Mango Airlines
Reviews and Complaints

I am a regular flyer with Mango Airline and have never experienced an loss of items from my bag.

Today on-board JE123 JNB(05:55)-CPT I was surprised that my bag was opened and my documents taken Driver’s licence, bank cards, important documents. I was depressed and stressed at CPT airport and reported the incident to your office. I would like to know what Mango as an airline what are they doing to curb this practice by baggage handlers. There is a well organised syndicate targeting PX baggage. I am very disappointed as I ended up getting stranded at airport. What is the recourse I hate to say l will never ever fly Mango again but this has to be addressed with relevant authority at OR Tambo or any other airport. Feel free to contact me on [protected] .

Thank you regards.

DISSAPOINTED PX

Ernest

Today I'm complaining about mango airlines I'm unterly disgusted by them I always flew mango from cape town to Durban and Durban to cape town I've always had incidents where I was late and just in time to check in but yesterday was the limit. As my child had to see his surgeon today because he is a very sick baby i booked a flight for 7.35 the evening and arrived at 7.05 the lady at the counter told me im to late to check in and this incident happened at cape town international airport .
Normally at durban if i was that time there i could check in she even told me the gate was closed i must go pay another amoynt of 1800 rand and then she went on talking to her collegues like i dont exist the more i asked her to fone and do something she ignore me at king shaka in durban i was 10 mins before the time there and they called the people by the gate and did their utmost to help me get on the plane and make it in time . this is services i can reallly rely on but yesterdays servicess was so bad im even thinking of flying another airlines becuase i lost so much money in the process i hope mango sees this and does something about this

With what i have seen on your other reviews about this airline it appears they have a dont care a damn attitude the very one we experienced on Xmas day 2016. I had thought I did a great thing to book online with them for my Sister an her ill Son that came with the Scholoza train from Gauteng to Cape Town on the the 13th December 2016. We as a family due to her Son of 14 yrs old with his heart condition opted to purchase her this ticket for their return to Pretoria and to elevate the stress on this young Son of hers with full blown Marfan Syndrome. As it happens we decided to leave a little earlier to book in their lugguage and to take them for a bite at the airport to eat. Well what happened next was beyond believe!

The porter at the counter that books the luggage in refused to accept the medical card with her Son and herself on it and also the letters she showed hin about his condition but demanded we get an unabridged birth certificate. He was not helpful at all and referred us to the booth for customer service which also led us no where. I could not believe this stress they put my Sister and her ill Son through all this non compassionate manner they portrayed. My Husband got really furious when they broke down in tears at the Airport and walked over to Safair and bought a ticket there which meant they were now only leaving at 7.30 in stead of 5pm. No problems the medical aid card was accepted and they boarded. Now my question here is what the heck is wrong with this picture. Mango refuses them and Safair excepts them.

We would also like to know how we go about getting the monies back for our ticket?

My names are Ben Benson, a regular user of your services. I was scheduled to fly to Jhb from PE at 6.20pm today. I checked in online and arrived for the flight about 6pm but was refused entry at the security check who refused to accept a display copy of my boarding pass on my mobile device. The lady took me to the Mango desk for help, where one Siyabonga helped to arrange my boarding pass and quickly sent my hand luggage for assessment and reported it was 14kg and advised I reduce same to at most 9kg. I was later assisted by a youngman who confirmed a measurement of 7kg and whose unfriendliness was unmatched. And whose negative influences on your staff at the exit gate, created unnecessary & avoidable delays that later led to the cancellation of my flight. He emphatically told them to get me off the flight.

The young man whose name is unknown to me, arrived at 7kg after I had removed my towel that I later hung on my neck and toilet bag and a pair of adidas tekkies were consigned in two checkers sized plastic bags. I did not only find the young man's actions mean, and wicked but reckless, xenophobic and unfair.

Clearly, his application of the rules was done with prejudice because I have traveled with Mango severally and have have observed a pattern of behavior. Certainly, the rules are not meant to be punitive but was intended to stop the excesses of customers, not those whose items are less than items that one could have picked from duty free shop.

I have spoken to the duty manager, Ms zizi, to consider putting me on the next flight at no extra cost, to compensate for the inhuman treatment meted at me, and who advised me to formally lodge a complain.

Kindly review the boarding processes that occurred prior and you will easily find that your staff were unfair and discriminatory in the application of the rules. The losses to me are huge.

May I also bring to your notice that I am a poor research student and who will find extra fares almost unbearable. Kindly consider flying me back to as soon as possible and at no extra cost.

