FlySafair *****s and breaks into customer luggage

I had an incident where my luggage bag was broken into. I reported the incident to FlySafair as follows:

“I am extremely appalled by the services rendered by FlySafair.

I boarded flight FA276 from OR Tambo to King Shaka International yesterday at Gate E5. The flight was planned for 07:20 and was grossly delayed by 80 minutes. The flight only took off at 08:40. Passengers had boarded the aircraft and before takeoff we were told the air conditioning was "blowing hot air out". Engineers were called to try and diagnose the fault. However, poor expertise led to your "professional employees" taking more than 30 minutes to just submit paperwork, let alone fix and approve. Poor decision making and planning could have avoided us sitting in the plane for well over an hour. Why was the plane not checked before we boarded the plane? If the engineers could not determine the fault, why were we not moved to an aircraft suitable to be cleared for flight instead of delaying by over an hour?

I was already highly frustrated as I had chosen an early flight as I had commitments back in Durban, which had to be cancelled or rescheduled due the team incompetence and failure to make a better judgement call.

Upon landing, my luggage came out immediately onto the carousel. However, I noticed my luggage was broken into. The lock was missing and the 4 loops to hold the lock was broken off clean. It looked like a pair of pliers were used to break it off. I immediately went to the counter to log a complaint and was told to call the number on the banner outside the counter. The lady asked me to open my bag you could visibly see my luggage was taken apart and items shoved back in. The lady working the counter could see this as well. The items were not packed back in the same way and my stuff was moved all over the place, makeup flung around and underwear moved to the top. We did not experience turbulence on the flight which you can confirm with your pilot, and I always pack my luggage quite carefully and compactly making use of straps to make sure things do not move. As I was sent home by your staff (and already being 80 minutes behind my planned schedule), I checked all pieces of my luggage at home and could confirm nothing was ******.

However, upon inspection I noticed every bag and case within my luggage was tampered with as the items were "stuffed and squashed" back in disarray, not in the way I had packed my bag. This is an invasion of my privacy. My delicates were moved around. This disgusting behaviour had me extremely uncomfortable as one of your employees literally went through my personal belongings. Do you as FlySafair not have a privacy policy that is extended to your third parties who are in charge of handling the luggage? Since my luggage arrived quickly on the carousel, it points to the fact that the luggage was tampered with in the 80 minutes during which us passengers were held in the plane. This begs the question (since you have zero credibility in my eyes), did the plane really have a fault with the air conditioner or did your team in conjunction with the third party luggage handlers stage a fault so that they could go through passengers luggage and ***** valuables contained?? Is this the reputation you are putting forward?

I am placing a formal complaint of the absolutely PATHETIC AND DISGUSTING BEHAVIOUR EXHIBITED by FlySafair. I am demanding a formal investigation be opened to handle this matter and I want the responsible party and person to be held accountable. I was told by customer care that you do not have cameras in the luggage storage compartment of the aircraft. This makes absolutely no sense as it means you are giving your third party permission as well as access to *****. And if so, please confirm so that we as customers are aware. It is nothing short of gross negligence and unprofessional as a national airline! What safety measures do you have in place?

I am sure you have a record of all staff allocated to the flight, both in FlySafair and external parties used as the contract had to be managed in some way. Go through the log sheet and track which employees were allocated to the shift by the third party and FlySafair to find the guilty person. I want company policy to be followed where persons guilty of the crime be held accountable and face repercussions of their actions as per company policy. I also want proof that policy was followed and that this incident will not be swept under the rug to “save face”.

My bag was quite expensive and hence did not break over the many years I’ve used it. A replacement is approximately R2000 minimum. I didn’t agree to a flight where your staff purposely break and enter a passenger’s luggage. And I am holding you liable to damages on the luggage bag which you are responsible for replacing. I will send a quotation with the spec of my bag to be replaced. I am not purchasing a bag when you broke and entered like ********s!!

Finally I have been a loyal customer for many years. However I do not have faith nor trust in FlySafair to do the right thing. The company lacks integrity. It seems like you condone theft, lies, poor workmanship and lack professionalism. I will no longer be using your airline and will go public with the events that has transpired as I feel the public should be aware of the things happening at the airline. I have a return flight booked with FlySafair which I will cancel and book with another airline should I not be compensated for damages. You have inconvenienced me in terms of finance and personal time lost with family and friends.

I will definitely not recommend your airline going forward. Please log this case and provide feedback and compensation as quick as possible so I can close this ********** situation.

I am sending this email again as the customer care line agent gave me the wrong email address this morning (***). I even asked the lady to double check this is correct.”

I was ignored for over a week and after calling them today pushing for a response, I received two emails basically saying they are investigating, that there are holes in their processes which they are trying to improve, and their policy goes against covering the damages. The caveat is that the damages they are referring to (that cannot be covered) is not applicable at all to my luggage being broken into for theft. It was stated that their policy does not cover “scratches, stains, dents, cuts, or dirt that may result from normal wear and tear, water damage to non-waterproof luggage, or damage to protruding parts like wheels, straps, and pull handles” which is fine. However, this is not a claim of that nature. This is a claim to replace a luggage bag due to attempted theft. I read other reviews online and luggage being broken into and theft is extremely common. The company hires employees who ***** and worse, FlySafair gives them ample opportunity to take advantage of customers.

I asked the company to replace the luggage bag as I feel putting a lock on the zippers will cause a worse issue if my luggage is broken into again on the return flight. The only way a person will be able to open the contents of my bag is by cutting the zip in which case, I will then lose my entire luggage contents as the bag will not be able to close at all. I am not putting my luggage and personal belongings at risk for another round of theft. I personally know of someone whose luggage was broken into on both trips in a round trip flight. FlySafair is accountable for invading customer privacy, theft and avoiding responsibility of their actions. I would not recommend anyone using this airline going forward. There is absolutely no integrity, no sense of safety or responsibility. Even if I try to cancel my return trip to rebook with another airline, this company will try to charge me. It all just translates as *****ulent and money hungry. I urge you to fly with an airline which is more reputable.