Johannesburg Airport

Not Verified | This is the worst airport probably in the world! The staff are extremely rude and everyone has a nasty attitude. It’s disgusting, you actually dread passing through this airport because you are just drained by nasty, vile attitudes. Where is the customer service? They don’t even take time to explain anything to you and all of them speak in soft voices almost purposefully so you can ask them to repeat themselves while you look like an idiot. Disgusting, makes me not want to return ever to this country!

✅ Trip Verified | 1.5 hours late on my Internal flight on 2/11/18 resulting in me missing my long haul flight to Heathrow, BA ticket desk staff slow, rude, arrogant and utterly appalling, took them an incredible 50 minutes to arrange a flight the next day and an overnight hotel. When challenged I was subject to a barrage of verbal abuse “white privileged”, “who does he think he is” etc etc, whilst they sat gossiping whilst I was forced to wait. When I asked for directions to the hotel they refused to tell me, instructing me to ask the baggage office. The following day it got yet worse, my checked in bag could not be found, it eventually was but only after I had been passed from pillar to post, the check on staff telling me that another company was responsible and it was not their problem (the BA ticket desk staff have given me the wrong opening time of the baggage office). Whilst my experience was with staff wearing BA uniforms, essentially the problem is the ground staff at OR Tambo, they present as lazy, poorly trained and not caring whatsoever with regards the customer, one is left wondering how exactly they got their jobs in the first place, the airport is an utter embarrassment.

Not Verified | Travelling from Port Elizabeth to Mauritius via Jo’burg airport. Had a three hour transfer wait. Personally found the layout a little confusing but navigated our way around. We wanted to have our vat receipts stamped so we could claim our vat back. Was told by info desk that we couldn’t do it there and would need travel into town. Low and behold we found the tax office on the second floor. Got that done and told where to collect. Eventually got that back and decided to go to a lounge. The staff where much friendly in there. Spent our time in a lounge then went through and caught our flight to Mauritius. The airport experience wasn’t a great one, apart from the business lounge we went in. Customer service and front of house seriously needs to be addressed. This is a visitors first experience of the capital city of SA. There was lots of private security organisations wearing paramilitary style camouflage uniforms just hanging around talking and not looking particularly useful. It doesn’t add to security or a good image. The passport control guy didn’t even look at us just gestured with his hands and never spoke.

Not Verified | After a very long haul flight the customs arrival staff were the most unfriendly I've experienced in over 50 countries and more than 35 years of travel. No smile. No words even. Not even a grunt in my direction. Disgraceful. We then proceeded to domestic terminal and cold steel benches to sit on for 5+ hours between transit. Cold and uncomfortable just like the customs staff. Oh there were some old greasy chips next to where we sat. Hadn't been cleaned for at least a week. I did see plenty of cleaning staff walking around. Guess they didn't need to clean the area we sat in? What a poor way to welcome visitors to South Africa!

✅ Trip Verified | Dirty bathrooms, dirty floors, dirty seats and when you have to wait a couple of hours before you can check in your bags there is nowhere to sit and wait.

✅ Trip Verified | We arrived on KLM at 21.20. Our connecting flight to Durban was 0700 the next morning because Johannesburg does not fly planes to Durban after 9pm. We were shown to a waiting area to wait through the night. It was disgusting. The seats were cold metal benches and the area was at the pedestrian entrance and freezing cold. Worst airport waiting area in the world! We shivered for 10 hours!

