I had a very good experience from boarding to arrivals.
Boarded almost 48 hrs later after a scheduling change on my initial flight that was not communicated either by kayak of SAA.
I had booked a ticket for a 6:40 am departure in July 2025, but it appears there was a change to 8;00 am, which meant I missed my connecting flight which departed 10 m minutes before I landed. I had seen this problem only the previous day and try to resolve it with South African air, but they are very uncooperative on the phone. All they could say was all flights were fully booked and I ended up buying paying $2,000+ to secure a ticket for my family to ensure we got out of South Africa by Monday, which am currently pursuing with the airline.
Excellent airline. Even with 1.5 hour flight, we got light meal on board
South African Airways on the outside, a very old shabby Qatar Airways plane on the inside
The food options were beef or veg, No alternatives for Hindus, that don't eat beef...
Flight was on time Seats ( business class) are terrible- you keep on slipping down as it doesn’t lie flat Food service is like economy class. Meals ( still wrapped in plastic) are just dropped in front of you
On time flight; otherwise not impressed by the check- in- purchased business class and the aircraft was downgraded; no refund given for the difference. Told I could access the lounge due to the above and was questioned by the lounge check- in person who was not friendly
Flight was cancelled with no notification until I reached the check-in desk at the airport. I also got downgraded and they lost my luggage.
Very bad. Linda the hostess was very rude all the time
We had a good flight experience with this airline despite reading many negative comments
The crew were amazing. They should improve the inflight entertainment
The plane was ok, I was in business class and was surprised there were no pods and each seat was right next to another one. That said it was comfortable and the food and coffee were good. Entertainment wise again I was surprised to see only movies and no TV shows. Check-in at Toronto Pearson was an absolute disaster, which was especially disappointing as I was a business class passenger. There was no dedicated staffing for the business counter and four (4) airlines employees assisted one economy class passenger for about 15 minutes when one could have easily assisted me. Overall room for improvement, particularly in the on-ground experience and airplane infrastructure.
Delay not posted, only departure time listed- not boarding time. We left an hour late and arrived 45 min late. Restrooms had backed up sinks and toilets not flushed ) passenger error). Lots of screen for entertainment didn’t work. But we arrived with our luggage
It is nice and great but the houstees crew are all the way back arguing with customers and behavior issues same of the crew i saw that also all the trips were very much butter!
Our first flight was delayed and when we got off that plane, nobody was really helping to direct us to the next gate. It was very frustrating. One staff simply said hurry, which wasn’t helpful. We had to go a long way to get to the next gate. Another issue on the plane itself was the bathrooms were disgusting and filthy and it didn’t seem like anybody was checking on them were cleaning them and it was a long flight. There was urine on the floor and they stunk. Also, the screen in front of my seat did not work, and I tried different headphones and still had no sound. You would think somehow those things are reviewed occasionally for working order.
They only gave us 30 minutes to make an international connecting flight. We didn’t make the connection but they did do a good job rebooking us despite the chaos. Our bags didn’t make it back and their process for customer support is pretty bad when it comes to luggage.
The Boeing 737 MAX on this route, flown in the middle of the night, is an UTTER FAILURE for business travellers. The whole point of business travel is to arrive alert and recover from travel quickly, and this little aeroplane with its quarter recline uncomfortable business seats does nothing for that. It’s a small step up from economy in that you have decent legroom, but that’s it. Absolute margin at the cost of the traveller.
POSITIVES The hostesses were mostly pleasant, NEGATIVES The full flight wifi was horrible, hardly able to use it. My charger port was not working which made me use my neighbour's port which resulted in an accident which ruined her flight. During dinner, meat ran out when the cart got to us forcing us to eat vegetarian which was not great. We watched everyone around us eating meat. My wifi did not transfer to the second leg of my trip as they promised as they changed the plane. I was thrown off the window seat I booked for the 2nd leg of my journey as they changed planes, all done at my expense. This was not a cheap flight ($2600) which i hurriedly had to book to attend my mother's funeral who passed away suddenly. I was honestly disappointed with the whole saga as I heard Ethiopian Airlines was one of Africa's best.
Delays delays making us miss or next connection to IAD hence having to stay additional 24 hrs in Addis Ababa
We boarded late; there was a problem with passengers that I believe TAAG could have handled much better. The Crew Handled it Excellentely but TAAG was not able to resolve the issues instantly and led to a 2 hour delay
The scheduled departure was delayed 9 1/2 hours and then delayed another 45 minutes due to baggage or something. Apparently the return flight is delayed 10 hours also, which means I miss my Lufthansa flight out of Luanda. Perhaps this is a scheduling change for which people were not notified until the last minute.
I did not receive any confirmation email of this booking and only on receiving it 24 hrs closer to the flight - I tried to cancel it as I has already booked another flight
Short lay-overs and total flight times. Everything else could have been better.
