South African Airways

I was seated in 7D. I found the seat very comfortable and spacious. Staff were extremely courteous and well groomed. The paid attention to our requests with a smile. The food was tasty and very good. Although it was a 16 hrs 20 mins flight the time passed quickly. The lie flat bed was very appropriate and the blankets helped make the seat softer.

LHR-JNB-RCB-JNB-MQP-JNB-LHR. All flights on time. A330 on international legs leg room fine IFE and service good. Dash 8s and RJ85s on internal flights. Very good service on these short sectors top marks for SA Express juice water beer and snack on 1hr 15 min flight.

JFK-CPT via JNB return. Equipment was Airbus A340-600 for all legs of the trip. Economy class. Plane was about 70% full both ways on JFK-JNB portion fully booked for CPT-JNB legs. Cabin crew very professional. If the flight between JFK and JNB were full I think the experience would be unbearable. The food was good; water wine and beer constantly on offer. Very tight connection on the return through JNB but SAA staff jumped through hoops to make sure all NYC bound passengers made it to the flight in time. In all cases luggage was already on the carousel by the time I got to it.

Booked on a direct flight to Cape Town from LHR. They changed it to go via JHB saying flight was off. I suddenly found flight was back on and demanded to be put back on the direct flight. They declined. They did put me back on the direct flight to Cape Town they also put us in First Class Lounge as a gesture of goodwill. Cabin Crew are polite but nothing more.

Johannesburg-Durban return. Flew first in a brand new 320-200 Airbus and return on a rather dull 737. This short flight time allows for a quick snack and drink. Adequate service plane on time and good and clear communication from the flight-deck.

JNB-IAD-JNB old dirty plane blankets smelt very limited choice of movies. On return the flight was cancelled due to technical issues gate staff called transit police at IAD a few times when passengers started asking questions about reasons for the delay it turned out they cancelled this flight 3 days in a row.

Johannesburg to Munich. Specifically requested exit row seats and got them. Two of our seats were faulty and couldn't recline all three our TV's and sound systems were broken. Despite numerous requests they refused to move us saying the flight was full when in fact there a lot of open seats. On our return from Munich to Johannesburg it was even worse. It was really busy and noisy. The entire row had no inflight entertainment because all the TV's were broken. Once again we told we couldn't be moved because of lack of seats. We will look at stop-over options rather than going SAA again.

LHR-JNB-CPT return. Flights were on time. Modern Airbus with good entertainment system. Food edible - even served a hot breakfast. Hot meal on domestic CPT-JNB flight. Wine very passable. Cabin crew friendly enough but not wildly efficient. Found seat cushions a littler hard but otherwise the couple of inches extra legroom over BA very welcome. Check-in at all airports quick and hassle free although probably helped by checking in online.

JNB-HKG Business (Premier Class). Inflight entertainment problems. Staff not available poor compared to other airlines. Had similar poor and rude cabin crew on a flight to Washington DC in economy. Frequent Flyer Programme (Voyager) not user friendly. I cannot recommend SAA.

After reading so many rave reviews on various sites I was quite disappointed. The economy class seats were very tight for even a short flight so imagine a 16.5 hour flight. Flight attendants were not very pleasant not even one friendly smile from any of them. The food is average plane food. The flights left on time but that is probably the best I can say about them.