FlySafair / Safair Operations
reviews and complaints

On 26 November 2023 I took a flight from Qheberha PLZ to JNB OR Tambo, Flight (FA239) at 20:50. I dropped my ID Card while trying to store my luggage in the upper storage compartment and it was immediately picked up by the flight attendant, I tried to call her, however she was walking very fast. She came back minutes later and I asked her about my ID Smart Card that she picked up and she told me she took it and gave it to one of the groundman, she offloaded the ID and that I should go to the lost/found at OR Tambo and check with them. When I got there it was closed.

Hi, we flew from Johannesburg to Durban on Tuesday 17th October on flight FA262 at 14:20pm. Booking reference number 4Z90B4. We checked in 2 big pieces of luggage and 2 small pieces of luggage which all had locks. When we arrived in Durban and collected the luggage all 4 locks had been clearly broken off and our contents moved around with perfumes missing in our vanity bag. This happened to my brother in law who arrived the next day as well. Clearly a regular occurence. This is one of the reasons we left South Africa, and will never be back. Such a terrible experience!

Absolutely disgusting!

False advertising and misleading information that exploited me to pay for a non existent product and service.

On the 18th of June 2023, I paid for lounge access and premium seating with my flight ticket BOOKING REFERENCE: WG6738, but they didnt allow me any access to any lounge and there was no premium seating!

This was false advertising and misleading information that exploited me to pay for a non-existent service and product!

I call foul.

Please contact me immediately!

Good day I flew from OR Tambo on Tuesday morning October 10th at 08:25. When presenting my boarding pass to board, I was told my seat had been changed. I said OK as I was a bit flummoxed, I like the isle seat near the wing. I was put in row 33 D , the toilet behind me, no window and cramped.

I suffer from anxiety and claustrophobia and was extremely uncomfortable. When I arrived in Cape Town my joints and muscles had seized up from the anxiety. Today is the first day I can use my hands properly but the joints are still sore. I find this totally unacceptable and am very disappointed as I always use FlySafair and never have bad service.

There was also a delay as passengers were moved from flights and we had to wait for luggage to be swapped between planes. This led to extreme anxiety cramped in the corner.

Didi Seddon

[protected]@axs2.net

I am a regular Flysafair customer and would like to point out your extremely poor customer service at the O.R.Tambo check-in counter for flights to Mauritius. We checked in on 20 July and only two counters were open, with a very long queue of people waiting. The supervisor tried to handle a query from a Ghana citizen about his return flight/visa. Both ladies at the two check-in counters left their stations and also took part in the conversation with this passenger. We waited for 45 minutes before the one lady returned to her post. She never informed any one of the passengers what was going on while we waited, and was extremely unfriendly when she eventually helped us.

On my previous trip to Mauritius on 13 April I also experience very slow and unfriendly service at the same counters, but did not complain at the time because I thought it was an isolated case. I am trying to support our local airlines where possible, but expect better service.

I was on a domestic flight traveling from Durban King Shaka intl Airport to Johannesburg OR Tambo International Airport on Friday 28th July - flight FA269 dep Dur 20:10, pre-selected seat 16d, aisle seat.

At approximately 19:50, a passenger entered, looking for a place in overhead luggage compartment to store his luggage and found place above my head and placed his bag there. It was not properly closed and as a result a glass perfume bottle, about 100ml, fell out from and hit the top of my head, causing me to black out for few seconds. I was dazed, dizzy and confused and burst out crying due to excruciating pain experienced.

A flight attendant witnessed this incident and asked whether I was okay and if she could get me some water. I said no and she proceeded to perform her duties. Once she was done, she returned to me asking whether I was fine or feeling dizzy. I nodded affirming same and asked for an ice pack. She brought a glass filled with ice cubes with no cloth or anything suitable to apply this to my head injury. My husband used his hankerchief, placing the icecubes in it, tying it up tied it up and used this to ease the pain.

During this time, there was no incident reported about me sustaining injury and no senior officer was notified about this mishap.

I would like to to find out from your organization what measurements if any, or first aid requirements are in place for passengers or crew as a result of this.

From an observation point of view and a simple request for an ice pack, it seems that your airline isn't equipped and you don't even have this in the medical kit, personally I feel that this really poses a risk in the long run for anyone traveling on these aircrafts. God forbidding they don't experience this kind of trauma which I've had to endure.

The passenger was apologetic, yes I do understand that it's human error, but he could have been more cautious and avoided this incident from happening. My husband also enquired about whether carrying such heavy objects was permissable on the flight and the attendant said yes.

The impact in which the glass bottle fell and hit my head was unexpected and was a really traumatic (ouch) moment.

I am a frequent flyer with your airline and have also checked your web page re the occupational health and safety policy, however didn't trace this material.

I am still in a lot of pain after this incident. On my return home yesterday morning, I've consulted with a GP and was prescribed meds and given a referral letter to get a skull x-ray done. Awaiting the result from x-ray.

