Disastrous flight - Flysafair couldn't even be bothered to reply

Item: FlySafair
Rating: 1
Author: Liezel F

I had a disastrous flight in January this year and logged a complaint almost immediately. I never received a response. The complaint was logged on the online communication form under the “Contact Us” section on the www.flysafair.co.za webpage, which indicates that Safair aims to respond within “24 working hours”. The complaint was posted successfully more than once. The complaint was also e-mailed to ********** without a reply. I also tried the online chat, but the person, Pearl Ngcoya, was incredibly unhelpful and rude and left the chat without informing me and before I could make any further enquiries. I tried calling Customer Care without success. After this I received a very standard e-mail from Ben Fleming at Customer Care, which thanked me for contacting the Help Centre , provided me with a number for Customer Care and listed a couple of Frequently Asked Questions – in case I would find these helpful, which they obviously weren’t. I rep**** to Ben, thanking him for his e-mail and for finally opening up a channel of communication and included my original complaint. He never rep****. My mail to Ben Fleming at Customer Care, as well as my original complaint can be seen below. To be clear, I will NEVER fly with Safair again, regardless of the price. I will tell everyone that I know about my horrific experience and that Safair never bothered to even reply. Dear Ben Thank you for the response and for opening a channel of communication. I had an extremely upsetting experience with Safair earlier in the year, which ominously started with a flight time being moved, followed by a delayed and diverted flight, which was worsened by inept and unhelpful flight crew, and ended with being treated callously and unsympathetically by the rude Safair ground staff at the airport that I was not meant to fly to. The result of the diverted flight resulted in me missing my next flight. Neither the flight nor the ground personnel showed ANY concern for my situation, nor did they indicate any prior experience with what normally happens in these situations. No one wanted to be involved. It was awful! My complaint was posted online on 23 January 2017. The website offers no e-mail address, merely a online form as the e-mail option. I have not yet received any response. Today I posted the same complaint online again, followed by a telephone call, which was disconnected. As a last resource, I then went onto the live chat. Pearl Ngcoya was not able to advise me whether my complaint had been received and left the chat without informing me that our chat was over and before I could make any further enquiries. Please see my updated complaint below, as sent to ********** this afternoon. Your assistance in this matter is appreciated greatly. Kind Regards Liezel Ferreira (Ms) To whom it may concern Despite previous pleasant flights, I recently had a nightmare of an experience with Safair. The events were as follows: 25 October 2016: Booked flight for 07 January 2017 from George Airport to Lanseria International Airport. Travel insurance was selected at the additional charge. At the same time I also booked a flight for the same day with Mango Airlines, from Lanseria Airport to King Shaka International Airport (I live in Durban). This original arrival time was 15:25, two hours before the departure of the Mango flight to Durban. 04 November 2016: Shortly after my booking I received notification from Safair that the flight departure time had been pushed back by 25 minutes, which was slightly disconcerting as it was now closer to my Mango departure time at Lanseria. 07 January 2017 – Day of Flight: • 09:06 – Online check-in completed. I also checked on my flight to ensure that there weren’t any further delays or changes to my booking, especially in light of the fact that there had been reports of fuel shortages at George Airport. • 12:45 (Approx.) – Checked-in luggage at George Airport. Asked Safair employee whether flight was on schedule without any anticipated concerns and was assured that everything was on track. • 13:55 – Departure at George Airport. • 14:55 (Approximately half-way mid-flight) – Captain announced that there may be a delay due to fog around Lanseria Airport. • 15:15 (Approx.) – Captain announced that there had been no improvement on the fog and that we may be diverted to ORT. As I was seated in front (2C), I asked the flight hostesses seated in front (facing the passengers) what the protocol would be if we were to be diverted. I mentioned my flight from Lanseria and asked what normal happens in these situations. They shrugged their shoulders and said “Let’s see what happens. If we land at ORT, we’ll ask Ground Staff”. • 15:30 (Approx.) – Captain confirmed diversion to ORT. The one flight hostess is in the front kitchen during the announcement and subsequently doesn’t hear it properly and sticks her head out and asks one of the passengers, “Wat nou? Is ons diverted?”