Other Middle East and Africa Frequent Flyer Programs - SA changed their schedules; will not rebook to a direct flight

I am miffed, to put it mildly. We have booked CPT-JNB-MQP, timing it as well as we could to make for a leisure morning in CPT and still some sightseeing in Kruger once we land.

SA has now cancelled the original JNB-MQP and rebooked us on one almost 2.5 hours later. They are refusing to rebook us on the direct CPT-MQP. They are also limiting our rebooking options to only those connecting flights with our original fare class still available. For crying out loud, this is their change, not ours!!! The agents while sympathetic have been, so far, unwilling to meet our requirements.

Can anyone with SA experience recommend the best way to deal with this?

After several calls (and making sure that my booking agent calls at the time SA's rate desk is open), SA compromised and allowed for a booking in a slightly higher fare class on an earlier connection. Still, the "we cannot book you on a direct, because your initial booking was not a direct one" line of defence is not impressive.

Just having a guess, but your flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg was probably booked on South African Airways and the connection to Nelspruit on SA Airlink.

SA Airlink cancelled the flight and not South Afican, likewise the flight from Cape Town to Nelspruit direct is SA Airlink, so the fare revenue has no doubt been split between SAA and Airlink, SAA would no doubt have restrictions depending on the fare class booked.

I dont think South African Airways is at fault here........ Anyway just a guess

Just having a guess, but your flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg was probably booked on South African Airways and the connection to Nelspruit on SA Airlink.

SA Airlink cancelled the flight and not South Afican, likewise the flight from Cape Town to Nelspruit direct is SA Airlink, so the fare revenue has no doubt been split between SAA and Airlink, SAA would no doubt have restrictions depending on the fare class booked.

I dont think South African Airways is at fault here........ Anyway just a guess
Your guesses are highly astute. ^ Indeed CPT-MQP is Airlink, and so was the cancelled JNB-MQP. Is SA at fault here? Well, I bought tickets for flights marketed by SA, sold by SA and issued on SA stock (083 ticket numbers).

Given that both the cancelled and the direct flight are offered by the same regional carrier of SA, there is even more reason to accommodate and reduce inconvenience to passengers.

I am miffed, to put it mildly. We have booked CPT-JNB-MQP, timing it as well as we could to make for a leisure morning in CPT and still some sightseeing in Kruger once we land.

SA has now cancelled the original JNB-MQP and rebooked us on one almost 2.5 hours later. They are refusing to rebook us on the direct CPT-MQP. They are also limiting our rebooking options to only those connecting flights with our original fare class still available. For crying out loud, this is their change, not ours!!! The agents while sympathetic have been, so far, unwilling to meet our requirements.

Can anyone with SA experience recommend the best way to deal with this?

I tried the ITA tool, and it seems like the fare splits in Joburg. i.e. you pay a CPT-JNB-CPT fare, AS WELL AS a JNB-MQP-JNB fare. So you paid for CPT-JNB as one 'leg' and then JNB-MQP as another. So you never paid for a CPT-MQP fare: you paid for CPT-JNB and JNB-MQP, which, whilst having a stop in Joburg, still gets you to MQP. For accounting purposes, it could somehow make sense to rebook only that one part of the fare.

Silly, yes. Corporate sense, not sure. By the way, why didn't you book the CPT-MQP non-stop in the first instance? Customer service, perfect SAA quality