Ask any traveller what they need after a two-week roadtrip on some of the harshest terrain in Southern Africa. Responses will range from a hot cup of coffee, a Bed (with a capital B) or a simple, ‘Just to get home’. You will never hear something like, ‘Watching people at the airport for four hours or trying to sort out flight details with airport staff’. No, you’ll never hear that. That’s because it’s the last thing anyone needs. Well, my fellow travellers, this happened to me at George Airport.
After my 3 000-kilometre journey (read: The great fossil hunt), I was excited to be going home two days ahead of schedule. I had informed the team at the Getaway office of our decision to abort the Kirkwood leg of our fossil road-trip. We had dug up enough information on the subject and felt that venturing to Kirkwood would be a waste of time. I was grateful to hear that the team at the Getaway office had booked a ticket for Wednesday afternoon. I was tired and desperately wanted to get home. My 14h45 flight was 120 minutes away, and home was 180 minutes away. Little did I know that it would be my worst experience with transport service providers ever! I’ve had better experiences at the Site C taxi rank in Khayelitsha.
Boarding denied
My ordeal at George Airport began when I went to the South African Airways check-in point at the airport. After 10 minutes of waiting I was at the check-in-point handing out my ticket to the bloke behind the counter. He looked at it, started typing frantically and then made a phone call. A few minutes later, he put the phone on the hook and told me that I could not board the plane. His explanation was that extra fees needed to make changes to my flight had not been settled. I had 10 minutes to sort it out or forget about flying home that afternoon.
My first instinct was to inform our office in Cape Town. No one had a clue of what the heck I was on about. According to the editorial assistant at Getaway, the flight had been booked on Tuesday and a confirmation had not been sent by the South African Airways. This was in contrast to what I was told by the friendly bloke behind the SAA counter. With two minutes left before the boarding gate closes, I had no time to be sandwiched between such contrasting arguments. I had already found my sleeping spot for the night: one of the lonely chairs at the airport.
The 14h45 flight from George to Cape Town had departed when I received a call from Getaway that SAA wanted a signed authorisation form. Turns out the payment had not gone through the previous day because there was no authorisation form attached to it. This was a bit confusing as the company put a ‘NO PROBLEM’ stamp on the first flight from Cape Town to George which was booked without any authorisation. I mean, I didn’t even flash a copy of the credit at the airport. Now, all of a sudden, authorisation was needed?
Without any hesitation, the form was filled out and faxed to the SAA reservations office in Johannesburg. SAA rewarded the effort with cold silence. As if this was not enough, the editorial assistant made a few calls which received a deafening slam. I had accepted my fate when she called to inform me that she was still waiting for a response from the flight company. Two hours had passed, and one thing had remained the same: I was not going home soon.
While I was facing a night an empty airport, our editorial assistant was working hard trying to reverse that. However, the SAA call centre staff was not making that easy. They had given her ‘please hold’ line that always freaks clients out. After hearing three of those, she requested to speak to the guy in the back office. He had no clue what was going on but was helpful in sorting out the issue. The flight changes were made and I was booked on the 18h10 flight. The lady at the front desk (I wonder what is going to happen when she retires) was too excited to call me and inform about changes in flight times. Finally, I was free, but I couldn’t help but think things would have turned out differently had I taken a different airline.
SAA shortcomings
1. The customer service is slower than the bowel movement of a statue. It takes decades to sort out simple things such as flight changes.
2. Fraud is a serious issue, but it doesn’t mean that it’s alright to harass passengers.
3. The lack of consistency in dealing with third party bookings is appalling. A clear and practical policy towards credit cards payment would do a world of good.
If SAA continues to ignore these problems then it’s a matter of time before they defeat Metrorail and become the worst public transport provider.
Kulula.com. Image by Steven Crane
Why Kulula.com comes out tops
Airline companies, like people are not perfect, but some are definitely better than others. I recommend SAA take a leaf out of Kulula.com’s book:
1.Kulula.com does not require credit cards for third party bookings at the airport. My ID and reference number would have been enough.
2. Kulula.com has not shown signs of deteriorating customer service. The staff is friendly and always willing to help.
3. Kulula.com has been consistent in dealing with third party bookings and credit cards.
Main image by Darren Olivier
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