South African Airways Anmeldelser 

Truly disappointed with the customer service agent at the Durban international airport. Leoni Chetty was rude, unhelpful and very obnoxious.

As horrific an airline as you could want to experience. Never again for sure.

I was at Sao Paulo airport trying to fly to Johannesburg. I forgot my yellow fever booklet.

I appreciate it's needed to fly to South Africa. My wife sent it online, I offered many different options - like a health review. I hadn't even been in Brazil 24hrs was only like a transit.

Although, I accept responsibility for the issue - the level of disdain the staff showed me was extraordinary. I wasn't rude, didn't shout or argue - I was just looking for any solutions. The staff bar perhaps one didn't show any compassion whatsoever.

No empathy, no look towards options or solutions.

It's an airline I would wholeheartedly avoid.

It is impossible trying to deal with Voyager Miles department. It is impossible to access one's Voyager Miles online account. You have to write to Voyager to get a Pin, then that never happens. I have tried 10 times sending emails, copying SAA customer services into those emails, but they too fail to respond. I flew to Autralia from Namibia and found the plane to be old, seats uncomfortable, TV did not work so I could not watch TV on long haul to Australia, service is So So. I have not been able to enter my Voyager Miles online account since the day I registered it. Upon informing Voyager Miles I wait ages for a response, when I get it, it does not address the issue so I can access my accuout, and when I complain to SAA customer service they say I must deal with Voyager! Really an unacceptably poor customer relations experience. SAA is seriously disorganised. Their ground staff in Namibia poorly trained. Their SAA reservations office in Namibia the staff are abrasive and rude to a client. Flights cancelled without warning. When they reschedule the booking for a next flight, you do not get the reserved seats you paid to get with the initial booking. I have a mobility problem and need wheelchair assistance and must have an aisle seat. I booked 6 months in advance and paid for the pre-booked aisle seats for the entire flight Windhoek Namibia to Sydney Australia and badk again, but when the flight was cancelled out of Windhoek on 25th November and rescheduled to depat 27th November, I was told they cannot give me the aisle seats. I would not be surpised if SAA folds again because frankly, it does not meet the standard that a successful airline carrier should meet. Government entity and absolutely useless and badly managed. I will never fly SAA again. I will not recommend to others to fly SAA either.

I am extremely disappointed with my recent experience with South African Airways. I paid extra to select specific seats in advance, only to be told at the airport that the flight was overbooked and that we were moved to the next flight.

This is unacceptable. Seat selection is a paid service, and overbooking should not negate something passengers have already paid for. Being bumped despite having selected seats feels unfair and poorly managed.

I expect better customer care and accountability from a national airline. At the very least, passengers who pay for seat selection should be protected from overbooking or compensated appropriately when this happens.

This experience has left me questioning whether paying for added services with South African Airways is worthwhile.

If there was a zero star they would get it because that is what they deserve! They are callous, unprofessional, unhelpful and xenophobic!

Been in the airport for almost 24 hours and my flight has been shifted twice! No proper apology or compensation. Just left stranded!

Made me buy a new ticket for a flight because my name on the ticket was Alex not Alexander. This should have been a simple name correction. I could not change it online before hand.

If you're disabled and need wheelchair assistance choose another airline. Customer service is horrible! You can't book wheelchair assisntance online and you have to call them multiple times.

Communication extremely poor .?Cancelled refundable tickets 5 days before flying out . They are not responding to my emails about a refund . Legally they can’t withhold taxes if they refuse to refund . I’ve use emails to consumer affairs, but still zero response. Only standard response of acknowledgement of the email . Worst when it comes to finances . Not a wonder they were bankrupt before . Corruption at its best

They’re trash. 2 hour delay, 2 hour flight No communication to passengers. There were 20 other flights leaving ORT to CPT in the delay time. Only SAA is delayed. Literally choose anyone else.

I was initially hesitant to fly with South African Airways because of some of the reviews I had read, but I’m glad I decided to give them a chance. The experience completely exceeded my expectations. The service was excellent, the staff were friendly, professional and attentive throughout the flight. The seats were comfortable and everything went smoothly from check-in to landing. I truly appreciated the warm hospitality and overall comfort. I’ll definitely fly with SAA again!

A380 First class flight booked with British Airways from LHR to JNB, then with SAA from JNB to CPT. Email from SAA informing us that business class seats had been downgraded to economy, with no explanation given. Then, a month later, another email from SAA saying that we'd been booked onto an earlier flight, giving us just 90 minutes for the transfer. Given the frequent delays with the A380 service, and therefore concern about missing the connection, we decided enough was enough, and we've rebooked direct from LHR to CPT, bypassing JNB and the hopeless SAA altogether.

