SAA FLIGHT CANCELLED, NO NOTIFICATION, NO COMPENSATION

<p>The flight from Perth to Johannesburg on 16 January at 23h45 was cancelled without prior notification. In fact it was also cancelled the night before which meant that twice as many people needed a flight. We still had to queue for "check in" at which time we were told about the cancellation and given a letter which clearly states: '... For those passengers commencing in Perth, please retain receiptsd for expenses incurred and claim from SAACustomer ********** We are pensioners and we were required to stand in queues fist for check in, then for transport until we could not stand any longer at 02h30 at which time the SAA assistant recommended that we take a taxi to the hotel and claim the cost from SAA as per the letter. The transport that was carrying passengers to various hotels was totally inadequate as there were two mini buses that carried in the region of 20 passengers per journey. The downtown hotels in Perth are about 45mins to an hour away from the airport so the progress was very slow. So, we took the taxi as advised and checked into the hotel at 04h00 on the 17th January. At 10h00 we had to be ready to go back to the airport, once again, after lots of standing in queues. The flight eventually left Perth at after 15h00 for Johannesburg. We live in Plettenberg Bay so we would have no hope of catching our connecting flight on Kulula. Incidentally, the food on the flight to Johannesburg was apalling with many of the passengers commenting that the food from the cancelled flight had been stored for this flight, many of the entertainment systems were broken and the in-flight service was not good. On arrival at ORT, no-one from SAA had any idea where we should be going and once again we arrived at the hotel very late. No meals or drinks were offered to passengers while they were waiting for SAA officials, either in Perth or Johannesburg, to determine where passengers should go. The following morning, we went to the SAA desk only to be told that they would not give us tickets to George and that we would have to buy new tickets for our onward journey. This information is in direct contradiction to the letter we were given in Perth. Needless to say, we had to buy two new tickets at a cost of R2000 which we were led to believe we could recover from SAA. We submitted our claim on 21 January and were given a case number and a promise that the matter would be resolved in 10 working days. On 10 February we sent a follow up email at which time we were given a different case number with the same promise as before. I telephoned the call centre and which in itself is costly from Plettenberg Bay and extrememly frustrating. I waited for more than 10 days before I phoned and then was told that VENESHREE who was handling the case would phone me back by close of day. No such luck. I phoned again and spoke to MUHLURI on 6 March with the same promise. We received an email from Veneshree to say that we were not entitled to any compensation. I phoned again on 7 March and spoke to Ingrid who seemed to understand our dilemma. She ended the call with the same "call centre" promise and to date we have heard nothing. The letter regarding our entitlement to compensation is referenced CCE#4862 - INTERRUPTED FLIGHT EXPENSES - PAX SUPPORT (THIS LETTER SHOULD BE SECURELY STORED AS IT IS A NON REPLACEABLE /NEGOTIABLE DOCUMENT).</p> <p>We want our compensation... please advise.</p> <p> </p>