Wendy weighs in on budget airline woes
Most South Africans will know about the drama which has unfolded around budget airline Skywise, which has been grounded over its failure to pay its dues to the Airports Company of SA, disrupting the festive season travel plans of thousands.
Even if they get their refunds - and that hasn’t happened yet, as far as I can tell - they’ve been faced with paying much, much more for flights on other airlines.
Meanwhile, Pietermarizburg-based budget airline Fly GoAir, which had been operating flights between Pietermaritzburg’s Oribi Airport and OR Tambo International airport in Johannesburg, hasn’t flown since November 27, and cancelled a few flights before that date, with very little warning.
The Witness reported yesterday that the airline has now officially suspended all flights “pending an investigation”.
How Mitesh ran at a loss
Mitesh Singh of Pietermarizburg told Consumerwatch that he booked two return tickets for his wife and himself, departing on Saturday, November 14, where he was to be the MC at a family function.
About a week before they were due to fly, Mitesh got wind that all was not well with Fly GoAir, so he made enquiries and was assured that all was well. But the night before they were due to fly, he got an email from the airline, informing them that their flights had been cancelled.
Unwilling to let his family down, Mitesh paid for far more expensive seats on a Mango flight and drove to King Shaka airport.
Since then, he’s been trying to get Go FlyAir to refund the R2780 he paid for the tickets. Several emailed promises have not been fulfilled.
“So I went to the airport and was surprised to find that there was no Fly GoAir staff on the premises - it looked like they had shut down. And to date I’ve had no response from Fly GoAir with regards to a refund.”
In October, Avindra Ramsingh booked and paid R4140 for three return Pietermaritzburg to Johannesburg flights on Fly GoAir, departing on December 12 - this Saturday - with connecting flights to Ethiopia.
She wrote to Consumerwatch: “With recent media scandals we felt the need to make queries as there has been a lot of people being stranded at the airport with no one to assist and no planes that were scheduled to fly out.
"I have been emailing the customer care and haven't received any feedback. None of their numbers work as they are all offline or unavailable.”
Last night she confirmed that she hadn’t been refunded yet, either.
And with alternative flights being too expensive for the family their only option now is to drive to Johannesburg.
The airline responds
Responding to Consumerwatch’s questions, Fly GoAir CEO Reg Sivsankar blamed the airline’s woes on SA Airlink, accusing that airline of industrial espionage and claiming he’d cancelled flights in order to protect passengers. SA Airlink has rejected the claims.
As for the issue of refunds, Sivsanker said the airline was "fully aware of certain refunds and credits due to customers".
"We have come across several passenger bookings on our system that seems to not be legit,” he said. "This has led us to believe that certain acts of tampering or hacking has found its way into our system.
"Our IT team is going through the system and source codes and we hope to finalize this within the next three weeks. Once we have this accurate information in place we will proceed with all refunds and/ or credits accordingly. We have no intention of not refunding and or crediting passengers that have loyally supported us.
"We are also proceeding with an official case with the SAPS against certain media houses that are publishing false sensational misleading information to the public with regards FGA.”
All in all, South Africans’ confidence in new airlines is understandably at rock bottom.
It’s a good idea to buy your air tickets with a credit card - that way if you don’t get what you paid for, you can apply to your bank for chargeback and if you can prove your claim, you’ll be refunded.
Of course, you can only claim after your date of departure has come and gone.
That applies to all purchases, in fact. It’s a really good perk of using a credit card.
Sadly, getting the money you spent on a really cheap air ticket back will leave you only partially out of pocket as your replacement flight will no doubt have cost you far more.
Buyer beware.