Bad Customer Support

I am writing to formally raise a complaint regarding a series of booking errors and charges related to my recent FlySafair flights, which I believe were not handled fairly and should not be my responsibility to account for.

On Sunday, 25 January, I booked a flight online with FlySafair from Cape Town to East London for travel on Tuesday, 27 January, as I had a meeting to attend. My intention was to return to Cape Town once the meeting was concluded.

On Wednesday, 28 January, I attempted to book a return flight online. Flights departing from East London were very expensive at the time (approximately R3,800), whereas flights from Port Elizabeth were significantly cheaper (from around R699). I therefore proceeded to make a booking from Port Elizabeth. However, after completing the booking, I received a notification indicating that the flight date was 05 February 2026, which was not my intention.

I immediately went to the airport to explain the situation, acknowledging that I may have made an error during the booking process, and requested that the flight be changed to Friday, 30 January. I was advised that I needed to pay a fare difference of R1,570, which I paid. Unfortunately, after the change was processed, I discovered that the flight had been changed to 06 February instead of 30 January.

I then contacted the FlySafair call centre to explain the issue. The agent was unwilling to fully consider my explanation and advised that the matter would be escalated to the airport supervisor. During the same call, I asked about the cancellation fee and was informed that it would be R300. However, when I proceeded to cancel the booking, I was charged R800 instead.

It is unreasonable for me to be held financially responsible for repeated errors that occurred after I had clearly explained the situation in person and requested a specific travel date. While I initially accepted that the first issue may have been my mistake, the subsequent incorrect date change by the sales agent and the inconsistent information provided by the call centre cannot reasonably be attributed to me.

I therefore request that FlySafair review this matter thoroughly, including the actions taken by the airport sales agent and the call centre, and confirm whether there are any internal issues that contributed to these errors. I also request a reconsideration of the additional charges incurred as a result of these mistakes.

I look forward to your response and a fair resolution to this matter.