SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS Passenger Reviews and Customer Trip Reports an official 4-Star Airline   Add your South African Airways review   South African Airways official 4-Star ranking   Airline Reviews : A-Z Index   CHECK this airline's Quality Approval Status South African Airways Customer Reviews = 175

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SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS customer review :  8 February 2010 by K Naidoo   (South Africa)

JNB-DUR-JNB Economy Class. Economy Class great, flown on regional routes and no complaints. Check in fast, staff friendly, cabin crew efficient and friendly. Downfall, SAA has changed catering on domestic routes. Dinner used be a full meal now all you get is a sandwich or wrap. Meals no longer provided on trays. For a short flight this is ok but on longer ones unacceptable considering the price of the ticket!

SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS customer review :  8 February 2010 by Marina Kelly   (Australia)

PER-JNB, CPT-PER with SAA. PER-JNB flights were on an A340-600, which had good inflight entertainment and leg room. Seats a little narrow, but not uncomfortable. The service was quite good, and food largely edible. A word of warning - watch the check-in staff tag your luggage. Mine wasn't tagged in Cape Town, and arrived back in Australia 4 days after I did. Otherwise, I was happy with the product SAA offered and I would fly them again.

SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS customer review :  1 February 2010 by Hirofumi Suda   (Japan)

HKG-JNB . Seats very comfortable for 13hrs flight, and cabin amenity included toothbrush, eye-mask, and socks. The service though indifferent, was quite professional. Food a little bit disaster - the quantity was good but the quality of main dish, specially the Chinese option was not so good. Entertainment good (A340-300) with various choice of AVOD programs. All in all, good value for money, which was 30% cheaper than Cathay Pacific.

SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS customer review :  20 January 2010 by R McCarthy   (South Africa)

JNB-Perth. Disappointing old plane on the trip. No PTV entertainment and showing kids movies on the main TV. Food edible but uninspiring, seats cramped and uncomfortable. Staff were nice enough though not very present. Flight back better but only because the staff were more pleasant. Check in at Perth a complete disaster and took a couple of hours as the staff didn't know how to use the 'new' immigration system. Not sure how SAA warrants 4 star status. Overall, nothing special but nothing really bad either.

SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS customer review :  20 January 2010 by M Sims   (UK)

Heathrow to Cape Town return. Flights excellent with friendly crew on both trips. Outbound had a family from hell on board who had tried bucking the system with an over-age child utilising a parents lap which was against the regulations. Despite the rudeness of the father to the Cabin Manager, he dealt with the problem with firmness but great customer care. Plenty to eat and drink - first time for us on SAA and won't be the last. Have to give a 10/10 for the desk staff at SAA Cape Town who were so friendly and helpful-check in took less than 15 mins-a record for us.

SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS customer review :  19 January 2010 by Eugene Engelbrecht   (South Africa)

JNB - EZE. The cabin crew on this flight were rude with everyone. One picked up the book of my fellow passenger to read it without even asking her permission. The crew consistently pushed past passengers standing in the aisles without first asking politely if they would move. At 14h00, on a flight that had left about 10h30 owing to a 40 minute delay, the cabin crew inconsistently told passengers to close their blinds so that people could sleep. Most people who had needed to catch up on some sleep had already done so at this time. When the passenger in front of me was asked to close the blinds "slightly", I thought I would do the same in anticipation of the attendant coming to my row. When she saw what I had done, she said "If you're going to close the shutter, you can at least close it half way. There are people trying to sleep, you know." Then, when she came to me, she had decided she wanted the shutter completely closed. Once most of the shutters were down, the crew disappeared for most of the remainder of the flight. On two occasions, after the crew realised that there was now a constant stream of passengers to the galley, did they decide to bring a limited number of glasses of water and juice around in case anyone might want. Wherever possible, I choose not to fly SAA. This flight only served to reinforce my negative impression of the airline. GRU- JNB. The plane we were on was much nicer than the one from JNB to EZE (that one had almost no entertainment to speak of and leg room not the best I have had). The selection of movies was okay to good. The captain made announcements clearly and communicated well with the passengers. The crew had a much better attitude than going to EZE, and I was hopeful, until they disappeared for the night, not bringing out anything to drink even after passengers had started to make their way to the galley. The food was mediocre.

SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS customer review :  14 January 2010 by P Needham   (UK)

We travelled overnight London to Cape Town on an A340-200 seats two across - seats 54A/C. The plane felt old with only a few drop down screens which were hard to see. Initially the leg room seemed ok but after 12 hours showed its limitation. In particular the seat was very thin and uncomfortable. Food was good and the crew very friendly & helpful. Return fro Jo'burg to London on much newer A340-600 seats 39H & K all seemed well. Some increase in leg room, in seat video/games, films etc. I soon found out that my in seat entertainment system didn't work and asking for help was given a shrug of the shoulders. A second request got nowhere and on a 3rd the hostess tried to reboot it - this didn't work either and no one seemed interested after that - I later discovered that the whole row 39 didn't work throughout the flight. Again the food was good but the crew were disinterested & unfriendly. Not a good flight and very disappointed with SAA.

SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS customer review :  13 January 2010 by D Gordon   (USA)

LHR-JNB-LHR. Most surprising thing about this airlines is how inconsistent the experience is depending on equipment used. Outbound on A340-600 in economy was excellent experience. Nice clean aircraft, good seats, ok food, super friendly, efficient and fun crew, good AVOD (though for some reason the description of the movies in the inflight mag is the worst ever). Definitely good long haul economy product. Inbound was a different world on A340-200. Old, tired, dirty aircraft, much less legroom and comfort of seats - and no seatback screens or AVOD. Only a few overhead monitors for the whole cabin! Not possible or worth watching a screen 8 rows away that is half the size of the screen in my living room. Crew very friendly and helpful and food ok. SAA really needs to do something about the A340-200s - experience is not good enough for 2010! Outbound trip would be a 9 rating for long haul economy, inbound probably 2 out of 10 - anything above 2 is purely due to the crew.

SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS customer review :  7 January 2010 by S de Thierry   (UK)

Johannesburg - London A340-600. SAA are about to unveil a new premium lounge, and the "temporary" part of the current one is very apparent. Nevertheless, once the chaotic boarding procedure was completed, the onboard product was faultless. The service was courteous, warm and attentive. The seats were the best in it's class. I was able to get an 8 hour uninterrupted sleep on a flat bet , pillows and duvets very comfortable. The bathrooms were kept clean throughout the flight. The dinner was excellent, and breakfast was good. The inflight entertainment was extensive, and amenity kits plentiful.

SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS customer review :  30 December 2009 by F Swart   (Australia)

Perth-Johannesburg (A340-600) - Durban(737-800).PER-JNB I was in seat 57K so window seat just behind window. I found that in the A340-600 there is a sizeable gap between the seat and window, not the best for sleeping. I usually fly Qantas through Sydney so not really happy with not getting snacks or ice-cream during the flight. JNB-DUR a B737-800 that was the oldest in the fleet. Seat 22A this time so behind the wing again. The bagel we got for break- fast was about 3 years old.

SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS customer review :  22 December 2009 by Tim Powell   (Spain)

JNB-CPT on the Friday evening of the draws for the 2010 World Cup. The 5pm departure is an unmarked (all white) 747 which arrived late and departed 90 mins late. A great shame for all those football fans heading for the party in Cape Town. My seat was already occupied on what was a 100% load and the occupants own seat was being used by someone else. It took 15 mins to find seats for the folks who were unlucky enough to be among the last the board the aircraft. What appeared to me to be an insufficient crew for a 400 seat airplane on a short flight have no time to perform a meal and drinks service and yet they try. The food is poor quality. CPT still using the old domestic arrivals hall which realistically cannot cope with a 747.

SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS customer review :  19 December 2009 : by D Law   (UK)

If you're unlucky enough to be in the ancient Airbus A340-200 planes they use for London-Cape Town, you'll experience inflight entertainment that would have been considered poor even 25 years ago. In a 13 hour flight, they showed one movie - Ice Age 3 in the middle of the night, on a 12 inch screen which happened to be 7 rows up and to the left of me. For a major airline in the 21st century, during a 13 hour flight, that isn't going to cut it.