Mango Airlines
Reviews and Complaints

My wife & I were booked & checked in to flight JE821 due to fly at 11h50 on 25 May 2017, as we were going to her grandfather's funeral in George. We went through the security & proceeded to the boarding gate as displayed on the monitor. No one else was there but we were too scared to leave the boarding gate as we didn't want to miss our flight. Eventually we asked some flight attendants that walked past if they could help us. They said the boarding gate had been changed. We rushed as fast as we could to the new boarding gate - my movement is slow due to the fact that I broke me back 5 weeks ago and am in a lot of pain and wearing a back brace. When we got there, the staff member standing at the boarding gate said we were too late - despite the fact that we could still see the plane. She said the change in boarding gate had been announced & they had called us over the intercom. We heard nothing as there was too much noise in the airport!

It cost us another R 2900 to fly to George the next day to make it in time for the funeral!

Not once did the staff member even apologise - she was just rude and totally unhelpful. I want our tickets for that missed flight refunded otherwise I will take this matter further. Mango should have sent us a message saying the boarding gate had changed!

To whom it may concern

I am writing on behalf of my mother who is a pensioner. She is a secretary at a highschool so you can imagine that her salary is not very high. She just made a booking on south africa. To travel online. She realized that she had made the booking for 9 june from jhb or tambo to dbn international airport; flight number flysafair | fa260 r529. Her return ticket she made was for 16 june mango | je242 r499. I immediately made a call first to south africa. To travel online who advised me they cannot assist with the mango flight. I then called mango and a very patronising rude agent named edgar "assisted" me. I tried to explain that my mom is a pensioner and just made a mistake but I was calling immediately. His response was there was a penalty fee of r270 and a difference of r370. The more I explained that she is a pensioner and had just paid r499 for that return ticket the more patronising he became. Is this how mango treats pensioners? She has budgeted to go see my sister and now this! I went back on to see the flights available for 7th july and returning on 21st of july it showed a total difference from r1028 to r1102 which she would be able to afford. Will mango step up or what?

On 30 May 2017, I was on flight JE267 from JHB to Durban. My bag was PADLOCKED for safety. On arrival in Durban I reclaimed my bag and noticed that my padlock was missing. Upon opening my bag I noticed that my perfume and a gold chain was missing!
I am TRULY disappointed that theft from luggage is still prevalent! DISGUSTED!

Moreover, I wasn't even supposed to be on that flight, I was with SAA and was advised by my travel agent that Mango is in partnership with SAA. I would STRONGLY RECOMMEND SAA to review details of this partnership for the sake of reputation risk and association. I am TRULY DISAPPOINTED...

I wish to express my disgust at the service at you check in counter. I specifically mention the gentleman who is at counter b106 now. There is chaos at you baggage drop. It took check in 15 minutes to start helping though there is no one there. I told him this and he was rude and patronising. All you staff currently on duty are unfriendly and unhelpful. No one explained why the same 6 customers were dropping off bags for 20 minutes. Never have I experienced this type of service at kalula. I will use them in future.

We’ve booked Flight JE265 on 13 April 2017 at 17:25 to ensure we will be in time for an Easter dinner at 20:00. However, to our utter shock we’ve received a sms from Mango on 12th of April stating that the flight has been delayed to an estimated time of departure of 18:50. There were no force majeure factors at play or any other reason beyond Mango’s control. One of Mango’s ground personnel at the airport informed us that one of Mango’s planes had a technical problem and therefore our flight at 17:25 “was dropped”! Surely a flight can’t just be cancelled or combined with a later flight!

We immediately tried to move our flight to an earlier time during the 13th but to no avail. We even went very early to the airport for standby seats on the earlier flight. The personnel were extremely unhelpful and refused to give us standby tickets. The Mango manager in charge at the check-in counter on the afternoon of the 13th was extremely rude and unfriendly. Definitely not a good ambassador of Mango!

For the past 12 months we’ve spend R92 263 on domestic flights. This was the first time we’ve used Mango and definitely the last time.

