Safair Ground Staff & Service Abominable

This is a mail I sent to Safair and the response I received which basically to say " We don't care and will do nothing about the inconvenience and atrocious service you received" MY EMAIL I write to lodge a complaint at the highest level pertaining to our flight back from Cape Town to Johannesburg on the 26th September 2023. My husband and I arrived at the airport at 10.15 am , an hour and a half ahead of our scheduled flight . We had already checked in on line earlier in the day but had with us Golf Clubs and bags that needed to be checked in . On arriving at the check in queues at 10.30am , absolute chaos reigned , there were literally hundred of people spewing in all directions and no differentiation between the priory boarding queue (for which we had paid extra) and the normal queue. After standing in the queue for 10 minutes , which had not moved at all, I approached a ground staff member to try and ask where we must go for priority boarding. She clasped her hands over ears , in a gesture that indicated that she couldn’t deal with the chaotic situation . I insisted on getting an answer from her and she waved in the direction of the Priority Board and said “just go and join that queue” . When I told her that everyone was in that queue and there seemed to be no priority she literally ignored me and walked away. My husband and I , not wanting to be impolite to other passengers then proceeded to join the queue at the back . After standing in the queue for another 35 minutes (It was now 11.15 am) I got panicked and went and found this same ground staff woman who was now standing at a desk on the other side of the normal check in counters . I asked her what we must do as our flight was leaving at 11.50. She simply said to me “Sorry I closed that flight 5 minutes ago” and had a complete “I don’t care attitude. She actually had a sneer on her face and accused us of being at fault for not being at the airport 2 hours before our flight !!! She claims she had been calling flights but there were at least 5 other people in the same position as ourselves who confirmed that no-one had seen or heard her calling flights . These passengers also ended up having to re-book flights. I tried in vain to speak to a supervisor (who was nowhere to be found) and tried to explain to the check in staff that we had already checked in on-line and that all we needed to do was weigh our bags. No-one was at all interested in our plight. After realizing we were getting nowhere , we went back to the ticket office and were told we must wait in the queue to try and change to a later flight. We queued for another hour and 15 minutes and finally were able to re-book a flight at 15.35 at an additional cost of R1700.00 (Copies of original and new flight bookings are attached). The flight only left CT at 16h05 and was half an hour late at OR Tambo . This is a total unacceptable situation and I am demanding a refund of the additional fare cost of R1700. We as the passengers cannot be held responsible for the fact that the Safair ground staff were *********** and unable to deal with the chaos at CT International . This chaos was obviously related to the floods that occurred at that time , and people probably missed their flights the previous day, but there is no excuse for Safair not managing the situation on the ground correctly .

SAFAIR RESPONSE

From: Nikita Naidu <***> Date: Monday, 16 October 2023 at 18:19 To: Penny Bissell <***> Subject: FLIGHT FA-110 26th September 2023

Good Day Penny, Thank you for contacting FlySafair I am reaching out regarding your feedback. I wish to apologize for any inconvenience, following the check-in deadline being missed. We usually advise passengers to arrive at the airport at least 120 (hundred and twenty) minutes before their flight is scheduled to leave, in this time check-in is already open, and taking the long queues into account this should be to allow you to be able to have enough time, the reason being is because check-in ( Including bag drop) closes strictly 40 (forty) minutes before the flight is the scheduled as to allow maintenance crew to start with safety checking and fuel calculations per head and boarding gates close strictly 15 (fifteen) minutes before the flight is scheduled to leave. We have to take in the safety of your passengers as well as our on-time performance, which is affected if we do not strictly adhere to these cut-offs. The process that we follow if you are unable to take your flight, in this instance if you were not able to board by these cut-off times we will allow you to make changes to your flight as to retain part of the value of your ticket and use it toward a new more useful ticket or to go on standby. Please be advised that Standby is not a guaranteed process, you pay R300, 00 non-refundable and you go on standby however, it is first come first serve, and a 50/50 chance of getting a seat on the next flight. This option is only available if you missed your flight while the aircraft is still on the ground and you are present at the airport i.e. missed check-in or bag drop. Kindly note that the above options are only valid within the 1-hour grace period following the flight being missed. Thereafter the flight is regarded as a no-show and the ticket is forfeited altogether. We value you as our guest and apologize for any inconvenience caused. Thank you for your feedback.