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| Title of Complaint | SAA who can help |
| Date of Complaint | 29 April 2006 |
| Company | SAA |
| Complaint | I am writing to express my dissatisfaction with the service (or lack thereof) I received from SAA recently. A friends and I travelled from Atlanta to Johannesburg.
As flight SA 210 on Tuesday morning (14 March 2006) was about to get ready to board, we were told that there would be a slight delay, but no explanation was given. Initially this was going to take 30 minutes but we eventually ended up sitting inside terminal for close to 12 hours (with no or very little communication from the ground staff) before we were told (after nearly 3hrs) that they couldn’t tell us exactly how long it would still take to rectify the problem as the part for the engine has to be flown in from New York. Surely these days it is imperative that passengers be told exactly what is wrong with the aircraft, be kept up to date as to when the problem would be rectified etc etc. They knew when flying to Atlanta that there was a problem yet we had to find out from fellow passengers that there was a problem. Here we were basically left to our own devices and we had to spend a further 3 hours waiting around at the airport before SAA ground staff finally told us what the problem was. Besides the fact that the breakfast that was served to us was appalling, I do feel that SAA could have offered us shower facilities, better communications etc since we had by then been in waiting since 6am the morning! Although understandably problems can arise with an aircraft that is beyond your control I do feel that the way the issue was handled together with the lack of communication leaves a lot to be desired. Repair work on a plane that takes that long does not instil confidence in an already nervous passenger!! I always proudly YEARLY fly SAA to my family in the USA and I always book on SAA for the company I work for, as I am the financial manager, but this incident has left me wondering if I will ever fly SAA again. I just heard today that I must fly to the USA in November as my sister got pregnant, but surely I will think twice as to fly SAA, due to their handling of plain normal problems arising. Imagine if the situation was worse. How would SAA handle it then …? I feel that the passengers on this particular flight should have been compensated in some or other way for the inconvenience caused to them. We were supposed to land at 10 am at JHB International but instead we only landed at around 4pm! Not only were we inconvenienced on Atlanta airport but arriving 6hrs later than originally planned alternative (and sometimes costly) arrangements had to be made for travel from the airport to our homes. |
| Response on behalf of SAA | Awaiting a Response |
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