SA Express

Not Verified | Johannesburg to Bloemfontein. After a 22hr flight back to SA, just wanting to go home, I was told my flight has been cancelled - didn't even get any notification about this. I am deeply upset and disappointed.

Not Verified | This morning the 06h00 flight from Cape Town to Bloemfontein was cancelled due to aircraft issues. The airline knew this was a possibility yesterday already and did not take steps to ensure that passengers were notified and rebooked on Mango at 09h30. When arriving at the check in counter 109, passengers are sent to SA Airways reservations. You are then informed that SAA no longer does the rebooking for SA Express. Thereafter you are sent to flight control at counter 30. From there you are sent to Mango at counter 101. After walking from one end of the terminal building to the other, you are then asked to come back at 07h00 as the SA Express office in Bloemfontein needs to change the booking to Mango but they only open at 06h00. Surely this should have been anticipated and planned for yesterday evening for the latest! Emailing customers services is of no use as the only response is the automatic email reply with a case number. Don't bother emailing the customer services manager as he just doesn't bother replying. My advice to anyone who wishes to use this airline .... book on an alternate airline as SA Express really is unreliable and their customer service is no existent.

✅ Trip Verified | Bloemfontein to Johannesburg. My original flight was booked for 15:30. Arrive at the airport to be told that flight has been canceled, you are now on the 17:25 flight. If that was not enough of an inconvenience, that 17:25 flight is delayed till 20:50! We have been given no information, reason, apologies whatsoever. I was told by one ground staff that you don’t have enough planes that can fly so you have to “rotate“ them! Why do you sell tickets on flights that you can not provide? Shocking service SA Express. Would never fly with you if I had a choice.

Not Verified | Flight details changed from 15.30 to 15.00 without notification. Then to 16.30, then to 17.15 then 17.50. Huge inconvenience as had to connect to King Shaka which meant changing my connection flight to 21.25 whereas I was originally supposed to have flown to King Shaka at 18.45. SA Express is the worst airline ever. No reason given for SA Express flight delay.

✅ Trip Verified | Johannesburg to Bloemfontein. A taxi rank operates 10x more efficiently than this airline. SA1003 scheduled departure 08h00. Actual departure 09h45. SA1014 scheduled departure 16h55. Actual departure 19h30. What kind of service is this? Don't try to excuse this by telling me that flights are sometimes delayed, because in your case twice in one day is evidence of poor management and inefficient operations. I paid for convenience and what I get is camping at both airports for my departure and return.

✅ Trip Verified | Johannesburg to Bloemfontein. My flight was due to leave at 0610 but when I got to the boarding gate at 0550 the gates were closed. I went to SA Express counter but there was no one there to assist. I was the told by the check staff that I had to purchase another ticket.

✅ Trip Verified | Bloemfontein to Johannesburg. The service i got at Bloemfontein airport was horrible, I'm not happy at all. I arrive at the airport at 9:15 and they told me i can't check in for a flight that departs at 9:40. Every time their flight gets delayed i dont complain but when i arrive at 9:15 i was told to book another flight.

✅ Trip Verified | Johannesburg to Bloemfontein. This review is more for compliment for one of your service staff at domestic departures. I had a connecting flight from CPT to Bloemfontein via JHB. I flew Mango to JHB and SAA Express to BFN. There was only 1 hour between arrival in JHB and departure to BFN. The baggage claims for Mango took way too long and l was going to miss my flight. Without my bag l ran up to the SAA express check-in counters for assistance. Staff really went over and beyond to assist me and make sure l didn’t miss my flight. He assisted to check me in and help to carry my bag from baggage claim up to the check-in counter and safely on the correct plane. All in time. Without is quick response and help l would have surely missed my flight. Well done for excellent customer service. Thank you.

✅ Trip Verified | It was a Sunday afternoon when I got to King Shaka airport and I was flying to Port Elizabeth that evening. The flight was supposed to depart at 17.40 and land at 19.00. But instead the flight got delayed until 21.00. I’ve been flying this Durban, PE route on this airline since 2015 and most of the flights I’ve flown have always delayed by an extreme amount of hours. They give me the same excuse everytime I ask them why is there a big delay and they say technical issues with the plane. This flight that I took, they changed the time to 21.00 which meant that we were going to board at 20.30. It was 21.00 and I was still in the terminal building, we only left Durban at 21.50 and we got to Port Elizabeth at 23.00. The crew that flew us to PE came from Bloemfontein via Johannesburg. When I got to PE I saw many SA express aircrafts in PE, they also got delayed from Cape Town. Most of their planes have been sitting at OR Tambo International airport and then with all the excuses of technical issues, I question the safety of their fleet. I don’t think it’s worth flying with SA Express anymore, too many delays. The amount of delays I’ve heard from this airline I don’t see why they are still flying, if they going to provide service they must do it to the best of their ability.

✅ Trip Verified | After already flying From Dubai to Johannesburg we are meant to be connecting to George, our final destination, flight was meant to depart OR Tambo at 15.50, it has been delayed to 18.30. Now we have already been waiting 5 hours for the connecting flight after already having flown 8 hours and waited 2 hours before the first flight, only to be told the reason behind the delay is a Technical Issue. They have 1 plane which is departing to another destination, after that flight arrives back from said destination they are preparing it for our journey to George. Why should the customers to George deal with utter delays because there is only 1 plane to commute to 2 different destinations due to a technical fault in one aircraft in its fleet. Already been over 15 hours journey, and all we wanted was to get home. Now my issue is a well known National airline should surely be able to make a plan to get another aircraft in to help ease the delay and help clients get to their destination. Instead we have to wait because a flight just left for another destination and will head back afterwards to take us. Having flown SA Express and booked in connection with SA Airways many times in the past, I am extremely disappointed in the service received this time around.