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Thread: SAA say "Pay up"

  1. #1
    Silver Member Eugene's Avatar
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    SAA say "Pay up"

    SAA will from August 1 start charging consumers service fees. The aim is to reduce congestion in queues at airports and SAA's city offices.

    The service fees will apply to all tickets bought directly at an SAA city office in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town or at its airport ticketing offices at OR Tambo International, Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth and East London airports.

    Fees will be:
    * R200 per domestic, regional or international ticket purchased at SAA's city offices;
    * R200 per domestic ticket bought at SAA's airport offices;
    * R500 per regional and international ticket bought at SAA's airport offices.

    Service fees would also apply if a booking was made online and the "pay later" option was chosen and a customer intended collecting and paying for the ticket at an airport or city office. Consumers will also pay a service fee for their Voyager upgrades.

    Association of South African Travel Agents president, Laurie Wilkinson, said "The success that travel agents have had with service fees has no doubt made the airlines envious and they are now copying us. The big difference is that we add a lot of value and do 100 other things such as visas, tours, sightseeing, cars, hotels, etc. The service levels from airline offices are, to be polite, basic! Agents that are doing really well in today's market have upped the ante considerably when it comes to the service we are offering."
    Last edited by Dave A; 11-May-09 at 04:21 PM. Reason: fix character set problem

  2. #2
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    We recently purchased 4 international tickets, which we booked on line, and paid in cash at the airport.
    We did not want a R50,000 purchase on our credit card, due to problems with deposit being cleared anyway! not just the fraud incident! (S.A.A. employees allegedly involved in R14 million credit card fraud)

    Our additional administration cost would have been R2,000 after 1st August.

    That is clearly unacceptable.
    Whilst standing in the queue at S.A.A. a bystander commented that his 7 month old baby when crawling exhibits more intent and purpose than the S.A.A. employees at the ticket counter.

    Their failure to provide quick efficient service, and the public are now not only going to be charged for the "service", but charged excessively.

    Question is what will we do about it?
    The sad fact is that we proabably will do - nothing, except to post on forums, to voice our displeasure.

    S.A.A. seem to be on a mission to turn ordinary South Africans into "grudge buyers".

    The extra administration charge is going to affect:
    Tourists, (2010), and the less fortunate without internet access, or those who go to extremes to attempt to prevent fraud on their credit card?
    not wanting to provide credit card details over the internet. (Count me in that group!)

    The entire pricing structure of tickets is questionable:
    Depending on how many days prior to the flight when booking the ticket: from R1290 on the internet -to R2800 at the airport, any family emergency - the traveller will have no option but to pay the highest cost for their tickets!

    The other day on the internet a return ticket was R1840 (Next day flight!)
    There are no classes on this route - S.A. Express.
    The Internet was not processing bookings on the S.A.A. site.
    Our office is close to the airport, so our relative asked us to assist.
    Went directly to airport - within 15 minutes.
    Ticket cost: R 2640 - (This is prior to the additional charge?)
    Telephoned our office and had someone check the internet which was still listing available tickets at R1840 but still not processing the booking.

    Failure from S.A.A. - and the client must pay the penalty?

    Imagine all businesses using the same pricing method.

    Yvonne

  3. #3
    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    To a large extent they are trying to change purchasing habits. Going old-fashioned paper tickets as opposed to eTickets has cost more for a little while now. This is another step towards automation and not that different from what we've seen in banking in recent years too.

    I'd be doing a bit of fist thumping about the fact that the internet ticketing wasn't working - and the extra cost forced on you by their systems failure. Perhaps it is not too late to write a letter pointing out the problem and asking them for redress. Stranger things have happened.

    It bugs me though that you have to ask in the first place, though. Tiresome.
    Quote Originally Posted by Yvonne Symons View Post
    Question is what will we do about it?
    The sad fact is that we proabably will do - nothing, except to post on forums, to voice our displeasure.
    Which raises the question - what would be an effective method of changing this?

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