I am really pleased to see that SAAUSA is active on this blog. I recently started flying with SAA again and see a marked improvement. I just returned from EZE in biz class, one of the best flights I have had in my 20 years of flying. Its all about the "seat" and the "crew". Well done.

[QUOTE=sbm12;18027364]Just like Lufthansa/Swiss, right? And Singapore, too.
QUOTE]

With the difference that LX/LH/OS clearly communicate this on the *alliance website: http://www.starallianceemployees.com...GUIDE_2011.pdf , page 149

The designated *alliance F lounge being their Senator lounges.

For SQ there is no problem when showing them the printed rules - SYD lounge attendants being the most unpleasant. (The Private Room in SIN is not an F lounge.)

Parrish, SAAUSA is based in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. SAA doesn’t fly there. For all we know this could be just a US PR/Marketing company contracted by SAA to raise SAA public profile in the US.

It is odd that there has been no response since.

andreyhaas: As you mention, South African Airways has their North America headquarters located in Fort Lauderdale. It is also where their Customer Care Department and E-Commerce Department for North America is located. If you read any of the FT posts related to SAA in the "Other Middle East & Africa" forum, you will see that SAAUSA frequently posts and respond to customers inquiries. The SAAUSA posts/replies are generated by this office and not a PR company that is under contract with SAA.

Today I got another feel of the SAA experience; I was booked in Y on the flight SA1735 to WDN from JNB. When I got to the ticketing desk, I was told that this is a South African Express flight code-shared with SAA and since South African Express isn’t a member of *A, there will be no miles accrual for this flight. However, the ticketing agent said that I can still use the lounge as a gold *A member. When I got to the lounge, I was told, in a quite a rude way, that I can’t use the lounge either. Just want to let everyone know about one more way how SAA can screw you.

Like when flying MI as *alliance gold you have no lounge access in SIN, except when flying C. At least they are clear as it is a MI and not an SQ flight.

Lounge access with SA looks like a hot topic :D. For rudeness our South African friends at the JNB SA lounges can not be beaten.

Yes, just to give you a sense, I picked up one of the free internet access vouchers when I just got to the SAA lounge counter at JNB, this was before they told me that I can’t use the lounge because I was on the SAA Express flight. When I was leaving, one of the ladies at the counter said: “put the internet voucher back!”. This is how SAA treats *A Gold members!

good experience
 

Was in JNB two times in 2010 and 2011. I was allowed into the lounge with 5 kids and the staff was very nice.
Had another additional flight from HKG to JNB with a clean plane and nice cabin crew as well.

5 kids :mad: . Well, Africans are child and family friendly ;) .

I used the lounge in PLZ without issue while flying on Express.
Not quite. MI operates as a separate carrier while SAExpress is part of SA, similar to UAX or CoEx does in the USA.

I agree and disagree with parts of the posts. I have been going to South Africa from the US for some 15 years.

I think SAA J class is a great product. Economy is not too bad. Their continuing to use the 340 from Iberia is criminal. I have had them from IAD-JNB in J and was furious of the inferior product. I have always found service on board in any class to be excellent. Their catering is also very good.

Ground staff in South Africa is horrendous. Totally incompetent, rude, careless of work and just does not care. If you ever run into irregular ops or a cancelation you will experience the worst service of any airline. I was on a SAA flt from JNB - MUC which was canceled. There are rules for airlines flying into the EU for such an occasion. SAA refused any compentsation, hotels, food. Their continued response was " We are African we do not follow European rules". In comlaining to customer service over many months ( and I was in paid J and Star Gold) they totally ignored me. They took care of the native South Africans including hotels; foreigners slept on the floor of the airport.

If you manage to get on board, and the flight takes off it will be a great experience. If you ever have to deal with any kind of problem on the ground, you have my sympathy.

Actually, they are correct in this policy. Only EU-flagged carriers are required to offer the "right to care" benefits for flights into the EU. For the other carriers only flights departing from a covered airport require the compensation/care.

TonyBurr,
Sorry to hear about your experience with SAA in JNB, I agree with all your statements. LH would be a much better option for flying from JNB to MUC.

I've told you a million times, don't exaggerate. ;)

I don't share your experience. Readily admitting I haven't flown IAD-JNB, my experience with SAA between Europe and SA and internally in SA has been fine.My experience, too.What should they do - allow access to a non-qualifying passenger? I magine the lounge agents are qualified to know who has access which AFAIK for *A Gold means flying with a *A airline.Non-sequitur. You wanted to use the complimentary internet voucher in the lounge as a non-qualifying passenger, couldn't get in but still expected complimentary internet?

It's all very confusing but I don't think this the case.

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_Express says:... so a stragic alliance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_Express

It's not part of Star Alliance and its flights are excluded from the *A African Airpass - an old link at http://www.airfares.com.sg/airfares/...canAirpass.htm - see Flight Restrictions.

It's good to highlight the differences between mainline SA and its local SA partners who generally don't offer *A gold benefits such as extra baggage allowance.

As for lounge access, before I had *A Gold I used my Priority Pass card when flying domestically with SA and/or its partners.