Great at ******** customers out of their money

When booking with Airlink in the middle of the pandemic, I was comforted by the fact that they offered a free flight change (paying only far difference) for flights prior to 31 December 2021. I spent a LOT of money on a flight that I ultimately had to move as my connecting international flight had been cancelled. The website is really challenging to navigate, but I eventually managed to get a new flight. I did not realise, which I recognise as my error, that the tiny, numerous lines of text at the top of the page had something about needing to phone for a change. It was very well hidden.

I made my payment, believing it was only the fare difference, as I was not provided with a fee breakdown, prior to payment, but as soon as the payment was complete, I was given a fee breakdown and saw that I had been charged a change fee of R575. I immediately phoned the call centre, where I was told that this had happened to others, but they were unsure of the outcome. Once I was put through to ticketing, the agent absolutely did not care and rattled off a "no refunds" line. She admitted that their attitude was "we have your money now, so we don't care about anything else".

I've previously made what would have been a very costly mistake with another airline, but phoning them was one of the best experiences of my life and they were SO helpful. Airlink, on the other hand, showed so much disdain and contempt for customer service that I will actively discourage anyone from flying with them. I was not asking for a refund on my flight - I was just requesting that my change would be free, as advertised, but customer service clearly means nothing to this awful company.

Anyone considering them, please, please, rather spend your money elsewhere where you are seen as a customer worthy of respect and not just a cash *** to be milked for every cent.