On May 8th, Mothers day, I flew from Cape Town to Johannesburg on SA334. I was very excited because I would see both my kids on mother’s day (My son lives in Jhb and my daughter in Cape Town) My flight was suppose to leave at 12h55. At 13h20 the flight was delayed to 15h15. Then at every hour it was delayed for another hour. Nobody discussed this with us (the passengers) and the only info we had was looking at the flight schedule sign. At 18h00 it was delayed again until 21h15. Then all of a sudden at 20h00 the flight was cancelled. Again nobody discussed this with us and we went to the SAA counter only to find out we've been put on another flight at 21h30 SA332. This was confusing because SA332 was also delayed from 12pm just before our flight SA334. Our luggage was strewn in the middle of the airport floor behind the counters and if we didn't ask about our luggage we wouldn't have known that we had to check the luggage in again. I personally told a few passengers about the luggage because they didn't know and they had to run from the boarding gates to go and get their luggage. We only left at 22h00 and got to jhb after midnight were I was stranded because my shuttle wasn't there anymore.
I flew back on Saturday May 14th on SA343 and on arrival in Cape Town, SAA lost my vanity case!!! Up till now I haven't heard anything.
I would like to know what SAA is going to do about this inconvenience and why we were not informed WHY the flight was delayed for 9 hours and WHY couldn't SAA told us earlier so that we could make other arrangements?
I was also not informed by the baggage claim office that I should put a claim in for my vanity case and the contents!!

The following details the issue we've raised with SAA, the worst is that we havent received any kind of useful response from SAA. I dotn even mean a positive response, I do mean "any" kind of feedback on our issue other than that there's "no feedback" from whoever's looking at it, or supposed to be anyway.

My family recently flew SAA from Amsterdam to Port Elizabeth. I was travelling with 2 small children via Munich and my husband travelled via Frankfurt (the Munich flight was fully booked).

On 26 Dec 2010 my children and I flew flight SA 265 from Munich to Johannesburg. We arrived on time. We waited in the baggage pick up area for my husband to arrive on the Frankfurt flight SA261 which arrived 30 minutes late. By the time he came through customs, we were just getting our luggage. My children and I went up to domestic departures terminal to check in for SA flight 405 leaving at 10:15. We checked in and got our boarding passes for the 4 of us - myself, my children and my husband who was still coming up from baggage claim.

We checked in to SA flight 405 at 9:55 am and told the man issuing our boarding passes that we will wait for my husband before we board the flight. About 10 minutes later, we ran to security area, went through security and RAN to gate. When we got to our departure gate, the SAA attendants there said that the flight had left EARLY because all passengers had boarded. They had no record of the 4 of us on that flight and said we had not checked in at all. And they told us our luggage had never been on this flight, it was downstairs at left luggage.

I then, with my children go back to the check in desk and told the man who had issued the tickets to me that the gate attendants said I had not checked in. He said they were lying to me and that I should speak to his manager. At that point, I went down to retrieve our luggage and was told at the baggage claim that our luggage was on a different flight (SA 417) already as it had never been checked in to our original flight 405.

I go back upstairs and my husband buys new tickets for our J'burg - PE flight (SA 423) for a fee of R4, 500 for 3 tickets (attached file).

At no point when checking in for flight 405 did the SAA employee tell me that I did not have enough time to get through security and get to the gate before the flight closed. The flight attendants had no record of 4 passengers checked in on this flight and actually departed the gate EARLY. I ran up and down and back again with 2 small children in the airport on a wild goose chase trying to get to our flight, get our luggage, get the same employee who checked us in while getting a manage to hear our plight.

Once we spoke with the manager, she could only suggest that I write to customer care since we had already purchased the new tickets. At least she kindly upgraded our JHB-PE flight to business class as she could clearly see how frazzled and tired my entire family was after all this. The next flight was another 5 1/2 hour wait after our 12 hour journey to get to South Africa from Amsterdam.

I am seeking reimbursement for the extra tickets from JHB-PE that we had to purchase, R4500. As the flight was delayed from Frankfurt, there was no way our family would ever have made the 10:15 flight 405 after going through customs, waiting for our bags, going to domestic departures terminal, re-checking our bags, going through security again and reaching the departure gate - with 2 small children - in the 40 minutes we had.

Both my children are SAA frequent flyers (REMOVED for privacy ). In the past we have enjoyed flying on SAA but this trip was a disaster for me and my family. It was only the manager who was actually kind and helpful to us. Every other SAA employee we encountered was unhelpful, dismissive and the woman at the desk when we purchased the tickets was actually offensive and shouted at me in front of my children. It was highly unprofessional.

South African airways abandoned its customers in Cairo and attempted to profiteer out of their turmoil.

My Dad arrived at the airport and couldn't get any information from check in staff about his flight. I called South African airways in the UK here and was advised that his flight had been cancelled and they would not transfer him to another flight even though there were seats available. They offered to provide a refund for his flight and to book him on another South African Airways flight to J'berg. The refund was £350 - the new flight was £2000!

The flight was cancelled because of the curfew but most other airlines were changing their flight times to accommodate the curfew or putting passengers on other flights. Basically, I said it was the airline's decision to cancel the flight rather than reschedule, and they had an obligation to put him on the next available flight - especially given the instability and travel warnings that exist for the country. I have never come across an airline that cancels a flight and then tells its customers it has to pay to get on another flight. South African Airways said the airline couldn't wear the increased cost. They were willing to leave him in Cairo with the current warnings and dangers!.. Unbelievable... So basically South African Airways is willing to abandon its customers in a country that has been deamed so dangerous that consular staff are evacuating and special flights are being sent in to retreive staff. South African Airline was also using the unrest to profiteer. Quite phenomenal.

I wish to complain that despite my daughter (14 yrs old) was bumped of a flight to London despite being a silver voyager class member because she did not shout enough where as adults that did were put on a flight. She has been in transit in Johannesburg from Malawi to London, shw was left for 18 hours in Johannesburg with no assistance from SAA ground staff at all, eventually she was put into a hotel room with a 16 year old boy... This is a disgrace Since when have International airlines and Iata advocated such abuse of minors.
Despite nuerous complaints we are told verbally that this is just a danger with flying there can be no guarantees. we have had no written response to complaints.
I would like to know exactly what IATA's rules on this are, especially where minors are concerned. I thought being an international body, the health and saftey of minors would have been of principle concern to such governing bodies as IATA as well as the airlines. This is obviously not the case and it seems that he who shouts loudest gets simply to avoid confrontation. I want to know what can be done about this and also who and where we can complain about this. I will soon be writing to the international media regarding this as I suspect it will be the only way someone will do anything about it.

I was supposed to fly from kimberley to johanesburg on fri 10 dec on the 1455 flight african airways. then catch a connecting flight from johannessburg at 1920 for hre also on south african airways.
i checked in and was informed that the plane was 1 hr delayed i didnt really mind as i would still have enough time to catch my connecting flight. At the new boarding time 1510 i was informed that the flight was actually only leaving at 2020!!! i had to cancel my flight and now i have to spend more time and money negogiating for a refund it is the most ridiculous thing i have ever heard shame on you saa you are truly money hungry greedies and you have lo