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South African Airways customer travel guide
		South African Airways Passenger Trip Reviews		South African Airways Economy class seat reviews
		South African Airways 4-Star Airline ranking		South African Airways Business class seat reviews
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South African Airways customer review :  21 April 2011 by J Johnson   (UK)

London Heathrow to Cape Town - travelled this route a few years a go on A340-600 which was new at the time, clean and the IFE system was good. However SAA are now using an old A340-200 which is cramped, hard seats with no IFE system in the back of the seat. This is very poor for an expensive airline. The food was appalling, only served 1 drink on 11 hour flight.

South African Airways customer review :  18 April 2011 by M Goebel   (Germany)

Business class return flight from Frankfurt to Johannesburg. The distance between seats is good and seat can be changed to a flat bed. The quality of the blankets is also good. However, the entertainment programme is rather poor (choice of movies, size of video screen) and the food and friendliness of staff leave a lot room for improvement.

South African Airways customer review :  17 April 2011 by E Rodriguez   (Canada)

IAD to Joburg and back to Dakar. Time savings because of the route is unbeatable, and the wine selection is excellent. Everything else is very mediocre for an airline that charges that much for its business class tickets. The service is very average. The flat bed is okay, but it is not a brand-new seat and no privacy. Food is just okay. SAA needs to improve its reservation/ticket service which seems outdated.

South African Airways customer review :  15 April 2011 by Jay Denbakker   (South Africa)

CPT-JNB-HKG return, A340-600. Ground staff efficient and friendly in CPT, less so in JNB, but not enough to spoil our day. Air crew on all flights professional and efficient. Requested veg meal for our daughter - was onboard for all our flights. All meals were smallish portions of food (Qatar Airways is way better), not the greatest quality, but edible. Decent wine selection, Moet highly welcome! Did not try the full dinner service on return midnight flight - we had eaten at our hotel earlier, so can't comment on it. We found they leave the breakfast service quite late, so a bit of a rush trying to get through service and tidy cabin for landing. Duvets are a nice touch, flat bed comfortable. Choice of entertainment not as wide as some other airlines, but due to it being a mostly night flight and we slept most of the time, not an inconvenience. We would use SAA again if the price was competitive. Good timetable for this flight - time change seems to have minimal effect on one's perception of night and day.

South African Airways customer review :  8 April 2011 by Pete Naylor   (UK)

LHR-JNB-LHR. Excellent service on both flights. Food and drink good. Clean and comfortable aircraft. Check in a breeze at both airports. Only minor problem, IFE had to be reset a couple of times. Far better experience than BA.

South African Airways customer review :  5 April 2011 by R Norton   (Australia)

Absolute disappointment of service and aircraft being run between Perth and Johannesburg. This is now an old Iberia plane being used on this popular route? Even the staff do not appreciate all it's problems. Incorrect head sets that do not fit this airline were given to us. Service after dinner is non existent? Same plane on return trip. No music channels for entire flight, only movie channel 1 worked and the movie had a consistent horizontal and vertical line through it for entire movie on remote screens - which you can hardly see when lights are on or off. I have used this airline now 8 or 9 times in the last 17 years and seen it deteriorate to pathetic. Qantas need to set better standards than this to code share with this airline and aircraft?

South African Airways customer review :  15 March 2011 by S Lindsay   (UK)

LHR-CPT business class return. The old A340-200, but service and professionalism of the FA's could not have been better. Food was excellent and the wines. Lie-flat bed was comfortable but use your duvet to lie on and ask for a blanket - makes a huge difference ! Overall both flights were very enjoyable and would certainly fly SAA again.

South African Airways customer review :  9 March 2011 by C Yeaman   (UK)

LHR-CPT-LHR in business. The service was exceptionally bad. IFE very old, the loop system meaning we had to wait until the film we wanted to watch had finished before we could view it. SAA say the seats are 180 degrees flat but that is not the case . The flight back wasn't much better and aircraft was older. The only good point was the quality of wine but otherwise very disappointing.

South African Airways customer review :  3 March 2011 by D Conway   (UK)

I've travelled with SAA for 10 years, the service is still okay, but it is getting increasingly patchy - the price is still at the upper end of the range. The current A340's used for the Cape Town route are a bit dated and seats were fairly uncomfortable (no seat back entertainment systems). The food is generally better (although the outward flight ran out of wine fairly soon after service). The staff are so so - some crew are good, others fairly indifferent. On the overnight flight there was a noticeable tendency of individual crew members taking 20+ minutes to change and put on make-up etc in the bathrooms - which is a bit of a cheek! I wouldn't rule out flying with SAA, but it's not what it used to be.

South African Airways customer review :  1 March 2011 by Martyn Green   (UK)

LHR-JNB return. I did quite a lot of research before booking these flights, checking seat configurations were 2-4-2, and even calling SAA to double check that I could pre reserve seats. After booking I was able to reserve seats on both legs, the staff at London reservations were polite and very helpful, allocating our preferred seats, and even sending a revised itinerary with our seat numbers confirmed. However on checking in we found we had no seats reserved, though fortunately we did manage to get window and aisle for the outward leg. I spoke to the service desk at Heathrow to check our seats for the return would still be ok, and was assured they would be. On checking in at JNB for our return, we were allocated middle row seats, when I pointed out that we had reserved seats, the clerk showed no interest at all. He told us the flight was full, and there were no other seats available, however when we boarded the plane we found that there were plenty of empty seats, in fact the row in front of us had just one person to 4 seats. The dishonesty and lack of customer care is just staggering.

