SAA nightmare

<p>This past Xmas I took my family of 5 to Italy/Europe for the first time to see their family. As you can imagine it is quite a costly and intense exercise. </p> <p>I booked 5 flights to destination Milan on the internet – from OR Tambo, Jhb. The outbound leg was via Frankfurt and the return leg happened to be via London which I found odd as in 47 years of flying to Italy with numerous airlines I had never been that route. I thought little of it as I had flown to Italy in June via Etihad and July via Emirates and the flying times are more onerous and less direct even though the airlines are top notch at the same price. </p> <p>My children (3) and I have Italian EU passports. My wife has a SA passport. She got a schengen visa for Italy as the destination of choice. </p> <p>On the outbound leg my earpiece was not working. My daughter’s had to be pushed in continuously in order for it to work – not a train smash. Happened with Luthansa some time ago. They gave me a R700 voucher. SAA gave me a Time magazine. Fair enough – wouldn’t complain about that if the rest had of gone smoothly. </p> <p>At our departure yesterday at Linate airport in Milan during boarding, my wife was informed that she could not travel with the rest of us because she didn’t have a transit VISA for the UK. We explained that we were not going to visit the UK but they insisted that she could not travel – no exceptions. You can imagine the shock when after 18 days of being abroad your mother is left behind in a foreign country. As I said I took my first flight in 1969 and had never experienced anything like this even before the EU passports/Eurozone/Shengen days. </p> <p>As I write this my wife is hopefully departing from Munich after having spent a night in a Milan airport hotel courtesy of Alitalia. She had to go to Rome today to catch a flight to Munich and then catch a Lufthansa flight to CAPE TOWN tomorrow! When we arrived this morning I tried to explain the situation to the “customer care” reps at OR Tambo in Jhb and asked them if they could assist in getting her to Jhb tomorrow morning. They told me I had to buy another ticket. I eventually did that. They weren’t too interested. Take it or leave it which I will in future. Competition is a wonderful thing. Once bitten twice shy. </p> <p>To add to thos misery the rest of us arrived in Jhb to find our luggage did not. That will hopefully? arrive tomorrow. My kids start school tomorrow and this was quite a disturbing start to the year. Their mother is still in Europe. So is their luggage and gifts. We would have preferred ending our first European family trip together. </p> <p>On the return flight the box under my seat which holds a suspended safety jacket was lying on the floor and kept falling off the seat. I was told it is normal – shoddy. My earpiece worked however! I fly every year with numerous airlines and after many years of not using SAA we decided to give it a shot. Big mistake. </p> <p>I feel that allowing the site to use London as an alternative return route for people not headed to the UK and not in possession of foreign passports is misleading. If we were all SA passports holders we would have had to pay an additional R5000 for visas for a transit visa to visit an airport. This should have been made clear to us. You will say it is the passengers responsibility to ensure they fami****ize themselves with visa regulations. Had I known I would have simply used another airline or route instead of putting my family through this nightmare experience and leave a sour taste in our mouths at the end of a great trip. </p> <p>Thanks SAA. I am aggrieved that my tax money contributes to keeping this company in business. I will definitely not recommend you as an airline of choice.</p> <p>UPDATE: WIFE EVENTUALLY ARRIVED AT AN ADDITIONAL COST. 40 hour trip.</p> <p>two days later - still one large suitcase outstanding. holding on for 20 minutes with luggage retrieval for third time.</p> <p>bottom line is they dont get what customer care is actually all about. its a para statal and runs like govt unfortunately</p> <p> </p> <p> </p>