Thank you.

Yours faithfully,
Ben Benson.
Cell: [protected].

We booked a flight from jnb to dbn for 21st dec with mango airlines. Due to unforseen medical reasons (Passenger had a mills heart attack and was hospitalized) , passenger could not make the initial flight from dur to jnb and we cancelled this one with kulula who happily refunded us.

We therefore wanted to change the mango jnb to dbn flight to dbn-jnb.

When we called the call center and after having explained the hospitalization, the agent said they have to charge the fee, "it doesn't work like that to get it waived" due to the circumstances. We were also advised that a cancellation would forfeit the money, despite the fact that kulula happily refunded us due to the circumstances and after having received the hospital admission forms and doctors letter, all of which we had advised mango of and were able to provide as proof of hospitalization.

Complete inhumane and inconsiderate to have to still charge the fee which we had no choice but to pay!

Wonder why kulula would be more considerate to such circumstances for their clients yet mango is all about making money irrespective of such unforseen circumstances.

Absolutely pathetic service and we will ensure to book with kulula in future purely due to this experience.

Call center ([protected]) recording can be extracted to confirm the above. Call center agent was vusi. Calls made on 19 december 2016, from number [protected] at 8:47am and 1:28am.

We will also be lodging a complaint on social media and hello peter so other propsective passengers know about the inconsiderate service from this airline.

Whilst I am aware that your net loss was reported to be R36.9m for the end of March 2016, and you obviously need to try and regain funds, I cannot for the life of me understand a certain policy of yours when it came to our baggage weight for our flight from Durban to JHB yesterday...

We booked 4 return tickets from JHB to Durban for our family vacation, for myself, my husband and our 2 children. As it turned out, my mother and my sister and her little one were also going to be on holiday there around the same time. 3 days before we were due to fly home, we decided that it would be lovely for the kids to stay on for a few days with my family and drive back with them, just so they could have a bit of an extended holiday and the cousins could spend some time playing together. We went online to try and cancel the 2 tickets for the kids but your policy indicated that we could not obtain a refund. We decided to however take the financial knock of about R3600, as the kids were begging to stay.

Upon arrival at the check in counter for our departure to JHB we advised that the kids would not be joining us on the flight but we still had the 4 tickets allocated to us which we had paid for. We now had 3 bags to check in (as the kids didn't need all their luggage for a few extra days we took it back with us). Once the bags had been weighed we were advised that we were 10kgs overweight. I asked how many kgs per person was allowed and we were told 20kgs each...we had 50kg between my husband and myself. Now yes, under normal circumstances where 2 people are flying and allowed 20kgs each and you are overweight by 10kgs, I would have taken responsibility and been happy to pay, but we actually had 4 tickets...which works out to 80kgs baggage allowance for us. Again, we had 50kg, so we were in fact actually underweight! The 2 tickets for the kids were paid for. No other passengers could have used them and those seats were empty. We used 10kgs of their baggage allowance (of the 40kgs they were entitled to)...and yet it was insisted by the staff that we were overweight and had to pay R450! Come on guys! This tunnel vision is atrocious! How could you not work out that we had paid for 4 tickets which included 80kgs of luggage, and only had 50kgs?! Your explanation : "That's our policy". This was a situation that differed slightly from the norm, and a simple solution would have been to have the common sense to assess this situation independently and realise that your policy didn't actually make sense in this scenario and didn't need to apply. You need to employ people who are a little more discerning and whom are able to make reasonable deviations from the norm when necessary.

Please could someone explain this ridiculous policy to me to justify the payment of R450 we had to make for "being overweight"? I'm at a complete loss and cannot understand the logic? Surely you can't be so desperate for funds?

From the other complaints I've read about Mango airlines it is clear that you perceive your clients a to be a heard of cattle that you just shove from one place to the next. Perhaps you should take the time to treat your clients as the individuals they are and actually listen to their requirements and do 'the good customer service thing' to ensure that they would choose to use your services again. Your brazen attitude and arrogance towards your customers is going to continue to ensure your company runs at a financial loss. Perhaps you should read and respond to the complaints? I am no expert but I'm guessing that would be a good place to start.

Regards,

Gina

On the 11 December 2016 Flight JE716 from Cape Town to Lanseria was delayed to 20:43. We landed at Lanseria 22:57, am so dissapointed with the service Mango treated us. Because of the delay I had to pay extra R119 for car parking. I did try to negotiate with cashier at Lanseria Airport she told me it is not their fault the flight was delayed i should send my complaint to Mango airlines. I request that Mango pay back my R119, why do we have to suffer the consequences of a delayed flight whereas when you miss your flight the ticket money is forfeited.