I was booked on a flight on Sunday 30 April to Cape Town at 7 PM. I arrived at the check-in counter at 18:15 PM and was told that the flight was finalized already and I could not get onto that flight. How could the flight have been finalized when my ticket was pre-booked and I have not checked in? Boarding has not even taken place and they refused to check me in on that flight. I had to go to the ticket counter to get another flight and pay an additional R600 for a flight the following day only. I am a frequent flyer and it was the first time I have made use of Mango...what a disgrace! I will never make use of them again...not even if they should be the only airline with available seats.
Due to unforeseen circumstances I have been late for a few flights on other airlines, and never experienced anything like this.

I had to get to Cape Town the Sunday evening, but because Mango only care about people's money without providing customer service, I was forced to book a flight for the following morning. While trying to book the next flight, both the manager and stuff at the ticket counter were so unfriendly and miserable, I cancelled the flight and went elsewhere, where I got a flight for the same evening.

Good day

We were on a flight back from Cape Town to Lanseria on Tuesday 02 May (13:45 flight).
We had a cooler bag that was taken to the fragile department to avoid any breakage.
The contents was by baby’s bottle strelizer, a bottle of snoek patte (this was wrapped in paper and cling wrapped) and frozen savouries.

Needless to say, this bag was not handled as FRAGILE. The Bottle Sterlizer is broken. The Snoek patte bottle was shattered into pieces and savouries were broken.

I am extremely upset as I was travelling with an infant and a toddler and my husband walked all the way to the FRAGILE section to drop this bag off. The expectation of having the cooler bag transit through the fragile section was to ensure that it is handled with care – which it clearly was not. I expect to be compensated for the mishandling of the bag which caused damage to my belongings.

Zuleka Adam
[protected]@pringle.co.za
[protected]

Hi ref# PNTBZK. The attached pic shows that a valid drivers licence is required. Following your instructions I produced my drivers licence where upon I was told, contrary to the above, that only a SA drivers licence is valid. In my opinion this was in conflict with your promise. It resulted in my needing to buy another ticket for the next day when I had my passport with me. Your error cost me in excess of R 1990 including a nights accomodation I had paid for and needed to forgo. Please do the right thing by crediting either the flight I was denied boarding or the one scheduled for 06 May JE 284.

Trust you will do the right thing.

Regards
Laurence Sive
PS. To prevent this happening to other passengers please reword your t&c's accordingly.

My husband and myself travelled from OR Tambo to King Chaka with flight JE 253 on Saturday, 4 March 2017.

Our backpack with an original Drimac jacket and small leather men tool in were lost. Upon arrival at King Chaka we immediately went to the Mango offices and reported the missing backpack.
We received a slip with reference D14941. We were told by Morbuy who registered the missing luggage that we will be phoned by one of the agents.

On Wednesday, 8 March 2017 my husband called the number on the slip and again they promised to call him back. He was told that they are busy investigating the matter and someone will call him. We departed the Saturday, 11 March 2017 for OR Tambo. Before we left we again spoke to the lady who checked us in and she phoned Mango baggage services and spoke to Witness who also promised to phone my husband within 15 minutes on his cell phone. We were not surprised that he still did not receive a call from any official and upon arrival at OR Tambo we went to the Mango baggage services. They checked the notes on the system and phoned King Chaka. Again we were told that we will receive a call.

This is now more than a month ago and still no one from your airlines took the effort to pick the phone and give us feedback.

I was on a flight JE 166 from CPT to JHB on Sunday the 23rd April my luggage got broken into and bag damaged, now their baggage department tells me they not responsible for damage my word what a load of crap. You send your luggage through in their care of handling and when it gets violated by airport staff they just brush it off, new suitcase worth R1000 rendered useless now, shocking customer service my company will not be using your airline again.

We flew in on the 17th of april on flight je129. We got married on the 14th of april 2017 and i was booked under my new surname - chantel fourie. At johannesburg airport i had no problems boarding the plane.

On our departure 22 april 2017 on flight je148, mango refused to let me board the plain as the surname i was booked under and my new surname did not correspond. I advised them that we recently got married and that i had no problems boarding out of johannesburg. The staff was completely rude and said that there is nothing they can do about this (even management) which is shocking. I had to pay a r350 fee for a name change.

