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Sa(a)d Again
There are
loads of people that can relate to parts of this story. In fact the
headline itself probably got your attention to read this far.
Any thinking
person will by now have realised that South African Airways
basically have the monopoly on air travel between Lusaka and
Johannesburg. And it seems that this monopoly is reflected in their
attitude, service (including on-board) and, above all, their
charges. When Comair came into Zambia with their reduced prices,
SAA were very quick to compete but since the departure of Comair,
SAA prices have slowly crept up. The bottom line – there is nothing
we can do about it. We can not exactly boycott SAA and fly another
airline!
So let’s start
with attitude and service. Having tried for two hours to reach the
SAA offices and continually getting a recording, I persevered -
dialled the number on their recording and got cut off; dialled the
help line and there was no reply; tried a travel agent to get a
different number as well as verification on pricing structure but
they were unaware of this pricing procedure. Tried the different
number supplied to get the same recording with the same numbers!
Now everybody can relate to this – a recorded message is annoying
and extremely frustrating. Short of getting in your car from town
to Kabulonga and wasting another hour just to make a booking – at
least travel agents are friendly and efficient with their bookings.
What is the point in having technology when you cannot operate it?
On board
service ….. mmm well – need more be said? Travel to Johannesburg
and receive that really ‘elegant’ cardboard box with an extremely
dried out BAP roll (we could write what BAP stands for but this
is a family magazine). Compliment this ‘meal’ with a packet of
crisps or a chocolate. Now this is everyone’s perfect lunch – the
only difference is we pay a part of $360 for it! But if you connect
within South Africa you receive excellent, friendly and
compassionate service. The meal arrives on a tray (with a knife and
fork) hot pasta meal, fresh buns, butter, biscuits and a dessert.
And this meal and flight costs $210 – what a difference.
To go back to
the reason for trying to get through to SAA in the first place was
to verify a story. A family were desperately trying to get on a
flight immediately, because of family bereavement. This was
explained to SAA. They tried in the late afternoon to get through
to secure seats on the next day’s flight and failed – the recording
was working! They also tried the airport but there was no reply.
Now bear in mind this is a family trying to deal with grief and who
just want to get to SA in order to be with their family. They were
told in order to secure their booking today they would have to pay
the full fare. They could not get on the excursion class because of
such late notice and that the computer had closed for this flight.
This meant buying an open ticket as well as another $400 to secure a
ticket to East London. So approximately $800 each for a
family of four! Not everybody has that type of money lying around
in an account for this use. Now on top of the stress of a family
member passing away – you now have the stress of dealing with SAA.
Surely in a situation like this the computer is not always correct.
Just because the computer has been closed for that section of the
plane does not mean you cannot sell seats. There was no mention of
the flight being full which would then be another story for the
extra fare. Eventually they managed to get a relative in South
Africa to secure a booking and ticket for them. The alternative was
to wait at the airport in the hope of getting on the plane at the
excursion fare. Had they not had a relative who could help, they
would have had to pay the extra money and there was no change of a
refund.. So SAA win every which way!
Come on SAA
stop monopolizing or using the Zambian public just because you can.
We are a polite nation but do not use us for your gains. One day
another airline (hopefully a Zambian one) will start operating and,
once again, you will have to compete for our loyalty and money. |
May 2005