South African Airways Anmeldelser 

My luggage was completely destroyed during my flight and I am in constant communication for over 3 months with their agents, trying to claim a luggage replacement, but the company keeps staling me and not providing proper resolution to the issue in hand.

Once you pay, they don't care about you. ALWAYS USE A TRAVEL AGENT, DO NOT BOOK DIRECT. NO customer service.
Australian office is useless, because phones dont work, and they don't respond to emails questions.

I had a great experience on my flights between Johannesburg and Windhoek. The service food and hospitality was good. Both flights were on time.

I chose to fly with SAA because they were recommended as one of the safest airlines in South Africa.

The only reason I didn’t give a full 5-star rating is because the cabin was sanitized while passengers were already on board. The crew mentioned it was WHO-approved and advised those concerned to breathe through a cloth—something I found ineffective and quite uncomfortable and made me sick for a couple of days afterward

This website is a fraud. I booked 3 tickets got a PNR but SAA never got my payment. It seems that their web site is not safe. Despite the proof that the money left for an account named SAA, I never got the tickets neither my money back.
Avoid that company. No support, no refund, website unsafe. You can find much reliable airline compagnies in South Africa !

Excellent flight from Accra to JNB. Very friendly staff, on time, good food.

We just had a lovely experience on a SAA flight from Cape Town to Sao Paolo. Check in was friendly and efficient and the inflight service was much better than i would have imagined. Comfortable seating, bathrooms were well maintained and clean throughout the flight and the food and beverage service was extremely good. The inflight entertainment system is a bit limited but it was fine for our 9hour or so flight. Well done.

The service is fantastic. Food is great. Flights are on time.

No Daily flight to Durban from Johannesburg.

I cancelled my flight but still didn't get refund of USD 284 for 2 months. On enquiring they said they are working on it. So, they just hope you forget and don't ask for refund. Finally they refunded USD 226 keeping UDS 57. No explanation of why they kept my money. Thieves of broad day light.

SA326 CPT-JNB at 11:15 on business
Booked my ticket March 21st 2023, Original flight date was February 12th 2024. Paid ZAR 4529,47,
Called your office and changed my ticket to change the flight date to February 5th 2024, and paid extra ZAR 1598,29 on November 2nd 2023.
As I did NOT recieve any confirmation I kept writing to your customer service to get them to confirm my ticket. After 4 attempts, I received an email with the details from my original booking for February 12th! My booking was not to be found online, it simply wanished.
Arriving SA on January 11th I went to your office at Airport JNB and was told that the booking was cancelled as the flight was booked for january 5th! (I arrived JNB on January 11th!?.
In case my flight was booked on January 5th, why did I not get an email stating that online check in was open, and due to your equipment change I should be able to choose my seat- nothing was received at my end, neither did I get a proper response when contacting your customer service!
I was actually happy to see that SAA started flying again and was happy to book with you, now it seems that my choice was a VERY bad one. I will take legal matters into use to get my money back, and I will NOT book my flights with your company in the future!

I booked four flexible tickets which I had to cancel. Immediately after the cancellation I received this e-mail:

Dear Valued Customer
Sawubona, we acknowledge receipt of your email.
We refer to your refund request on your unused South African Airways ticket. Please pardon our delay in finalising your request. We have been inundated with refund requests and are working relentlessly to finalising these refunds.
A staff member will attend to your request and be in contact with you once the refund is processed. Stay safe and please comply with all Covid regulations
Yours in Service
SAA Refunds team

Two month later no refund. Filing a class action against this fraudster. Avoid!

Subject: Complaint Regarding Flight SAA 333 - Pathetic Service.

I am writing to express my extreme dissatisfaction with the service I received on Flight SAA 333 on 23 Dec 2023. The overall experience was marred by several issues that I feel compelled to bring to your attention.

1. Check-in Process:
The check-in queue at Terminal [X] was excessively long, significantly more so than other terminals. SAA ground control's handling of the queues was chaotic, with passengers being shifted from one line to another, allowing others to push in ahead.

2. Misinformation about Lounge:
Upon querying the ground hostess about the location of the FNB Slow Lounge, I was provided with entirely incorrect directions. A simple acknowledgment of not knowing would have been preferable to misleading information.

3. Hand Luggage Issue:
Our standard-sized hand luggage was deemed too large for the aircraft, resulting in an unnecessary delay. The inconsistency in enforcing size regulations is concerning. Later learnt that my luggage was the correct size based on measurents of the SAA policy documents.

4. Delayed Departure and Unconvincing Explanation:
The departure was delayed by approximately an hour, with the pilot attributing it to holiday season traffic. This explanation appears disingenuous, as SAA should anticipate and manage such circumstances during peak travel times.