I flew from JHB to DBN on the 15th of July. Unfortunately, when I was disembarking I left an old phone on the plane.

I reported this within an hour and a half of disembarking. I was able to provide the EXACT location where the phone was left. However, FlySafair has been unable to return my phone to me.

These planes are supposedly checked and cleaned between flights. Assuming this occurred, FlySafair staff seem to be light-fingered. I was told that the plane left again (almost immediately as they do) for CPT. I was also told that they would make contact with the plane while it was in the air in order to ask the crew to look for the phone. I received no feedback.

It is appalling that nothing was found/handed in. They were informed via several different means that the phone had been left and was provided with a detailed description of the phone and the precise location where the phone had been left. Their inability to locate it is shocking.

I booked a single ticket flight last night from CPT to JHB for 18 Aug and back again on 27 Aug. Immediately after doing this I see the flight landing at Lanseria airport and my daughter also has to board again at Lanseria. To change it to OT Jhb I had to pay an additional fee of R1400 while the change was done immediately after I received my flight details via email,why was this neccesarry?. This means for the flight that would have cost me R2600 increased to R4150 which includes the reservation of a specific seat for which I had to pay an additional R60.

Flysafair is definitely not as cheap as I thought, because within 10 minutes of correction I had to pay R600 as well as the higher cost for changing the flight.

I am still awaiting my changed e-ticked as confirmation of my booking.

Ive booked a return flight in September 2023. I have now had some unforeseen stuff come up and need to cancel.

Upon requesting to cancel my flight, not only will I be charged R300 per ticket, even though the flights are still over 3 months away, but I've also just found out I wont be getting my money back. Instead they want to give me a "voucher" to use at a later date minus the R600.00. I don't want a voucher! I want my money back! I need my money back.

I'm extremely disappointed and frustrated with the service delivery of Safair as my flight was cancelled due to technical aircraft issues on flight FA260 to Durban today. I planned to attend my brother's funeral at 11h00 and couldn't get there due to the lack of airliner reliability.

We boarded the plane at 06h30 and were on the runway to take off at full throttle when the aircraft power cut just before lift off. We were subsequently shuttled back to the terminal and waited for an hour for them to resolve the technical problem. They claimed it was a cabin door that wasn't closed properly. After an hour we boarded the same aero plane repeating the abovementioned process with the problems remaining unresolved. I guess we were "guinea pigs" through the testing process after the repairs.

What irks me is the lack of client feedback / updates from the flight crew, which made the flight experience even more unpleasant besides the poor aircraft reliability, lack of routine maintenance and thorough inspections by their Engineering team.

After the second flight failure, we were hurdled into long queues for a measly R100 meal voucher and rescheduling of flights. Safair lacks urgency the get their clients to the point of destination apart from the time wasted (7 hours) without any amicable resolutions as all other flights were fully booked. Surprisingly, Safair wants to claim market share but lacks the ability swiftly deal with client frustrations and come up with alternative arrangements to address distressed clients especially if flights were cancelled due to their own fault.

Safair believes that a R100 meal voucher makes up for the lost day at work, failure to get us to the point of destination and participate in the emotional / spiritual rituals at a family funeral gathering, shuttle and parking costs apart from the frustrations in dealing with poor service delivery as a result of Safair's lack of safety standards / reliability of their support crew.

My flight cancellation and refund was also very clumsy and inefficiently handled. Not sure when to expect the refund as they claim it will take up to 21 days to sort out. I still don't understand why it would take so long !

Never rely on Safair to get you to your point of destination safely and on time. Safair is definitely not my airline of choice. "Frustrating and disappointing experience"

In April 18th I booked a ticket through FlySafair website and paid 200R extra to have an option to cancel my booking with 80% of refund - all through the buying process, the word used by the company was refund, not voucher. Unfortunately less than a month later, on May 14th, I actually had to cancel my trip, which was supposed to happen in May 26th. That is when I found out that FlySafair does not actually refund - they gave me a voucher to be used in the next 12 months. I won't be living in South Africa anymore and will not have a chance to use this voucher. This is absurd considering I paid extra to have the right to a refund. Completely frustrating experience, would not recommend this company to anyone. I feel scammed by FlySafair.

I am very disappointed in the 30% on 3 May 2023. I went through the entire process of booking two tickets on the discount price. As I was going on with the process I confirmed the price of the ticket and I got two tickets from Johannesburg to George at a low price of R1459. I filled in all the information and kept on checking the price until I had to give my credit card details. When the payment went through and I received my invoice I was charged R4318. I am shocked and can not believe this happened. Why are Safair so dishonest? I hope there is a way that Safair can solve this matter.

So what happened was that when I did check in to leave for DBN on the 07 April, we had 2 suitcases one, for my daughter and one was mine. The travel agency that did book our bags advised that I can carry one bag as hand luggage and one bag must go into the plane’s cargo hold, which was fine for me. When I got to the check in counter, the Flysafair travel agent told me that we needed to book both the bags into the cargo hold and none can be take into the plane. I explained to him what the travel agent said, but he insisted that both must be booked in other wise he could not help me.

