Mango Airlines
Reviews and Complaints

My son was turning 2 and I decided for his birthday I would take him on a plane and to see the ocean. My 12 year old sister had also never been on a plane before so I booked a mini holiday for the 3 of us. I decided that they needed to be spoilt a bit and skipped paying some of my accounts to make this happen for them, I booked the plane tickets online on flymango.co.za. I was very surprised to see that they were charging my son an infant price even though he was turning 2 on the date of return. I called and asked is this correct and was told if it says thats the price online then thats the price. I went ahead and booked the tickets and off we went to have a great mini holiday, On my sons second birthday we get to King Shaka and check in when suddenly they advise me that my 2 YEAR OLD son is not allowed to board the plane as he needs to pay for a seat and thats full price. They point blank refused. I had no money to buy another ticket and had to start calling family and friends to help me out. In the meantime the flight was no longer available to book online and if i didnt pay in the next 15 minutes for a seat for him my sister and i would miss our flight and i would have to rebook tickets for all 3 of us. I have never been so humiliated and angry before. As far as I am concerned when we booked the tickets and on issue the system should have charged us correctly or not issued the tickets. So I was stuck ay King Shaka airport with a crying toddler, crying 12 year old and rude unhelpful staff. When i asked the lady what else cna I do her response was without money theres nothing u can do. How pathetic! I managed to get the money transferred to me in time to make my flight and had to scream, cry and shout to be allowed onto the flight or we would have been stranded at the airport without a cent. Thankyou Mango airlines! What a pleasure. I have now had to pay people back that loan me the money and now this month I am left in a bad financial situation. My 2 YEAR OLD son paid R1050 for a one way flight from Durban. PATHETIC to say the least.

At the end of june 2013 my father became very ill and we need to fly to cape town urgently, so we booked our flight with another airline, with our names - no problem.. Three weeks later we need to go to cape town again as my father pass away. This time we booked with mango on internetbut the site send us through travelstart. We booked a round trip lanseria to cape town and back with the same names as the first time. On our arrival 05h00 the morning of the 18 july the lady said that we need to do a name change at the counter around the corner. Their a very unfriendly lady informed us that it will cost us r200 to change dalene to magdalene. My sister burst out in tears as she can not afford it at all. How the hell ? Home affairs asked less for a permanent name change!. One off these days you have to pay for your hair colour, as it may differ from your i. D. Book photo. The lady have no mercy we need to pay or stay. She also informed us that travelstart have booked two one way flights and therefor it will be r200 per flight in totalr400. Yes the small print do say names as per i. D book (My fold for not seeing it) but really r400 for a name change that took the lady a minute to change on the system. One can understand if it was an international flight but it was not. One the aircraft - the pocket in front of your seat is so dirty one can not believe it. We ordered coffee - but it was un drinkable, I love my coffee but that stuff one can not call coffee rather dishwash water, not even to mention that the hostess is not need, pant are too long ect.In the older days people use to be proud to be a airhostess. Very unhappy daisy van vuuren

Items where stolen from my bag on the 3rd of June 2013. I immediatly went to the Mogo airline counter to complain as had noticed that items where missing from my bag on collection. Where the employee by the name of Josh assisted me & informed me that they will reimburse me for the items that where missing, with relevent documents eg Police statement etc. I have been liasing with an employee named Brenelle for the last 2 weeks who keeps on telling me he will get back to me. This has being carrying on for 3 weeks now. Brenelle is Useless & should realy be give proper training in customer service. It is frustraighting dealing with idots like this.

I received an email from mango airlines informing me of the mango madness June specials that could only be booked via the call centre on June 4th from 9am-5pm. I tried for 3 hours nonstop and when i eventually got through to the call centre I was told that the special was only valid for one leg of the journey and that only return trips could be booked to qualify for the special. Due to the fact that the return trip was so expensive I did not book the trip. I was most disgusted to find out later that day that friends of mine managed to book the specials via the website and were able to book single tickets as well as both legs of the journey at the special price. HOW UNFAIR! I wasted my time, effort and money trying to book the special as it was advertised and couldn't book my trip due to the T&C that mango changed during the course of the day. Very unprofessional. Is this how mango treats loyal customers?

