South African Airways

Not Verified | Port Elizabeth to London via Johannesburg. Another excellent journey. Both flights on time, both planes almost new with bright cabins, great crew and great food. SAA are a revelation compared to BA.

✅ Trip Verified | Johannesburg to New York. We followed the normal reporting process and e-mailed SAA two weeks ago with no response. We reserved 3 seats for the trip going to New York and our return flight back to JHB. Before boarding this flight I phoned SAA and raised my concerns about on board entertainment systems being faulty which were laid to rest by your call centre lady saying I must request the ground staff to check entertainment systems before we take off to see if our systems are working so if there are technical problems they can be sorted before the plane hits the runway then it would be too late. This however did not prove to be factual at all. Once at the terminal the staff on the plane were rude and told us the systems could not be checked until the plane was in the air. So we sat back and waited hoping all would be okay until the emergency demonstration had been done and the entertainment systems started getting switched on then we started to see the overhead lights coming on one after the other. At this time we were still trying to figure out how to pull our entertainment systems from under our seats. With our luck Seat 45D had a picture but no sound. Seat 45E and 45F no picture or sound. So we complained with the other 20 or odd passengers at the time so they announced they were going to reboot the system. This happened twice. No change. The plane was not full so they started to move passengers around to seats to where there were screens to see if they could find available entertainment. My friend was moved twice and then gave up due to not being successful and came back to her seat next to me. The air was so hot where we were sitting we could not take it another minute so we called the air hostess who said she could not understand why it would only be our row. She came back later and said afterwards that there was a distinct temperature difference between the rest of the plane and our section and she would try and resolve it for us. She was very apologetic and accommodating. We were hoping that our return flight would be on a different plane as we checked and saw SAA has a few of these planes on their fleet and thought the likelihood of getting such bad luck a second time running in one trip would be unheard of. So we still went for the extra legroom and kept our reserved seats that we paid the additional R750.00 per person for, and lo and behold on flight SA204 departing from New York the seats I reserved again this time no sound no picture And a sweat box for the full flight.

✅ Trip Verified | Johannesburg to Lodon. We booked the flight and also made advanced seat selection seats 55H and 55 K (more leg space) on 3d of August. Reason is that I am 1,90 m long. On the flight SA 234 on Friday the 11th from Johannesburg the airline has changed the type of airplane. They did not inform us before by e-mail, WhattApp, on there own SA-APP and also not at the counterdesk where we put our luggage. Therefore we paid for nothing and other people were sitting The staff of SA in the plain didn't do anything to help us and only said you can get your extra seat costs back at the counter in London.We didn't have a chance to upgrade or change our seats. We could not go to the counter because we had a connecting flight 1 hour later to Schiphol Amsterdam.It was very disappointed. I have sent an e-mail to SA customer services directly but did not receive any reply till now. On top of that a staffmember suddenly came in the plane with a insectide in aerosol and sprayed us all. It was a disaster. Total no feeling to the client. I shall not recommend SAA to anybody.

Not Verified | We’ve heard a lot of bad reports about SAA. Nothing could be further from the truth. We left Perth at 23:45 yesterday and am now in Johannesburg awaiting a connecting flight to Cape Town. We left and arrived on time.Had a good dinner & breakfast, not haute cuisine but very edible. Found that stewards were very attentive and quite free with the beverages and they were friendly. Had economy seats that gave a good deal of legroom, enough films to keep you occupied. What more can there be to this business. Well done SAA

✅ Trip Verified | Harare to Cape Town via Johannesburg. My flight from Harare was delayed by 20mins, In Johannesburg I was suppose to get my bags for security check but i waited for my bags at e carousel for 15mins or so but could not find my bags and i had to connect again for my flight to cape Town in less than an hour. I boarded without my bags and I was told to check on the carousel if i dont get them or i shloud go on the SAA baggage desk in Cape Town which i did. They were very helpful. They managed to locate my bags and they were sent on the next flight from Johannesburg to Capetown that very day and i was asked if i wanted to collect my bags at the airport or to be delivered at home. I chose to be delivered at home which they did. I got my bags everything was there and perfect. Thank you SAA for your service.

✅ Trip Verified | Johannesburg to Perth with South African Airways. The flight attendants were very friendly. They have a good sense of humor and are fun to talk to. The only thing was that they were barely seen after dinner and we had no snack service. The food was on point. The IFE had a surprisingly good selection of movies. The seats have really been worn down and look very tired. Besides those few problems, the flight was perfect.

Not Verified | São Paulo to Perth via Johannesburg. The flight from São Paulo to Johannesburg was okay with good service. Entertainment is poor due to the size of the TV monitor. The second flight from Johannesburg to Perth could have been better. The flight attendants served dinner quickly and soon all the lights were off although there was a lot of turbulence. The entertainment is really poor and the cabin layout is not very modern.

✅ Trip Verified | Johannesburg to Hong Kong. I am not having a pleasant experience due to this flight SA286. Boarding was on time but then, with all passengers on board, flight was delayed by almost an hour with sketchy explanations from the cabin crew to start. Eventually after simmering in the plane for too long, the pilot tells us that the reason why we haven't taken off is because it is too hot! Needs to be 27° to fly and it was still 28° - if it was too hot then I feel it is inhumane to load us in and make us wait in the sweltering plane for an hour before taking us on our 12 hour flight. Surely they could have explained that upfront and adjusted the boarding time accordingly? Then the inflight entertainment system was faulty, but luckily after 2 restarts equating to over another hour, it worked alright again for the rest of the trip. There is no cellphone charging for economy class - I thought that was standard these days, particularly if there was going to be the threat of no inflight entertainment. In the morning, one toilet sink was over-flowing. Approaching Hong Kong, they had to apologise for the lack of arrival cards for passengers! Due to the delay, I have missed my connecting flight which was supposed to be at 2pm and can only go at 5.45pm now.

✅ Trip Verified | Johannesburg to Hong Kong. Firstly, the service on the plane is atrocious. The hostesses ignore you or are very rude, they do not cater for special meals - if you are vegetarian there is a good chance you won't get a meal. Three quarter of the way into the flight they ran out of water. 30 minutes into our flight our screens were not working and we informed an air hostess who said it will be re set. We fell asleep and 8 hours into the flight our screens were still not working - should this not have been addressed and fixed as soon as we informed the air hostess it was not working? Also, my headphone jack was faulty. I told cabin staff and was informed by him that there is nothing he can do about it and walked away. It was a very uncomfortable flight and I would not recommend anyone to fly internationally with SAA.

✅ Trip Verified | Livingstone to Johannesburg. My 40th flight on SAA in the last 15 months or so, and I must say this was the best crew I’ve had to date. Flawless service, engaging purser, the Captain even made his announcement in German as there were Germans on board. SAA has challenges, but once up in the air, their service is consistently good, and a positive attitude from all the crew.