South African Airwaysレビュー 

Customer service at ticket sales in King Shaka Airport - A lady named Nomvu was extremely rude (bare in mind I’m in crutches with a broken foot), refused to give me a wheelchair for my Dad to wheel me around airport - whilst there were literally 20 wheelchairs available next to the ticket counter. Her extremely sour attitude proceeded to tell me that their phones “weren’t working”, then she was using the phone to call another division 5 minutes later.
We needed help with tracking down my suitcase that was lost on SAA yesterday and I was told it would be delivered by today to Durban. The baggage claim counter had told me to come up to Ticket Sales to help - yet Ticket Sales was telling me to go back down to baggage claim. (Bare in mind I’m hobbeling around on my crutches & broken foot - and not allowed a wheelchair). We went up & down between the 2 counters twice. Still no suitcase - still no hope.
Got to love South Africa :(

UPDATE: 2nd July, the supervisor called me to assist with moving my flight to one that accommodates dogs. Thanks.

1 Star – Broken Process & Poor Customer Service
I have never experienced such a frustrating process with an airline.
Months before my flight, I contacted SAA by email, reached out to multiple departments, copied senior staff, and made numerous phone calls to confirm whether my booked flight could accommodate my dog. I either received no response or was told pet requests could only be processed 24 hours before departure.
I even explained that my employer needed confirmation before booking my work travel, yet my emails were ignored.
After months of trying to obtain answers, I was only informed days before departure that my flight could not accommodate pets. I was then told I would need to change my flight and could be liable for the change penalty.
When I escalated the matter, the supervisor repeatedly interrupted me, spoke over me, and argued with me instead of trying to resolve the issue. I even had to ask for an opportunity to finish speaking. My concerns were dismissed rather than investigated.
My frustration is not that a particular aircraft cannot transport pets. It is that SAA's process lacks transparency, customers receive inconsistent information, emails go unanswered, and customer service fails when assistance is needed most.
This entire situation could have been avoided if SAA clearly indicated which flights accommodate pets before customers book.
Very disappointing. I expected far better from South African Airways.

If I could give them negative points I would. The customer service is non existent. I wrote three emails to ask about flights being changed. No response. I enquired at the desk at the airport. We can’t help with that. It’s a shame as the flight staff are very good. If there are other airlines or modes of transport fly with them. Customer service is non existent.

I transited thru Joburg My luggage was opened.They took all valuables.JBL speaker,powerbank,lotions,snacks,sweets for my kids.When i asked them they are not cooperating.

When you transit through Or tambo be careful.

This is the worst airline I have ever used in my entire life. There is terrible communication and failure to have good hospitality. Our flight was delayed yesterday and we missed our connecting flight so we had to stay in Joburg for the night. -1/10 never again, please do not use this airline if you care about your mental health and peace. SAA do better please💀

Cancelled flights of mine without any request made on my part.

Call centre contact doesn’t work, at all.

Abject, holiday plans now completely ruined.

Refund team not responding .
Communication extremely poor or No communication at all .?Cancelled 5 refundable tickets 30days before flying out due to middle east disruption which had affected our flight from london to SA. They are not responding to my emails about a refund . I’ve use emails and calls but still zero response. Only standard response of acknowledgement of the email .Worst when it comes to finances email they dont respond to calls at all.

If I could give 0 stars, I would.
Customer service not great. Needing 60 days to process a refund is insane to me. Said refund not even 20% of original ticket price.
Also have a problem with their policy of return tickets. Bought a return ticket in a single purchase to Durban, missed departing flight but managed a different flight to Durban, wanted to fly back from Durban with my SAA ticket, only to find out I cannot use that ticket since I was not on the departing flight. SAA never let me know that my return ticket is not valid anymore, I only found out when I tried to check in, also had to still log a refund even though they were the ones who “cancelled” my ticket.

I have a bad experience flying with SAA, they canceled our flight on the 5th April 2026, and I missed my connecting flight from Johannesburg to London and had to purchase another ticket and they did not help anyhow they just said sorry, the staff was unbothered by the inconvenience they caused, no refund, not responding to our emails nothing was done 😕

Worst flight I have ever had. I flew Qantas from Sydney to Cape Town, and they used SAA for the Joburg to Cape Town section. It was awful. The staff were all great, but the seats are so small and uncomfortable, they have tried cramming in way too many seats into such a small plane.

The worst experience I have EVER had with an airline. The planes themselves are disgusting and old and I found myself looking at crusted food on and in between armrests. The TVs are frankly medieval with terrible graphics and crackly sound quality. When returning back to our home country and checking in we were told our flight had been “cancelled” till the next morning and there was nothing the could do about it. No prior communication and they decided to drop this bomb on us when?. On the day of our flight. I will NEVER book this shitty airline ever again.

Most friendliest crew I’ve seen as of now. Decent upgrade prices.

