Dream trip almost destroyed by SAA Voyager

Very disappointed in SAA Voyager. I saved my miles for more than 15 years with a view to one day taking my wife on a holiday to see the flowers up the West Coast. I called the Voyager booking centre and spoke to an agent to book flights. I was told to firstly pay for airport taxes which would then allow the agent to place the booking, which I duly did and sent the agent an email with proof of the payment. I then received an email with e-tickets attached showing the booking details. I then also used miles to book car hire with Europcar. The following day I received a statement from Voyager showing that I still had miles left which were to expire shortly. I then ordered wine using miles as there isn't very much else to buy on the platform. The day arrived to fly and we arrived at the desk to check in only to be told there was no booking in the system. I called Voyager immediately and spoke to an agent who told me the booking had not been made due to an insufficient amount of miles left to make the booking! I was furious as they had my cell number as well as email address to contact me to let me know this had transpired, but no one had bothered to do that and didn't think that I would be none the wiser as to what had happened. There was no correspondence sent nor was there any attempt to contact me after the booking was cancelled showing the ''couldn't care less'' attitude of the agent who was supposed to place the booking for me. I ended up having to pay for the flights myself and missed an entire day of my holiday trying to sort things out and get on another flight. All the accommodation and other excursions had been booked and paid for, so I couldn't just cancel the trip and break my wife's heart as she was calmly sitting around waiting for me to sort out the mess that Voyager had created. I contacted Clientele Legal for help as I really felt let down by SAA Voyager after having saved for years for the trip, only to have to pay for the tickets myself in the end. This was something which I had not budgeted for and which added huge expense to my trip, but was supposed to be a reward from Voyager for my loyal support. All I got was a stressful situation which threatened to end our trip before it even began. A year later and Clientele Legal is still trying to get an answer from Voyager as to why they haven't refunded the airport taxes, as they were paid initially to start the booking process. Turns out, they say they have made a refund into my credit card a year ago, which I still need to verify as again, there was no correspondence in this regard. Pathetic communication from a conglomerate like SAA whose main function in business is dealing with customers on a daily basis. And given their history as a company, you would expect them to be all about customer service to get their old customers back who were using other airlines after COVID. I expect a refund of my airport taxes (which I will verify has been done) as well as a refund of the costs of the flights, given that e-ticket emails were sent after the taxes were paid, convincing me that the booking was made. The fact that they said there were insufficient miles available for the flights makes no sense and only after receiving a statement showing remaining miles did I buy wine, not knowing that miles had not been used for flights as yet. Very confusing to say the least but I've been let down by this organisation and feel very angry about the way I have been treated as well as their lack of feedback to Clientele Legal for more than a year. After showing my loyalty to Voyager and SAA, I feel like I've been kicked in the teeth, and not rewarded in the least. Thanks SAA Voyager, not impressed.