SAA
Paying a premium for reduced service offering

I booked a flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg on the SAA website. I checked the confirmation for flight times and cost. On my confirmation email, I noticed I was booked on a Mango flight. I do not mind flying Mango, I do mind: 1. It was not made obvious that I was being put a different airline. 2. I am being charged R522 extra to what Mango would charge had I used their website.
3. My extra R522 gets me a meal voucher. Using Mango's website I could have pre-booked a seat. Neither SAA or Mango call centres are prepared to pre-seat me. This means that on the day of my flight, my extra R522 means I cannot use the business class lounge as I usually do, but I rather have to rush to the airport and get into a shoving match with passengers who have paid a whole lot less than me for their ticket, in an attempt to get a reasonable seat! I cannot get a full refund nor can I get SAA service for SAA prices. I pay more and get less. This is daylight, unfair and unreasonable.
I am 46 years old and have flown SAA domestically and internationally my entire student and adult life, and am saddened that for the first time I am considering changing my loyalty to an alternative airline.

Company: SAA
Country: South Africa
City: National

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