I actually have no issue with SAA, and the fact they cancelled the flight, it happens! A few years ago BA cancelled our honeymoon flights from London to Harare as they cancelled the route, but I called them, and was rebooked on flights to JNB without any issues.

My issue here was that when I saw the flight was cancelled (I saw it on Twitter on the wednesday night), I called Lufthansa and for the first 24hrs they refused to even look into it as their system said 'No'. Everytime I asked to speak to a manager my calls would drop, and even when I did get someone helpful they would say all the right things, but ultimately it didnt help my situation.
When the one guy told me I was wrong and that the flight was not cancelled he told me to just go to the airport as planned. I aske him if he could escalate to his supervisor and he basicaly told me he was right and that I had to accept it. Though out this all I kept my cool (I dont know how sometimes), but I felt quite humiliated.

In answer to your question. Firstly I want Lufthansa to admit that they handled this situation very badly. Secondly I'd like them to offer some sort of goodwill, whether it be a voucher, miles or some other kind of compansation as I do not think EC261 will help if I arrived earlier than expetced? I also want them to read my complaint rather than just assuming its about the actual SAA cancellation.
Considering its my first long haul flight with them (and only 2nd time i've flown with them), it doesnt make me want to travel with them again.
Over the 60 or so flights ive had with BA ive never experienced such bad service, and the one time I did need to complain it was dealt with quickly by a manager who provided Avios as goodwill... infact more Avios that I ever expected.

Here's an extract of the timeline below to give an idea of what happened, maybe i'm expecting too much fro a 5 star airline? Whats your thoughts? What would you have done?

*************** Extract from my complaint with personal details removed ***********************

13/11

21:53 SAA post on twitter about flight cancellations due to industrial action which will affect my LH9542 (SA265) flight on Saturday 16th Nov. This was also already on their website, and circulating on other social media.

23:16 I call LH but I am told that I must call SAA or my Travel agent (Opodo) as it was their flight that was cancelled (even though booking was made with Lufthansa stock tickets)

23:27 I call Opodo and explain the situation, but they are unable to do anything as the information on their system from LH still shows the flight as going ahead. I’m told to call back 09:00 the next day.


14/11

09:00 I call Opodo back. The flight still shows as ‘not-cancelled’ on their system (from information LH provides), so they can’t help. Eventually they call LH and confirm that although the flight is cancelled, the internal system is not showing this correctly so they can’t cancel or re-issue my ticket. LH told them I should call back in 3-4hrs.

Approx 13:00 I call back only to be told that the system still hasn’t been updated. Opodo are unable to make any changes unless LH confirm the flight in cancelled, so I then call Lufthansa to try and expedite due to the short time before departure. At this point I could see it was cancelled on Lufthans.com website (Flight status), and on the LH app under my booking.

During that afternoon I spoke to numerous people at Lufthansa’s Cape Town customer service centre. The first guy didn’t believe me that the flight was cancelled and told me I should just go to the airport as planned. I questioned him, and he told me this was the only option!

I then called back and spoke to another guy (Ben or Benjamin), he was helpful and eventually confirmed that although LH internal system didn’t show the flight as cancelled, he could see it when looking on Lufthansa.com. At this point he spoke to a manager who approved him to rebook me as it was clear that the flight was cancelled (just not on their internal system). He spent quite a bit of time trying to find a new flight on Saturday with another carrier, but all flights were booked. He suggested I could get onto LH9542 a day earlier (Friday 15th), and would add to the notes what had happened so I could call back once I confirmed I was able to travel a day earlier.

17:18 I called back to make confirm I could make the flight a day earlier. I spoke to Matthew. I had to explain the whole story again, and after he initially didn’t believe me that the flight was cancelled, he spoke to his manager, they checked on Lufthansa.com, and agreed to rebook me on LH9542 for Friday 15th.
I spent around 25minutes on the phone and I was happy at the end of the call when Matthew had managed to re-book my flight and assigned seat 69A to me.

19:19 I noticed that the outbound flight had disappeared from my booking in the app and online. I called in and was told the tickets where in the process of being issued, even though I’d had an email at 18:00 with confirmation of tickets.

21:27 I called back yet again as I was unable to check in for the flight. I was on the phone for 50 minutes, and during this time I had to go through the whole story again. I was yet again asked why I had changed my flight as the system showed my original flight as ‘not cancelled’.
As you can imagine my frustration at this point was extremely high. I was then told they would rebook me on a Swiss flight via Zurich, but gave no reason why. The problem is the Swiss flight did not suit my travel plans in terms of arrival time in to JNB.

The agent then said “that’s fine I will rebook you on the SAA flight”
No one at this point could answer me as to why my flight kept getting cancelled, but always assured me that is was now ok and I would have ‘no further issues’!!

After this call I watched my online booking, and tried to check-in. This kept failing, and eventually at 00:00 I called back in, only to be told “Just check in at the airport”. They didn’t even bother to check my booking.

15/11 – Day of departure

I check my online booking, only to find my out bound flight as DISAPERRED… again!!!

I called in again at 06:52, and AGAIN had to explain the whole situation to the Lufthansa agent.

Yet again I was rebooked onto the LHR-MUC LH2477 and MUC-JNB LH9542 flights, and told again that everything was ok and they would send through to the urgent ticketing department (the same place I had been told previous bookings had been sent)

I was told I would be able to check-in once the ticket was issued, which should be 30-60 minutes due to the imminent departure.

08:12 I called in again to chase the tickets and was told the ticket office only opens at 08:00 so it may take some time for them to be issued. I was assured that the request was in a priority queue and would be done soon. They advised me to call back in an hour if I hadn’t heard.

09:15 I called again, and in disbelief I was told the ticket had been CANCELLED again. Again, I asked to speak to a manager, but was refused. Eventually the agent was able to book me on the flight, and confirm the ticket was issues. This allowed me to check in online, but by this time only one seat was available right as the back in the middle section.

This was now less than 3hrs before I was due to leave for the airport, having reported the cancelled flight to Lufthansa nearly 2 days earlier.

16/11 Arrival in JNB

2hrs after arriving in JNB I got a notification from LH that my original flight on 16th had been cancelled and that they would try to re-book me!!! This was only 10hrs before my orginal flight was due to leave Munich, so had I waited until the official conformation I wouldnt have made it to JNB.