Biggest mess around to change my last name on my flight ticket. Jumped through hoops going back in forth with your customer service team. Then was told I had to upgrade my flight in order to do that ?? and pay an additional fee to then do the name change. Ended up buying an additional ticket with my new married lastname, asked for refund of my other ticket. got to the SAA baggage counter on the day and the SAA staff were confused why there were two tickets and said I would have only had to pay an fee for the name change not upgrade my ticket.. then to get on the plane and its half full? Worst experience ever. Still waiting for my refund.

They are great if you want to get to your destination late, or if you want to reserve extra services... Like seat reservation, only to be re-assigned a seat at the gate and having to go through the admin of trying to get your money back.

Complaining to them will just result in the staff shrugging... So they have accepted it

I was scheduled to fly from OR Tambo to Durban at 12:45. At 12:40. Just five minutes before departure, we were suddenly informed that the flight would be delayed by at least two hours. There was no prior communication, no apology, nothing. To make matters worse, while we were already queuing to board, staff began changing everyone’s tickets to new seat numbers, with the vague explanation that "the aircraft has been changed." Again, no apology, no courtesy, no explanation.

This is not an isolated incident. In August, when I flew to OR Tambo, the check-in experience was just as poor. The staff were laid-back and displayed no sense of urgency. I had already checked in online, but still had to queue with my son for over an hour simply to drop off our bags. What should have been a quick and efficient process turned into a frustrating ordeal.

SAA’s service is consistently disappointing! poor communication, lack of professionalism, and no concern or respect for passengers’ time, money or comfort. Based on these repeated experiences, I would not recommend anyone to fly with SAA.

They simply do not care about their customers!!!

I flew on Sunday 29-06-2025. I was very impressed with SAA service. The flight attendants were very friendly. I used SAA after many years and will definitely use them again.

I booked a return ticket for my child from Harare to Melbourne with assisted travel, however, due to a change in circumstances I needed to change the dates on the ticket or cancel depending on which option was favourable. To change a return ticket to a one way only travel ticket, I was asked to pay R11 200 and when I asked to cancel I was told that the ticket (R28 000) was non-refundable including the money that I paid for my child's assisted travel. I was told that if I choose to cancel, only the taxes will be refunded which was a total of (R11 000). Given the struggles that I went through trying to resolve this issue with staff, i opted to cancel the ticket as I lost confidence in the service itself.

I was told to email online refunds to request a refund and ticket cancellation, which I did on 27 May 2025. Today its the 24th of June 2025, I have not received any refund or any confirmation that my request is being processed. One way ticket has been cancelled and the return ticket still shows as confirmed despite my request to cancel both.

On 27 May, I contacted the Johannesburg booking line where I was passed from one worker to the other and sometimes I was left on hold for more than hour. I spent three and a half hours on a call to the Airline staff where I was met with rudeness, lack of care, or urgency at all.

I would recommend other airlines such as Emirates for international travel because their level of professionalism is worth every cent and the level of support and urgency is worth every cent.

I do not recommend booking SA airways especially if you will require cancellation in future, of which in my case cancellation was unplanned.

A friend recently lost a two way ticket (not refunded) and her experiences with the Johannesburg staff matched mine. Its a complete scam.

SA023, SA 280, SA 281 and SA 022

BAD SERVICE
SLOW baggage claim
Damaged baggage as well!!!! REFUSED TO REFUND!!!
Definitely not worth flying this airLINE

They won't offer "saver rate" on their website but it is available if you go through "Google Flights" this is discrimination against the UK. This is the response I got from their customer service department when I questioned it.

Thank you for your further email. Please pardon our delayed response.

Kindly note that as per the initial response the saver fare has sale restrictions and is not sold from London when tickets are purchased from our website and not google.

We do hope we have your understanding in this regard.

Warm regards,

Zingaphi Ndima

If I could give ZERO stars I would. They should have stayed bankrupt. Will never make use of this airline again. After 6 flights, my husband was FORCED to throw away a bracelet given to him by his father as it was deemed a "weapon".Last gift he ever got from his dad might I add. Not through ANY of the other gates or flights did we have a problem until the last gate and flight. Ground staff were all super rude, unprofessional and no one even attempted to assist or try to help with a solution. Utterly disgusted.

Was told eligible for a business class flight refund in November 2024 - and now absolutely no engagement from the refunds department to get it processed. Appalling customer service and a large amount of money lost.