South African Airways Avis 98

⭐☆☆☆☆ Shocking, Unacceptable, and Embarrassing for a National Airline

This was hands down one of the worst long-haul flight experiences I’ve ever had. South African Airways should be ashamed to put passengers through this.

On a flight from Johannesburg to Australia, they somehow thought it was acceptable to offer in-flight entertainment without earphones. Yes — movies with no sound. Completely useless. To make matters worse, there are NO charging ports on the aircraft, so once your phone or tablet dies, you’re stuck staring at the seat in front of you for hours. On a flight this long, that is absolutely unacceptable.

The situation didn’t improve at all during the flight. The bathrooms were never cleaned, becoming filthy and unpleasant very quickly. Basic hygiene was clearly not a priority.

When passengers raised concerns, the staff were rude, dismissive, and unhelpful. No effort to resolve issues, no apologies, no care whatsoever. It felt like passengers were an inconvenience rather than paying customers.

This airline delivers a budget, third-world experience at full-service prices. Poor planning, poor service, poor attitude. I would strongly advise anyone to avoid South African Airways for long-haul travel unless you enjoy discomfort, boredom, and being treated poorly.

Still waiting on a refund for accommodation/food we had to pay for when they cancelled our flights. I filled out their forms, sent it to them with my bank details and still no money. I emailed onlinerefunds@ as requested and don't even get a reply from them. Worst airline Ive ever used, I'll never use them again

They cancelled my evening flight to Cairo on Friday. Didn't offer a new flight until Sunday evening. Awful communication and will easily abandon you. Worst airline I have ever encountered and I have flown a lot, including around Africa.

Very good experience flying by this aircraft.
Gentle crews, Natasha and the other young gentleman. Good and hot food. Good service and safe travel with the pilots. 🙏🙏🙏

I cannot recommend SAA enough. Had an early flight from JHB to PLZ recently and back today. Both ways the service was flawless from check in to boarding to the flight itself. All staff were friendly and efficient. Thank you SAA

Tonight I called SAA UK reservations line for help. We were flying into JNB tomorrow morning and our domestic SAA flight to CT had been cancelled and rebooked to a later time.
This didn’t suit us at all as we were due to arrive in time for a wedding tomorrow afternoon.
We dealt with a KABELO NZIMANDI and she was OUTSTANDING!! She was polite, professional and extremely helpful throughout our call and managed to move the 3 of us into an earlier flight!
She literally saved the day 👊

I would like to formally express my dissatisfaction with the experience we had on our recent flight from Mauritius to Cape Town. The original flight from Mauritius that I paid for was cancelled and replaced with a flight on a smaller aircraft.
There was extremely poor communication and a great deal of confusion on board when we were informed that we would be flying to Johannesburg instead of directly to Cape Town, as originally booked and paid for.
The landing in Johannesburg was particularly concerning. Conditions were perfect, yet the landing was extremely rough. It felt unsafe and unprofessional, raising serious concerns about whether the pilot was inexperienced or in training. As a result of the impact, I jarred my back, and my daughter, who is pregnant, was also affected.
This experience caused unnecessary physical discomfort, emotional stress, and inconvenience. I believe this situation was handled poorly, and passengers deserved better communication, planning, and care. Never again will I fly SAA. No explanations from any SAA department can rectify what happened. If I could give 0 stars I would.

Our flight from Perth to Johannesburg was cancelled after all passengers had arrived at the airport and no-one had been notified. Even the SAA ground staff didn't know what was going on. We then missed our onward flight to Cape Town due the rescheduled flight leaving close to 30 hours later. Ground staff at SAA in Johannesburg were clueless and it took some 2 hours for some-one the ground to get us help. Some of the seats that we had pre-purchased for the outbound and inbound flights between Perth and Johannesburg were not given to us and SAA refused to refund us unless we produced a letter from our bank to confirm our bank details even though we had paid by credit card and they were quite happy to take our money from that credit card, nor could we provide bank details via email as that too was refused. It would have cost more than the refund was worth to have taken time off work to go the bank to obtain a letter. For security purposes a bank would not provide a letter without some kind of personal identification. SAA staff are not the friendliest and it has put me off ever flying with this airline again.

Truly disappointed with the customer service agent at the Durban international airport. Leoni Chetty was rude, unhelpful and very obnoxious.

As horrific an airline as you could want to experience. Never again for sure.

I was at Sao Paulo airport trying to fly to Johannesburg. I forgot my yellow fever booklet.

I appreciate it's needed to fly to South Africa. My wife sent it online, I offered many different options - like a health review. I hadn't even been in Brazil 24hrs was only like a transit.

