SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS Passenger Reviews and Customer Trip Reports

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SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS customer review :  26 October 2009 : by R Botha   (UK)

Domestic CPT-JNB flight during Friday afternoon peak. Check-in online and seat allocation was honoured. Friendly service at check-in, although Fast Bag Drop not available for Economy class. Older B737 with huge leg space. Friendly and attentive FAs, even coming around for further drinks rounds. Good quality wine and snack. Watched comedy programme on overhead (drop down) video screens. Arrived 20 minutes before the scheduled time and waiting about 10 minutes for my bag. Overall efficient impression, especially as this "full service" flight was less expensive than the "no frills" alternatives.

SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS customer review :  30 September 2009 : by Michael Schade   (Singapore)

Johannesburg - Cape Town return in Y class. New 737-800, surprisingly good service for a domestic flight.

SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS customer review :  26 September 2009 : by P Smit   (UK)

LHR-JNB return A340-600 economy. Planes new and clean, impressive legroom and tasty food. Seat was however very hard and passengers complained. some cabin crew very helpful and friendly but some just average.

SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS customer review :  24 September 2009 : by A Gori   (Kenya)

Nairobi-Johannesburg-Upington. A319 Nairobi to Johannesburg, Embraer 135 (operated by Airlink) Johannesburg to Upington. Flights on time and good on-board service. I find the A319 a little more comfortable than the B737-800 they sometimes operate into Nairobi, nice Recaro seats and a roomier cabin, which helps make a four-hour flight more enjoyable.

SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS customer review :  24 September 2009 : by Claes Elowsson   (Norway)

CPT-JNB to catch a LH to FRA. Service was friendly and smiling, food simple and tasteless, aircraft new, clean and roomy. Roomier than LH - alliance partners should be similar so one know what to expect when choosing to be loyal.

SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS customer review :  22 September 2009 : by Phil Eadie   (UK)

LHR-JNB-LHR on A340-600. First time on SAA and generally pleased with performance and service. Good, efficient cabin crew, more than reasonable food and entertainment system (which is not typical across rest of fleet) was rather good - especially enjoyed the tail plane camera being available. A couple of gripes - seat pitch is OK but for some reason the seats are really uncomfortable and required constant shifting around to ease pressure points. Also on return leg from JNB they never called the flight or announced it as boarding (as every other flight was) and seemed quite disinterested in rectifying the situation or indeed even understanding why there was a problem.

SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS customer review :  19 September 2009 : by Andrew Fleming   (Ghana)

Return from Accra to J'burg and SAA disappointed on this trip. Flight out A340-200 and direct. Service very average with the crew doing nothing more than they had to. A welcome drink, one further drink round once in the air then average meal served. Crew then disappeared. Entertainment not befitting a 4 star airline and packed up half way through the flight. The return was less satisfactory. Equipment a very tired 747, seats had very little recline. Food, considering a day flight originating from SA most disappointing. Crew gave the impression they could not care less and several spent long periods in the near empty first class cabin - heaven knows what the paying passenger made of their laughing and joking. When he got off in Lagos most of the crew seemed to congregate in this cabin and made considerable noise. A very poor service in terms of food (cold pasties and a limited selection of cold soft drinks) was offered on the Lagos to Accra leg.

SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS customer review :  18 September 2009 : by Brendan Binder   (USA)

Our flight New York to Johannesburg arrived over 5 hours late. Because of late arrival in JNB we had missed connecting flight to Victoria Falls. We were obliged to stay overnight at an airport hotel - SAA would not provide meal or hotel compensation (or assistance whatsoever) claiming they had fulfilled their contract. The SAA customer service personnel were surly and unhelpful.

SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS customer review :  15 September 2009 : by Stuart Walker   (Australia)

On the subsidiary Airlink from Johannesburg to Victoria Falls using BAe plane. Bused from terminal to plane. Comfortable seat, only one class. The lunch box was very good. Outbound and return flights were late - only a problem at Victoria Falls as a pathetic departure lounge.

SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS customer review :  15 September 2009 : by S Kearney   (UK)

LHR-JNB, Cape Town-LHR. I have never experienced such poor service and a poor quality plane. I put the outbound flight to a very old plane and figured this would not be repeated but we got the same plane on our return leg. No personal entertainment systems and the entertainment for a 13 hour flight consisted of 2 very old movies l and one was 9 years old! The entertainment lasted just under 4 hours for a 13 hour flight. Cabin crew rude, and not attentive in the slightest. There were 2 tv screens in the whole of our cabin which must have been over 100 people.

SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS customer review :  21 August 2009 : by Richard Wiley   (South Africa)

LHR-CPT on A340-200. Boarding procedure and gate staff attitude at LHR much improved. Premium cabin about 75% full and in excellent condition. Cabin crew were friendly and attentive and the meals were good and served piping hot. A first rate experience all round and in sharp contrast to outbound CPT-LHR flight in Economy. Seat 45K in front row lacks foot room and is horribly narrow. Discomfort was compounded by screaming infants in front two centre rows but this is hardly SAA fault. I am aware that the A340-200s are leased from AB but the reduced comfort in economy compared with the 300 and 600 versions really isn't acceptable.

SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS customer review :  13 August 2009 : by F Zanon   (Italy)

MUC-JNB return economy class. Quick boarding but had to queue twice queue at the gate in MUC to complete passport data. Nice A340-300, very good legroom, efficient and friendly service, food average. Flights on time, overbooking between MUC and JNB and staff asked 2 passengers to stay in MUC one more night (eur 700 compensation). Nice AVOD, good movies and entertainment.

SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS customer review :  22 July 2009 : by M Smith   (USA)

LHR-JNB Economy Class. New aircraft, efficient boarding system, high level of professionalism and friendliness of cabin crew. Seat pitch average; not tight but not generous. Cabin crew came thru regularly between meals to offer water or juice. Inflight entertainment had wide selection of movies.

SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS review :  18 July 2009 : by Derek Salter   (South Africa)

I am a very regular traveller with SAA and they are generally excellent. Cabin crew usually friendly and efficient. Check in varies depending on the airports you use - recent trip was at Heathrow and it is much improved with the revamped terminal 1. Follow up service at call centers etc usually efficient although I have had problems in the past with refunds and had to call too many times to get them sorted. BUT in the air they are one of the best. My only gripe is that they regularly use the A340-200 plane on the LHR-CPT route - it has less leg room and no personal TVs. This doesn't trouble me too much as I rarely watch the videos but isn't good for lots of other passengers and gets bad comments from them - audio/visial alternatives on BA and Virgin - are better.

SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS review :  26 June 2009 : by S Gregg   (Spain)

JNB-DUR-JNB, JNB-CPT-JNB, ELS-JNB. Exactly the same experience as Lufthansa in Europe: clean planes, bland food and professional FAs. A340-200 feels cramped, A340-600 has good legroom but very uncomfy seats. ELS is a really funny airport, tho it will be extended now. If you go to JNB luggage wrap is a must! Overall SAA is good value for your money to travel within SA, it definitely worth the extra over the no frills carriers there.