airline *****s our tickets and calls it bumping

<p>My wife and I were booked on the 15h10 flight from Johannesburg to Durban after travelling to Johannesburg earlier the day to apply for a visa in Pretoria. We had the day well planned so as to arrive back home in Margate before 18h00 as it is a 2 hour drive from the airport and we wanted to avoid driving in the dark. We checked in at 13h45 and were told that the flight was already full and that our tickets had been given to other travellers. Our tickets that were booked and paid for were not ours anymore! How can something that I have bought be sold again without me even knowing about it? The incident was recorded on my phone video and the staff member acknowledges that our tickets were given to someone else and that we could probably be put on the 21h00 flight! After much fuss, we were eventually put onthe 17h00 flight which was also reportedly overbooked and already full, so we don't know what poor souls were targeted on that flight. No compensation was offered and we then arrived home after 20h00 having to travel for two hours in the dark from Durban to Margate while our 3 children waited anxiously with my Mom alone on our smallholding. I also explained to the staff that I am a doctor (eye specialist) and needed to get back home, but that made no difference. This huge fiasco occurred so soon after the United Airlines incident which is fresh in our minds-obviously not in the minds of SAA or they simply do not care. Disgusting!</p>