South African Airways customer review :  28 February 2011 by Peter Pomeranze   (USA)

Munich-JNB business class. Quite a pleasant experience. Comfortable lie flat seat, good entertainment and good food served by very pleasant and efficient staff. Definitely a superior business class. I would definitely fly them again and prefer it over Lufthansa - which I am using on my return journey.

South African Airways customer review :  28 February 2011 by U Günther   (Switzerland)

DAR-JHB-WDH and back. All flights punctual, efficient check in, great seat comfort in Economy, good food and friendly service.

South African Airways customer review :  22 February 2011 by T Impson   (China)

DUR-JNB-HKG. Seat pitch is better than most other carriers. The onboard entertainment was up to date and worked. Seats comfortable and food excellent. B737-800 in near new condition and A340-600 was better. Flight was quite empty so people could move around and most had an empty seat next to them. I kept my emergency exit seats (row 45) which where great. The pilots on both flights gave up to date information on weather in route.

South African Airways customer review :  13 February 2011 by T Impson   (China)

HKG-JNB-DUR last month, A340-300 and 737-800. The entertainment system was great and food good. The best part was the service onboard - staff interacted just enough to make you feel welcome but never intruded. Joburg airport was a breeze with bag drop working. Flight from Joburg to Durban just as good and was upgraded to business class which was great.

South African Airways customer review :  31 January 2011 by M Hines   (USA)

Star Alliance members should avoid this airline, as they do not award miles at the same level as other Star Alliance members, give little priority, if at all to Star Alliance Gold members, and generally provide poor service for flights to and from the US. Nothing but hassles at the Johannesburg airport when checking in, items stolen from my luggage that they insisted I check. Also could not understand why they kept seating people beside me, when most of the last 10-15 rows were fully empty. Bring extra food because they don't want to feed you.

South African Airways customer review :  31 January 2011 by Kirsten Day   (South Africa)

Last time I travelled SAA all was fine except that an age restricted movie was shown (early show) which I could not protect my children (aged 3 and 5) from seeing as they were right in front of the screen and there were no personal tv sets. I was upset about this and complained to the cabin attendants but they said there was nothing they could do. I am due to fly with my children again in July this year on the A340-200 aircraft (no personal TVs) and I will be very upset if the same thing happens. Surely it must be illegal to show an age restricted movie to under-age minors that cannot stopped from seeing the screen when it is right in front of them? Especially when it is gun violence! I would like to support SAA but I feel strongly that there must be a policy on age restricted movies, particularly for the early show.

South African Airways customer review :  25 January 2011 by N Agler   (UK)

LHR to CPT (via JNB) return. All was well on the outbound flight. Food good quality although in very small portions for business class. Flight attendants friendly and professional. Lie flat bed was comfortable but your feet seemed to be higher than your head. Return was delayed due to closure of Heathrow in the December snowstorm. SAA could not have done less to help their passengers. We were left to make our own arrangements for accommodation and meals for three days. The website gave incorrect information, as did the helpline in Johannesburg. The staff at Cape Town were impolite and unhelpful. They tried to send me home to London via Frankfurt even though Frankfurt was also closed. Nearly six weeks later they have not replied to emails asking for assistance with making a claim on my personal insurance policy. This airline does nothing but the barest minimum to assist passengers when things go wrong. Their attitude is "we will put you on a flight eventually but in the meantime you are on your own".

South African Airways customer review :  25 January 2011 by P Lourens   (South Africa)

Cape Town to Heathrow. A virtually non-existent entertainment package for a 12 hour flight - one smallish TV mounted at the very front of economy! Unacceptable on a long haul flight!

South African Airways customer review :  19 January 2011 by L Carpenter   (South Africa)

I recently flew to London on SAA, the most horrendous and stressful experience. I arrived at Johannesburg airport 3.5 hours before take off and went straight to the check-in desk. The queue was already substantial - only one check in desk open for international passengers, it took me two hours to check in. I complained to two senior personnel, both times they were rude and unhelpful. When I arrived at passport control there was a similar problem. I eventually got to the plane 10 minutes before we were due to take off. We then had to wait as a passenger did not arrive and their luggage had to be removed, I realise that was not SAA’s fault but more was to follow. The next delay was due to missing paper work, when that eventually arrived we started to taxi to the runway only to stop. We were told there was a problem with one of the engines and had to be towed back to the docking bay to wait for repairs. Running 1.5 hours late we eventually left but the problems did not stop. Early the next morning I called a stewardess as the toilets were not flushing, the captain announced some time later that everyone had to use the bathroom as they were going to be locked, the mechanism wasn’t working properly. The return trip wasn’t much better, the seats very extremely cramped, I dropped my book and due to the seat in front being in a reclining position I couldn’t bend down and pick it up. My daughter’s seat wouldn’t recline at all so we had to take it in turns sitting there.

South African Airways customer review :  16 January 2011 by J Anselmi   (Australia)

Johannesburg-Cape Town business class. Long wait to check in despite no one being served in the economy queue or international business, curt check in staff, no airport information provided. Lounge staff gossiped behind counter with no interest in serving customers over my one hour visit to the lounge. Not greeted when boarded the plane, had to hang my own coat up. The first two rows of business had to listen to the air steward vent about a passenger further back at the top of his voice for the first 30 minutes of the flight. Economy style seats with no footrest or entertainment. Nowhere on the SAA website to write any feedback, clearly they don't want any! Economy service, don't waste the money on Business.