Flight was delayed three times so that I eventually reached my destination 3 hours later than scheduled, 22:30 instead of 19:30. Needless to say my retired Mum was exhausted and our family had to wait up all night to receive us.
It was extremely poor and disrespectful treatment of customers, deceptive information around changed flight times and changing gates.
Can quite clearly see the result of SAA's fat waistline, their disregard for their duty, lack of accountability and constant bailouts, it's cancerous from the top down. The poor staff on the ground had the worst day of the week/month/year.
Having checked in luggage at the counter, I then had to 'check in' my cabin luggage while in the queue of frustrated passengers boarding the plane, bringing myself and others to a halt in order to repack my bag so that valuables could be locked.
The whole experience was unpleasant, budget and unprofessional, a far cry from the premium image SAA has (or once had). As for the plane, I'm not qualified to say, but the rattling and bumpiness when landing makes me think it needs new shocks, tie rod ends and cv joints.
The positives? Decent sandwich and the Springboks making us proud to at least try to work together - wonder if this means anything to you lot?
Claimed loss: Paid for more expensive earlier flights, could've just booked cheaper late flights - mind you, I'd still have been late
Desired outcome: Refund the difference in cost of the booked early flight and changed late flight