We paid an extra fee for specific seats on the plane and this seats was not allocated to us. We asked for a refund as this seats were not allocated to us and the staff advised that they will not be able to give us a refund.

We stood at the check in counter for over an hour with extremely unhelpful and rude staff.

I will not recommend mango airline to anyone as my experience was terrible!

e-mail: [protected]@avmyss.net
contact details: chantel fourie
tel: [protected]

I was on a flight to O R Tambo on 16.4.2017 and was at the airport at 7.00am to check in . Understandably the flight desk asked me to come back as I was too early as my flight was at 9.45am. She did provide me with a boarding pass. Her attitude was unfriendly - perhaps it was too early in the morning.
I decided to drop off the bag at the drop counter at 7.30am where I met a young man who was most disagreeable, unfriendly and went by the book. Mango needs to check its scales. No two scales are the same so if the bag was 20.8kg what was the issue? No other airline local or international was this uncompromising. Any way I removed some items and then the bag was 20.3kg. He stared at me for some time pointing out the weight. I had a scale which I had used and it showed 19.90kg. Mango check your scales and dont inconvenience passengers!
Eventually some moments later he processed the bag. A strong recommendation is to train your staff and EMPOWER them to be able to make decisions. I have not experienced such poor service and he pointed out that this was MANGO (what is the pride in that as this is still SAA related!) not another airline. Well experience proves that Mango is way behind and rather not compare yourself to another airline as Mango is not even in the running ...Regards Ms Tulsi Email irene.[protected]@yahoo.com

I was traveling with my wife and 4 year old daughter, returning from Cape Town to Bloemfontein on Flight JE408 on Sunday 16 April 2017. I checked in 3 pieces of luggage of which one was a Child's Car Seat. No one on any of the flights from Bloemfontein to Cape Town or from Cape Town to Bloemfontein informed me that a car seat was Fragile Luggage. When I arrived in Bloemfontein, returning from Cape Town the seat was severely damaged. I proceeded to the Mango Counter in Bloemfontein where I was met with a very unhelpful male employee and realizing that this issue was above his expertise he called a female employee to come and assist him. I was met with a very hostile and unhelpful person and her rude attitude was shocking to say the least. She informed me that a Car Chair was Fragile Luggage and I had no claim and had to go back to Cape Town to report this issue. I obviously disagreed with her. She took my Car Seat and then refused to hand it back to me, no reason given and then both employees continued with their work and ignored me? I then told them I will record this poor service on my cell phone after which the female employee became extremely aggressive and proceed to try and hit me. The male employee then quickly handed the seat back to me when I started recording? I have this whole in incident on my cell phone. The female employee then threatening me with the SAPS for what reason I don't know? I decided to leave before things really got out of hand. I am shocked to have been treated in this manner and wondered why Mango Employees become hostile if you dare tried to complain. Is the how we are treated by state owned enterprises whom my Tax Money has to bail them out every year? I am shocked? Where do I head from here now?

From: Michelle Horsfield
Sent: Wednesday, April 12, 2017 3:15 PM
To: '[protected]@flymango.com'
Cc: Michelle Horsfield
Subject: Reference Number: PLTNWG - Flight JE337 from DBN to CT Wednesday 5 April 2017 at 10:25am

Good Day,

I flew with my children on the above flight last week. When we arrived in Cape Town and unpacked our luggage, my son found his new Nike shirt for his hockey tour missing. It was the top item in his case as it was just purchased and washed the night before we flew. Please could you check your camera system as it should be easily spotted. Below is a picture of the suitcase/bag as well as the shirt.

It was over R400 for the shirt and brand new and my child is heartbroken. I did not take travel insurance but I am sure you would pick up something like this if you have the time and day and know what you are looking for. We arrived at the airport a few minutes past 9am and went straight to the queue to check in. We checked in before or around 9:30am. Pictures below.

Please confirm receipt of this e-mail. Hopefully with the exact details I have supplied this will help you track where the theft is occurring that is spoken about on social media when travelling with airlines.