I then proceeded to make the payment at the Flysafair counter which cost me a further R500 (approx.) which was an unplanned expense. I am not happy with this as there were many other SAFAIR passengers in front and behind me that were pushing big suitcases as hand luggage which they then took with them and placed in the planes parcel rack. Last night the lady in DBN weighed our bags and the weight was 11.3kg for the travelite bag and the Cellini gab weighed in at 12,9kg.

Please can you investigate the matter as I feel that I was being discriminated against. While some were made to take their suitcases in the plane as hand luggage, I was told to pay for it to go into the cargo hold.

My mom 80 years old, was booked on flight FA 259 this morning 10 past 10, the flight was delayed, and moved to 17.35. now its been re-scheduled for 19.05. Needless to say they are sitting in wheelchairs on George airport since before 9 am this morning. They only got a breakfast voucher. my other is a serious diabetic that needs attention and needs to eat often in a day. she also needs to catheterize her self 4 times a day in a sterile environment. how the hell can something like this happen? I am so disgusted with your services. I am definitely taking this further. there is not even a contact number to speak to anyone.

I am extremely disappointed in the way my luggage was handled. Flight EW1EFI to Johannesburg @09:50 on the 22/03/2023. When checking my luggage in I asked for a cable tie to seal my bag.

When arriving in JHB at the lodge I stayed, I saw that the cable tie was missing, all my clothes was disheveled, and my toiletries and makeup was also taken out of their separate bags, just lying loose in my bag.

I had no sharp objects or anything that suspicious in my bag to explain why they had to go through my bag. To top this off the front compartment on my polo bag was half ripped off and completely striped. This is not the first time my bag has been opened, but the first time my bag has been damaged.

Kindly find pyrographic evidence attached.

I Flew on flight FA393 at 9.30am from Dur to Jhb on the 28th February, Lebo Letabe and Kashanka Kruger was rude no smiles gave dirty looks in fact. i travel from south sudan to durban every two months as well as 9 other Expats. I have never experienced such rude staff members who have such high opinions of themselves. I sent numerous emails of my complaint to [protected]@flysafair.co.za and no one has responded, our large team of Expats will not use this airline again.

My parents were booked on flight FA464 on the 15 Feb 2023 from Durban to CT.

My father is an amputee (with 1 leg) and my mother has had 3 knee replacements. SO wheelchair assistance was booked for both parents. My sister accompanied them on the flight as it was the 1st time my dad was flying after his amputation and always had reservations of flying for the very reasons and events that transpired on that day.

I am a frequent flyer both overseas and local so very familar with the procedures for wheelchair assisted passengers and was horrified to hear of the experience they had.

*Wheelchair assisted passengers normally board first then other passengers board - Mr Naiken was still in his wheel chair and not yet assisted onto slipper chair..boarding gates were open to other passengers.

*Had extreme difficulty getting onto slipper chair as above knee amputee

and little to no assitance from helpers assigned to help him were provided. In fact they had no idea how to assist so clearly were not trained.

* My mum and sister were assisting him more than the airline staff assigned to him as they Didnt pick him up properly or assist him onto chair ..just held him lightly and he couldnt manage on his own and almost slid to the floor!

*my mother and daughter were both distraught and been a very traumatic experience for all due to the incapability of the airlline staff and all the other passengers looking onto them whilst these events were taking place.

* also had requested wheelchair assist for Mrs Naiken but was denied...i Did not delve in to this as there were obviously more serious issues to deal with.

They need to fly back to Durban and now have no confidence at all in using your airline if this is the caliber of staff and service provided by your airline.

If your airline is not capable of providing a service then dont offer it.

upon arival to my hotel room. i noticed items missing when unpacking my back.

From the time i collected my bag, same was in my possession all the time.

below a list of items stollen and flight details

Safair

Flight : FA417

Seq: 176

Pnr NO : 2FX3K2

DEPT 29/01 DBN TO JHB # 15:30

• Pringle Shirt x3

• Pringle belts x2

• Sebago’s Shoes x1

• Sneakers x1

• Hand Watch x 1 – fossil

• Perfume 1x bottle lapidus (amongst all my toiletries in smaller bag.. )

• Carton of cigarettes – Peder Stuyvesant

My daughter flew today. Blantyre, MALAWI to East London, SA. Changeover in Johannesburg.
First airline - Ethiopian airways. Baggage allowance 2x23kg plus carry on 7kg.
One ticket originating in Blantyre, MALAWI.
Upon arriving in Johannesburg, flysafair refused to allow her baggage on the plane unless she paid R250 per bag (x2) as an add on fee.
IATA regulations clearly state the MSC rules for baggage allowance is taken from the first leg of the journey (on a single ticket). This was Blantyre to Johannesburg and had 2x23kg and 1x7kg included on the ticket.
How can I get compensation for this breach of the IATA regulations?