What Could Possibly Go Wrong (they thought)?
by Heather 26 Dec 2011It was perfect on paper; a direct flight, stopping only to refuel in Dakar, Senegal, and run by the national carrier of our final destination. We believed we had found the perfect flight to South Africa.
Oh, were we wrong. Very wrong.
The first indication something is amiss occurs when South African Airways phones the morning of our departure, informing us that they have rescheduled our flight from 5:40 pm to 11:45 pm. At the airport, they inform us our flight is cancelled, rescheduled for the next morning. To avoid hauling our bags to a hotel (including 100 lbs of books for a library in the Soweto township), we decide to check our baggage. And suddenly it gets worse, much worse.
“You need at least one blank page in your passport to visit South Africa,” the agent informs me.
“Yes,” I reply. “There are three blank pages in the back.”
“Those aren’t the appropriate blank pages.”
“?”
Visa Page Simulation
At 7:45 am the next morning we arrive at the National Passport Center and stand in line for emergency passport page additions. Efficient, the NPS modifies our passports and we each have 48 new pages in our passports by 11:00 am. We immediately head back to Dulles in order to catch the 5:40 pm South African Airways flight, 24 hours later than our original departure.
While waiting for our passport pages, internet research indicates South African Airways schedules exactly one plane for the route between Johannesburg and Washington, DC. A look at the flight arrivals and departures during the past few days shows a rolling series of delays and cancelled flights. It’s not a good sign.
At the airport, we ask the agent at check-in if our flight is still scheduled for a 5:40 pm departure. Believing there to be a single airplane on this route, we proactively plan to request that we be put on another airline. “We have a second airplane on the ground right now. The flight will depart on time today,” she replies. “They’re just finishing up some last minute maintenance on this second plane.”
At our departure gate, 5:40 pm passes with no airplane. The gate agents pass out $10 vouchers for dinner and tell us to return at 7:00 pm for our flight, indicating some last-minute maintenance issues. Burgers at the restaurant across from the gate cost $13 each, plus tax and tip.
Lack of Organization at South African Airways
At 7:00 pm, several hundred frustrated people gather at the gate, including an angry group from Senegal now into their third day of delay. Things go from bad to worse when they discover that South African Airways failed to inform them about an alternative flight they could have flown. The gate agents call security, and several Fairfax County cops arrive to help keep the peace.
At around 9:00 pm, the agents cancel the flight citing maintenance issues, informing us that it will now leave the following morning.
Passengers line up to receive their hotel vouchers. Kent and I, remembering the sage advice of world traveler Chris Guillebeau, opt to keep moving forward. We refuse (politely) the hotel voucher and ask to be booked on another airline. We receive vouchers (a coupon indicating South African Airways will pay for our tickets) for a British AIrways flight departing at 11:30 pm, 30 hours after our original departure time. The agents inform us our luggage will not be re-routed, but will go to South Africa on their plane and will be waiting for us when we arrive. [Note that our British Airways flight is scheduled to arrive on Johannesburg after the re-scheduled South African Airways flight now departing the next morning.]
Having burned though our emergency change of clothes, we visit a tacky airport gift shop and purchase some Washington DC souvenir tee shirts. Sadly, no shop offers souvenir socks or underwear.
The British Airways flight to London is uneventful. During our 11-hour layover in London, we book a hotel, got some sleep and shower, still hopefully peering in airport shops looking for souvenir socks and underwear. That evening, the British Airways plane to Johannesburg flies as scheduled.
We finally arrive in South Africa on Saturday, mid-morning, over 40 hours later than our originally scheduled arrival of early Thursday evening.
Now, what about the South African Airways flight our luggage took without us, which supposedly left the morning following our British Airways flight? We look up at the arrivals board and note the ominous phrase “Indefinitely Delayed.”
We file a lost baggage claim, and head to the mall where stores offer clean clothes along with (YES!) socks and underwear!
We begin our vacation, now two days (15%) shorter than originally planned. At this point, we are not impressed with South Africa or their national airline, South African Airways.
Now, here’s the thing that really makes us furious — we think it sure looks like South African Airways lied to us. Things clearly went terribly amiss with the South African Airways schedule, but did they tell the truth to us? Was there really a second airplane? If South African Airways did not have a second plane, they could have immediately booked us (and other passengers) on alternative flights at check-in. Why did they wait until most of the evening’s international flights had departed before canceling the flight? And why did they repeat this behavior day after day? If a company operates identically from one day to the next, is it repeated poor judgement or is it instead their policy? Would South African Airways deliberately lie to passengers, causing them delays measured in days, rather than pay their way on an alternative airline causing them mere hours of delay? We suspect a hotel room voucher costs less than an airline flight voucher …
And, why bother telling us to make sure we had at least one blank page on our passports when the South African government wants a blank page at least four pages before the end of the passport? South African Airways turns people away every day. Ask folks at the National Passport Center! Wouldn’t it be better to have clear instructions for passengers? After all, they are the national carrier for South Africa and are best equipped to understand local regulations, right?
How it all ended:
After arriving over 40 hours late and having spent an additional $875 on transportation, hotels, meals and clothing, we finally receive our baggage the following afternoon. In South Africa, South African Airways informs me that they never reimburses passengers for expenses incurred during delays or for lost luggage, but that we may be eligible for a free ticket. Unfortunately, our free transportation and lodging in Pretoria, South Africa is a one-time occurrence, so a free return ticket is of limited value. We’ll see what they say here in North America and update this post when we get some answers.
Sorry for your troubles ! Too bad U.S. regulations do not apply to foreign carriers, you would be treated much better, most overseas airlines do just fine because they want their passengers to come back. The exceptions are when there are few if any others on that route, then they don’t care. Glad this is not the norm !
