SAA bags best airline award in Africa

[Peter L]

From Fin24.com

Cape Town - South African Airways (SAA) was named the best airline in Africa in a global customer satisfaction survey.The announcement was made during the Skytrax World Airline Awards ceremony hosted at the 50th International Paris Air Show on Tuesday.

Read the full article here

[Captain Gyro]

SAA rated 21 in the World's top 100 airlines (up from 25th last year): http://www.worldairlineawards.com/Award ... _top40.htm

1 Emirates
2 Qatar Airways
3 Singapore Airlines
4 ANA All Nippon Airways
5 Asiana Airlines
6 Cathay Pacific Airways
7 Etihad Airways
8 Garuda Indonesia
9 Turkish Airlines
10 Qantas Airways
11 Lufthansa
12 EVA Air
13 Virgin Australia
14 Malaysia Airlines
15 Thai Airways
16 Swiss Int'l Air Lines
17 Korean Air
18 Air New Zealand
19 Hainan Airlines
20 Air Canada
21 South African Airways

[ARM505]

Oh wait...sorry, just in case:

[80knots]

And congratulations to Kulula for coming: 76th.

Guys at Comair should feel good today.

[henkhugo]

I'm not sure which SAA the "judges" flew on but it sure as hell isn't the same SAA I fly on.... rude cabin staff, crappy meals, aircraft trim that falls off on landing, crappy IFE and that's with all the tax payers money to spend....

[evanb]

For what its worth, here is my 5 cents ...

I am based in the US (Atlanta) and fly approximately 150,000 miles per year, mostly long haul, and have been doing this for about five years - that is a lot of flying as a paid customer. The bulk of my flying is to Africa, slightly less to Europe and Asia, and occasional trip to South America and Australia. The flying is mixed business class and economy class (premium economy where available). Most of the flying is on Delta Airlines and SkyTeam partners (a lot of Air France, KLM, Kenya Airways and Korean Airlines) but I generally do get to fly other airlines quite frequently (I have probably flown most of the airlines on that list in the last few years).

Last week I flew ATL-IAD-DKR-JNB-CPT on SAA in economy (well the first leg was on United) and can honestly say that the flight was pretty pleasant. Seats were comfortable, IFE was pretty extensive and worked without any problems, crew were friendly and service was good. I have no problem flying SAA and think that their product, while not amazing, is pretty good.

[airbusa346]

I don't know..there must be two SAA's, one is making losses and asking the government for bailouts and the other one keeps on winning awards for excellence and customer satisfaction

[trees]

yes, you could actually say there is, the operations side is well run and is the good part of SAA(gasp). The Board and management side however is a rather different story. Some people come on here and slam SAA about their service based on a few newspaper articles about a corrupt government controlling the board and "That flight to Durban where the hostess spilled some coke"...

[henkhugo]

I agree that there seems to be two sides to SAA. Some forum members rave about how great they are while others seems to have experienced from pretty grim service from them.

[Captain Gyro]

I often wonder how many people here on avcom are real aviators with a passion for flying, or just budding politicians with an agenda with a vague interest in flying. The level of hatred and disinterest often directed at the national carrier, written under the disguise of a pseudonym, often makes me wonder what motivates them when they know that fellow aviators flying for the carrier read this forum and are valuable contributors. The level of disdain is likened to that of the comments section of non-aviation sites like News24.

Unfortunately, SAA is run by the government, is highly political, and it's never going to change. Surely real aviators would drop the constant mud slinging about tax payers money, and concentrate on flight operations aspects which concerns us up in the sharp end?

[nugpot]

It's like Nvidia/AMD or Playstation/Xbox. Some people are just Comair fanboys and nothing anyone can say will ever change their minds.

Except if Comair's cadet programme doesn't take any white boys of course. We'll see the boycott then!

[henkhugo]

Nugs I think its more than that.

The public, be it someone in aviation or just normal Joe Soap in the street, have had enough. The service on the SAA flights provided the cabin crew(mostly long haul but some short haul crew as well) and the ground staff at ORT is absolutely appalling. It is a typical government department where the backside doesn't know what the elbow is doing. The check-in counters doesn't even know the SAA baggage policy on USA flights and EVERY time I come back from NYC I get the same issue with the 2nd bag - Sorry sir only one bag on domestic - even after they checked to see the NYC flight stickers on the bag...

It's an absolute joke....

[nugpot]

Over the last few years I have travelled to Europe at least once a year (admittedly in business class) on Air France, KLM, Lufthansa, Iberia and SAA. The service on all of these were comparable, but SAA took it by a small margin and the SAA seats were the best of all the airlines.

Domestically in SA I only travel with SAA and SAX, but in Europe I have flown with Iberia, Lufthansa and KLM and SAA's domestic experience once you are on the aircraft is streets better than the European airlines. I agree that the check-in experience at SAA leaves much to be desired, but having had a 10 minute wait for someone the other day at check-in in CPT, I spent the time looking at the Kulula check-in counters and I have to say that that seemed even worse in some cases than the average SAA experience. Not having flown Kulula (ever) or BA/Comair (for 14 years), I don't have direct experience, so my opinion is probably not worth much.

[henkhugo]

Nugs,

I do believe SAA business class is pretty good but I refuse to pay that price, not because I cannot afford it but because it is simply too much money for the added value.

I beg to differ about the European airlines vs SAA. I flew KLM to Rome last year and had the most amazing onboard service but I had the unfortunate experience of flying Alitalia back to Amsterdam - They make SAA look 5 star! In the USA I mostly fly Jet Blue or Delta and I have to say Jet Blue is substantially better than Delta or SAA and that Delta mainline is substantially better than Delta Connection or America Eagle.

Case in point about just how bad SAA is. This morning my SAA Voyager card got delivered a mere 18 months after I signed up....

[generic]

Any airline is only as good as the cabin crew on the day! Same goes with gnd staff etc!

Well done SAA anyhow!