South African Airways

We flew to Johannesburg from JFK. Plenty of room in economy as compared with US airlines The food and service were excellent. Less leg room on the Jo'burg-Cape Town short flight but full service meal and good FA service. Return to Jo'burg about the same. The flight back to JFK was wonderful again. Goof IFE great food and service.

JNB-PER in economy. Reasonable flight not comfortable but no worse than most economy flights. Staff pleasant enough. Food very poor and breakfast unpleasant. Eat before you get on board. Nothing to particularly recommend it except this is the only flight on this route.

Flew NBO - JNB - CPT - JNB - NBO in Business class. Excellent service on all fights with crew going out of their way to help. Food was always excellent as were drinks. The crew were chatty and suggested wine pairings with food. Check in luggage handling boarding etc. were all very good experiences. We had the 737's on 3 legs and A340-600 on JNB - CPT. The A340 is a very comfortable aircraft. Only downside is remote boarding and a huge jam at CPT waiting for luggage.

CPT to JFK via JNB (6 March) and LHR to CPT via JNB (20 March). On time for all flights. Comfortable seats - good entertainment system. Flight to JFK lightly loaded so able to spread out - helpful given that it is a 16 hr flight. Others completely full. Check in staff very helpful. Staff on all fights excellent - pleasant food and regular visits to the cabin with drinks during night flights. Prices on the high side but well recommended.

Business Class IAD-DKR-JNB. Very comfortable flights with the flat bed on A340-600. Flights arrived in DKR and JNB 45 minutes early! Crews were friendly and accommodating and the food service was excellent on each leg. SA have definitely made some improvements in the service area (although I know this can be hit or miss). Each main course had 4 options and there was more than enough food throughout the flight. Got plenty of bottled water and tea/coffee always piping hot!

Flight PER - JNB return economy. Seats narrow poor leg room. Cabin crew on outward flight rude and extremely unhelpful return flight very good service. Meals were cold and plane was late leaving due to non arrival of meals ground staff were not available as it was the weekend we were informed.

Flew from Cape Town to Johannesburg. Check in at Cape Town unable to check luggage through to Sydney. Plane left 50 minutes late and had to wait 35 minutes for luggage in Johannesburg causing me to miss flight to Sydney. Ground staff and SAA help desk at Jo'burg all offered a "I do not care attitude". No help received or even offered. Last time I fly South African Airways.

We left on the 1st Feb LHR - JNB - CPT. The checkin was fine but the flight was the worst I have ever experienced! The crew: not one glimmer of a smile no please no thank you it was as if they resented serving us and we did not feel at all looked after. The Food: one mouthful was more than enough - disgusting! The entertainment system: the map never worked and my touch screen was broken - just shrugs from the crew my partners headphones only worked in one ear. The worst thing was the temperature my partner works outdoors and will often refer to 7c as 'balmy' but on this flight we froze as did everyone else - what is that about SAA? The flight from JNB - CPT was a little better - the staff were at least a little friendly. The return flights were a little better but but the food was again totally disgusting and I am used to airline food. The entertainment system did work but had a very poor and very old selection of films. The cabin temperature was again unacceptably cold. We will never fly SAA again and will warn all our friends and family of our experience.

Flew 18 February Johannesburg to London. Flight timing OK. This must have been the oldest A340 in the fleet. Plane virtually full and very uncomfortable hardly any knee room. No seat back entertainment screens something not seen on an international flight for years. Entertainment consisted of one film displayed on a few drop down TVs reminiscent of cheap European charter flights. Food was passable no better and served reasonably efficiently by a crew who showed little rapport with customers. Our journey from Cape Town had originally been booked for a direct flight but SAA change to route all flights via Johannesburg meant an additional 5 to 6 hours on our journey.

LHR-JNB. From Check-in to baggage collection SAA service was flawless. Air stewards friendly food was as good as airline food can get (mediocre) but not worse than any of SAA's competitors. Aircraft was clean and staff was generally friendlier than other airline staff. I will fly with them again.