Swanhunter

Airlink will interline to BA. BA to Airlink - no chance.

womble.travels

Thanks I did post this on the JNB thread too but in case you know

For a flight arrival into JNB at 0915 (BA), would a 2h15m self transfer be possible to catch an onward Airlink flight to LUN departing at 1130? would be flying business on BA and with luggage so requires re checking. This is for late Oct.

Upon exit from baggage reclaim are there Airlink desks there where would I be able to drop off luggage or would I have to go all the way up to the main check in desks?

wfiring12

Does anyone on this threat have experience with CemAir within SA? I have a need for some trips later this year where CemAir is the only direct (and with better times) to/from Plettenberg Bay. If they are a disaster, I can go with my trusted Airlink to George and deal with the drive.

Swanhunter

Airlink international check in closes 50mins before departure. So you have 1h25 to arrive, clear immigration, customs and recheck. Airlink check in is fast IME but there are no recheck desks after international arrivals so you will have to head upstairs.

Personally that would be too tight for comfort. However if you have a good fallback option(s) then it might be worth a go.

womble.travels

sure ok many thanks that's helpful. The next flight is around 4pm so would be a longer transit! There are flexible ticket options but not sure if they allow free same day changes and what the cutoff times are in case I am delayed , although would probably be classed as no show in that case and no point.

Steve_ZA

We had flights booked with Cemair in 2019 when they had some issues with the regulator and landed up in a bit of financial trouble.

They cancelled our flights in the end and it was impossible get hold of them, they stopped answering their phones or responding to emails. We did eventually get our money back but decided to avoid them in future.

I would have concerns about their financial position in these times although they are still flying so perhaps they are doing OK.

wfiring12

Thanks, I don't think I'll give them a try in this case.

squeeler

I was able to get the original routine TPs and Avios, with the help of GGL team. It took a couple of e mails, with the usual cut and paste responses from Customer Services. But GGL sorted it out.

HarryHolden68

BA are contributing to the cluster duck of long wait times that tie up staff in the call centres and service desks. I was caught up in the Comair collapse the day it happened. I arrived at JNB for a flight to PLZ. Bar a couple of A4 sheets of paper advising an E-Mail address, there was no assistance in the airport. I tried calling the Gold line twice, and was cut off after 1-hour (and £36 of cost) each time. In the end I applied for a refund (which arrived 20 days later) and rebooked myself on Airlink.

I have twice written to BA asking for Original Routing Credit and compensation for their inadequate communication systems. This is the reply I received today:

Dear HarryHolden68

Our final response

Thanks for your email.

Whilst your booking was made through British Airways, the operating carrier of your flight was a separate entity to British Airways, owned by Comair Limited. Therefore all claims with respect to Comair flights were historically handled independently by Comair in accordance with its responsibility as operating carrier.

As your flight departed a non-EU and non-UK country and was operated by a non-EU and non-UK carrier, the compensation provisions of EC Regulation 216/04 do not apply. Following Comair’s insolvency, the position remains unchanged, and British Airways is unfortunately unable to further progress your complaint.

If you’re still unhappy with the outcome, and want to take it further, you can refer your complaint to the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution. CEDR is an independent dispute resolution provider, which is certified by the Civil Aviation Authority. They decide on any disputes between airlines and passengers that can’t be resolved using the airline’s own complaints procedure.

A few notes about contacting CEDR:

• Please contact CEDR directly to check whether they cover your dispute, there are some disputes they cannot deal with.
• Please check their website here for contact details.

If CEDR take on your complaint, we’ll withdraw any previous offer of settlement we’ve made. If CEDR make a judgement on the issue, their decision will be final.

I hope this information is useful to you.

Best regards

I wonder if these people are badly trained, badly led, badly motivated or deliberately instructed to avoid the issue at hand until the customer gives up in frustration. I really do believe it is the latter. I have had one more attempt at getting an answerand then I will ask at the airport next week if there is anyone would like some feedback before giving it anyway.

Schwann

Harry, for future reference.. you need a free Skype account.. with wifi you can call the Gold Line 0800 number to your heart's content for no cost.

andymcdonnell

https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article...47/231194.html

I’m not sure how reliable this is or exactly what’s intended. SAA to join OW? BA & SA to form a joint venture?

TeflonMan

I think it's pretty reliable. It's just not firm (yet). Would make sense for both BA and SAA. If it's set up in the right way, SAA would not have to move across to OW from Star.
Personally, I would love to see some sort of BA-branded operation return to SA. And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one.

Radiation Station

Has anyone managed to get BA to rebook them on to SAA for a domestic connection, rather than Airlink? My BA flight LHR-CPT was cancelled and there is no space on any direct BA flights now on our departure date. But if we go via JNB and connect on a domestic carrier for JNB-CPT, the next Airlink flight with two business class seats on it is about 8 hours after we arrive in JNB (arrival 10.15am, departure 6.10pm), which is very inconvenient and wastes the first day of the holiday. Conversely there are much better flight times for JNB-CPT available on SAA (eg 1pm).

BA currently refusing to rebook us on QR for the whole trip, as that rebooking policy apparently only extends up to 29th Oct and we are travelling in November.

Thanks for any assistance, this is proving quite stressful to reroute.

Flying Doctor

I would call back. BA has been rebooking using both Airlink SAA.....
FD.

Grumpyflyer

BA Holidays booked us onto SAA with no problem whatsoever for a JNB-CPT-JNB when Comair went under although it was part of a round trip from and to Heathrow.