The following letter was sent to ETNW, TUO’s sister publication, on September 20, claiming that there has been an increase of denied boarding on SAA. SAA’s response is also below.
Dear Editor,
In the past week I have had an increase of passengers being denied boarding, for SAA regional flights especially.
One client was on his way to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, last week Tuesday and was not allowed to check in due to SA188 being overbooked. The check in staff rudely told him to “go home” or go to the SAA counter for a compensation voucher for a free regional flight –excluding airport taxes, but my client was desperate to get on that flight due to a million-dollar business deal he had to settle in Tanzania.
Due to SAA only having one flight a day, he was adamant to try and get on that flight. The manager on duty, Sihle Shabalala, was then called but never appeared to deal with the agitated customer and by the time my client finally got someone else to assist at the SAA counter, the flight had already left and they issued him a compensation voucher for a regional flight, excluding airport taxes, saying there was nothing they could do. They rebooked him for the next day and the deal with the new customer was lost to opposition.
No rebooking on partner airline Kenya Airways was offered, no friendly staff, no supervisor’s help. And SAA gets away with this? Unfortunately they do. They treat passengers like numbers and just walk away if they don’t feel like talking to you, according to my client.
Another case occurred on Sunday, September 16, for another client flying from Johannesburg to Maputo on SAA. This case was even worse. He was not offered a rebooking on partner airline LAM. He was rudely told the 13h50 flight SA144 was the last flight to Maputo that day (even though LAM had two more flights leaving at 16h55 and 19h10). They rebooked him for the next day and gave him a meal voucher for the airport.
My client then went to one of the restaurants so that he could do some work and inform the customer of his fate, but no restaurant wanted to let him dine at their establishment because they said that SAA does not pay their meal voucher bills!
So the compensation voucher was worth nothing!
And yet again, SAA gets away with it!Why can’t our national airline do the decent thing and at least rebook the passengers on partner airlines? Other airlines do it. Why can’t SAA do it? They are breaking their contracts to passengers on a daily basis and they are getting away with it. Even their compensation vouchers are useless. I am not sure if the Consumer Protection Act can help. They already have a backlog of so many cases that I am not sure anything will be done.
Europe has a much stricter way of dealing with such airlines, where compensation has to be paid in cash for lost business deals, hotel cancellation penalties etc. Who is going to deal with SAA?
Who can we approach in getting SAA’s attention on this matter and hopefully getting this resolved?
SAA’s response:
In its response SAA said overbooking was common in the aviation industry but the experiences of the SAA customers were outside the normal parameters of quality service offered by the airline.
Dileseng Koetle, SAA Head Communications, explained the proper procedure that should be implemented when a customer has been denied a reserved seat on SAA. The passenger may be entitled to compensation should certain conditions and legal requirements exist. When a flight is oversold then SAA representatives should first solicit for volunteers who will give up their reservations willingly, in exchange for compensation within SAA’s compensation guidelines. If no one will give up their reservation then SAA personnel will offer the customer various options based on the region involved to ensure compliance within markets/regions and more importantly, based on the anticipated arrival delay the customer will be subjected to.
Has a similar thing happened to you? Let us know by leaving your comment below.
Dear Editor,
In the past week I have had an increase of passengers being denied boarding, for SAA regional flights especially.
One client was on his way to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, last week Tuesday and was not allowed to check in due to SA188 being overbooked. The check in staff rudely told him to “go home” or go to the SAA counter for a compensation voucher for a free regional flight –excluding airport taxes, but my client was desperate to get on that flight due to a million-dollar business deal he had to settle in Tanzania.
Due to SAA only having one flight a day, he was adamant to try and get on that flight. The manager on duty, Sihle Shabalala, was then called but never appeared to deal with the agitated customer and by the time my client finally got someone else to assist at the SAA counter, the flight had already left and they issued him a compensation voucher for a regional flight, excluding airport taxes, saying there was nothing they could do. They rebooked him for the next day and the deal with the new customer was lost to opposition.
No rebooking on partner airline Kenya Airways was offered, no friendly staff, no supervisor’s help. And SAA gets away with this? Unfortunately they do. They treat passengers like numbers and just walk away if they don’t feel like talking to you, according to my client.
Another case occurred on Sunday, September 16, for another client flying from Johannesburg to Maputo on SAA. This case was even worse. He was not offered a rebooking on partner airline LAM. He was rudely told the 13h50 flight SA144 was the last flight to Maputo that day (even though LAM had two more flights leaving at 16h55 and 19h10). They rebooked him for the next day and gave him a meal voucher for the airport.
My client then went to one of the restaurants so that he could do some work and inform the customer of his fate, but no restaurant wanted to let him dine at their establishment because they said that SAA does not pay their meal voucher bills!
So the compensation voucher was worth nothing!
And yet again, SAA gets away with it!Why can’t our national airline do the decent thing and at least rebook the passengers on partner airlines? Other airlines do it. Why can’t SAA do it? They are breaking their contracts to passengers on a daily basis and they are getting away with it. Even their compensation vouchers are useless. I am not sure if the Consumer Protection Act can help. They already have a backlog of so many cases that I am not sure anything will be done.
Europe has a much stricter way of dealing with such airlines, where compensation has to be paid in cash for lost business deals, hotel cancellation penalties etc. Who is going to deal with SAA?
Who can we approach in getting SAA’s attention on this matter and hopefully getting this resolved?
SAA’s response:
In its response SAA said overbooking was common in the aviation industry but the experiences of the SAA customers were outside the normal parameters of quality service offered by the airline.
Dileseng Koetle, SAA Head Communications, explained the proper procedure that should be implemented when a customer has been denied a reserved seat on SAA. The passenger may be entitled to compensation should certain conditions and legal requirements exist. When a flight is oversold then SAA representatives should first solicit for volunteers who will give up their reservations willingly, in exchange for compensation within SAA’s compensation guidelines. If no one will give up their reservation then SAA personnel will offer the customer various options based on the region involved to ensure compliance within markets/regions and more importantly, based on the anticipated arrival delay the customer will be subjected to.
Has a similar thing happened to you? Let us know by leaving your comment below.
