SAA responds to denied boarding allegations

SAA has responded to allegations of denied boarding and rude staff members following a letter sent in by an agent.

The letter, claiming there was an increase of denied boarding on SAA was published on eTNW on September 20 and a number of travel agents commented on the story saying their customers had similar experiences (see Letter to the editor: SAA tells passengers to ‘go home’).

In its response SAA said overbooking was common in the aviation industry but the experiences of the SAA customers were outside the normal parameters of quality service offered by the airline.

Dileseng Koetle, SAA head communications, explained the proper procedure that should be implemented when a customer has been denied a reserved seat on SAA. The passenger may be entitled to compensation should certain conditions and legal requirements exist. When a flight is oversold then SAA representatives should first solicit for volunteers who will give up their reservations willingly, in exchange for compensation within SAA’s compensation guidelines. If no one will give up their reservation then SAA personnel will offer the customer various options based on the region involved to ensure compliance within markets/regions and more importantly, based on the anticipated arrival delay the customer will be subjected to.

For more information regarding customer service, all SAA customers can contact SAA as below:

Customer Service: SAAcustomerservice@flysaa.com or +27 (0)11 978 2888 or 0860 003 146 (Share Call), weekdays, 08h00 to 16h30 (GMT), excluding South African Public Holidays.