Shocking customer service from South African Airways and Dial-A-Flight

Casperthefriendlyghost

This is an e-mail I sent to SAA on the 12th of June and they've not even bothered to reply.

To whom it may concern:

I'd like to express my dissatisfaction with a recent flight from London Heathrow to Johannesburg return.

Flight SA *** **h**

I paid £900 for an economy flight to South Africa with South African Airlines.

Mistake number 01 Booking with Dial-A-Flight!
Mistake number 02 Flying with South African Airlines!

I got to the Airport only to be told that my reservation had been cancelled, hence the reason I could not check in online this morning. I phoned Dial-A-Flight twice to ask why this was, only to be told that there was no problem, stop worrying and the booking was fine. I even said I can't click on the link in the email, I was told "don't worry it's all here on my screen and is fine. Maybe the airline website is down, it'll be fine!"

Now did I mention that my gran died suddenly and I had to book a flight home to go to her funeral, the reason I booked the ticket at such short notice.

Finally after half an hour of trying to contact Dial-A-Flight the lady at the South African Airline desk tried another number for Dial-A-Flight and someone answered after 10 minutes of just ringing. They told me to ring the guy I spoke to for the booking and I said no way, that number is not being answered, and I'd been trying for half an hour! He finally said that he had re-issued the ticket. Just as well, as the money had already gone out of my account. So on top of being already upset about my gran dying, I then had to deal with this at the airport.

I checked in, handed in my bags and got on the plane about an hour later. That's when the real fun started, almost made me wish I had missed the flight!

PROBLEM NUMBER ONE:

Two hours into my flight I still had no working television so no in flight entertainment, sorry it doesn't work but we could move you somewhere else but it won't be an aisle seat like you requested. It took 2 hours and they reset it twice before deciding that it was obviously not going to work. I also couldn't call anyone or switch my light on as those didn't work either, nor the one in the empty seat next to me. Oh and "we're sorry, but we're serving dinner now so you'll have to wait until we're done!"

PROBLEM NUMBER TWO: "Here's your meal you ordered."

"I ordered a gluten free vegetarian meal and was told by DIAL-A-FLIGHT when booking that it was sorted. (Can I mention here that I've never had a problem before with ordering a gluten free, fish free meal with any other airline before?)

"Well you can only order one meal not two."

"I didn't order two meals just a gluten free vegetarian meal after I'd been told by the booking agent that I cannot order a fish free meal, so the only way I can guarantee a fish free meal is to order a vegetarian meal."

I am severely allergic to fish, I nearly died from accidentally getting fish oil on my food after one of my flatmates accidentally spilt tuna oil on my food and thought she'd get into trouble so she didn't mention it, I spent 3 days in Intensive Care ventilated!

So basically I spent 11 hours on a plane without any food because SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS cannot cater for people with fish allergies and gluten allergy so basically tough, just don't eat for 11 hours or actually 14 hours if you count the 3 hours I spent at the airport waiting to get on the plane! So I have a choice: Eat wheat (and I won't mention the consequences here) or go into anaphylactic shock! I somehow think that my epipen wouldn't be nearly enough to avert that disaster! Did I mention that the alternative meal was beef with pasta and flour based gravy, so no way I was going to win.

So I'd say I didn't get much for my £900 flight except for the occasional bottle of water, no entertainment, no food and a shocking attitude from the staff, one male attendant and one female air stewardess.

On my return flight on Sunday things didn't go much better. After a 2 hour delay before boarding(flight was postponed and no one could tell us when it would take off, or indeed if it was still taking off), still no meal for me to eat on an 11 hour flight despite me ringing SAA whilst in South Africa and not being able to get through after 4 tries on different days, but I suppose at least my tv worked.

The meal choice was either fish or pasta or beef in gravy/curry sauce and no one could tell me what was in the sauce so I didn't eat it either, and a very helpful announcement from the captain: "we hope you enjoy your meal and if your meal choice is not available we're sorry for the inconvenience." Great!

I have forwarded this letter to South African Airways head office; Dial-A-Flight head office; posted a copy on my Facebook for everyone to read, and also posted it on a very well-known consumer website.

I didn't expect compassion when flying home for my gran's funeral but I also didn't expect the shoddy and down right rubbish service that I had the displeasure of experiencing. I was tempted to buy a new ticket home and fly with someone else! but at least this time I made sure I had a meal at the airport before I leave so I don't have to inconvenience the staff by having to feed me anything

Regards
****** *****

I'm appalled that they haven't even bothered to respond, despite me re-sending the email. Guess, it's lesson learnt, never fly with them again!

