clansey1973

I didn't realise until yesterday that SAA of 2022 comprises a "fleet" of <10 aircraft, I was amazed. IIRC IAG own 18% of Comair, so perhaps they may participate in a refinancing. That said, the operating environment in SA may be dire........

scottishpoet

i was told earlier this week that SAA own 3 aircraft

Globaliser

I had a look at schedules for JNB-DUR, which is our most common route, using ACSA's flight information for today.

Of 29 scheduled flights, Airlink accounted for 3, CemAir for 3 (of which 2 were canx), 4 by BA/Comair (all canx), 2 by kulula/Comair (both canx), and 4 by SAA.

The remaining 13 flights were FlySafair.

I've wondered whether this is an indicator of what underlies the operating/financial issues in the current domestic ZA market.

Mark Abdy

I have a BA-Comair flight booked from Durban to Cape Town in October. I have received no notification from BA about any changes. I am tempted to wait a little while to see if the funding they are seeking comes through.

scottishpoet

flights as far out as October will not have been cancelled yet. So do not expect to hear anything in the short term. BA will wait to see how the situation develops

imverge

I have a BA-Comair flight from JNB-MRU in late October (AA award ticket YUL-DOH-JNB-MRU). Currently the only other airline that operates that route is Air Mauritius. I flew SAA a few years back but not no more, they now code share with Air Mauritius.

GinSling76

I’m due to fly from JNB to Victoria falls at the end of July and then back to CPT first week of August. Booked as a BA holiday with car hire in Cape Town. Flights from LHR are on separate reward booking. As a holiday booking do BA have to rebook me on suitable alternatives if they are available rather than just refund me? Have had a quick look on Google flights and only option seems to be Airlink but the prices are really high, especially as a family of 5!

I haven’t had any contact from BA yet and flights not showing as cancelled in MMB. Any thoughts on whether I should wait for them to get in touch or proactively contact them to try to book replacement flights and if so is it best to do this through BA Holidays or Silver Exec Club line?

scottishpoet

flights in july have not yet been cancelled

Proactively calling will not achieve anything as the flights have not been canceled.

Do a little planning, see what alternates are available if the flights get canceled.

Comair still hope they can get the funding to get out of this hence no cancelling flights far in the future

Swanhunter

Safair also run this route and there are SAA metal flights, just not every day.

imverge

Okay good to know. SAA metal doesn't operate on my date.

GinSling76

Thanks, will hold fire with BA then for now and do some research on alternatives. I thought I’d seen up thread or on another site that all June and July flights had been cancelled but hopefully that’s wrong. Really hope Comair get the funding and quick!

konagirl2

Sorry you have been caught up in this and totally understand the most frustrating part is IAG British Airways' lack of communication. We were caught in the March grounding and also had no communication from BA until the flight was officially cancelled 2 hrs before. BA Holidays took over 4 hours to call us back when we had proactively called to ask what we were able to rebook (note to anyone reading with BAH don't bother trying to international call the duty line as it's just a recorded message that tells you to email). And yes it's atrocious there isn't an emergency contact number so you don't spend hours on hold to the customer services number. I'm glad you have flights sorted, Airlink are a good, reliable airline I'll be using from now on.

I am sure you will get your money back but just to manage expectations, we are still waiting for our expenses and compensation from our ~3 day delay in March 2022.

konagirl2

When we got caught in the March grounding, I think it was said around 40% of capacity is operated by Comair, mostly because they run bigger aircraft. So I would politely disagree with ScottishPoet if you can get a rebooking without fare change as per post #10 by CWS above. I would wait until next week once the half term holiday is over but if the change notice is still active I would take advantage and ask to be moved to the Airlink alternatives now if you can. Otherwise it's just a waiting game and you may get lucky that this blows over and the flights run fine, or you may get last minute disruption which makes any alternative very expensive.

Also note when we had disruption in March the airline was already facing strike action because staff weren't happy / weren't being paid on time etc. When grounded in March the staff were present but I suspect this time they aren't being paid so they aren't going to turn up at the airport (if that is what HH upthread found). Last minute disruption is very frustrating and stressful in that scenario when there is noone to speak to at the airport and BA don't answer.

LX039

I have an AA award ticket on Qatar and Comair SFO-DOH-JNB-MRU with the last leg on Comair. I wonder, in the worst case scenario, if I could still keep the award ticket even if the last leg gets cancelled and no OW partner option available? If I had to cancel the entire award ticket and get the points redeposited, I'm afraid the award option to get to that part of the world would no longer be available.

imverge

I’m in same boat only I originate in Montreal. If the last segment on BA/Comair does get cancelled, it won’t affect the SFO-DOH-JNB flights w/ Qatar.