I booked a flight with South African Airways for travel in early January. Unfortunately, I fell sick, and I couldn't go for the flight. After I contacted South African Airways directly, they confirmed that they had processed and sent a refund back. . When I contacted SA airline to claim my refund, they refused to process it and have provided no clear explanation.
This lack of transparency and accountability is extremely frustrating. As a customer, I trusted SAairline to handle my booking and any related refunds professionally, but they have failed to do so.
I would strongly advise others to be cautious when booking through them, especially when it comes to refunds and customer service.
I am still awaiting a fair resolution to this matter.
I can't believe they just robbed me of 1.3 million naira!

Ticket number :08321333569**
Refund Reference :4120*11*47

What an absolute shit show!!!Dropped my brand new luggage bag, damaged.. and left in Perth!, left in Cape Town for 4 days without luggage! To wait 5 days for them to get my lost luggage, to a Business Class passenger or any passenger, is disgraceful.
It was the most frightful experience I’ve ever experienced in all the years I have been flying around the world. The plane shook like a dog after a bath on take-off, parts of the interior (pieces) fixtures, etc falling open, was the first sign. The stewardesses were NOT happy or helpful, one told me, she thinks it was built around 1990?? and she said it shouldn't be flying anymore. They were gripping their seats in fear when taking off also. The Aircraft, in Business Class, was their first design… It was horrific!! so old and broken!
1. No privacy, whatsoever - could hold hands with my random passenger...
2. The seat was seriously uncomfortable, and my leg extension wouldn’t recline. It took 2 stewardesses in the dark, to get it to work, by having to lift the seat completely out and manually adjust some knobs…. shoved the seat back in, threw the blanket & pillow back, and walked off without any word! They had obviously done this many times, as they knew exactly what to do. Then the “so called” screen divider wouldn’t stay up between me and the stranger, beside me, again the stewardesses had to shove napkins in the top of it, to stay up! By this stage, I was getting serious anxiety. It was that bad. The food was stone cold, rock hard poached eggs, and some sort of diced potato that tasted like chunks of oily mash.. then I was GIVEN 2 pieces of pumpkin on a bed of sumthin? soggy distasteful rice? And some un-ripened fruit. Inedible!!! The toilets were disgraceful, and filthy! During departing the plane, my daughter & her partner & I, were met by the pilot exiting the cabin, he asks "How was your trip"? I began to tell him, and his response was, "well, your travel agent should have looked up/googled the plane and checked, the plane your were on!" WTF??? Who says that> Again, not even 1 STAR, but certainly, not 4 star!!!!! DO NOT FLY WITH S>A>A :(

Worst customer service
Flight cancelled, I'm literally begging for my money
Customer service Zero

Booked a flight for 18:45, got there.

We were told that the flights are full, how? Told that we will have to rebook for the following day costing 6.6K!!!!! Then the next excuse is that we were late? How were we late? Which is which? Were we late or the flight is full? No the flights were fully booked!!! We forfeit our money yet the flights were full????? I want my refund!

In October 2025, flew into East London SA my baggage was broken, I initially received excellent service from Siyabonga Zukani at the airport, who took photos of my case, and gave me a claim form, which I completed and sent electronically to him, once I reached my destination in Port Alfred, he responded promptly and professional to my email, and forwarded onto claims dept, with several email address since returning to the UK (with a new case) I have sent numerous emails with absolutely no response. I then looked on their website for customer services email so I could included them however this email says Address not found. Hopefully someone in SAA may read this and respond
Update within hours of writing this review I received a email stating claim declined in line with their T&C's my case had a wheel complete ripped off, a large hole and a 4 inch split their T&C's basically are they are not responsible for scratches, dents, cuts, any missing protruding items, like wheels, handles , straps, pull handles or water damage. So why bother giving mea claim form ! And taking 5 months to respond, however in future I can take out luggage insurance with them.

Worst customer service!!
First they put me in a very difficult situation because they didn´t inform me my flight is cancelled and now I need to beg to get my money back??
Unbelievable. 0 communication

SAA give you the option to upgrade and leave open seats next to you then book them to others anyway. Don't bother wasting your money. Unenthical behaviour.

Extremely disappointed with the service. Luggage was left behind on a flight, and clear instructions not to send it to the destination were completely ignored. The bag was opened without permission and delivered late, causing major inconvenience.

This level of negligence and disregard for passenger instructions is unacceptable. Handling of baggage and customer service needs serious improvement to prevent others from experiencing the same frustration.

To make matters worse, when I arrived at the airport six hours early for my return flight after my trip and asked if I could move to an earlier one, I was told I would need to buy an entirely new ticket rather than simply paying a change fee. This is outrageous, especially when many airlines are able to assist passengers in these situations.
In the end, it was actually cheaper and far easier to book a completely new flight with FlySafair.

Their online booking process was simple and their staff were helpful and professional. Based on this experience, I would strongly recommend booking with FlySafair instead.