On the 30 November 2016, my Wife, Son and I left for Durban on Flight JE245 @ 08:40am, Ref No's PDKKHD & NZHHDD.

The reason why this trip was so important to me is because I just got married the day before and this was a trip I planned as a surprise for my wife and my son. My son never flew before and this was his first experience and thus the reason we asked at your booking station for the lady to please NOT put us at the wing. Needless to say the arrogant women at your Mango Station put us at the Wing. So my son could not see a damn thing. When I went to use the rest room I saw numerous open seats all the way to the back of your plane. Now I dont have a clue as to why she was so arrogant and rude cause she did not even greet or even smile when we approached her work station. I would also like to express the fact that we checked in at about 06:30am and that is way before the required check in time. NB I Would like to stipulate that your agent was so rude that when we requested for us NOT to be placed at the window she clicked her tongue and said whatever.

Then upon our return from Durban on the 05 December 2016 JE258 we again requested your agent not to put us at the Wing and she was so nice and polite and she told us that she would put us three seats away from the wing as that was the best she could do as that flight was fully booked.

I was so appreciative of her assistance and was wondering why was her colleague at OR Tambo so inconsiderate and rude.

I have ALWAYS flown with Mango Airlines and even recommended it to Colleagues and even My Company as a Whole for ALL Business Trips and they too has always utilized your Company. However these flights was the last time I would use your Company use your Company.
And i will advise other uses NOT Mango Airlines in Future

good morning, kindly note that I had done my booking and paid to 50% in august as stipulated and the balance that was required has been paid in full, only to find out now that the automatic car rental that I had paid is no longer available and the consultant form mango has now requested that she would refund me the car rental money and I must try Avis. this is totally unacceptable as per the CPA (consumer protection Act).The consultant has provided me with a quotation which I have accepted.Mango needs to honour their promise.

I was due to fly (booking reference: PCRHVV) on Friday 2016/11/18 at 19:40 on Mango Flight JE267 from OR Tambo International to King Shaka International and upon arriving at the kiosk at 19:00 to check-in I was told that check-in had "closed early" and that the flight was already “finalised”.

The kiosk staff told this to me jubilantly, as if it was the funniest thing in the world.

To add insult to injury, a fellow traveler from Gaborone Botswana was delayed and also failed to check-in “on-time”.

After a sluggish response and attempt at feigned assistance, we were both told that we could opt to move the flight and just pay in the difference in ticket price from old flight to new flight date. We could do this as he had “noted on the system that we did arrive at the check-in counter” and this would allow us to move the booking.

When I called Customer Care (on [protected]) – I was promptly told by the Call Centre Agent that I “should have read the Terms & Conditions” and that I have forfeited the entire ticket amount.

So now I am left with the question of who was telling the truth; the kiosk staff or the Call Centre Agent?

Please can I be assisted to determine what the facts of the matter are; what time check-in for Mango Flight JE267 close on 2016/11/18, secondly, what time was the flight finalised?

It would also be prudent to find out if the kiosk staffer who helped us (a male staffer) was being truthful when he told us we could change the date of the ticket.

Bad bad service I am done with mango and won't recommend anyone to use them . My connecting flight was late and contact mango for info, but no help.Eventually got to joburg checkin mango said it's close .with a few minutes to go for boarding I ask them to contact boarding to say we are here and on our way they refused .we took a chance by running to boarding gate and the plane was still there but refused to let us board. refused to let us board . Had the pay for another flight SAA to get to Cape Town. Mango you just lost a customer and a company they used your airline.

On Friday 11 November 2016, I was booked on the Mango Flight to Durban JE259 at 16h00. I arrived at the airport at 14h00, went through the security check in to discover that the flight was delayed with an estimated delay period of 2 hours.

Not once during the 4+ hours that I was sitting waiting for my flight was there any announcement made over the intercom to advise passengers of this delay.

When I went to speak to the Mango ground staff they could not give me any information regarding the reason for the delay and what the estimated time of departure would be.

I never received an sms or an e-mail advising me of my flight delay. I find this kind of service unacceptable and really feel that Mango need to revisit their approach to their clients as ultimately your customers should always come first.

Very disgruntled passenger!

