Unfair charging of clients when changing to a CHEAPER flight

I am a loyal and long time customer of FlySafair but I can not express just how infuriated I am with your customer support and arrogant manner in which FlySafair handles situations.

Just to explain the nature of my complaint: I made a booking on the 29th September 2020 for two standard return tickets, departing from Jhb->PE on 9th December 2020 @ 6am and returning to Jhb on 3rd January 2021 @ 6pm. Please note these are standard tickets that allow for 2 flight changes per ticket. The cost of the above two mentioned flights was R6 726.98 with the following per ticket breakdown: 9 December - Jhb - PE -> +-R1100 3 January - PE - Jhb -> +-R2200

Now that you have an understanding of my original booking (as I am sure you can validate on your system), I am going to explain my issue and problem with FlySafair and which I strongly believe is comparable to theft.

We decided to change our flight online from the 3rd January 2021 to a later day on the 7th January 2021 but when doing so, I was advised by your online portal that I needed to pay-in an additional +-R270 for an 8pm flight or +-R75 for a 9pm flight (per ticket). While this will be understandable if I was changing the tickets for a MORE EXPENSIVE ticket, the ticket that I was changing to flights to was almost +-R1000 CHEAPER than the original flight booking on the 3rd of January.

In noticing the above, I called the FlySafair call centre to find out what my options were and I spoke to two individuals. Patience - an agent who advised me that she was also confused and that a supervisor would call me back (this never happened) and Nonhlanhla Shilue - a manager, who I called to speak to (as no one called me back) rudely and arrogantly advised me that I was not eligible to receive a voucher to the value of difference between the two tickets (i.e. R1000 per ticket) and rudely advised me that the online issue (me having to pay in more for a cheaper ticket) was not an issue as I did not complete the change of flight online and had I done so, then he would have looked into it.

The way I see it, there are a few very big issues that I am taking exception to: If I exchange a more expensive ticket for a cheaper alternative, why does FlySafair feel entitled to keep my money? While I understand this may be a part of T&Cs of the ticket, I did not request a cash refund but rather and fairly so, a voucher to the difference that I would be able to redeem against a ticket at a later stage. The current nature of a ticket change reflects a win-win situation for FlySafair, on one hand a consumer must pay in for a more expensive ticket (fair) and on the other hand, a consumer must just forgo their money when changing to a cheaper ticket (theft).

How is it possible for FlySafair to charge me even MORE when changing a more expensive ticket for a cheaper ticket? Whether this is an algorithm issue on your site or not, this is disgusting and blatant *****ing. It scares me to think of how many people have been ********** and had money ****** from them when changing a more expensive ticket to a cheaper one (not verifying the costs of both tickets) and being charged MORE to change their ticket.

I have all screenshot of the ticket prices and subsequent required pay-in have been documented.

I am absolutely furious with the above situation and would like this to remedied in one of the following ways: Issue me with a full cash refund for my tickets and I will gladly take my business elsewhere. Issue me with a full voucher for the two tickets and I will rebook accordingly. Change my flight to the later date and issue me with a cash refund to the difference between the more expensive ticket and the cheaper one. Change my flight to the later date and issue me with a voucher to the difference between the more expensive ticket and the cheaper one, which I will redeem in the future against another ticket.