So Angry

The line between finding a company acceptable and absolutely despising it seems to be thinner than I ever thought.


Yesterday, after years of service, and more than 300 good flights, SAA managed to infuriate me in mere minutes. I have not been this angry or exasperated in many years. This one incident was enough, even after so many perfectly acceptable journeys, to destroy any loyalty I felt for this company. Funny how it just takes once incident...

The day started out well in that my 05h45 flight to Johannesburg got me to Johannesburg with little fuss. Except for the small matter of a stone cold breakfast of potatoes, spinach, sausage, and scrambled egg. Very tasty!

This afternoon, though, found me searching for my boarding gate. After referring to the monitors, I made my way to the stated gate, only to stand in a horrendous queue. Once I got to the front, I was informed that I was in the queue for the Durban flight. Checking the monitors again revealed that my flight was still not boarding, but would be boarding at another gate. At the other gate I was rudely informed that I had been offloaded. What?????

Now starts the good part! The lovely lady at the gate waved her hand in the direction of the check in counters and told me I would have to sort it out. Confused and annoyed I headed off to the check in counters, to stand in another queue, to be told that I really needed to be at the ticket counter. The ticket counter lady told me that I really needed to be talking to the Team Leader in a red jacket. The Team Leader in the red jacket told me that I would have to pay for an upgrade to my ticket as announcements were made about the gate change.

I understood how they could not find everyone but to make me pay for an upgrade when they had a problem and failed to communicate with me was going a bit far. The Team Leader disagreed and explained that announcements had been made and thus I had been communicated too. I must admit, I did not hear a single announcement. Then again as far as I was concerned, I was in the right queue! He then said there was nothing he could do. I disagreed and said he could sort it out. He bluntly told me that he would not be explaining this cost to his superiors!

So off I went to upgrade my ticket, paid my hard earned R707 over to a company that did not deserve it in the least, and angrily went back to the lounge I had not long previously departed.

At the ticket counter, I could not help but read the giant list of SAA values; people first, safety, accountability, integrity, reliability. I could not argue with safety but the rest are most certainly in doubt. And I was not the only one; at least 4 other people suffered the same fate.

It would have been so simple for anyone to actually treat me as a customer. Some empathy and help would have gone a long way. I had after all paid for their services and yet I was treated like to the naughty kid at school who was sent to the headmaster. I am amazed at how simply they could have avoided the issue; by walking the 60m to the gate that they had originally indicated and asking...

The biggest irony was that I spent the day in Johannesburg with a number of customer service experts compiling a wicked customer service intervention. I now have a wonderful example of personal experience to use in all my courses!