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South African Airways customer travel guide
		South African Airways Passenger Trip Reviews		South African Airways Economy class seat reviews
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	South African Airways Customer review :  17 February 2012 by A Gurevich    (South Africa)
	Rating : 1/10 Cabin Flown Economy Value for Money Seat Comfort Staff Service Catering Entertainment Recommended	JNB-IAD-JNB, old dirty plane, blankets smelt, very limited choice of movies. On return, the flight was cancelled due to technical issues, gate staff called transit police at IAD a few times when passengers started asking questions about reasons for the delay, it turned out they cancelled this flight 3 days in a row.

	South African Airways Customer review :  16 February 2012 by Jenny McCarthy-Nagel    (South Africa)
	Rating : 3/10 Cabin Flown Economy Value for Money Seat Comfort Staff Service Catering Entertainment Recommended	Johannesburg to Munich. Specifically requested exit row seats and got them. Two of our seats were faulty and couldn't recline, all three our TV's and sound systems were broken. Despite numerous requests, they refused to move us, saying the flight was full, when in fact, there a lot of open seats. On our return from Munich to Johannesburg it was even worse. It was really busy and noisy. The entire row had no inflight entertainment because all the TV's were broken. Once again we told we couldn't be moved because of lack of seats. We will look at stop-over options rather than going SAA again.

	South African Airways Customer review :  11 February 2012 by Lawrence Williams    (UK)
	Rating : 8/10 Cabin Flown Economy Value for Money Seat Comfort Staff Service Catering Entertainment Recommended	LHR-JNB-CPT return. Flights were on time. Modern Airbus with good entertainment system. Food edible - even served a hot breakfast. Hot meal on domestic CPT-JNB flight. Wine very passable. Cabin crew friendly enough but not wildly efficient. Found seat cushions a littler hard, but otherwise the couple of inches extra legroom over BA very welcome. Check-in at all airports quick and hassle free, although probably helped by checking in online.

	South African Airways Customer review :  8 February 2012 by P Nel    (South Africa)
	Rating : 4/10 Cabin Flown Business Value for Money Seat Comfort Staff Service Catering Entertainment Recommended	JNB-HKG Business (Premier Class). Inflight entertainment problems. Staff not available, poor compared to other airlines. Had similar poor and rude cabin crew on a flight to Washington DC in economy. Frequent Flyer Programme (Voyager) not user friendly. I cannot recommend SAA.

	South African Airways Customer review :  7 February 2012 by Di Gennaro    (USA)
	Rating : 5/10 Cabin Flown Economy Value for Money Seat Comfort Staff Service Catering Entertainment Recommended	After reading so many rave reviews on various sites, I was quite disappointed. The economy class seats were very tight for even a short flight, so imagine a 16.5 hour flight. Flight attendants were not very pleasant, not even one friendly smile from any of them. The food is average plane food. The flights left on time, but that is probably the best I can say about them.

	South African Airways Customer review :  26 January 2012 by Abbi Osbiston    (UK)
	Rating : 8/10 Cabin Flown Economy Value for Money Seat Comfort Staff Service Catering Entertainment Recommended	JNB-LHR on the new airbus. Seats were roomy and comfy, staff polite and friendly and inflight entertainment system, outstanding. We had terrible turbulence throughout the flight but the captain was informative and reassuring and everyone remained calm. Food not great but otherwise excellent.

	South African Airways Customer review :  25 January 2012 by L Moodley    (South Africa)
	Rating : 9/10 Cabin Flown Economy Value for Money Seat Comfort Staff Service Catering Entertainment Recommended	I travel quite frequently on business locally in SA. SAA have a much younger fleet than other rivals, food and beverage service is always good. Most importantly they have friendly and courteous staff. My last flight DUR- JNB-DUR both ways on a clean A319. My next flight to PE is also booked on SAA.

	South African Airways Customer review :  20 January 2012 by S Coscione    (USA)
	Rating : 9/10 Cabin Flown Economy Value for Money Seat Comfort Staff Service Catering Entertainment Recommended	New York-Maputo via JNB. I was surprised by the level of quality. The food from New York was lovely. On the return it was still good but a little disappointed with the choices. The cabin crew are good and they show concern towards the safety and comfort of passengers. The seat in economy class is comfortable and provides enough space for the feet. The entertainment system has a variety of choices. A pleasant flight.

	South African Airways Customer review :  17 January 2012 by Andrew Duff    (UK)
	Rating : 7/10 Cabin Flown Economy Value for Money Seat Comfort Staff Service Catering Entertainment Recommended	LHR-JNB-PLZ-JNB-LHR. Four flights in ten days on four different aircraft (332, 738, CR7 and 346). Both internal flights excellent: on time, crew efficient and friendly, aircraft clean, food decent. Long-haul flights a mixed bag. Outbound on SAA's newest A330-200: aircraft spotless, IFE superb (aside from moving map not working), arrived 30 minutes early, but crew surly and dinner mediocre (good wine though). Breakfast was better. I found the A330 seats very hard. Return leg on older A340-600: delayed 30 minutes, seats a little more comfortable, IFE worked fine after initial problems. Dinner much better but breakfast mediocre, crew much more friendly than on the LHR-JNB leg. Overall would travel with SAA again - if they could iron out the inconsistencies this would be a pretty good economy experience.

