SAA intimidating mothers flying alone with children

To Whom It May Concern,

On Wednesday evening on the 23rd of January 2019, I boarded a flight travelling from Johannesburg to Perth. I was travelling alone with two young children but I was relieved as I knew I was travelling business class and at least my two young children would be able to sleep comfortably and in wonderful luxury.

However, my illusion and expectation of what travelling business class should be like, was shattered by an utterly despicable and unnecessary incident with the flight attendant, who was allegedly the team leader.

I was drinking a beverage and had my tray down and a man (I was later told that he was the team leader) approached and asked what the children wanted to eat. I was so impressed that he was attending to the needs of my children aged 4 and 6, and my first impression of him was that he was very attentive and had quite a trendy hair style, a pattern was shaved out of his hair into a "V"shape. We were half way through our conversation when my four year old child interrupted us, I turned back to him only to discover he had walked off. When he came back he told me that I was obviously too busy to talk to him that is why he walked off. I let that comment slide,but I observed that he seemed irritated and impatient.

When he left another friendly, kinder man approached me and helped me settle the children in, He arranged their beds accordingly, got their bedding ready, and lowered their chairs into a sleeping position. A woman was sitting next to me and introduced herself. It turned out that the man who was the "Team Leader with a "V" shaved into his hair had placed her into the incorrect seating arrangement and he should have placed her in seat "G"actually placed her next to me. Meanwhile this team leader came back and saw that my two children were in a sleeping position and quite irritably commented that they needed to be in an upright position. I said yes sure please can you help me with the seats. (I had a drink and my tray was out). He impatiently began to adjust the seat of the one child and i kindly asked for him to adjust the second seat to which followed a very heated and unnecessary exchange that completely ruined my business class experience and left me in tears.

He turned around to me and stated that he had other people that he needed to attend to and that me and my two children were not the only ones that he was looking after, and that he had lowered the one seat and that i should lower the second seat! I was so shocked. disgusted and flabbergasted by his attitude and his comment that i rep****: "I am not asking you to stay here all night doting over my children I was simply asking for help in adjusting their chair into an upright position, especially since i have a drink on my table and have a tray out.

I was startled by his next aggressive move, he then lunged towards me and crouched down right next to my chair , stared at me straight into my eyes and i could feel his breath on my face, I actually thought he was going to hit me. He then retorted that he never said that, sensing his attitude and temper I then told him to "calm down", he then told me I mustn't to dare tell him to calm down. I couldn't believe that this was happening over such a small request. I even said: "what is happening here, why are you getting so angry?"and this seemed to exacerbate him further. My last and final comment to his aggressive behaviour and intimidating eye contact was "Wow"to which he said "wow" yourself, then he stood up and stormed off.

The woman next to me, who was meant to be sitting at "Seat G"witnessed the entire incident and said it was "disgusting". Then a short while later a friendly female arrived and began attending to me and I asked why the other man wasn't attending to me anymore and she said he was "busy"and I burst into tears. She asked what was wrong and i told her the whole story. She took my hand and squeezed and apologised profusely. Strangely enough when my butternut soup arrived it was so salty I couldn't even eat it, i looked forward and I saw both of them laughing and joking in the kitchen area and i wondered if they purposely put so much salt in my food on purpose. My children were never offered a main meal, and I asked them if they were hungry and they both rep**** that they were not and I was relieved as i was worried if their food would be tampered with.

I am completely disgusted and horrified by this experience. Is this what SAA stands for? Intimidating and bullying? To treat mother's travelling alone like this? Should your customer service not perhaps double when a mother is travelling alone with her children? What I was asking for was such a simple request and didn't warrant such a violent and aggressive response. I am so upset over this incident, I expect an immediate response and explanation as to why this happened,especially since I was travelling on business class? We spent extra money on our tickets so that travelling alone with my children would be an enjoyable experience not a shocking bullying incident. The amount of money spent on a business class ticket warrants a bit more respect from your staff. I expect to hear the course of action you intend to follow to rectify this disgusting experience.