SAA ripping foreign customers off??

[ColdFingers]

I and 5 of my colleagues have been flying regularly between Johannesburg and Entebbe over the last 5 or 6 months. We have always managed to get return air tickets on SAA for between (+/-) R5 800.00 and R6 000.00. This has been regardless of whether you book from SA (in Rands) of from Uganda (in US Dollars). Obviously the Rand/Dollar impacted on the Rand prices when buying tickets from Uganda, but the price has always been within this range.
In all instances we bought the tickets via http://www.flysaa.com. Also, in all instances, the Economy Saver class was used.
One of my colleagues flew back to SA for a week’s “home leave” at the end of August. He discovered that when booking from Uganda, the Economy Saver class ticket was no longer available. The cheapest available was the Economy Plus class. The price was US Dollars 776 – which at R10.40 to the dollar is just over R8 000.00.
So it appeared that by removing the “Saver” class for Ugandan customers, SAA had increased the cheapest price of Entebbe-Johannesburg-Entebbe tickets by about 33%.
My colleague phoned the SAA call centre and we were very impressed with an email response within 24 hours. But unfortunately the response given did not make sense. They explained that it was a supply and demand issue. I checked tickets for the Entebbe-Johannesburg=Entebbe route for the next 18 months and the price was always the same – USD 776 - and no “Saver” class tickets were available over the 18 month period.
My colleague responded to the SAA call centre and explained that it definitely was not a supply and demand issue. It was simply that the “Saver” class ticket was no longer available to Ugandan customers.
To the credit of the SAA call centre the, issue had obviously been escalated to an Assistant Manager, Customer Service who, again within 24 hours, sent us a very detailed response. Unfortunately, all the e-mail achieved was to confirm what we had seen but did not explain why the Economy Saver class ticket had been removed for Ugandan customers.
My colleague again responded with the above message. No response. Nothing. They have now gone dead quiet. I fear that they cannot find a reason and they have implemented the “if we keep quiet the problem will go away” strategy.
I am planning a home visit in the middle of October and I am not keen to pay 33% (+/- R2000) more than I used to. I will now consider using Kenya Airlines or Ethiopian Airlines. OK, it will take one ‘ell of a lot longer to get home but then at least I will not be ripped off by SAA.

[evanb]

It is rather normal to price tickets differently dependence on where the ticket originates. For instance tickets between South Africa and the United States have historically been priced lower in South Africa than in North America for the same ticket classes. Call it demand and supply, or willingness to pay/accept.

You will likely see a similar pricing strategy from other airlines as well.

[Ray W]

Coldfingers - you have a PM.

[Andrew Smit]

I just checked on BA's website.

LHR-JNB-JNB: R34500
JNB-LHR-JNB: R24200

I used the same dates. LHR taxes are higher but it doesn't make up the R10 000 difference. In this case BA is applying good sound business principles and SAA is only out to screw the customer (obviously). It's always nice to see some SAA bashing though. A very well researched and thought over post in my opinion.

DH

[evanb]

LHR taxes are higher but it doesn't make up the R10 000 difference.

You depart and arrive at the same airports the same number of times so there is no difference in airport taxes between LHR-JNB-LHR and JNB-LHR-JNB.

[JBs]

Just like an apple iPhone costs a different amount between the US, UK and SA... different markets, different demand, different currency risk... An entirely different revenue management strategy...