Whinging about lazy neglectful service on South African airways

SAA foisted off a sad pathetic business class travel experience, across my first three flights, and, well we'll see about today.  I chatted about the lack of food aboard to the lounge agent at jnb and I was shocked she recommended I buy food in the airport to bring!!  I am about to do so now.  Business class!!

Oh my, now don't I miss comparatively excellent qantas?!  Wanna hear me whinge some more about my exey business class air travel in South Africa?

PER to JNB: 13 hours.  It all started when The idiot flight attendant did not wake me after our midnight take off from Perth.  Like she's never done this before.  My stopover in Perth was pretty bare bones, and all I ate since my beautiful qantas neil perry fish lunch was one piece of sad, cold cardboard dominos pizza at my buddy jeff's.  And a bit of yummy nosh at the qantas club, so i was starving.  90 min after take off, which was 1am but 730p joburg time, I woke shivering in a dark cold cabin, no f/as in sight, so I walked to the front service bay where the lazy afrikaneer fa lady was perched, and she whispered sorry meal service is over, but I can bring you a yoghurt.  Their top end Business class!!  Very disappointing.  No point using their 19th century entertainment system with two movies on a loop.  Pathetic.   So I slept.  sober.  Which was nice for a change.

South African Air can be decent, but not on this trip.  They did everything they could to make my journey mundane.  Worst, they only fed me one meal over 13 hours from Perth, a meagre brekkie, and didn't offer me a drop of wine or champagne.  The saa lounge was even sadder for food, I only saw a couple of biscuits and old packaged mini sandwiches in four hours there.  There were Zero amenities in the shower, just the pump soap dispenser at the sink.  It's  a Shockingly bad product.  

Worst- now we are talking about real  travel issues- after an intl biz flight from Australia, they charged me to recheck my second bag on my domestic biz class flight to Cape Town!  I had to go find some obscure counter upstairs to pay them, too.  No apology.  None of that matters hugely since I got to Cape Town ok with my luggage intact (plastic wrapped at jnb!), but it's a sign that the airline is on hard times and cannot compete.  I certainly doubt I will choose to fly them again, we'll see after my final Cape Town to Nairobi leg.  But you can bet I'll bring my own food on that flight.

JNB to CPT: 2 hours. Oh, so now, sadly it gets worse.  Here they go again, my business class lunch jnb to cpt.  A bread roll and some lettuce.  Really?  Guess what, no alcohol.  Oops.  Seat power doesn't work either.  Ok, I am whinging, lucky to fly in a big seat in a nice plane across Africa.  But this airline has problems, and I did pay a lot for a nice business class experience.

Really?  A business class meal?  Worse than Swiss air.  Maybe this is the star alliance standard for meals.

Had a talk with the flight attendant in the galley and she confirmed they don't even load alcohol on the domestic flights anymore!!  Cost cutting.  They are going down, seriously.

Hardly anything to eat in intl terminal saa lounge either.  Awful.

CPT to JNB: 2 hours.  You think the squirrelly FAs could at least hang my jacket. Nope.   They did serve decent food on this flight but only chicken and eggs for brekkie!! Nothing else, and no idea where my veggie meal might be.  Business class?  Awful.

JNB to NBO:  4 hours.  Ooh, lovely black lady offered me champers on boarding.  I have a feeling in me waters, as kath and kim would say.  Wow, my first proper food or grog offered me in 17 hours of flying South African Air.  Maybe I shall have to erase my whole blog rant now?

I don't like to bus out to the planes but was super cool today to be on the Tarmac with big planes, though mine is small.

Lots to study on this trip!

Ok, SAA, you have redeemed yourselves.  What lovely service.  I need to appreciate it rather than fume about the crappy neglectful service and food I've had on the previous three flights and in their lounges.

Amuse bouche

First course, yum, and lovely oaky sav Blanc.  Learn something au/nz.

Omg, king clip.  Loved it in Cape Town and this is delicious, too.  Cheetah is about to pounce!

Over Mozambique.  I checked at the saa lounge if my row was empty or if I might  move to the aisle so as not to be penned in by another boer.  No prob, empty seat plus I get a view.  So comfy except why would they put those stupid video boxes in my foot space, esp since there is no screen!

Fourth course!  Check out the size of my chardy.  We're Not in Australia anymore!  This is finally heaven.

Except how stupid us this: TV box in stupid place for my legs, and no TV!

The famed great rift from the air!