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It was with great curiosity that I notice Nico Bezuidenhout announced the turnaround plan for SAA and it's Voyager plan in specific. So let me tell you why the smile on my face was more of a grimace than one of joy...
My wife and I subscribed to their Voyager Credit card and have been Voyager members for 10+years. As loyal South Africans we have always flown SAA whenever we could which is at least once a year and sometimes more than that. We planned out trips around SAA destinations and often flew extra legs to ensure we flew SAA. So we collected Voyager miles where ever we could.
In January 2014 we booked the Companion ticket we qualified for from the credit card for flights to Brazil and paid for the duties and taxes by the 29th. We also booked tickets for our sons to join us on this trip and paid for these tickets in full at that time. We booked and paid for accommodation and non-refundable airline tickets in Brazil, because SAA is world class and nothing will go wrong from their side. Yah right!!!
Suddenly in August we found out that our flights have been cancelled and we have been rescheduled to different dates. All our well laid out plans were in a mess. My wife was on one flight and I was still in the air from SA while I was supposed to be on a connecting flight. My children suddenly were moved to a flight that would have caused us to miss the first leg of a non refundable set of tickets four legs. Miss the first and the rest fall away, in one swoop R28000 gone plus paid accommodation.
I understand that sometimes changes are necessary and out of control, but what made it worse was the treatment we got from SAA Voyager. Stone walling, unhelpful and totally non care about the predicament and financial losses they have caused. Accept or claim a refund, regardless of the fact that what has been planned and paid for will be lost. Only the part we paid to SAA would be refundable. "We do apologise for the inconvenience" is all they could say. After hours on the phone to a help-centre that was not one, every time a new person to speak to, and a system that kept on indicating that "WE" requested the change and not an action on their side. Fortunately our travel agent was able to use her contacts to get the changes we needed even if cost us about R5000 extra to make additional accommodation bookings. BUT it seemed the exciting trip was on again!!
Guess again, two day before our departure date on the 8th of December, we were again informed that flights have changed.....again… and was now back to the same date as our previous and initial bookings.....
As I write this, I am sitting in Uruguay and it is about 21h30 on Saturday evening in South Africa. I about to fly back to Brazil tomorrow to meet our children flying from SA on the 23rd to start or exciting adventure through Brazil. OOPS just opened my email and have now been informed that my children are now flying on the 21st and have to be at the airport at 07h55 tomorrow morning!!!! They haven't even started packing!! After all there are two days before they leave. Panic panic!!!!
Eventually I get hold, at my cost from Uruguay, the friendly agent of SAA and he is so is excited that I am phoning to confirm this flight. Except I am not!!! Oh the changed was requested by my wife according to their system, except it was not.
SAA are trying to bully us in to accepting their changes as if it is our own, so any claim against them will be negated!!
I don't have sleeping place for my adult children, its holidays in Brazil and accommodation is either fully booked or absolutely extravagant. We would have been sitting in our apartment waiting for the 23rd whilst my children were sitting at the Sao Paulo airport waiting for us to pick them up; waiting for two days if I had not by accident seen the emails that I would have normally only worried about on Monday morning!!!
Only as a result of extreme resistance from me, now apparently the system actually confirms my children are booked for the 23rd again!! The system just flipped over and reflected the correct dates. So kind, don’t worry about the stress and the panic and the anxiety. “Is there anything else we can help you with?”
In this process, we were dealt with as if we are idiots, should get in line and should actually be grateful that we have the opportunity to fly with SAA.
Mr Bezuidenhout, if you are concerned with the ever declining fortunes of SAA and specifically the "rewards" programme, don't look at the points system before you look at the people you use to interact with the people you are trying to attract.
Any new programme will fail; it simply cannot succeed with the quality of most of the customer facing people you have. Sort that out and perhaps, just perhaps you will retain people like me: loyal South Africans who actually pays, either directly through supporting SAA, or indirectly through those bail-outs SAA request with more frequency than Father Xmast arrival at our chimneys.
Start caring!
If you don't address this, keep in mind, we now have several airlines connecting us with the world. Airlines that actually care about their customers. Airlines with very good Air-miles systems; rewards that are actually rewarding and not punishing and cruel. Voyager has stuffed us around, have not cared about us, and pretended that they are still the only airline flying from South Africa!!
And I will go with these alternatives regardless of your points systems, your re-inventing programme. I am a customer and you want the money in my pocket, you have to earn it.
Greetings from South America. I am not sure whether SAA will actually return us to South Africa in January 2015. If they have a late flight change, and it might happen if the current record is anything to go by, we might only return much later if at all. In either case, please give my regards to Nico and tell him I say “good luck with your re-invention Reward Programme”.
Pienaar Jordaan, 20 December 2014 Montevideo, Uruguay
(pienaaroj@gmail.com)
