Flysafair's poor customer service

On Thursday (30th November 2018) my partner and I were scheduled to take the 15:20pm flight from Port Elizabeth to Durban; this is a routine trip I take (as I am a frequent flyer with SafAir) which usually runs unhindered, however we were not prepared for the ill treatment we would shortly be subjected to . Upon entering the airport we acknowledged that SafAir has a policy in which one must check in their luggage 40 minutes prior to their flight, this is the deadline which we scheduled our time around. After a quick lunch we admittedly became aware of the fact that we were running behind schedule, in a panic we rushed to the check in desks so that we may check in our two suitcases, each of our tickets had been purchased with the clause that we were each allowed a suitcase. During our flat panic we were relieved to find that there was no longwinded queue to the check in counters, where two of your employees were stationed behind, at this point we had missed the 40 minute deadline by approximately 7-10 minutes. With no customers in front of us we thought we’d be served quickly and professionally, this was not the case, one of the SafAir employees was in the process of taking selfies, rather than acknowledging myself or my partner, while the other employee simply glared at us. When we were finally called forward we were barely greeted verbally yet alone with an empathic smile. We explained our situation, acknowledging that we were late, and enquired about a viable solution. In a somewhat patronising tone we were told we were “way too late” to check our bags in and that they would simply have to be left stranded at the airport lest we stay with them and book a flight for the next day and be liable for the full costs of those tickets. Neither of these solutions were in anyway helpful and upon probing for a more cost effective alternative I was simply answered with the aforementioned prompt sheet of solutions. This conversation ensued for a number of minutes, a time in which both our suitcases could have been granted an allowance of some sort to either be stored for a later flight or rushed to our flight; our desperation was so visible that we even voiced our acceptance of any penalty fee. Our pleading fell on deaf ears as our tickets were processed unenthusiastically and in a sloth like manner, furthering our panic to board on time. As I have mentioned we are aware that we were late and have a responsibility to adhere to the policies, however, the service we received was unacceptable and void of any empathy or basic customer service principles.