SAA don't care for passengers

On Thursday, 17 January 2019 I sat at Braam Ficher International Airport in the departure locale at 17:53 still waiting for flight SA1012 from Bloemfontein to Johannesburg, to depart. The flight was supposed to depart at 15:30 and although we were all boarded and ready to depart a fault code caused the need to attempt to reset the engines. We were later told that the problem was bigger that a mere reset and we were told that we should disembark but we will be kept informed as to further developments. In the mean time numerous other SAA flights departed from Bloemfontein with ostensible no attempt to accommodate passengers of flight SA1012 – the airline’s first responsibility in my view under those circumstances should be to cater for those passengers of an airline who was supposed to depart first but the unspoken attitude seems to be that since they are delayed because of a “so-called” technical error, they should wait till last in the que of passengers toward which the airline has a responsibility. By 17:53, I went to the SAA Airline counters to enquire whether they have forgotten about flight SA1012. There has been no announcements or feedback as was promised and the personnel at Departures just told me on enquiry that they have no information. At the airline counters I was told that they have now obtained confirmation that the flight will depart at 18:40 – more than three hours after the scheduled departure time. I was told that an aircraft is sent from Johannesburg since the original aircraft is inoperable. When I pointed out that it takes 60 minutes to send an aircraft from Johannesburg and not 3 hours, I was told that the airline has no aircrafts that is not in use and I inferred from that, that this meant that we should just wait until after the last flight for the day had been completed, before we could be accommodated. Shortly after my enquiry I heard an announcement indicating the obvious delay. The estimated departure time as announced at 17:53 was 18:40. SAA apologized for any inconvenience caused but that is a fami**** announcement and is shallow, empty words. I have overhead another passenger who ostensibly use SAA often, relate to another passenger that in her experience out of every 5 flights, 3 is delayed. If one is really sorry about the inconvenience you will ensure that it does not happen and you will treat your passengers, whenever such thing happen, with respect. When it became time for our flight to depart, many of the passengers on our initial flight have “disappeared” leading me to deduct that they have somehow been accommodated on the earlier flights. What fair procedure was used to select those passengers, was never communicated – it was rather hidden from us. As a result one wonders what criteria is used to deal with passengers in such situations: Must you make a lot of noise, through your toys out of the cot, are you required to bribe officials or what? But this was still not the end. At 18:40 a airplane did arrive but we had to fly to Kimberley first which extended a 1 hour journey by 1 hour and 20 minutes resulting in us landing in Johannesburg at 21:00. Therefore instead of being back in Johannesburg as originally scheduled at 16:30 we reach Johannesburg only at 21:00 – 4:30 later. As another passenger quipped, we would have been much better off driving by car. If I think back at our ordeal, I cannot help feeling that SA’s national operator does not care one bit for its passengers. They do not care to inform passengers as to the nature of the problem and what is being done to address it, they do not care to use a fair process to accommodate same passengers earlier than others and to communicate the process openly. SAA was always known for its superior service. Unfortunately those days seem to be something belonging to the distant past.