UK & Ireland Travel Trade

29 May 2022

South African Airways (SAA) has announced recovery plans that entail replacement capacity with partner airlines to support South African Express passengers. This comes after the suspension of SA Express operations by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) on Thursday, 24 May 2018.

SAA will accept all tickets connecting to/from South African Airways network (083) ticket stock issued for travel on the suspended services of SA Express on an involuntary reroute basis. Passengers affected will be re-accommodated on other available services of SAA, Mango or Airlink.

Between SAA, Airlink and Mango additional flights have been scheduled to assist stranded passengers. Kindly refer to Flysaa.com and GDS’s for the latest updates.    

Un-ticketed passengers:

All passengers that have not been ticketed will be re-booked on alternative flights. All fare types may be rebooked via other SAA, Mango or Airlink gateways at the applicable fare level. Additional expenses for un-ticketed passengers (for example additional Taxes, Hotel accommodation and any other travelling expenses to get to the final destination will be at own cost of the passenger.)

Ticketed passengers

All tickets issued on SAX flights purchased on/before 24 May 2022 for travel on/after 24 May 2018, will be re-accommodated onto alternative flights operated by SAA, Mango or Airlink without penalty or additional charges, subject to the following conditions:

Re-accommodation:

Please note that SA Express is only responsible for passengers who are holding through fares or one ticket onto their end destination, if a passenger has purchased separate tickets to/from the SAX gateway point, SAX is not responsible for these tickets. 

A)        Individual passengers, Voyager Redemption and groups ticketed

• Changes or re-accommodation of reservations will be made by SAA and will re-accommodate same cabin, same booking class, if not available, the lowest available booking class.
• The re-issuance of tickets must be made on/before 30 June 2018.
• All tickets must be reissued on SA ticket stock only by the respective booking owner.
• Tickets must be endorsed “INVOL RRT DUE SAX SUSPENSION/SA…/DATE”.
• No-show passengers are not eligible for this waiver except where the cancelation of the SAX flight created the no show onto an SA flight.

B)        Voyager Redemption tickets

Refund Process:

• Voyager will refund and re-instate the Miles of awards for those customers who do not wish to be re-accommodated, according to the normal Terms and Conditions applicable when a reschedule or flight cancelation occurs.

C)        Other conditions:

1. Waivers to this policy will not be made.
2. The waiver conditions apply to SA flights within SA Express network, issued on SA (083) ticket stock only.
3. SAA Reserves the right to amend the policy without prior notice.
4. Code-share partners (except for Mango and Airlink) must not be used on routes where SAA operates in its own rights.​

D)        Refunds:

Where passengers do not wish to travel as originally ticketed, travel agents can process full refunds via BSP link and use AUTH code 17144 SAX GROUNDING.

Please mention the Flight number and original date of travel.