SAA South African Airways Passenger Reviews and SAA Customer Trip Reports

South African Airways customer travel guide

South African Airways Passenger Trip Reviews

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Cape Town to Johannesburg. 6 July 2012. Airbus A340-600. Great plane and pilots. Sat at the emergency exits row "45". Excellent legroom (I am 2 meters tall). Took off on time and arrived 15 minutes ahead of schedule. Baggage was checked all the way to our New York connecting flight. Ground staff were pleasantly helpful. Cabin crew nice and friendly. Good on board service.

Johannesburg to Cape Town. Good flight, on time, all good until we arrived. Waited at luggage carousel until no more bags and then visit lost luggage counter. It turns out the pilot ordered 50 bags to be left because of bad weather. Presumably to avoid lodging more fuel since it was only a 2 hour flight on a 737. SAA could have told us when we arrived and not gone through the lost baggage charade. The one guy left to deal with 50 angry people did a fantastic job and bags were delivered next day as promised.

Flew back MUN-JHNB SA265. Full flight. Whole in-flight system was in-operative as well as the seats. Meals was good and service is friendly. Was able to sleep on the flat-bed as the seats can be operated manually, but it was a struggle and noisy for the staff to set up. I think the staff service was good in the challenging circumstances but thought poorly of the equipment of the aircraft not being in working order. Despite the apologies from the staff on board I think an apology from head-office is required.

Our flight from JFK to JNB was delayed 9 hours due to mechanical problems costing us an entire day in Cape Town. Neither my wife or I had a functional entertainment unit for the 14 hour flight. Our connecting flight from JNB to Hoedspruit (near Kruger) was delayed by 4 hours due to another mechanical failure, costing us an entire game drive on Safari. After emailing SAA regarding these issues they offered to provide a small discount on future purchases from their dysfunctional airline. While staff were polite in person they regularly demonstrated no awareness of the reasoning or status of long delay issues. I will never fly SAA again. British Airways is certainly worth the very slight difference in cost.

We have always travelled with SAA between LHR and JHB on our visits to family. Our last trip was different, the crew were so much more pleasant this time. In the past, one or two looked as if it was a chore to deal with us. This time there was always a smile and cheery banter. Our only complaint was that in both directions we had problems with the IFE, no sound, or it sounded as if it was under water. Despite re-booting we never did get it right. We've rebooked our next flight already and look forward to it.

JFK-JNB May 20th. I have always enjoyed flying SAA. I have found the staff to be very friendly and helpful. This trip was no different. Entertainment, food and drinks were good. I have always had a hard time sleeping on the plane, so I will often go and chat with the crew in the galley while stretching. They have always been so friendly and easy to chat with. The only unpleasant part of this last trip was that I was sitting next to a rather large woman who was not very polite. She raised the arm rest between us and came spilling on to me. Not very pleasant on a 15 hour flight. I still tried to be nice though and make some small talk. I will be flying with SAA again on Sunday July 1st and look forward to their hospitality.

Flight: In last month. First, we had a very hectic check in and boarding - though we reached the airport 2 hrs before our flight, we had nearly missed our flight because of the slowness in immigration procedures! But I would like to thank to staff at the boarding gate A24 who allowed us in though boarding was closed. Was expecting a wonderful flight in the business class cabin from Johannesburg to Mauritius, but both me and my husband were disappointed. The hostess seemed to be forcing herself to smile at us and we had to wait a long time before being served! Moreover, the vegetarian food was of extremely low quality. Nevertheless, my husband has travelled economy in domestic SA flights, and he was happy with the service. It all depends on the crew.

OR Tambo to Accra, Ghana. SA 52 18 June 2012, Airbus 340, bad vibration on take off, the landing at Accra was good. My seat was in class: Y very cramped, difficult to get up out of the seat. Only screens from roof for inflight entertainment on a 6 hours flight. The food is not bad - very spicy curry beef or spicy chicken or vegetarian. The coffee after the meals is cold, no hot milk. The chicken wrap was good, only juice available. You must plastic wrap your suitcase for R50.00 per case.

DUR-JNB-HKG. Ground staff at Durban were great giving me the emergency exit on a brand new A320, plenty of leg room and friendly staff. Upgraded to business using Voyager miles while in JNB airport for the Hong Kong leg, got row 3.The ground staff in JNB are usually unfriendly and unhelpful but this couldn't be further from the truth on this trip. Awesome service from them. Then from the moment we stepped on board the crew couldn't have been more friendly but as always very safety conscience. Updates from the flight deck are always good on SAA and this trip was no different. We were well informed and warned in advance about bad weather. Food was good and entertainment good. The lie flat seat was great and I slept for 7hrs. Woke for breakfast and landing. The flight crew let me into the cockpit to take photos and went out of their way to explain all the goings on in the flight deck and gave me the weather print out as a souvenir.

My wife and I flew with our 12 month old son from London to Jo'Burg on an overnight and thanks to the wonderful staff it was a brilliant experience, They allocated us the whole centre row so our son could lay down to sleep and we're very attentive throughout in regards to his milk. The food for adults was great as were the drinks, All in all highly recommended.

We travelled from Johannesburg to Victoria Falls, Victoria Falls to Cape Town, Cape Town to Nelspruit, Nelspruit to Durban and then finally Durban to Johannesburg. We had exceptional flight service on all our flights. Friendly flight attendants and prompt service. Our only complaint would be with the check-in counters where staff were often less than friendly. Please note, this was not on every check-in, but was more memorable at most counters, than not. Overall, excellent service and was pleased with all our flights!

Heathrow to Johannesburg. Disappointed to find that although I had asked for an aisle seat due to a medical condition, I was put into a window seat both ways. Meals and drinks were ok! Inflight entertainment was fine, but having got to JHB, found that they had sent my luggage to Cape Town I was not amused. Took 3 days to get it back requiring multiple phone calls. When I asked them for another quote for a flight this coming December they couldn't even do that, I'm now comfortably booked with Lufthansa, SAA certainly know how to lose customers.

Economy flight on 11 May New York to Johannesburg - 14 hour flight. Comfortable seats, great entertainment system, reasonable food. But it was the crew that made it. Pleasant, efficient and helpful. Regular visits with water and snacks between the two main meals - and they kept the toilets clean. They were excellent.

LHR-JNB, JNB-ELS return. Connection boarding pass issued in London which made it much quicker and less stressful. Staff very attentive throughout the flights, offering plenty of fluids. Food good and nice to be given better cutlery than most other airlines. Touch screen entertainment much better and easier to use. All in all, I was very impressed and will fly SAA as my first choice of airline.

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