I happen to be very very disgusted, and not impressed with what happened at Mango airline check CPT flying back to JHB yesterday. My flight was for 6:45am. i arrived at 6:10am to check in, only to be told check in closed already. according to the rules check in closes 40min before departure, which means 6:05am. i came at 6:10am, i told the lady at counter 95 that i was standing in JHB queue and missed the last check in call. i was reffered to customer services (under the impression someone can help), stood in queue there till 6:40 where the guy helping me said, he cant assist in check in, he can only chnage my flight. i had to pay R1200.00 money of which i didnt have to spend on flight. all this is all good, my query is. I was 5MIN LATE, surely provision could be made for this. also when i flew to CPT on the 24th, we waiting in the plane for 20min for a lady. i dont like playing the race card, yet this lady was White. so why could we wait for her to come in late at BOARDING, but i could check in 5 min late. i would like a refund, as i am short with essetial things to be paid. mango management in customer service must respond to this, as i am not about to let it go.

About a year ago I flew from the king shaka airport in durban to johannesburg and the airline lost my luggage and when I queried about the luggage I was given faulse information that my luggage had been sent on a wrong flight I left the airport with no clothes and had to buy new clothes and toiletries and shoes for a wedding that I was attending the next day, it does not end there as they continued to give me the run arround and I had to visit the airport several times even though it was very far from where I live. Eventually I asked to speak to a manager and they gave me the email adress of their supperior who I sent several emails that I have as proof of our corespondence they eventually sent me less than r800 for all my luggage included the content of my which ofcourse was not the value of even just the bag itself. They promised to send me a bag which I never recieved. I am very unghappy with the way that the staff treated me and also the empty promises that were made and I would really appreciate for mango to resolve this issue in a way that would leave me satisfied.
Please assist me as I dont know where to take this matter from here, when I mentioned lawyers they told me good luc

I purchased ticket to Durban ref no KFKVJJ then function was cancelled. Didn't know what to do with the ticket as I was told if I cancel I will forfeit whole amount so I postponed was told R542 if I'm right will be admin fee, I then got someone to give the ticket to. I first phoned for normal Quote spoke to Lulu who gave me pathetic service sounded like she didn't want to be @ work today, or she needs to go for telephone manners & client service.
I had to drop the call couldn't speak to her anylonger or get to main enquiry she even said she is confused.
I called again explained to Phumeza I need to change my ticket as I called last week was told to postpone my booking date its R542 when I called 2days later to change to some else was told I need to pay R660 extra all in all this ticket will be R2300 return I feel like I'm being ripped off by Mango Airlines with all these charges its so said they treat clients like that. You fly Mango because you believe they are most affordable & now all these hidden cost I was never advise @ the time of
I called Mango around 11am spoke to Cindy was told booking was cancelled they are investigating.
After 12pm I spoke to Grey [protected] who told me I MUST NOT ASSUME booking was not cancelled I got furious & he dropped the call without even warning me
I complained on Hello Peter as well. Mango call centre staff is extremely rude

I was VERY disappointed with Mango. Malfunctioning website, extremely poor customer service, and I have yet to receive a promised refund.

When I was trying to purchase a ticket online, the website was not working and would not process my purchase. After clicking on the "submit" button, the website would only display a "internet explorer cannot display the webpage" error. I tried other web browsers, and other internet connections, none of which resolved the problem. Therefore, I called in and the person I spoke with was unapologetic about the malfunctioning website and even mentioned that several people had called in with similar complaints. She gave me the option of having them process it for me with an additional cost, or to simply "keep trying the website." I chose the latter and noticed multiple times that the website would change my departure and destination cities and the dates of travel after I clicked out of each the drop-down menus. Still, I finally received a confirmation page instead of the error page...but then realized that the destination city had switched again and was incorrect! I called in immediately (which was within minutes of seeing the confirmation page) after this, but again, Mango was not helpful despite it being a problem with their website and only offered to change the date with the normal cost of altering a flight. With no other choice, I agreed. BUT then when I checked my e-mail for that confirmation, I found that I actually had 2 confirmations; a previously submitted attempted purchase (which had the correct dates of travel) on the Mango website had gone through, but no confirmation page had shown. Therefore, I now had 2 identical flights, but the one that processed second was more expensive because of the added fee for changing the dates.