5. Observation of Luggage Loading:
I observed that our luggage was loaded onto the aircraft just before departure, raising questions about the efficiency of the pre-flight preparations.

This series of incidents has left me profoundly dissatisfied with the level of service provided by SAA. I trust that you will investigate these matters promptly and take appropriate measures to prevent such issues in the future.

As a result of this experience, I regret to inform you that I will be avoiding SAA services in the future. I believe it is crucial for the airline to address these concerns to maintain customer satisfaction and loyalty.

It is clear why this is yet another state owned disaster.

Review SAA airline to Mauritius from Johannesburg and back.
Wednesday 19.7.23/ Wednesday 26.7.23.
Flight 190/191 airbus 320-200
Pumsa Air Hostess is very friendly and helpful.
The plane was clean and comfortable.
The food was delicious.
We were catered for halaal.
Centrally mounted TV units for all passengers to view from the same screen.
Spacious leg seating.
Movie we watched was called 'chaos walking'

I did not book SAA, I booked Mauritius Airlines and they use SAA to do the flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg. We had our flight which was supposed to leave at around 8:45 am and the hopeless SAA changed the flight to 6am!!! This threw off our entire day and extended our wait in Johannesburg. We were hopelessly exhausted by the time we reached Mauritius! SAA is a waste of tax payers money💯👌!!!

I have requested a refund of an EMD voucher by email on 15 March 2023 to the SAA online Refunds Department.
I am still waiting for my money!!!

SAA SERVICE COMMITMENT (I quote from SAA website):
We will provide prompt refunds for eligible tickets once we receive your request accompanied by all required documentation. If your ticket is eligible for a refund as per the rules of the fare you have purchased, we will refund the appropriate amount to you according to the original form of payment. Refunds for tickets purchased directly with SAA will be processed within 21 business days on receipt of your complete refund submission.

This is more than a JOKE!

I have written letters:
- to the refunds department ... not able to process the refund.
- to the customer service ... not able to process the refund.
- to the CEO .. no answer and no response.

16 weeks of begging for what rightfully belongs to me to be returned.

SAA has a terrible attitude towards clients and very poor quality of service.
The staff members are totally unprofessional, incompetent and unreliable.

Does SAA not wonder what advertising damage they are perpetrating with their conduct?

Had a wonderful, fun flight in the economy class. Served by Gomotso and Jayson. Those guys are the best man! The service was impressive and they were very attentive. Definitely luxury in the air. Keep up the quality of service

I flew from Cairo with a transit in JHB before arriving in CPT
My bags were easily admitted in Cairo as they were 26kg and 12kg respectively... the sum of both was 8 kilos less than the permitted 46 kilos of weight that SAA allows. Yet in JHB the check-in enforcer insisted that i must transfer 3 kilos from the heavier bag to the lighter one. This, I had to do with a long queue behind me, in full view of everyone in sight, going through my underwear and carefully wrapped/packed items that were now disheveled in order to placate the gods of south african airlines and their arbitrary baggage rules of weight distribution. This kind of unyielding strictness is incredibly unreasonable and poor for maintaining any loyalty you might want to foster in your customers. I know business class gets 32kg x2 for every customer - so please don't tell me this was to save the employees' backs. By the time I was finally checked in, I was hot, sweaty and very angry with SAA. The noose gets tighter every year. Please consider reasonable allowances for your customers...

If I could give zero stars to this shoddy airline I would. I am still waiting for a refund for flights from July 2021 but booked in 2020. They were cancelled by SAA and still no refund. They were back in business from September 2021 but when you email them you just can a standard customer reply. I can see from TripAdvisor that many other people have been ripped off by this airline.
Don't fly with them!!!

Honestly, this is one of the worst airline companies ever. I am so disappointed. My friend and I bought 2 flight tickets in January 2020 from Uk to SA, and we were not able to travel due to COVID, and we are trying to contact them in order to get a refund.
In the beginning, they only wanted to refund just one of the tickets and then they decided to reschedule the flights many times. I understand this situation that COVID has brought us, but we are currently in a position where we don´t know what is going to happen with the tickets as nobody is answering the phone or replying to the emails. I am so gutted.

It took us a few months to get our money back, but this is the case with all travel companies at the moment who must be having awful cash flow issues, which some people don’t understand.
Our internal flight actually went ahead but as we couldn’t get to the country from the UK and the flight times had changed we were entitled to a refund.
We dealt with a fantastic lady named Barbara who communicated with us regularly and chased up our refund with the correct department and regularly checked in to ensure we had received confirmation and eventually our refund.
Barbara is an asset to the company and thank you for your excellent communication in the past few weeks.