South African Airways

Flew PER-JNB return on A340 and was appalled by this service. In flight entertainment was almost non existent. Channels were interfering with one another so nothing made sense. Food was poor and on the way to JNB it was cold. Will avoid flying SAA in the future regardless of the cost.

JFK-JNB return. This was my first long haul flight and first trip to Africa. (Many transatlantic flights though) I found everything about the trip to be professional and meeting my expectations. The seats reclined sufficiently for the level of service. Food and food options were good. Lots of snacks good portion sizes etc. The wine was decent and did the trick. The in-flight entertainment really helped pass the time. I watched more TV and movies on those two flights than I've watched in months. I was pleasantly surprised by the friendliness of the flight attendants. The return flight was only about 40% full so I was able to fully lay down and sleep 10+ hours straight. An overall great experience I'd fly with them again.

Domestic flight CPT-JNB was fine - good staff decent plane no hassles. Be aware though that passengers bring enormous amounts of hand luggage - big bags or multiple bags (I even saw two guys who each had a medium-sized box in addition to their carry-on bags. All the bins were full when there were still 20 people left to board.

When attempting to travel to Cape Town from New York City for Cape Town Jazz Festival flight got cancelled due to engine failure. Took 3.5 hrs to get rebooked onto an Emirates Flight departing 12 hrs later which would have 8 hr layover in Dubai. Got day rooms at JFK after some discussion. When returning to airport to check into Emirates flight we were told SAA had never made the reservation in the system there would be no meals and there was no connection out of Dubai. We went home. As compensation they "offered" us 25% off a new ticket.

May 3 SA 083 COO-JNB Economy. SAA offer the only direct flights between COO and JNB twice a week. Tried checking in online but the response from the system was always "error - We could not find that reservation". Even called the SAA office to get it corrected but did not get any relief. Fortunately there was no problem checking in at the airport. Delayed on take-off for about one hour. Not a single word of explanation or apology came from the crew. Aircraft was Airbus 319 and the flight was full. The food was meagre and awful - almost inedible. Again delayed taking off after the stopover in Pointe Noire it was already dark when we arrived in Johannesburg making me miss my meeting of the evening. Only on arrival at OR Tambo airport that someone apologized for the delay. When the aircraft had parked at the terminal they could not get the gangway to open and we had to wait some more. Mechanics were called but still they could not open it. The buses came to the rescue to take us to the terminal. We had to descend down the stairs with all our hand luggage. With all the above missteps it was a disappointing experience. I did not find any reason for assigning four stars to this airline.

EZE-JNB-CPT-JNB-EZE. Business Class. Airbus A340-300. Remains a solid product with a friendly professional crew. Seats: comfortable enough suggest centre aisle. Good duvet and real feather pillow so able to get some sleep. Meals: excellent quality for airline food and adequate portions and complementing wines. Movies: Did JFK-JNB-JFK in the same month so I was hard pressed by the end of March but it is a good on demand system. Value for money: SAA has monopoly on the routes to South America from SA so they can and do charge what they like. Worst Part: SAA continues to use low grade cheap instant coffee in Business class which is not acceptable when so much attention has been paid to other aspects of the product. Additionally JNB-EZE is day time flying during comparatively 'normal' hours either side of the south Atlantic yet SAA insists on blacking out the cabin with all window shades down. 11 hours is too long to sit in artificial blackout especially since I have never been in SA226/7 when Business class is more than half empty. Rows 15/16 in their own 'cabin' are very nice to sit in if the crew are not using it as a bedroom.

HKG-JNB-WVB and back two weeks later LVI-JNB-HKG. Long Haul flights from and to HKG were on time. SAA connect operates to WVB and we got delayed by 1 hour due to technical defect. Have never experienced that the pilot would come to departure hall and explain about the delay and later gave a very detailed explanation before take off. Well done. Food was alright nothing special really same with IFE. Very quiet flight. Contacted Call Centre for seat reservation which was carried out promptly.

Booked on Flight 359 from Jo'burg to Cape Town on 12 April 2013. One of our bags was the last off Flight 7701 from Sydney even though it was tagged "Business". Staff at the desks were more interested in chatting to each other than booking us through to the Cape Town flight. Finally joined other people at the boarding gate only to be told a couple of minutes later that the gate was being closed leaving 28 of us stranded there! Had to head downstairs again to find another flight which ended up being 3 hours later even though our luggage left on the original flight.

Onboard an international flight (Cape Town to New Zealand). Just before Johannesburg we were diverted to Bloemfontein "due to bad weather". We had to wait 3+ hours for the plane to be refuelled - in which we did not get much updates or any food or water! Then majority of people on the plane missed their connecting flights. When we were finally on our way back to Johannesburg we were told that the ground staff will meet us and tell us exactly where to go. But there were no ground staff meeting us instead we had to run up and down (with a baby) to find out where to go. Hours later someone finally helped us and we were put up in a hotel for the night. We were told to go back to the airport the next morning to re-book our connecting flights which we did. The worst service I have experienced especially travelling with a baby. Not recommended to anyone travelling with kids.

Flew Windhoek to Johannesburg. Flight was full and airline upgraded many people from Economy into business - to the effect that the entire C class was completely full. It felt crowded like in Y class. Not very pleasant for people that paid for the fare. Flight attendants very friendly and efficient and food was good though.