Again, I called in to complain about this, requesting that they cancel the second flight and reimburse me the refund because had their website been working properly, I would never had placed the second (and incorrect) flight. The person I spoke with was unwilling to do this, so I asked to speak with a manager, who I was informed was busy but would definitely would return my call that day before closing (a 5 hour window). I agreed, but never received a return call that day. I called again the following down to speak with the manager, and was again told that the manager was busy and that he would call me back, which he did, but was still unwilling to give me a refund for the 2nd flight + the fee for changing and would only provide a refund for the first, cheaper, flight. As I insisted that this was unfair since it was the fault of the website that this situation had even occurred, he became upset, and started accusing me of giving a false story and said that IT would have to check out my claims and that this would take several days. By this time, my flight was leaving within 2 days. Afraid that if the case didn't get resolved before I left and that they would be unwilling to provide ANY sort of refund because it was after the fact, I regretfully agreed to a refund for the first flight.

This was over three weeks ago and I have yet to see the refund on my credit card. I called 2 weeks after agreeing take the refund for the cheaper flight, and was told that the refund would be processed by the end of the week. That also did not happen. Now that I am no longer in South Africa and calling Mango would require international phone charges, so I e-mailed them two days ago requesting an immediate refund, which I have not yet received.

My Wife fell at the airport on our way to boarding and had to visit the toilet to stop the bleeding. As we got to the boarding gate the staff asked us our names and said that we were offloaded. At the ticket counter we were in a very rude manner told that we had to buy a new ticket as we forfeited ours without refund. No explanation was asked or offer made to refund any portion of the money we paid for the ticket. According to the CCC this is illegal and they may be fined. This attitude and behaviour is to be expected from a company who does not respond to HelloPeter

I had the distinct displeasure of flying on mango airlines this evening (flight je 267) and experienced the absolute disgusting service of airhostess linda... Long story short, there was turbulence and we were about to land, cabin crew had to commence cabin duty... I am carrying my baby on my lap... Linda walks down the aisle and sees me carrying the baby and says nothing... On her return trip she decides to do her job and asks me to put the baby in his seat and strap him in... I said t0 her I would. Then she loudly says now (this tone was not necessary). As I am moving the baby to put him in the seat she starts pulling the babies leg to move him. At which time I angrily respond that she should get her hands off my child. I then put the baby in the seat and I am busy strapping in him she then says about 4 times that I should put the arm rest down. Obviously I cannot strap the baby in the seat and put the arm rest down at the same time. I then eventually put the armrest down... As if the first experience was not bad enough she then comes back 7 minutes later to make sure that I have not put the baby back on our lap... I have no problem with people doing thei jobs... But its not what you do... Its how you do what you do... Her whole manner and approach was completely out of line and I have witnesses all around who are willing to say the same... I am disgusted and I will never ever fly with this airline again and I can afford to be picky.. I have since shared this experiece with 7 of my family members and 15 of my friends and we all agree that we will not be repeat flyers on this airline... If mango is too arrogant to respond to disgruntled customers... They do not deserve to earn any of our money and I will personally be an advocate of this going forward

Never ever will I or my family and my friends travel with you again!
On the 28th myself and my husband had a flight with you at 11:10 I had a function to attend in durban at 13:00pm

I left home at 10:10 I live off barbara road so you know the airport is 5 minutes away. Unfortunalty out of my control there was an incident on the road but I made it at the departures section at 10:34 at your damn self service machine which didn't work and wasted 10 minutes of my time the lady standing there tells me to go to the check in counter, my husband myself and my friend run to the counter only to get told that "i missed my flight" however on the over boards I see that my flight is still boarding? The lady no help and not friendly at all looks me in the eye and tells me I missed my flight and she can put me on stand by. That's it no explanation no procedure advise nothing I explained to her that I am here still have half an hour I really have to be in durban before 13:00 and the board says bording the damn plane did not take off yet!