South African Airways customer review :  20 August 2011 by Richard Wiley   (South Africa)

CPT-LHR return. Both flights on new A330. Excellent seat comfort and lie-flat. Cabin very quiet up front even on take-off. Food very good both ways and crew attentive and friendly without being invasive. The only thing I'd mark down was the fact that no menus were loaded in London. I've flown a lot on SAA in the last 3 months and have noticed a marked improvement in food quality and variety. Passenger embarkation at LHR was clearly communicated and orderly, something that should be noted by JNB ground staff. A pity the Star Alliance lounge at LHR is so tatty and uninviting.

South African Airways customer review :  9 August 2011 by R Chalmers   (UK)

LHR-JHB-LHR Business Class. Outward leg on A330 and back on A340. Both flights fairly uneventful. Cabin crew on outward leg were not especially welcoming but on return were the opposite. Found seat on A330 outward leg more comfortable in sleeping configuration than the A340 which seemed to be a bit hard. Did not bother with IFES although there appeared to be something wrong with it on the flight back to LHR. Meal service was fine both ways - quality of food was not bad. Both flights departed and arrived on time.

South African Airways customer review :  2 August 2011 by M Shah   (Kenya)

Flew SAA in Business from CPT to JNB. As we were connecting on from JNB, we wanted to get our purchases checked by customs so we could get tax back. We allowed 1 hr for this, but it took all of 5 mins, so we were at check in 3 hrs before our flight. Although there was an earlier flight with seats, SA wanted to charge us an extra US$300 each for the change. So we stayed on our existing flight. Check in was smooth. The SA domestic lounge in CPT is large. Not much on offer for food other then toast, and sandwiches. There is also a bar and self serve for soft drinks. Our plane was parked underneath the lounge, and we saw it being boarded, yet no announcement was made in the lounge. Off we went and were the last to board. The plane was a 737. 2-3 across in J. Comfortable seat. A hot breakfast was served with yoghurt, cereal and croissants. Was a good and filling meal. Also offered was fresh orange juice and tea/coffee. SA does not offer a hot towel service. Overall service was good. Bags took a long time to get delivered. Priority tagging did not work.

South African Airways customer review :  1 August 2011 by P Reynolds   (USA)

JFK-JNB round trip and during that trip flew round trip to Victoria Falls. I had reservations and seat assignments long in advance. I did not get my assigned seat on any flight I took. I tried to sign in online and could not do it. I called the SAA office and they said I could not do that since the reservations were made by a travel agent. I check in 3 hrs early at JNB and found that my seat had been given away again. All airbus seats are excruciating in economy on a long flight. Costs matched all other airlines.

South African Airways customer review :  1 August 2011 by B Dale   (New Zealand)

Perth to Johannesburg. First contact at check-in was not good as someone in SAA moved my pre-assigned seat for a friend of theirs, thus splitting up my brother and I. The Airbus A340-200 was showing its age. The lavatories were in poor repair with missing door handles. The only entertainment was on a bulkhead video screen- with only 2 movies shown on an 11 hour sector- and limited audio choice as most of the channels did not work. Our arrival in Johannesburg was nearly 1 hour early, so we had to wait on the tarmac while a ground crew was found. (In SAA's defence, it was 4:30am, so most staff had yet to arrive at the airport.) On the plus side the meals were generous and the cabin crew were polite. They did regular drinks walks during the long night.

South African Airways customer review :  30 July 2011 by M Lam   (New Zealand)

PER-JNB-MRU return. A340-200 except for MRU-JNB (737-800). Good legrooms on all flights. Seats on the hard side for a 10 hour+ flight but appreciated the winged headrest on the Recaro seats. Food and drinks slightly above standard for economy. Crew professional throughout and very friendly on the JNB-MRU leg. Did not notice many drinks run but bottled water provided. Worst aspect of flights was the outdated IFE.

South African Airways customer review :  29 July 2011 by Patrick Hunter   (Australia)

Perth-Johannesburg back to Perth. Room for improvement. There were no IFE screens. The service was hurried and for the large part inattentive. The food was okay, and the only positive was the wine.

South African Airways customer review :  21 July 2011 by E Cazes   (France)

Johannesburg-Windhoek-Johannesburg, on a brand new A330-200 from JNB. The choice of 2 hot meals for a 2 hr flight is remarkable. Food was good with a friendly cabin crew. Return in a B737-800 with the same quality in service. It was my first experience with SAA and I enjoyed it from start to finish.

South African Airways customer review :  16 July 2011 by Assis Pontes   (South Africa)

JNB-BA return. The trip to BA was good. IFE was good with each seat having it's own. Spacious seats. Enjoyed the flight. The return flight was an older aircraft with no individual IFE. Communication from flight deck was very informative. Food was reasonable. Okay flight.

South African Airways customer review :  13 July 2011 by A Althani   (Qatar)

DXB-JNB and on to DUR. The Dubai-Johannesburg was on an Emirates code share flight so I will not review it here but the JNB-DUR was on a proper SAA flight and they have always delivered a high quality product they are attentive and extremely helpful even with the meal. We are Muslims but forgot to ask for a Muslim meal but their flight attendant brought us a vegetarian choice from Economy Class.

South African Airways customer review :  11 July 2011 by Ricardo Sfeir   (Brazil)

The seats are so tight that it is practically impossible to open your legs while seated, and so close together with the seat in front of you that you can't stretch your leg. There were no individual TV's, only one TV at the start of the aisle with the worst quality I have ever seen. The fight attendants were rude, impersonal and didn't care if people called them or not. The food was bland; tasteless.