✅ Trip Verified | I booked my Etihad Airways ticket through Budget Air and received the ticket stating 1 piece of luggage was allowed weighing 40kgs. As one way tickets often allow a bigger allowance, I was very happy as this is quite a generous amount. I had been living in South Africa for 2 years and was emigrating to the UK; and as such, spent hours meticulously packing and re-packing to ensure I was able to fit in everything I needed whilst still meeting the weight requirement I was provided (as you can imagine fitting 2 years of living into a 40kg suitcase can be difficult). I then went off to the airport with my carefully packed suitcase and had it shrink wrapped (great service) for R80.00; and headed to check in. I had tried to check-in online and choose my seats, but the Etihad site kept crashing. When I explained this to the person at the start of the line, they directed me to the “bag check only” assisting staff member. When I explained this to her, she rolled her eyes and sighed. When she checked my passport she told me I hadn’t checked in, but she would still assist me. I put my suitcase on the conveyor and it weighed 34kgs. I was then told by her “your suitcase is too heavy, we have a policy of maximum 32kgs, I can’t accept your bag.” That was it, no apology, no sympathy nothing. I mentioned that my ticket stated I was allowed 1 piece of 40kgs; and she asked to take a look. She read the ticket, looked at me and said “you can talk to the manager if you want but I’m not accepting your bag.” Now to be clear, I have no issues with the requirement for a maximum weight. I understand that 40kgs is rather heavy and those processing the suitcases are required to pick them up etc. My issue was with the fact that I was not notified sooner; and that this ‘customer service representative’ was being so rude. Etihad Airways manager was no better, she pointed at the sign and said “there’s a 32kg limit, no exceptions.” No apology, no sympathy nothing. At this point I accepted my fate, I’d have to take off my R80.00 shrink wrap, remove some items, RE-WRAP and start again with check-in. Before I left however I wanted to find out how I (and other passengers) were meant to know of the weight restriction prior to checking-on (far too late). The managers response? “When you get to the check-in counter.” I stated to her that surely, case-in-point, this was too late to be informing people? She didn’t think so, she stated it was perfectly acceptable that people such as myself meticulously pack their bags, have them wrapped and then find out that it was too heavy at the counter. I don’t have an issue with the restriction but these women were so rude; and the manager even became aggressive when I was asking how I would have known about the restriction beforehand. This is the worst customer service I have ever received! I would give zero if I could, just based on that service.

❎ Not Verified | 9.30 Monday morning. A number of flights arrived at once. We were tight on time to catch a connecting flight, with a bit of help we would’ve been fine. But that didn’t happen. Oh no. Having asked for some assistance I was told by an arrogant official that he and the flights are not aligned and as such he doesn’t care what my problem is. The next person would have helped but “wasn’t allowed”. It took over an hour to get to the front. When we eventually did - 2/3 of the counters were open. The people dealing with overseas travellers visiting SA were slouched at their machines, disinterested and defiantly slow. It was disgraceful and no credit to my beautiful country of birth. Arrived at the carousel - one of our bags was missing. Thank goodness the BA official was helpful and the two (well tipped) airport porters who rushed us through the domestic terminal to screech, sweaty and fuming into the connection. SA immigration control you are a disgrace.

✅ Trip Verified | Most aspects of OR Tambo airport are average and acceptable. I found it clean and staff were usually helpful. The one thing which made it a distressing experience was the very limited information for departures. When you enter the airport there are signs saying there are no announcements. That is quite normal in any busy airport, no routine boarding announcements. But they mean 'no announcements at all'. So if there is a gate change or passengers checked in that have not boarded there are no announcements, it's up to you to discover. We missed a connecting flight to Victoria Falls because the gate shown on our boarding card issued at Nelspruit Airport changed before we landed at Joburg. The large dot matrix info boards only show a limited number of flights (perhaps 20) and at busy times this might only be 30 minutes ahead. Our connection wasn't displayed yet, so we went to the assigned gate and waited. Meanwhile our flight departed from the new gate. No calls for missing passengers, no calls about the gate change. This is made worse because the LCD screens at each gate do not show the flight details until boarding starts. Had they done so we would have seen the gate we were at was for a different flight. There are no staff at gates until boarding to help and very limited info at the few help desks. SAA accepted the lack of gate change calls was their responsibility and put us in a hotel at their expense but we missed a day of our holiday with nothing to do in an airport hotel. On our return from Victoria Falls to London via Joburg we were extra careful about checking our gate. While waiting in the main concourse I noticed airline staff carrying hand written "last call for" notices to round up missing passengers. They aren't allowed to shout the flight numbers though. No announcements allowed. So they just hover hopefully near the info desks. So be warned, if a gate changes it's up to you to find out and getting that info can be very difficult.

✅ Trip Verified | Once again - there was only one gate open on the left hand side as we entered through to the domestic boarding gates, despite 2 green lights showing. I told the supervisor as she was leaving - and she really didn't care. She answered that the one gate must have not been working - so only one light showed, but made no attempt to remedy the situation. There were various ACSA employees laughing with one another around the gates and it's not the laughing that was the problem, it's the complete indifference to the people queuing or the one poor guy who was trying to go as fast as he could. This is a perennial problem at OR. I could have a rant about the smelly loos (the ladies do not rinse their cloths or mops in disinfectant often enough) - but that's an issue for another day!