Still no help she doesn't even look at us and says sorry she can put me on a standby and that I should go to the sales counter so we ran there - (Still wasting time) I tell the guy my story and he doesn't even look in the system or call someone to check if I still could go nothing he just says that I must go on a standby - then I try to explain to him I did not intentionally come late I still have half an hour I wasted time at the self service please help me call someone and he doesn't! So now im furious and someone comes up behinds him looks and goes to the back my guess his manager and doesn't want to deal with me! He still does nothing but give me attitude and explains to my husband that we have to pay r300 to be on a standby if we get it then I ask him r300 per person or for both and he ignores me then I shout is it for 1 person or both and he refuses to answer and speaks something else I had to bang the counter to get his attention and repeat myself only then he said for both.

Now I have already paid for our seats I am there and the plane is still boarding and I never one heard a final boarding call with our names. But I have to be on a standby and pay r600 more are you damn kidding me!

You people are rip offs my husband and my friend saw that and believe me bad news travels people. And I did end up going for the function and everybody asked my why I was late and believe me I left their jaws on the ground explaining how pathetic you people are and im just getting started. I still have hellopeter and the newspaper to go to.

I still enquire if I had to cancel that guys says I will loose the money I paid. I have to say though well done you really know how to knock people off.

Thank heavens I get on the standby which by the way they tell us 10 minutes before departure that we should get on (I was at my original flight 35 minutes early) ?

We get on and im late for my function - we return home the sunday only to find that our bags had been rattled in... !

You guys make me sick you lying money stealing ripping off idiots

All this tell me is that you put other people on my seats that where on stand by and therefore declined me - it tells me your [protected]@p story of being the 40 minutes early is nonsense as we were told 10 mins before departing not boarding departing that we could get on and you damn creeps go through my stuff which by the way I didn't have to check in on the saturday but had to check in my bag the sunday and nothing extra was put in my bad to make it 9kg's so either saturday you didn't do your job or sunday either way you failed

I demand a refund - a letter of appology and explainations to all of the above by the 03.09.2010

I will get you that incompetant idiots name that gave me attitude as I have written it down and he still had the damn nerve to back chat at me when I left the counter and I turn around to ask him what he was saying and he ignored my what customer service is this? Also when we had to come back to wait for a stand by my husband was in the line to tell them we here this idiot was open at his computer and ask if he was open he say no he is busy with something as soon as the other lady was free and call my husband this damn fool called the next customer!Whats that?

On the 22 September 2011 on a 19h35 flight to JHB on Mango Airlines. The key to the lock on my luggage was tampered with as the key will not open lock. I did'nt think much about it as I thought that the lock maybe faulty. On my return flight on the 25 September 2011 on the 11h20 flight, my luggage looked fine when I collected it as the lock was still on. Upon opening the luggage, I found that the vanity case inside the luggage was opened and the makeup bag inside the vanity case was also opened and my belongings that was packed neatly was all messed up as clearly someone that gone through it looking for something. The zipper on the inside cover was also opened. Fortunately for me nothing was missing however it was an invasion of my privacy. Someone had gone through my things. How can the airline allow this can of thing to happen. I am very irirtated.
Sharmila Singh - [protected]@gmail.com

