Unilateral Cancellation of Ticket/ Child issued with Boarding Pass

I am very disappointed and upset with my recent interaction with Mango.

On the 23rd of November 2019 I booked 2 tickets for myself and my 7 year old son flying out of Lanseria on the 5th of December 2019 to Durban. The tickets were paid for and a booking confirmation was received on the same day. On the 25th of November 2019 I had to book a ticket for my 4 year old son to accompany me to Durban. As he is a minor the ticket had to be linked to my ticket. This was done and after payment was made his booking confirmation was emailed to me.

Today I attempted to check in for our flights however I was shocked to find that the tickets booked for myself and my 7 year old son were cancelled. The reason for the cancellation was "non-payment". I called the call centre and advised them that payment was made, no funds had bounced back into my account and my bank confirmed that payment was successful. I was referred to customer care who advised that the finance department had already closed for the day and I would have to wait until tomorrow the 5th of December(the day of my flight) to ascertain what the position is regarding my flight. At no time was I notified by Mango that my payment was unsuccessful or that they had cancelled my tickets. To add to my frustration, and astonishingly, my 4 year old son's ticket which was booked 2 days after I booked my ticket and which was apparently linked to my ticket was not cancelled and I was able to check him in and obtain his boarding pass. I fail to understand how a 4 year old child, who by law must be accompanied by an adult when flying, can be issued with a boarding pass when the adult who is meant to accompany them does not even have a ticket!! Given the present day circumstances when child trafficking is in the spotlight I am gobsmacked!!

I await an urgent response from Mango as I find it completely unpofessional that : 1. I was never notified of the so called "non-payment", my ticket was unilaterally cancelled despite receiving a booking confirmation. Had I not opted to check in today I would have only discovered this at the airport. 2. No help could be offered to me. Given the fact that my flight is scheduled for tomorrow I would expect that Mango would have mechanisms in place to deal with these last minute unforseen issues. 3. My 4 year old child,whose ticket had to be linked to my ticket in order to be booked, was not cancelled and I have been able to check him in and obtain his boarding pass which is not linked to an adult's ticket/boarding pass.

This has been extremlely frustrating and I would appreciate urgent feedback from Mango as to how they intend resolving this.

Sameera Dawood