FlySafAir - Worst service ever!

I had the worst experience with FlySafair and I wanted to bring this to the attention of other travelers.

My intention is to let others know and warn them before they go through the poor service and experience we had to endure.

Our flight (not so cheap as claimed in adverti*****ts) to be boarded on the 21st of July at 06:15 (flight FA369 from OR Tambo to Port Elizabeth) went smoothly up to the boarding gate.

On the website, we are aware that Identification is required. My fiance, traveling with me, has a driver's license which expired awaiting the crisis backlog in our country. We showed his driver's license... keeping in mind that a person's card expires...NOT THEIR ACTUAL license...

Your website states a valid form of identification which the ladies at the gate decided was not acceptable. APART from being very rude....not even making eye contact with us... refused Christiaan Richards on the flight. Explaining the situation meant nothing and being civil apparently was not required as part of the service.

So... as we were traveling together to my father's 70th birthday event, the only question or comment made to me was "are you staying as well". When mentioning that I can't leave without him... I did not realize that I was now ALSO kicked off the flight.

We were told to go to customer service upstairs. That is IT.

Getting there... a gentleman informed us that we can now be on standby after payment of R600 was made for us. As my fiance's ID book was damaged, hence we did not travel with it, the individual asked if we have a copy of his ID on email. We were told to forward it to them, and he will print it. After which we will have to go to the police downstairs who will provide us with an affidavit.

Strangely enough... the police accepted the License as Identification to give us an affidavit for his ID but the airline does not.

After this, we rushed back to the service desk (we were told we have a deadline in which to bring back the affidavit), paid the R600... and were told we were number 1 and 2 on the next flight.

We were sent to the desk which checks the flights for standby....showed our document received from the customer service desk and he told us to come back at 12:30 to check if there is space available on the flight.

We were there at 12:20... and the seat(s) was given to someone else who apparently then was number 1 ... somehow ... we were NOT the number 1 and 2 on the list as promised. The lady behind the desk was really rude and did not care to even really acknowledge our presence.

Now, we had to wait for the next flight to see if we can get seats... requiring us to be at the desk again at 16:55. We spent the entire day at the airport.

We made sure to be in line long before the 16:55 deadline. The same lady from earlier, again ignored us standing there. Another lady stepped in, check our forms, and then informed us that there are 2 seats on this flight, and started adding Christiaan and I was to be next. The lady from earlier the afternoon commenced putting another gentleman on the flight... which then kicked me off.

She was sitting right there, hearing the conversation, arguing with the lady helping us. I have NEVER seen such unhelpful, unprofessional service in my life.

As a result ... we eventually got on to the flight which only got us to PE at 19:20. We needed to get to Kenton-on-Sea which is another hour and 3/4 drive. We missed my father's birthday and at the same time had a horrible experience.

Only 1 lady even tried to be decent. We got treated like we were below staff even though we treated them with respect.

If this was my company, I would seriously consider training staff in customer service relations.

FlySafair used to be a great, effective, and friendly airline. On our late flight, we sat next to a lady who mentioned that FlySafair now feels like one is traveling in a taxi as that is the level of service/feeling one gets. That should say a lot.

With other airlines struggling and grounding flights, I would have thought that a great strategy would be to ensure great service and create loyalty with travelers... then later, with competition growing ... which it definitely will ... people will still prefer to travel with FlySafair. Currently, quite the opposite is happening.

Even when policies and procedures apply, there is a MUCH better, decent, and respectable way to enforce them. FLYSAFAIR Management should take a long, hard look at how their staff treats their passengers.

From a very disappointed traveler

- I lodged the complaint on the 4th of August and am yet to receive a response apart from the generic message telling me: "one of our agents will reply to your email as soon as they can."