Veronica Rosewarne

On 19 October 2016, I traveled from jhb to cape town, to visit my customers with an employee of mine. We arranged the flight so we could fly in the morning and have our first meeting that afternoon. Firstly, our flight was delayed and did not leave at 10h55 as scheduled. One hour into the flight, we were informed that there is a problem with the plane and they have to turn around and go back to jhb. it took them forever to finally land the plane and then we had to disembark and wait another hour before we could board another plane. This plane too, took forever to take off. in the meantime i had phoned my secretary to contact my customs and postpone my appoints for an hour or so when we were informed to had to turn around, then I again had to inform my secretary that I will not be able to make the appoints at all for that afternoon and to re-schedule over the next 2 days. This was cause for great embarrassment to myself, my sales manager and the credibility of my company name. The staff were rude and unfriendly, (if they are not happy in their jobs or the company they are working for, they should look for other work and not take it out on the passengers). on my return flight from cape town to Johannesburg at 13h15, the flight was again delayed causing us to get stuck in jhb traffic, so instead of arriving back at home 17h00, latest, we got home at 19h30. I will never again fly with Mango, not for business or pleasure.

My wife flew from jhb to durban earlier this year, her flight was delayed for 3 hours! and her return flight was delayed for an hour.

Fly Mango should rather advertise themselves as "the worst airline in the world, take it or leave it" this way no one can complain or criticize cause they have already been informed that they trip is going to be an pleasurable one. and the saying "it cant get any worse!" yes, it can if you booked your return flight with Mango!

I recently flew to JHB from Durban on the 12th October 2016. I checked my bag in and secured a cable tie on the zip.

Arriving at JHB, I noticed that the cable tie was missing. I had numerous items stolen out of my bag. over R4000 worth of items!

I proceeded to the baggage claim counter and was told to report it to the Durban section as that was where I departed from.

Upon arriving back in Durban I was then told "No it has to be handled by JHB". Really - make up your minds.

I have contact customer services on so many occasions to sort this out but it is worse than trying to get through parliament. I was eventually told that the manager Brenda will contact me no later than the 19th October. And you can guess it ... still waiting.
I have tried again this morning to get somewhere with customer service and have gone from one operator to another. Holding on for 15 minutes at a time then call get cut and the procedure starts all over.

I am now so tired of hearing :Thank you for your patience - your call will be attended to shortly.

I work for a large corporate company and use Mango all the time and I will make it my mission for my company to NEVER use Mango again.

1 whole week of trying to sort this out, phoning at my cost etc is a disgrace and there is NO customer service at Mango.

I lost over R4000 and can not even get to speak to someone to knows what the procedures are or even try an assist.

Good day I had booked a ticket with Mango for Sunday the 16th October at 14h05. I got to the airport around the checkin time closing but due to the ladies at the check in counters sending me to different counters, I missed check in time. I paid over R1800 for my ticket and was told sorry they cannot let me board even though I had no luggage to check in. I then went to the Mango desk and was assisted by extremely unhelpful staff. After trying to make them understand, I was told I can book the next flight and pay the difference, I agreed and then was told sorry the flight was full. I was then told I will be on standby. I was never called and had to book another flight with another airline which cost me R2100. Clearly checkin was closed early with no announcements as I was not the only passenger that was told checkin was closed. Please can a senior manager look into this as I had to borrow money to book another flight to get back home.
This is extremely unethical and I am totally disgusted with the service.

Ref NYQFLD
very dissapointed in Mango's service today. Booked for my daughter with a todler and a baby. Was suppose to fly at 6h00 and has been at airport since 5h00. Had to onboard twice now with 2 small children. They are only visiting for 4 days and valuable time was now wasted. Had to go back for meeting costing double fuel for 170km. Husband also hadcto drive back to airport from Gordons bay to assist with children and luggage. Our family regularly fly mango but would now certainly reconsider. I hope that this will not re occur with the return flights on monday. Due to expensive costs husband could not fly with then to assist and one would think that the crue would assist in such a case which did not happen. The inconvenience cannot be described! Consider taking this to hello peter and facebook if not resolved. Waiting to hear from you.

I was on a flight from JHB to DBN, When I reached my destination i saw the cable tie on my bag had been removed and when I looked inside a perfume had been stolen, the box was left behind however. My luggage was completely upset and all my belongings had been gone through as nothing was as i had packed it. I called in to the customer service line I was told they only deal with emails.

