on a smaller aircraft.
There was extremely poor communication and a great deal of confusion on board when we were informed that we would be flying to Johannesburg instead of directly to Cape Town, as originally booked and paid for.
The landing in Johannesburg was particularly concerning. Conditions were perfect, yet the landing was extremely rough. It felt unsafe and unprofessional, raising serious concerns about whether the pilot was inexperienced or in training. As a result of the impact, I jarred my back, and my daughter, who is pregnant, was also affected.
This experience caused unnecessary physical discomfort, emotional stress, and inconvenience. I believe this situation was handled poorly, and passengers deserved better communication, planning, and care. Never again will I fly SAA. No explanations from any SAA department can rectify what happened. If I could give 0 stars I would.

Our flight from Perth to Johannesburg was cancelled after all passengers had arrived at the airport and no-one had been notified. Even the SAA ground staff didn't know what was going on. We then missed our onward flight to Cape Town due the rescheduled flight leaving close to 30 hours later. Ground staff at SAA in Johannesburg were clueless and it took some 2 hours for some-one the ground to get us help. Some of the seats that we had pre-purchased for the outbound and inbound flights between Perth and Johannesburg were not given to us and SAA refused to refund us unless we produced a letter from our bank to confirm our bank details even though we had paid by credit card and they were quite happy to take our money from that credit card, nor could we provide bank details via email as that too was refused. It would have cost more than the refund was worth to have taken time off work to go the bank to obtain a letter. For security purposes a bank would not provide a letter without some kind of personal identification. SAA staff are not the friendliest and it has put me off ever flying with this airline again.