Kulula

Not Verified | Cape Town to Johannesburg . The worst airline ever. Always changing their flight times. When you contact them they don't pick up - one hour you will be on hold. I will never fly Kulula again - never reliable.

Not Verified | We booked tickets through Kulula March 2020 and then level 5 lockdown came and all travel was prohibited. My Mother have a total value of R6400 and I have a total value of R7500 booked for flights from JHB to Cape Town. After Lockdown Level 5, Kulula was in business rescue. Kulula started flying again in November 2020. When we wanted to use the tickets in December 2020, they said we are only allowed to use the tickets from January 2021. They only accept “new” purchases. After that as you know the 3rd and 4th Covid wave came and we were unsure on when to travel. And now they only give you 2 months to use the travel bank as they call it. Me and my mother called Kulula on the 14th September and after I spoke to them for 50 minutes with no progress, my mother had a 2 hour and 30 minute discussion only to find out that we will have to apply for a travel bank again. Firstly, they said they waived the cost of R800 per ticket due to Covid, but that I would have to pay extra for the flights now as they have had quite a price increase. I have to pay an additional R800 per ticket at the current prices, but referring to the ticket prices it was not that expensive. We had a look on their website and there wasn’t that much of a price increase at all. They could not give me the details regarding the prices, but just said it is more expensive now which in my opinion is NOT the case. Covid happened, but now we have to be the ones on the losing end and Kulula is unreasonable, sly and wants more money. They make it impossible to use the money in the travel bank. No one has that extra to pay and they will not give a refund.

Not Verified | If you book with them and they cancel your flight, you will not be able to contact them to get your money back or get your flight changed.. I have been struggling for 2 months to get my flight changed ... they don't answer their phone and they don't respond to emails. I cannot give anything more than 1 star for everything because their service is non existent.

Not Verified | This is the first time I have ever felt compelled to write a review of any kind. My daughter (12) was forced to leave her cello behind at a storage facility at OR Tambo. Kulula policy states they should be informed 48h prior about cellos. According to policy, I tried to contact Kulula customer care several times, holding for more than 10 min respectively, with no avail. I sent an email, but have up to this day, not received any confirmation. My daughter was left in tears, begging the rude check-in lady to please help. She was even sarcastically told that she could wait at the airport for 48h for the next flight to take the cello. No empathy was shown. She was treated with disrespect and contempt. Their incompetence caused so much stress, wasted time and money I do not have! It cost me R1600 (which was meant for Apr school fees) for a courier to safely get it back to the Western Cape. My daughter (inseparable from her cello) was severely traumatized by this. Fearing that her cello will get damaged/stolen. Her cello is the one object she loves dearly, just as someone else feels about their car, phone or laptop. I will never ever make use of this airline again and will never recommend Kulula to anyone.

✅ Trip Verified | Myself, My 19 Week Pregnant daughter, My sister and My Daughters Mother in law had our flights booked & paid on 16 May 2019. We were on a MSC Cruise to the Portugese Islands (28 Feb - 2 March 2020). We were at the King Shaka airport at about 7H15 the morning, but our flight was only 13H00, so we had breakfast and something to drink later the day, when we wanted to check in (Check in starts 90 min prior) just before 12H00, we were told that the flight is fully booked and they can't help us. Maybe they will be able to help us at 15H30. I was shocked, because I never knew they can bump you of your flight, as we had paid our tickets 10 months ago, and wasn't aware that we can check in before you give in your luggage. (I was under the impression that you can only check in before the time if you have hand luggage). I was furious, as they explained to us that they overbook the flights, because some people do not pitch for the flights, and then they could have put someone else in that seat. After a huge fight and a lady from Kulula treating us badly they offered us a discount on our next flight and a meal voucher of R110 pp. One of the Kulula employees even told us that the MSC was at the harbour earlier than expected, and there were people who wanted an earlier flight, so they gave away our tickets, this is just ridiculous! After waiting for about 30 Minutes they booked us on a flight, and we did not even sit together. Meanwhile the rude Kulula attendant asked us if she can book us with Mango but then we need to pay for new tickets? So disappointed in Kulula!

✅ Trip Verified | Lanseria to Cape Town with Kulula. Worst airline ever, stuck at the airport because flight left from Durban to Lanseria airport with a damaged fire extinguisher. We have a 3 hour delay because we have to wait for another flight to bring a spare fire extinguisher! This is ridiculous! Couldn't even offer meal vouchers or even juice box for kids.

✅ Trip Verified | We had a flight from OR Tambo to King Shaka on the 3rd Jan 2020 at 20:55. When it was time for boarding at 20:20, we made our way to the gate where no one had started boarding at 20:50. We went to the counter and asked about the delay and they said it would be delayed by 5-10 minutes. We then decided to get some refreshments, the notice boards were then updated with information that our flight was delayed to 00:20+. We went back to the gate to board for the flight at 23:30 but no one was there besides passengers. We asked staff members who were still around what is going on and we were advised that the gate had changed and that we should have been put on another flight to Durban. Later on we were advised that there was no other flight to Durban for the night. We waited from 00:00 until 2:30am for the Kulula staff to issue hotel vouchers to us, only then were we told and we be put on the first flight in the morning (4th Jan 2020 @ 7am) and that our bags had left on the other flight which we were supposed to get on and they are now in Durban without us. During these 2 hours of waiting there was no communication from any staff of what the way forward was. No apology was made either. Further to this, Kulula was sending out SMS’s with the following information, none of which were true: 20:28- flight is now boarding 20:58- flight is delayed and will now depart at 23:00 20:59- flight is delayed and will now depart at 23:45 There were no formal announcements made about gate changes or aircraft changes. The notification boards were not updated with the correct information either. These are the following issues that I have with this incident: Communication from the airline is nonexistent. There were no announcements made for changes to the flight, the boards were not updated with the correct information. If the flight was changed, when the passengers were boarding, staff should have checked that all the passengers were on board and if not, final boarding calls should have been made at least. Our luggage was sent to Durban without checking the corresponding passengers are on board the flight.

✅ Trip Verified | Johannesburg to Durban. I had the worst experience with Kulula. The flight was delayed for over 45 minutes with no communication. And my the clothes inside my bag were wet.

✅ Trip Verified | Johannesburg to Durban. I am disgusted at the way this airline is run. The flight was scheduled at 18:10. The flight was then delayed to 20:20 and then again to 20:40. It is now 21:40 am I am sitting on the plane and have just been instructed that every passenger needs to get off the plane and go and identify their bags individually. This is the biggest joke of an airline I have ever experienced.

✅ Trip Verified | East London to Johannesburg. After being warned of recurrent Kulula delays, i decided to take a chance then boom. Flight is delayed, no apology offered by airline, no food offered since its only a 2 hour delay. Who pays for this one. I do not recommend such an airline that cannot manage time.