DONT FLY SAA

<p>We got married on the 15th Dec - our departure to our honeymoon SAA/SA286 18th Dec 17:55 never left. We boarded at 17:00 and were told after an hour that firstly there was an issue with someones luggage, then we pulled out the parking bay and it became a "technical issue" and we need to wait for an engineer -cant be fixed, so back to parking and the aircon needs to be off. Another hour "the engineer done" we need to now "test". Sigh...the test has burnt critical fuel so we now need to top up fuel.</p> <p><br /> Another hour, after Captain says we should take only 45min- and the engineer has picked up an issue with a valve. Fuel arrives - but they need to sign paperwork now regarding the valve/technical issue. we each get a half a cup of water the plane is like a sauna by now you can smell the toilet and people are irritated. Another hour and a half, Captain doesn't know what to say but the operations/ground staff are delaying this now.</p> <p><br /> Captain back on the comms says the flight crew has exceeded their flight times? So they are trying to get a new crew. Sorry no new crew - an hour later they have to make a plan to disembark us as the ground crew are still no where to be seen.</p> <p>We finally back in the airport more than 5hrs of sitting in the plane with inly half a glass of water. We have missed our connecting flight from Hong Kong to Manilla with Cebu Pacific which cost us over R7000!!!!. Also our first honeymoon night at the Hilton in Malaysia - gone!</p> <p><br /> SAA then herd us off to hotels (dependent on the cost of the flight I assume) as some of us ended up in a Sun International hotel that was shocking! checked in by midnight and actually had to run around asking if we would be fed? Were told to call our order down and the phone just rang and rang. I went down to order, food inly arrived at our room after 2am.</p> <p><br /> We need to be up at 6am to be herded again -get to airport and ask regarding the connecting flight we missed, we ask for a manager and get to meet a nice gentleman in a red jacket/blazer - and he reassures us that "SAA WILL ENDORSE OUR FLIGHT IN HONG KONG" We feel some relief - then spend 12 hours with the rudest crew I have ever had the "pleasure" of being served by...then getting to Hong Kong and realising he BLATANTLY **** TO OUR FACE. To add insult to injury Archie Marawa gives us a letter (I still have along with photos) offering us 25% DISCOUNT off our next flight with SAA what a joke! Coming back, flight from JHB to CPT SA327 -delayed as "they need to remove bags of people who failed to board" - I land in Cape Town and my bag is not there, I am standing at the baggage reclaim for 20min seeing the same three bags when someone explains thats all. We are told that they are in JHB (around 20 of us left there). So I log reference CPTSA55714 with the help of the first friendly SAA person Thembela and head home. She calls me around 4:30 pm as they found my bag AT THE AIRPORT?!?!</p> <p><br /> We have flown Emirates and Qatar to Asia previously and this time CHOSE to support local industry instead - what a horrible mistake.</p> <p> </p> <p>16th Jan "Thank you for contacting SAA Customer Support. Your inquiry has now been assigned to Vaneshree Naidoo."</p> <p>I am still waiting for Vaneshree...............</p>