SAA - Just another fly-by-night operator

<p>I would like to bring the following situation to your attention. I made travel arrangements on 13 July, 2016 for a trip to Europe. On the night of 25 August we tried to book our seats online and print boarding passes for the confirmed flight but the system would not allow us. The next morning we contacted our travel agent to see if they could book the seats but it was blocked to them as well.</p> <p> </p> <p>On 26 August, 2016, my husband and I arrived at O R Tambo for our flight to Munich on Lufthansa (LH) 9543 operated by South African Airways. We arrived four hours before our departure. We would fly to Munich, catch another flight to Hamburg (our destination) - a trip of approximately 12<br />hours.</p> <p> </p> <p>On arriving at the check-in counter, we were told that we don't have seats on the flight. The plane had been downsized and we would not be able to fly that night. Obviously we were shocked by this news. The attendant said she would see what could be done and disappeared for about 30 minutes.</p> <p>Eventually I found her at the ticket office trying to make alternative arrangements.</p> <p>After another 20 minutes she came with two alternative offers:<br />- We could fly with Etihad Airways via Abu Dhabi to Munich and then on to Hamburg - a 24 hour trip<br />- Fly the next evening on the original flight.</p> <p> </p> <p>We had been dropped off at the airport so had no transport. We had peoplein Europe waiting for us, lifts and taxis arranged, and had arrangements in Hamburg. Further my husband is a Type 1 diabetic (insulin dependent) and his medication has to be temperature-controlled or it could have disastrous consequences. We originally decided to travel directly to Germany so that the medication would not heat up.</p> <p> </p> <p>We then made the decision to fly that evening via Abu Dhabi because we did not want to inconvenience our host. We asked both SAA and Etihad several times that our luggage be checked right through to Hamburg, and were assured that this would be done. When we eventually landed in Germany, we waited for our luggage to no avail. When we approached the lost luggage official, we were eventually told that our luggage was left in Abu Dhabi and that they would follow up on the matter.</p> <p> </p> <p>To summarize the effect of the above situation:</p> <p>- We had a 24 hour flight instead of a 12 hour flight<br />- We had the potential of a medical crisis if the insulin heated and became unusable<br />- We lost 12 hours of our holiday in Hamburg<br />- We had no clean clothing for two days<br />- We lost the advantage of paying substantially more for a direct flight, so effectively lost money<br />- We experienced major inconvenience ourselves and so did our host.</p> <p> </p> <p>In light of the above we seek compensation from SAA. We feel that we made all these arrangements in good faith and were sorely disappointed in our flight to Germany due to the airline not delivering the service we paid for.</p> <p> </p> <p>I look forward to hearing from you with a compensation plan.</p>