Kind Regards
Michelle

I am appalled at the lack of communication from Mango. I sent the e mail below with the doctors certificate to cancel the flights due to my son's medical condition. After trying to contact Mango, I eventually spoke to a lady who told me a voucher would be e mailed to me on Thursday 6th April 2017. I waited until today, 11th April but did not receive a voucher. I tried to phone Mango Refunds and after waiting 20 minutes a lady answered. I told her of my concern and she promptly but me back on hold. I held for another 25 minutes and then gave up. Why can't they answer the e mails it is so much easier than trying to phone.

I was on flight JE 716 from Cape Town to Lanseria tonight. At the belt when I collected my bags I realised my suitcase broke. The handle as well as the wheels at he bottom was broken. I went to inform the person working at the Baggage info counter and she informed me that unfortunately Mango does not cover luggage damage. I am furious as I bought this suitcase two weeks ago . So its ok for Mango staff to damage suitcases and no one takes responsibility.

Flying to Durban from Lanseria on 1/4/2017 flight JE615 my sister's suitcase was damaged and torn.
Flying back to Johannesburg from Durban on 7/4/2017 flight JE628 my mother's suitcase was completely torn. Staff called my mother (who was already seated and struggled to walk) to come and check her suitcase. They told me to go in her place and they showed me the suitcase was completely torn open. They asked me to check if everything was in place, upon which I told them it was my mother's suitcase and I didn't know. When receiving the bags at Lanseria my mother checked immediately for her camera, which she put on the side in the suitcase and realized that it was missing. We asked the staff and they said cameras were not covered on travel insurance. My husband's suitcase was also torn and damaged. My sister flew from King Shaka to Oliver Tambo and on their flight another man's belongings were stolen, so I am sure it happens at King Shaka airport. I think it is unacceptable that so much damage to luggage occurred on one flight.

On wednesday 05 april 2017, I departed from o. r. thambo international to king shaka airport at 13:35. upon arrival at king shaka airport, the baggage were taking longer than usual to arrive on the conveyors at the luggage pick-up area.

Upon my bag's arrival, I noticed that luggage lock was no longer fitted to the zip of the bag, nor was the lock anywhere to be found. upon closer inspection, the zip of my travel bag has been broken from whomever dislodged the lock. when I opened my bag my luggage was a mess, as if there have been a lot of fiddling and digging for hidden items. small bags inside my luggage were opened and the contents of which were meshed between the clothes, which were no longer neatly folded nor held in place by the built-in straps of the bag.

I am severely disappointed in the experience, being my first mango flight.

The damage to my bag is significant, and the lock lost had sentimental value. not to mention the invasion of privacy which occurred from having the contents thrown around like rubbish and the clothing no longer presentable for a meeting as the whole occurrence caused my shirts to look like old laundry which haven't been ironed for centuries.

Hi please can you assist urgently
Pktmhz reference - flight on 13 march 2017 at 6 am from dbn to lanseria - sujay devpruth dob [protected]

My husband had a flight from durban to lanseria this morning and I am extremely unhappy on the way he was treated.

He reached the boarding gates way before the flight was scheduled to take off and was not allowed to board the flight. The staff was busy with another gentlemen and arguing and with the result I was delayed.

We had booked the flight with our voyager miles and he needed to pay in cash for a new flight.

This is extremely disappointing as he was not late.

I don’t understand why he had forfeited the original flight.

I request a full refund for the initial flight or another flight.

I am awaiting your urgent response.

Thanks

Good morning,
please note that this was sent to inquiries on 13/03/2017

I boarded a flight to Cape town from Durban yesterday 12/03/2017.
Ticket details,
Booking reference: PKRQTD

Description of damage,
My luggage suitcase was damaged on the front. It seems as it was dragged with dirt marks followed by a damage/tear.
This is unacceptable as I take extra care of my belongings. I am a frequent flyer with SAA and decided to use Mango as I have heard good things for the past month.
I have attached pictures. I anticipate you response.
[protected]
Kind Regards,
Sabastian Lakbaran