(What now? Have we been diverted?). It is not very reassuring, not to mention unprofessional, when the passengers know more about the flight than the personnel! • 16:05 - Aircraft landed at ORT. For several minutes after that the cabin was filled with confusion. Neither passenger, not flight attendant knew what was going on or what would be happening next. Some passengers even got up from their seats and walked to the front of the plane. The flight attendants did not advise passengers to remain seated. This added to the atmosphere of panic, disorder and confusion in the cabin. Eventually the captain announced that passengers could choose whether to disembark the plane at ORT, or remain on board for approximately another two hours until the plane attempted another landing at Lanseria. Again, I asked one the flight attendants for some guidance as to what I should do. I expected flight diversions to not be completely unusual and part of a flight attendants training as a minimum. However, she was as clueless and confused as I was. I realised that if I remained on board for another two hours I would either miss my flight home from Lanseria or that the flight would be postponed until the next morning. Either way, I would have to spend the night at the airport or somehow find accommodation around Lanseria airport, an area that I don’t know well at all. I, along with a large number of passengers opted to get off the plane. However, as it was an unscheduled stop, there was a delay with the arrival of the stairs, so the doors remained closed. Regardless, passengers stormed to the front of the aircraft and waited at the door for it to open. The flight attendants offered no guidance and disappeared from my sight in what was now a hoard of people. I had to close my eyes to deal with my own panic. Eventually the door opened and people started to exit the aircraft. On my way out, I asked the flight attendants what would happen to our luggage. They said that our luggage would be taken off the plane. When I asked how the baggage staff would know which passengers luggage would need to be taken and which not, the flight attendant said I should use my luggage receipt to identify my bag. I realised that she had misunderstood and explained my concern that there seemed to be no record of which passengers were remaining on board and which passengers were getting off at ORT. Regardless of various explanations, she did not understand. Another flight attendant did a rough count of the number of people getting off and said things like “I’m not sure if I’ve missed anyone”. I got off the aircraft with a serious worry that my luggage would end up in Lanseria. • 16:30 (Approx.) – When I arrived at baggage claim, there was no indication of our flight’s luggage on the boards. I asked my fellow passengers and no one know. I knew that I had to act fast with getting in touch with Mango regarding my flight home to Durban and ran to the Mango as fast as I could. (Mango concluded that I was probably too late for their last flight of the day and that, if there was a chance of me making it, I would have to pay for it in full.) • 16:55 (Approx.) – The staff at the Safair counter were not willing to assist, not even by showing any compassion for my situation. Instead I was told that it had been my mistake to get off the plane, in a tone that imp**** that I had gotten myself into the situation and had gotten what I had deserved. This is despite explanations of my decision making process: 1. That I had asked the Safair personnel on board for guidance and they did not provide any. 2. Remaining on board would have resulted in me missing my flight back to Durban, ie not making it back to Durban that day, not having anywhere to sleep and only flying back to Durban (probably at my own expense) the next day. My grievances are as follows: 1. It is my opinion that the flight should never have left George Airport. Safair would have been made aware of the fog at Lanseria before take-off at George and yet a decision was made for the flight to go ahead. This resulted in several people finding themselves on the wrong side of Johannesburg, having to reorganize their transport, as well as another group of people, including myself, missing following flights an either not getting home that day or getting home significantly later than expected. 5 hours in my case. 2. The cabin crew acted unprofessionally and under qualified. They weren’t able to provide any information or guidance with regards to the type of situation that were in, nor were they able to control growing panic within the cabin, which they should have prevented in the first place. Instead they were asking passenger for information, which added to the confusion and worry. It is evident that the flight attendants lack training. 3. The Safair staff at the office at ORT added insult to injury by their unwillingness to get involved, never mind actually helping. The fact that I had been on a Safair plane to Lanseria, not ORT, meant to them that it wasn’t their business. I might as well have been on a flight with another airline. All they offered was criticism for not staying on board. Besides the fact that it was rude and not constructive, it made no sense at all. I would have been worse off. 4. As a result of all of the above I missed my flight back to Durban and with neither Mango nor Safair having any further flights, I had to book a flight with SAA at an additional cost of R1617.23 and only arrived in Durban at 11:10, instead of the expected 18:25. In light of Safair making poor judgement calls, acting unprofessionally and treating their passengers appallingly, I would not only appreciate a refund for my Safair flight from hell (R2485.00), but also reimbur*****t for my necessary flight with SAA (. You can find all my booking information attached. Regards Liezel Ferreira (Ms)

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