I’m logging a formal complaint against Mango Airlines in regards to the manner in which my Mother-in-law was treated by your cabin crew on Flight JE223 this morning from JNB to DUR at 05:50am.
Booking Reference: JTZWDP
Passenger: Mrs. Neelavathi Moodley
I booked wheelchair assistance 3 weeks ago for my Mother-in-Law, as she is 63 years of age and has had a triple-heart by-pass operation in January 2010.
The staff on this flight (a black gentleman wearing a cream suit), insisted that on arrival at Durban International Airport, that she walk from the plane to get her baggage as there is apparently nothing wrong with her.
After pleading with him and showing him the visible operation scars on her chest, she was refused wheelchair assistance.
She had to ask one of the other cabin crew members to assist, as she began having heart perpetrations from the stress inflicted on her by your Mango Airline Staff on this flight: JE223.
Is this the type of service that the public receives from your Airline which we pay for?
I spoke to Brenda Mashua on [protected], who was very empathetic in dealing with our complaint and re-assured us that this matter will definitely be resolved to our satisfaction.
I urge you to question all the cabin crew on Flight JE223 dated 14th August 2011, as to their misconduct and their refusal to assist the elderly.
I demand an explanation as to why this was done, a simply apology is NOT going to be an adequate resolution to this problem.
Secondly, we have booked a flight from JNB to CPT on the 27th August 2011 – Booking Reference: JVXHNJ
Due to the horrible manner in which Mango Airlines treated my Mother-in-Law this morning on her flight: JE223, we want to cancel my booking flight JE703, we expect a full refund.
This was the first and LAST time that we will ever be using your Mango Airlines to fly anywhere.
We would rather pay more to fly with either Kulula.com or 1Time Airlines, as the staff & cabin crew of these airlines treat ALL passengers (the young & the elderly) with dignity & respect, which does NOT happen when flying with Mango Airlines.
We would like your manager/s to contact us urgently regarding the poor service received from your airline on the following contact numbers:
This complaint has been posted on www.hellopeter.com, so that other passengers who use your airline will be made aware of how the elderly gets treated by Mango Airlines.
Brenda, please ensure that this matter is attended to urgently.

I I booked two flights online from Cape Town to Durban departing on the 05th July booking reference JVBSYM and opted to pay the following day. I proceeded to pay the following day and thought all was okay. When I received the confirmation, I did not check as I had already printed the email received on the 27th. I went to check my departure time on the 04th and opened the email dated the 28th June and learned that the booking was for a flight from Jhb to Cape Town on the 04h July. I immediately called the contact centre and a very unfriendly person by the name of Lusanda told me that there was nothing I could do as the flight had already departed from Jhb and that it was my problem. The flight for the 05th from Cape Town to Durban was cancelled by Mango an hour after the confirmation via email was received. There was no email advising the booking was cancelled. Mango does not have any record of an email sent to me confirming that my flight for the 05th has been confirmed, it appeared as if I was fabricating this. Who do I speak to, to make good on this mess? Today, 05th July I got a call from Yusuf in the Guest Servives department of Mango and according to the IT department I did not request payment within 24 hours which justifies the cancellation which they do not notify their customers of. It is unacceptable that flights are confirmed but no notification is given if the booking is cancelled for whatever reason. Because I was not in Jhb to board the flight I am considered a no show and therefore I have to pay for another flight. I dont live in Jhb and did not request a flight on the 04th why would I need to phone them to cancel. They cannot even say that we need to share the blame and meet each other half way, they must be having cash flow problems if R1, 300 is going to make a dent in there bank account. If 93% of consumers using hellopeter post negative remarks, what does that say about the business as a whole. At some point people are going to look at poor service, bad attitudes, and no regard for the people who they depend on to keep there doors open. It would seem that the welfare and general consumer satisfaction does not factor in the way Mango operates it business.

After traveling from Dubai to Johannesburg, my final destination being Durban, I booked the earliest available flight from Johannesburg to Durban. This was via Mango Airlines.

After the 1 hour flight, I arrived at my final destination. It didnt occur to me that the bag was opened and items where taken, I realised this once I reached my hotel room. I was disgusted and the siight when my bag was opened, the airport staff had enough time to go open the double locked bag and take the perfumes, expensive clothing, toiletries bag, my kids gifts were taken & the wrapping left behind, further to this, someone elses old clothing was put into the bag to make the weight seem correct and then relocked.

I immediately contacted ACSA and their response is that its not their concern but rather the airline that operates within their Airport, being mango Airlines. The baggage desk at mango was full of people with the same complaint.They even showed me how the baggage staff open the bags by splitting the zip.

