SAA Voyager SaverBlitz Awards ****

SAA / Voyager are running a "SaverBlitz Awards" promotion with up to 90% discount on the amount of voyager miles required for a trip.

I went through the booking process, and was presented with the total which appeared to be exclusive of the voyager miles being redeemed. I expected to be presented with an option to select voyager miles as the method of payment, with airport taxes to be paid separately.

It was not clear that the amount being presented was the amount due for taxes only.

The amount presented was R5,157.90, which is the same as a complete airfare including taxes and fees on a standard flight with SAA. Hence I expected another payment selection page to allocate voyager miles as the method of payment for air fare.

To compare, I looked at a standard booking with SAA, where the total taxes were only R944.40. But suddenly SAA have charged me R5,157.90 in airport taxes, and also redeemed all of the voyager miles (18000).

Ultimately, i have been billed R5,157.90 as taxes, with the full amount of voyager miles redeemed. This trip will cost me double what it normally would have, and this with a "free" air fare using the voyager miles.

This is an ********* practice an SAA should be ashamed of such a "promotion", purposely designed to confuse and then apply higher charges in the end.