Horrible experience

My boyfriend booked 4 Mango tickets from JHB to PE (flight JE541), one for himself, one for me, one for my father and one for my mother. We attended my grandmother's funeral on Friday and needed to get back home. We were in such a rush to finalize all the arrangements, that my boyfriend booked my father's ticket under his preferred name (Fanie) and not his given name (Steph****). We booked online and checked in online.

When we reached the gate at OR Tambo International Airport to board the flight, the official at the gate said that the name on the ticket and the name on my father's ID document did not match. They refused that we pay the "name changing fee" and in effect my father missed his flight back home. His family was able to fly home without him and he had to get another flight back to PE. We were on the last Mango flight to PE for the day, which meant that he had to pay for a whole new flight in order to get home.

In addition, we waited on the airplane for 40 minutes before we took off - we had to wait for Bidvest to load the last of the bags, meaning that he could have changed his name on the ticket in time for him to catch the flight. But the attendants at the gate were so unhelpful and refused for him to do so. The flight itself was extremely hot and uncomfortable.

This whole ordeal *****ed our already sad weekend into an even more negative experience. My father had to travel alone and spend extra money on a flight ticket, after burying his mother.

This is utterly unacceptable.