Worldcup 2010 is going to be a good time for these baggage staff if they continue to do this. South African Airlines and Mango Airlines are the main agencies that allow this to occur.

My gran & I were due to fly back 2 Johannesburg from Cape town on January 16th at 5:45. We arrived late as my gran who's 84 had trouble walking & we had 2 get help from the owners of the guest house 2 assist us. Arrived at the airport in a state of panic at 5:30, needless 2 say flight was closed. We were referred 2 the guest services desk. Was 'greeted' by THE most unfriendly woman, she didn’t introduce herself & wasn’t wearing a name badge so i don’t hv her name but am sure there shud be a roster of who works when. Asked her if i cud rebook the seats, 4 our flight to Johannesburg. She quoted me R1800 per person 2 Jhb, this is totally ridiculous. I then went to the 1time counter next door where they quoted me R1400 for both my gran & I. How on earth can 1 one way on Mango be R1800 per person? I was in such a state of panic, this stupid woman at guest services didn’t even try & b sympathetic, she was so eager 2 hand me back my ID so I cud go 2 1Time. PATHETIC service and as a result I now lost that money. I'd like an investigation into this & hv a portion of my monies reimbursed as I feel that had she bn helpful i cudve rebooked, more money 4 Mango & less stress and waste of money 4 me.

My wive travelled along with my 8 month old baby from Durban to Johannesburg via Mango. I asked for assistance to help my wive with her handlugage seeing that she had to carry my baby girl, her laptop and the baby's bag on board..We first went to the assigned place (if you need assistance wait here) for help, but they said they don't assist with lugage. Then I went to the Ticket office of Mango were the Lady told me they are under staffed and can not assist her! while there were about 8 of them in the office reading magazines! Eventually a lady from airport security helped my wive!

This is unacceptable service and if I never in my life have to use Mango again, it will be too soon!

I tried phoning Mango head office but cannot get through!

I booked flights for the first time for my mum and neice. Mango refused them to board the plane because my neice did not have her birth certificate. No one told me i need to get them to carry identity documents. All the booking consultant told me was that i need to fax my ID and Edgars card to them which they need to take to the airport. They asked my mum at 08h00 to go to the police station and get an affidavit which she did. She comes back with it and is told she still cannot get on the plane.
Mango informed me my money is forfeited and did not even assist me to get them on later flight. Disgusting. First time and last time i will ever consider Mango and definately wont recommend them to anyone!

I booked my ticket about 2 months ago to fly from JBG to Durban return this pass weekend. However on Sunday when I arrived at the Durban airport to check in for my flight(6pm). However the flymango team leader told me that their flights are overbooked. They could not apologise and acted as if it is my fault the plane is overbooked. Niether could they give me a time when I could be departing from the airport. I requested to speak to the manager(Christo), which the team leader totally refused. Myself and my husband had to sit at the airport for a standby flight which we eventually got at 9:30.

Mangos behaviour is totally unacceptable as in situations like these, we have to face the consequenes. I finally only arrived at home at 12:30.

On monday, I phoned and laid a complaint with Mango(reference number JBDNMB) and they confirmed they will investigate the situation and give me feedback tomorrow.. However today is wednesday and still no feedback or apologies on this issues?

In England, the cheap airlines make money by having excessive penalties for too much luggage. In South Africa things are different.

I bought 3 one-way tickets from Mango on 29 August 2009. Plans have changed (as they do!) and one person is no longer joining us. Unfortunately Mango does not do refunds. To me that is unreasonable and poor business practice. It is understandable that people shouldn't be able to cancel at the last minute penalty-free.

In my case, I would have cancelled more than 40 days before. Surely it is reasonable to get a refund then? What rationale other than greed is there for not allowing someone a refund under those circumstances. They will be able to sell the ticket. Also, to change the name on the ticket if I sold it would be an extra R130. This makes it even more difficult to sell a ticket without making a significant loss. So how does Mango make money...

I want a refund because this is bad business practice and it will in any event have to change when the Consumer Protection Act comes into force.