27 September 2016 I got Mango flight JE158 from Cape Town to Johannesburg for a business meeting. I took an overnight bag, laptop and work jacket on-board and stowed it in the overhead compartment 3 rows in front of my row because the back overhead compartments have the video recording equipment in and other airplane equipment. I sat in seat 32F which is the last row of the plane against the window. I was one of the first to board the plane. On landing I waited for the passengers to disembark and went to collect my laptop, overnight bag and jacket out of the overhead compartment. ONLY my laptop and jacket was in the compartment. I went to the flight attendant at the back of the plane and she indicated to me that she was given a black bag by another passenger and she handed it over to the senior flight attendant before the plane left Cape Town and I should check in front. I went to the senior flight attendant and she told me that she thought that the bag was left on the flight from the previous flight and so she handed it over to the ground staff before leaving Cape Town. “Shouldn’t be a problem” she said as I must just go to Mango baggage claim as they should have it. So in a rush I went to Mango baggage claim (OR TAMBO) and they had no idea about any black bag that was removed from the plane in Cape Town. They phoned back to Cape Town and they also didn’t have any information. Stressed to the max because everything was in my overnight bag, including my car keys which cost R5000 to replace and takes 8 weeks to import from Germany and would have required a flatbed tow truck to remove my car from the airport parking arcade 2. The staff at baggage claim Johannesburg asked me to give them some time to keep investigating. In the mean time I went to the pharmacy at OR Tambo to get toiletries (R89.60) and Woolworths to get clothing and basic makeup (R589.00) for my client meeting the next day. Total of R678.50 extra expense for my own pocket. I also had to load R275.00 extra airtime for the 6 phone calls to the SAPS (total of 13min) and 6 phone calls to Mango [protected] (total of 36min) 1 call Mango Customer Care [protected] (1min). My bag was lost in the system somewhere at Cape Town International. I spoke to Mango agents on the phone and not one of them offered me a reference number and all took my details and only one agent finally got back to me just before I left back to Cape town 24 hours later only to inform me that Mango doesn’t have my bag and she suggested that I go to SAPS. Luckily for me on arrival to SAPS Cape Town International my bag was with them and my bag is clearly marked with my name surname and phone number. My problem is why did the senior air hostess not check the plane itinerary to see if passenger ELMARIE THERON was not on the flight. It would of saved me a R1000 and endless stress which effected my client meeting. Also I have a huge problem with the quality of the customer service at Mango. I had the feeling that they felt that it was NOT THEIR PROBLEM. All of this could have been avoided if the air hostess only had checked the flight itinerary. Question is what does MANGO have to say about all of this and will they refund my expenses? I also have a picture of my bag with my name take and SAPS ref on it.

Me and my wife went to South Africa for my honeymoon, and bought a flight ticket with Mango to go from OR Tambo to Port Elizabeth. I've bought it back in February 15. The flight was scheduled to July 16 at 5 PM.

We arrived at the airport at 2 PM, and came to check-in. There we were told that the flight was changed to 1:15 PM, so it was already gone!

Talking to their supervisor (I think it was Nonhle) she said that they sent me and my wife an email telling that, but neither of us got it. I've told them to forward me that email, so I could see it with the time it was sent, but they didn't do that. They said they could sent us on next day's flight, but we would need to pay most part of the value anyways + hotel + food.

As we planned our whole trip in advance, we already had a car rented in Port Elizabeth, and also a hotel booked there.

After all that, we ended up getting a car in Johannesburg, drive until Bloemfontein, get a new hotel there, and then drive on next day right to Plattenberg Bay, as it was our next booked hotel after Port Elizabeth. A big cost due to this Mango problem.

Honestly I believe that errors happens. What got me mad there was the situation where they didn't want to assume their mistake, and made me pay for all that - after all, I needed to pay for the car fuel (thanks Hertz for allowing us to get the car we rented for Port Elizabeth in Johannesburg), the already booked hotel, the new hotel... And also the flight tickets that we already paid previously!

I expected more from a company with good reviews all over the Internet.

I flew to Durban 29 July 2016 on the 11h15 flight. I had cable ties on my luggage like many times before. When I received my luggage, I saw the bag is open, I immediately went to the Baggage counter, and complaint about my bag that is open. The man helped by putting my bag on the scale, and the weight was about the same, and he said Mango only look at a claim if the luggage weight is minimum of a kilogram less than what it was at check-in.

When I arrived at my destination, I realised my leather belt which was bought in Florence Italy May 2015 is missing. I can't see that anything else is missing. It was clear that someone was in my bag, as everything was a mess. I also had gift bags in my luggage that was also opened.

It is terrible to know that someone was in your luggage, looking at your private things and stealing.

I am very disappointed in the service.