Missed flight on FlySafair with no compensation

My husband and I were left disgruntled and immensely disappointed when we "missed" our flight FA134 on 02 January 2025 from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth directly as a result of poor customer service by FlySafair staff. We had checked in and were waiting in the lounge at Cape Town International Airport, when the FlySafair attendant made an audible call for the last passengers on our flight. We had been sitting in the boarding area no more than 10m from the attendant and immediately responded vocally to her call, with my husband also clearly gesturing to her. In response, the attendant then asked us to RUN towards her despite the boarding gate being less than a minutes walk away. I had multiple bags and was dressed in Islamic wear which made it difficult to run. When we got to her, she very unapologetically told us that the gate was now closed. We were baffled and could not understand how that was possible considering that we were JUST called by her. When asked why we could not board, we were simply informed “I told you to run so why didn’t you run”, a degrading statement which made us feel as though we were animals. We then approached two other FlySafair employees, one of whom was the floor manager (Indian man with grey hair), who shockingly displayed NO empathy and offered NO assistance at all, instead directing us to the ticket office to book a new ticket for the following morning. We were NOT offered any other option, other than to book a new ticket. We later found out that FlySafair policy allows customers who missed their flight to apply for a voucher within an hour of "missing" a flight.. WE WERE NEVER OFFERED THAT OPTION BY ANY OF THE THREE EMPLOYEES.

In order to still attend our family event in Port Elizabeth that evening, we then hurriedly approached AIRLINK, who, without hesitation and with absolute sterling service, helped us and offered us a flight.

I then reached out to FlySafair via social media, who allegedly investigated the matter. We were informed that when we were called by their agent, the boarding gates were still open but by the time we reached the boarding gates, it was closed. It baffled me that the gates closed in less than a minute despite two of FlySafair’s agents being aware that there were two outstanding passengers walking towards them. We furthermore requested that the agent handling our complaint, have a look at the airport footage which would clearly verify our claims. We firmly believe that FlySafair has ****** us of not only our flights, but also of our dignity as human beings, further compounded by their outright refusal to compensate us for the missed flight, despite their company agents being at fault. We are severely disappointed in FlySafair for their unfair treatment and service shown towards us. We have been unfairly profiled, prejudiced and discriminated against by their employees. We also feel that all three FlySafair staff are poorly trained as they are in a service industry, and showed no empathy towards a situation created by them. We therefore hold FlySafair accountable for their wrongful refusal to allow us to board our flight. This refusal is highly questionable and raises suspicion. The very futile and baseless excuse of the gate being closed less than a minute after being summoned by the FlySafair attendant, proves there may have been other motives for not allowing us to board our flight.

We have no choice but to take this incident up with Airports Company South Africa and other roleplayers in the industry.

It is our civic duty as part of our rainbow nation to warn fellow South Africans of the poor customer service and the regrettable incident which left us with a bitter taste and out of pocket for our stay with our family in Port Elizabeth.

We remain committed to ensuring that the merits of this unsavoury incident are shared far and wide, and brought to the ATTENTION of all the authorities.