Never fly Kulula.com

<p> am highly disappointed & border line disillusioned with the service offered at Kulula.com.</p> <p>Yesterday I was supposed to take MN806 from East London to Johannesburg.</p> <p><br />I promptly checked in at EL airport at 15H30. Then at 17H30 ( when the inbound flight was due to land) we are told that there is a delay & this is due to rotation, as the first aircraft of the day left East London late.</p> <p><br />What I find most unbearable is the ability of the airline to absolve themselves of any responsibility as to what happens to travellers there after. The knock on effect of the delay for me, was such that I missed the last Gautrain out of OR Tambo (20H30) which in turn meant that I couldn't pick up my car out the station & could get home.</p> <p><br />I explained this to a call centre agent I spoke to & the best she told me that I could take the next day flight but there would be a surcharge.</p> <p><br />Upon boarding the aircraft the FDC then informed us the reason for the delay was inclement weather. My question then becomes if the inclement weather started at 17H00, then why didn't the aircraft leave on time at 16H00??<br />What this journey even more unbearable is that I had to incur an R814 accommodation bill, because quite literally I was "STRANDED". While the folk at Kulula didn't give a flying hoot as to what happens to travellers who entrust them with their money & lives to ensure that they get value. What erks me even more is that airlines, especially LCC's & Kulula.com will never refund you for a cancellation, or if you miss a flight they gladly inform you that its not their fault & you must fork out more money.</p> <p><br />To make issues even worse, the call centre agent informs me that the flight is not delayed by more than an hour & hence they cant do anything. So just to set the record straight, the aircraft was still sitting on the tarmac at 18H57 & took off at 19H02, which in essence means it was an hours delay.</p> <p><br />To further show the lack of service or "just don't care attitude of Kulula, upon arrival at ORT, there was only one carousel for all so-called delayed flights for Kulula. I had also checked in a box which was marked fragile as it had bottles. The desk agent at EL airport, told me to sign the tag &the fragile sticker. Little did he even tell me that by signing that I was absolving the airline of any liability f responsibility should the package be damaged. Well unluckily for me, an item broke in the box, & when I asked what happened, the lady at Kulula baggage desk, just throws her hands at me & says "we don't accept liability" So my question to Kulula is this: Where is the etiquette & customer service of first apologising to the client & then explaining the policy, especially if this was not explained beforehand?? Secondly where is the decorum of handling clients with empathy & care, or was this a case of, if you are a certain colour then we wont be a courteous to you as other race groups??</p> <p><br />Over all I am reminded of the reasons I ran away from flying a certain carrier when their service & customer feedback & relationship went to smoke because they in essence didn't care about the people they flying but rather ways to maximise their bottom line & take no responsibility for anything else. Kulula has just made me relive that experience its worth noting, that while I am not a premium customer, the kind of service received has left a sour taste in the mouth & he failure of the ground product at both ends from Kulula.com.</p> <p><br />I hope a better competitor comes along who is actually client & customer centric instead of this so called fun & jokes that are played at Kulula.</p> <p> </p> <p>As for the so called fare rules, those a re border line unconstitutional</p>