South African Airways

Absolute disappointment of service and aircraft being run between Perth and Johannesburg. This is now an old Iberia plane being used on this popular route? Even the staff do not appreciate all it's problems. Incorrect head sets that do not fit this airline were given to us. Service after dinner is non existent? Same plane on return trip. No music channels for entire flight only movie channel 1 worked and the movie had a consistent horizontal and vertical line through it for entire movie on remote screens - which you can hardly see when lights are on or off. I have used this airline now 8 or 9 times in the last 17 years and seen it deteriorate to pathetic. Qantas need to set better standards than this to code share with this airline and aircraft?

LHR-CPT business class return. The old A340-200 but service and professionalism of the FA's could not have been better. Food was excellent and the wines. Lie-flat bed was comfortable but use your duvet to lie on and ask for a blanket - makes a huge difference ! Overall both flights were very enjoyable and would certainly fly SAA again.

LHR-CPT-LHR in business. The service was exceptionally bad. IFE very old the loop system meaning we had to wait until the film we wanted to watch had finished before we could view it. SAA say the seats are 180 degrees flat but that is not the case . The flight back wasn't much better and aircraft was older. The only good point was the quality of wine but otherwise very disappointing.

I've travelled with SAA for 10 years the service is still okay but it is getting increasingly patchy - the price is still at the upper end of the range. The current A340's used for the Cape Town route are a bit dated and seats were fairly uncomfortable (no seat back entertainment systems). The food is generally better (although the outward flight ran out of wine fairly soon after service). The staff are so so - some crew are good others fairly indifferent. On the overnight flight there was a noticeable tendency of individual crew members taking 20+ minutes to change and put on make-up etc in the bathrooms - which is a bit of a cheek! I wouldn't rule out flying with SAA but it's not what it used to be.

LHR-JNB return. I did quite a lot of research before booking these flights checking seat configurations were 2-4-2 and even calling SAA to double check that I could pre reserve seats. After booking I was able to reserve seats on both legs the staff at London reservations were polite and very helpful allocating our preferred seats and even sending a revised itinerary with our seat numbers confirmed. However on checking in we found we had no seats reserved though fortunately we did manage to get window and aisle for the outward leg. I spoke to the service desk at Heathrow to check our seats for the return would still be ok and was assured they would be. On checking in at JNB for our return we were allocated middle row seats when I pointed out that we had reserved seats the clerk showed no interest at all. He told us the flight was full and there were no other seats available however when we boarded the plane we found that there were plenty of empty seats in fact the row in front of us had just one person to 4 seats. The dishonesty and lack of customer care is just staggering.

Munich-JNB business class. Quite a pleasant experience. Comfortable lie flat seat good entertainment and good food served by very pleasant and efficient staff. Definitely a superior business class. I would definitely fly them again and prefer it over Lufthansa - which I am using on my return journey.

DAR-JHB-WDH and back. All flights punctual efficient check in great seat comfort in Economy good food and friendly service.

DUR-JNB-HKG. Seat pitch is better than most other carriers. The onboard entertainment was up to date and worked. Seats comfortable and food excellent. B737-800 in near new condition and A340-600 was better. Flight was quite empty so people could move around and most had an empty seat next to them. I kept my emergency exit seats (row 45) which where great. The pilots on both flights gave up to date information on weather in route.

HKG-JNB-DUR last month A340-300 and 737-800. The entertainment system was great and food good. The best part was the service onboard - staff interacted just enough to make you feel welcome but never intruded. Joburg airport was a breeze with bag drop working. Flight from Joburg to Durban just as good and was upgraded to business class which was great.

Star Alliance members should avoid this airline as they do not award miles at the same level as other Star Alliance members give little priority if at all to Star Alliance Gold members and generally provide poor service for flights to and from the US. Nothing but hassles at the Johannesburg airport when checking in items stolen from my luggage that they insisted I check. Also could not understand why they kept seating people beside me when most of the last 10-15 rows were fully empty. Bring extra food because they don't want to feed you.