South African Airways (SAA) refunds department for a cancelled flight, and the results showed that it remained dysfunctional. SAA promised first-class customer service and restoration of the airline to its former glory when it took to the skies again on 23 September 2021.
It quickly emerged that this was easier said than done. Shortly after re-launching, SAA made sweeping changes to its new international schedule. The airline also faced picketing by workers represented by the South African Cabin Crew Association (Sacca) and Numsa.
These workers are unhappy about unfair working conditions, including a 35% pay cut and the airline’s bloated management structure. The new SAA has another big problem — refunds. The airline owes money to thousands of travellers who booked flights that were cancelled in 2020 and 2021.
Refunds are particularly important amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, where government regulations can prohibit travel at short notice.
To book a flight with confidence, travellers must know they will get their money back should the flight be cancelled. It is not the case with SAA.
MyBroadband previously tried all available channels to get a refund on a cancelled flight, but wherever we turned was a dead end. We even completed the online form to receive a refund in the form of SAA vouchers two months ago, but this also proved fruitless.
SAA told MyBroadband it had committed additional resources to accelerate refunds and bring quicker resolution to customer queries after an article about this problem.
SAA spokesperson Vimla Maistry said they are improving on their processing of requests for refunds. “This is a priority for SAA in rebuilding customer confidence,” she said.
“The benefits of the additional resource will become increasingly evident over the coming weeks,” Maistry said.
Apart from an automatic reply promising “a staff member will attend to your request and be in contact with you once your refund is processed”, there has been no communication from SAA.
Numerous SAA clients who tried to receive refunds from the airline shared similar experiences with MyBroadband. It is currently unclear whether SAA is processing any refunds or whether it has money for refunds.
Despite the problems, Maistry reassured MyBroadband that the processing of customer refunds remains a priority for SAA. Our commitment to deploy additional resources and accelerate the refund process for a quicker resolution for our customers is underway,” she said.
“Although additional resources were deployed to man the telephone lines and reply to emails since mid-October 2021, the ability to respond remain under pressure as personnel are currently on refresher training from 2 to 15 November.”
“In the interim, we have obtained additional relief resources to attend to calls and emails from Monday, 8 November. We sincerely hope this will be adequate until all personnel are fully trained by 15 November.”
She said they are aware of the high call volumes and instances where customers have not been able to reach SAA. We sincerely apologize for this, and we’re working hard to build capacity to manage this situation,” Maistry said.
Source: mybroadband
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