Hello Kent & Heather… On behalf of South African Airways, please accept our sincerest apologies for our shortcomings and for the affect our recent delays had on you and your travel plans. We can only hope that your journey, apart from the rough start, was both successful and rewarding and we applaud your charitable involvement.
SAA has – over its 76 year history – grown to become Africa’s most awarded airline, not by misleading its valued passengers, but rather by remaining firmly committed to providing honest and upfront information, and we trust you will appreciate the fact that this was a “once-in-a-lifetime” incident that we wouldn’t wish on anybody.
That said, we have asked our customer care representatives to review your details and respond to you directly. You should expect to hear from them shortly (with the holidays, please allow a few days for them to respond). Meanwhile, we wish to take this opportunity to wish you and yours a continued happy and enjoyable holiday as well as a Happy New Year. May it bring new, exciting travel experiences for yourselves, with memories to last a lifetime.
Kind regards,
Robert Kristofic
eCommerce, Social Media | South African Airways, North America
Here’s an update on our talks with South African Airways: nothing.
I phoned and left messages twice over the Holidays as well as sending a detailed email to them about our situation on 12/19. It’s now been a full week past the Holidays and we have not received any responses from SAA.
We’ll update this should they decide to answer our email or our phone messages.
Pretty disturbing story. Hopefully you’re enjoying the trip at least by now. I don’t understand the extra $875 OOP expenses though – socks couldn’t cost all that much.
Yeah, $875 is a bit much for socks and underwear. But, two days and nights worth of transport, lodging, food and new clothing all purchased with a few miles of major airports does tend to add up. 😉
US Air did the same thing to me in Frankfurt a few years ago. After being in their top rewards category for 7 years straight I stopped flying them and switched to Delta (over 400,000 miles flown on Delta since then). The airlines seem dreadfully short sighted at times.
Dear Kent and Heather,
Thank you for contacting us about your recent travel from Washington D.C. to Johannesburg. On behalf of everyone here at South African Airways, I sincerely apologize for the unexpected flight delay/cancellation and unfamiliar proper travel document requirements.
We are truly sorry your flight was delayed then cancelled due to the late arrival of the aircraft. The reason of the delay was due to unexpected maintenance which forced us to alter our timetable. While there are many different things that can interfere with our operation, we realize that the way our people respond is what will ultimately determine how our customers will feel about us. Knowing this, it was very disturbing to have your report about how poorly we handled the circumstances you described. Please accept my sincerest apology and rest assured that we will make every effort to ensure things are handled differently in the future.
Our staff will assist if asked to give advice on visa or other requirements needed for travel. Our responses to such inquiries are based on the information at hand and are given in good faith. However, because such regulations change frequently, it is advisable for a traveler to consult a government’s local embassy or consulate for the most up-to-date information before beginning travel. To prevent any misunderstanding about where the liability lies, the Contract of Carriage in all airline tickets states that the passenger is responsible to obtain entry, health, or other documents required by any countries to be visited or transited. We regret that you were unfamiliar with the proper visa passport pages needed for travel and that it cost you additional expenses, as well as lost vacation time.
In an effort to show you that we truly do care about your travel experience, we would like to mail each of you a travel credit for future travel. If you could please reply to us at saausa@flysaa.com with your mailing address, we would be happy to proceed (please put “Kent and Heather” in the title of your email)
Again, we would like to thank you for taking the time to share your concerns. We truly value your business and look forward to seeing you on board again soon.
Sincerely,
Tyler Adams | Support Services | North America
Today we received a call from Kaaren at South African Airways. She was returning my call from Dec 24th … two-and-a-half weeks after I left my initial message. She had no record of my initial email or the note from Tyler (previous comment) and asked me to resend all of my documents. I sent everything off, again!
On January 17th, I received a $500 credit on a future South African Airways flight in my name (Heather) with no mention of Kent at all. On the voucher, it explains that I have to purchase a flight on South African Airways and that putting this $500 credit toward a flight relieves them of all liability/responsibility.
I just checked the flyssa.com website. The fare to South Africa, repeating the trip we took in 2011 for 2012, is $1397.00.
I would have to spend another $897 to recoup the $875 I already spent by flying an airline with a dubious record of timely arrivals.
This is not what I was seeking! I will be phoning South African Airways later today and see what they can do to help me recover the $875 I spent during my 2-day flight delay and the additional 24+ hour period my luggage was missing.
Wow, so here’s what I suppose will be South African Airways final (and weak in my opinion) resolution to this issue. I received a check for $150 from South African Airways in the mail this week. That’s quite amazing, considering that I was $875 out of pocket. It does help ease the sting …
Fortunately, I also purchased a Travel Guard policy for this trip. Travel Guard processed my documents quite efficiently once they knew what South African Airways paid (or didn’t pay) toward my expenses and covered my remaining expenses! Thanks to Travel Guard, I didn’t loose money, only vacation time.
Lessons learned:
1-ALWAYS purchase trip insurance
2-NEVER fly South African Airways
Excellent advice. I will try to remember, since I would like to visit South Africa one of these days. See you when you’re back in the lake.
I would definitely recommend a visit!
I finally got back to Virginia this week, went through the last month’s mail and saw my checks in person. The final tally is that I ended up with $95 of excess funds between the Travel Guard and South African Airways reimbursement checks. I returned the excess to Travel Guard (no need to profit).
I highly recommend that every traveler purchase trip insurance. I have an annual policy (used for all trips) and separately insure larger trips where delays/cancellations/medical emergencies could exceed the limits of the annual policy. Travel Guard has been there for us twice in the past 18 months and I recommend them to fellow travelers!