Although, I accept responsibility for the issue - the level of disdain the staff showed me was extraordinary. I wasn't rude, didn't shout or argue - I was just looking for any solutions. The staff bar perhaps one didn't show any compassion whatsoever.

No empathy, no look towards options or solutions.

It's an airline I would wholeheartedly avoid.

It is impossible trying to deal with Voyager Miles department. It is impossible to access one's Voyager Miles online account. You have to write to Voyager to get a Pin, then that never happens. I have tried 10 times sending emails, copying SAA customer services into those emails, but they too fail to respond. I flew to Autralia from Namibia and found the plane to be old, seats uncomfortable, TV did not work so I could not watch TV on long haul to Australia, service is So So. I have not been able to enter my Voyager Miles online account since the day I registered it. Upon informing Voyager Miles I wait ages for a response, when I get it, it does not address the issue so I can access my accuout, and when I complain to SAA customer service they say I must deal with Voyager! Really an unacceptably poor customer relations experience. SAA is seriously disorganised. Their ground staff in Namibia poorly trained. Their SAA reservations office in Namibia the staff are abrasive and rude to a client. Flights cancelled without warning. When they reschedule the booking for a next flight, you do not get the reserved seats you paid to get with the initial booking. I have a mobility problem and need wheelchair assistance and must have an aisle seat. I booked 6 months in advance and paid for the pre-booked aisle seats for the entire flight Windhoek Namibia to Sydney Australia and badk again, but when the flight was cancelled out of Windhoek on 25th November and rescheduled to depat 27th November, I was told they cannot give me the aisle seats. I would not be surpised if SAA folds again because frankly, it does not meet the standard that a successful airline carrier should meet. Government entity and absolutely useless and badly managed. I will never fly SAA again. I will not recommend to others to fly SAA either.

I am extremely disappointed with my recent experience with South African Airways. I paid extra to select specific seats in advance, only to be told at the airport that the flight was overbooked and that we were moved to the next flight.

This is unacceptable. Seat selection is a paid service, and overbooking should not negate something passengers have already paid for. Being bumped despite having selected seats feels unfair and poorly managed.

I expect better customer care and accountability from a national airline. At the very least, passengers who pay for seat selection should be protected from overbooking or compensated appropriately when this happens.

This experience has left me questioning whether paying for added services with South African Airways is worthwhile.

If there was a zero star they would get it because that is what they deserve! They are callous, unprofessional, unhelpful and xenophobic!

Been in the airport for almost 24 hours and my flight has been shifted twice! No proper apology or compensation. Just left stranded!

Made me buy a new ticket for a flight because my name on the ticket was Alex not Alexander. This should have been a simple name correction. I could not change it online before hand.

If you're disabled and need wheelchair assistance choose another airline. Customer service is horrible! You can't book wheelchair assisntance online and you have to call them multiple times.

Communication extremely poor .?Cancelled refundable tickets 5 days before flying out . They are not responding to my emails about a refund . Legally they can’t withhold taxes if they refuse to refund . I’ve use emails to consumer affairs, but still zero response. Only standard response of acknowledgement of the email . Worst when it comes to finances . Not a wonder they were bankrupt before . Corruption at its best

They’re trash. 2 hour delay, 2 hour flight No communication to passengers. There were 20 other flights leaving ORT to CPT in the delay time. Only SAA is delayed. Literally choose anyone else.

I was initially hesitant to fly with South African Airways because of some of the reviews I had read, but I’m glad I decided to give them a chance. The experience completely exceeded my expectations. The service was excellent, the staff were friendly, professional and attentive throughout the flight. The seats were comfortable and everything went smoothly from check-in to landing. I truly appreciated the warm hospitality and overall comfort. I’ll definitely fly with SAA again!

A380 First class flight booked with British Airways from LHR to JNB, then with SAA from JNB to CPT. Email from SAA informing us that business class seats had been downgraded to economy, with no explanation given. Then, a month later, another email from SAA saying that we'd been booked onto an earlier flight, giving us just 90 minutes for the transfer. Given the frequent delays with the A380 service, and therefore concern about missing the connection, we decided enough was enough, and we've rebooked direct from LHR to CPT, bypassing JNB and the hopeless SAA altogether.

Biggest mess around to change my last name on my flight ticket. Jumped through hoops going back in forth with your customer service team. Then was told I had to upgrade my flight in order to do that ?? and pay an additional fee to then do the name change. Ended up buying an additional ticket with my new married lastname, asked for refund of my other ticket. got to the SAA baggage counter on the day and the SAA staff were confused why there were two tickets and said I would have only had to pay an fee for the name change not upgrade my ticket.. then to get on the plane and its half full? Worst experience ever. Still waiting for my refund.