CEMAIR - DISCRACE

I would like to share my experience with you. On the 5th August 2022, myself and 7 others booked a flight from Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth. Only half the party received notification of a change in times of the flight. Luckily, we were travelling for business and thus, the other people in the party informed us of the change of times (over an hour earlier than what we initially booked).

We arrived at the check in as a group and myself and some others were told that we had to be moved to a new flight. We then advised the agent that we were traveling with a few other people for business purposes and that we would like to all travel on the same flight. We waited 30 min for news and updates and finally we were sent to the ticket office. We were told that there was no space on the flight and we needed to be moved to a new flight. No one communicated with us this during this time despite us asking multiple times. Finally, someone answered us and we were told that there was no chance we could fly on the same flight. We once again informed the staff that we were traveling for business with other people and that we needed to land at the same time as the others. We were promised over and over again that the 2x flights were going to depart and land at the exact same time. I questioned this promise and once again I was told that I must not worry about it as the flights will land at the same time as the other flight. I also asked them to ensure our luggage was moved to the new flight and was promised that this was done.

We then rushed to board the aircraft and we were taken to a tiny plane that seated only 19 pax. Despite this being a shock as we were told that the aircrafts were the same. We were not happy to find such a small aircraft. First of all, this was not communicated. Secondly, not everyone is comfortable traveling on such a small aircraft. Finally, the 1st officer closed the door and started telling the pax the safety/flight information. We then learnt that the flight time would be 2.5 hours in length. This would make us land 45 min after the other flight and thus, make us late for the group transport (as we were travelling with others on the other flight). We called the party on the other flight to inform them that we would be late and we again confirmed that we would miss the transport for our meeting.

The above made our trip obsolete as the purpose of the trip was the meeting. I then asked the officer to let us off the plane and to remove my luggage. We then saw that my luggage was not on board despite being promised that it was moved to the correct flight. I believe it is IATA regulation for a pax to travel with its luggage. This would obviously not have happened if i didn't request to take my luggage off the plane.

I then asked the CEM air staff member to please find out if we could both move to the other flight. She blatantly **** to us and told us that the flight had taken off 5 minutes prior. We were constantly talking to our party on the other flight and knew that they were on the bus on the way to the plane. We advised the CEM air staff and she then told us that no seats were available and it was full. Our party then asked the staff on their flight and we received pictures of the plane having many free seats. Long story later, we were taken to the original flight and flew all together. This would not have been possible if we didn't have our party on the other flight showing us the truth.

In summary, we were **** to multiple times. We were treated like 2nd class citizens and with NO respect. This letter is to inform you of our story. We will afford you the opportunity to respond. We will be taking this to the public/media if appropriate corrective action is not taken.