Not really asking a question lol, just venting!

Cheers
Casper
xx

Casperthefriendlyghost

I'd also like to add that Dial-A-Flight have contacted me and apologised for the mess up with my ticket and ensured me that I will never experience this problem again and they've put a note on my file to ensure that. That made me feel very confident! NOT! Won't bother booking with them again.

Can't trust them again, especially when I'm already stressed out.

Cheers
Casper

gayleanne

I think that they didn't reach the end of the letter (I didn't)

pmduk

The best complaints are concise and to the point, Unfortunately yours is neither.

swingaloo

To be quite honest, yours is the kind of complaint letter that will never be taken seriously.

You need to be far more succinct, delete all the waffling -he said/ she said stuff.

Write again, stick to the main points, state what you expect from them.

They probably wont have read the above letter fully.

swingaloo

Ive deleted the unimportant bits -

To whom it may concern:

I'd like to express my dissatisfaction with a recent flight from London Heathrow to Johannesburg return.

Flight SA *** **h**

I paid £900 for an economy flight to South Africa with South African Airlines.

I got to the Airport only to be told that my reservation had been cancelled, hence the reason I could not check in online this morning. I phoned Dial-A-Flight twice only to be told that there was no problem.

South African Airline desk tried another number for Dial-A-Flight and they re-issued the ticket.

Two hours into my flight I still had no working television so no in flight entertainment. I also couldn't call anyone or switch my light on as those didn't work either, nor the one in the empty seat next to me.

I ordered a gluten free vegetarian meal when booking after I'd been told by the booking agent that I cannot order a fish free meal, the only way I can guarantee a fish free meal is to order a vegetarian meal. I am severely allergic to fish.

I spent 11 hours on a plane without any food because SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS cannot cater for people with fish allergies and gluten allergy..

I'd say I didn't get much for my £900 flight except for the occasional bottle of water, no entertainment, no food and a shocking attitude from the staff.

On my return flight there was still no meal for me to eat on an 11 hour flight despite me trying to ring SAA whilst in South Africa and not being able to get through.
I didn't expect the shoddy service that I had the displeasure of experiencing.
Regards


So basically, you had some inconvenience booking in.
Your choice of meal was not provided.
You had no in flight tv. (Though you could have changed seats had this been so important).
As for not getting much for your money- well you did to get to SA and back.

I think it had more of an effect as it was a difficult time for you anyway under the circumstances you were going but I would hold out any hope for any recompense.

Valli

I would concur with other posters, your complaint is far too wordy.

tell them why you're not happy

1 - unable to check in online
2 - no inflight entertainment
3 - meal, which you pre-ordered due to dietary needs, not served.

Then ask for what you want by way of recompense for your experience.

Pollycat

Sadly, Caspar, your letter of complaint could be used as a perfect example of how not to do it.

As pmduk says, "concise and to-the-point".
I'd add "unemotional" to that.

Your letter fails on every level.

Sarcasm should never be used:

Casperthefriendlyghost wrote: »

Mistake number 01 Booking with Dial-A-Flight!
Mistake number 02 Flying with South African Airlines!

And this must be the most irrelevant point ever:

Casperthefriendlyghost wrote: »

I am severely allergic to fish, I nearly died from accidentally getting fish oil on my food after one of my flatmates accidentally spilt tuna oil on my food and thought she'd get into trouble so she didn't mention it, I spent 3 days in Intensive Care ventilated!

Sorry to hear about your Gran.

Apples2

Casper the unfriendly whinger!

Blimey, what fun you must be at parties. The TV broke, it happens, they offered to move you but you would only move to an aisle seat.

If I was serving on that plane I wouldn't have had a clue what food to serve you either, sounds like you are allergic to food generally.

Sorry if I misunderstood, I didn't get to the end of that whinging tantrum letter in the first post

Pollycat

Apples2 wrote: »

If I was serving on that plane I wouldn't have had a clue what food to serve you either, sounds like you are allergic to food generally.

The OP said he ordered a gluten free vegetarian meal.

That sounds pretty clear to me.

If I ordered a vegetarian meal - gluten free or not - I wouldn't expect to get served fish.
It's not clear to me, though, what meal the OP was served.

TBH, some of the things the OP complained about sound as though it wasn't necessarily the airline's fault but down to Dial-a-Flight.

keithdc

swingaloo wrote: »

I'd say I didn't get much for my £900 flight except for the occasional bottle of water, no entertainment, no food and a shocking attitude from the staff.

Presumably you got transportation to your destination. That is generally the reason that people fly!

If you want entertainment, food, and customer service- there are venues in the UK.