Other Middle East and Africa Frequent Flyer Programs - Need help w/ SAA refund

(Excuse me if this topic is in the wrong forum and please move if necessary)
In March 2004 I lost my SAA ticket which was purchased thru Majical Holidays out of NYC. I had to purchase a replacement ticket to fly. SAA told me it would be about a year before I would get a 75% refund on my original lost ticket after I filled out all the required forms, which I did. I have been in contact with Majical Holidays and SAA refund department to make sure that I have done everything that was needed for the refund. Ive done everything I could with providing credit card info, etc. Now since September of this year I have been sending email correspondences and leaving phone messasges to Meldred in the Ft. Lauderdale refund/accounting office with no replys back. How do I resolve this and get my refund? I have saved copies of all email correspondences.

Sorry it took me so long to see this...

SAA is pretty unhelpful. You can try emailing one of the cust. service people directly at MarkusHansen@flysaa.com (he's not my friend, so don't cite me from here, but I've had dealings with him with previous problems) and see if he'll look into it, however the FL office seems to offer the same service that's offered here in S. Africa: None.

If you try that and get no response, then write a snail-mail (send it Fedex) AND an email to to the CEO. The execs. at SAA are dropping like flies, and while SAA is trying (and failing) to improve, that may get you some attention as well.

DO NOT FORGET TO INCLUDE DETAILS: Ticket number, contact #, dates of phone calls and email addies, email addies you used, etc. After the strike and the 1-week flight-stoppage in July, SAA is trying to (and needs to) improve their image. So now, maybe they'll listen. Keep us posted.

Will

While I do not know the details of refunds with airlines, what happens if say the person who lost the ticket portion files a claim with the credit card company as long as he/she is within the claim period? I can imagine how tight this would be in terms of time, but still, would a credit card company honour it?

Sorry I didn't post this (http://www.businessday.co.za/Articles/TarkArticle.aspx?ID=1801495) earlier. Check out the refund citation...pretty pathetic, but then again, that's our SAA... :rolleyes:

Will

Meldred in the SAA Ft. Lauderdale office emailed me last week that my refund was issued on 20 October 2005 to Magical Holidays AKA www.skyauction.com . I sent an email and left a phone message with their accounting department with no reponse yet. This is absolutely pathetic.

I paid $1425 usd for the ticket in March of 2004 and finally got my refund. It was $1,194.42 on 23JAN2006. Looks like a 83.8% refund. I hate that they milked that much. I dont know if I could of got it any sooner. Just kept hammering them and hopefully they got tired of hearing from me. What a hassle. Probably 95% of the people give up and thats how the companies make out. Overall still glad I made the trip and bought the stand on the garden route. Nice apprieciation in the time. Thanks all for the help and Willy for the contact info. SAA is horrid in their accounting dept for this long a wait.

I'm glad this worked out for you 91lsc.

But for them to take 10 months? Unacceptable. But then we (I) expect the unacceptable from SAA...

Will

I'm glad this worked out for you 91lsc.

But for them to take 10 months? Unacceptable. But then we (I) expect the unacceptable from SAA...

Will
Actually 7 months at most. Still unacceptable - but in fairness let's note that Majical Holidays also seemed quite happy to sit on the money for 3 months. And from what I can glean here they did the OP no favours in trying to get SA to deliver either.

It really is irksome that SA didn't refund 100%. What have they lost? The OP took the flight he paid for originally. No airport taxes or other levies were due. They had the benefit of his money for a year. So why the reduction? The fact that SA knew from the start that the refunds would be about 75% makes it look like there's always a significant reduction regardless of the risk or out of pocket expenses to SA.

A mishap like this makes a good case for e-ticketing.

A mishap like this makes a good case for e-ticketing.

Sure does... Note that an SAA flight (for example, CPT-JNB) purchased from UA site requires an SAA paper ticket... but a codeshare flight ( that flies an hour later ) results in an e-ticket. Go figure.