I have done quite a bit of travelling using airlines in South Africa due to the nature of my studies and nowadays for leisure too. I have not experienced such terrible and horrific service as I have had with 1Time Airlines .
I booked my celebratory birthday holiday in Cape Town over four months ago and decided to take up flying with 1Time Airlines because I found them reliable and efficient. However, tonight has proved a true testament to my patience and along with the really atrocious service offered by the Airports Company of South Africa in running OR Thambo Airport, 1Time Airlines has followed suit in the bad rappotoire that our airlines services have been slowly wracking up over the years.
Merv and I firstly, both made amends to get to the airport way ahead of the standard time that we are meant to be there because the traffic on a Friday afternoon is usally a nightmare when travelling to the airport. We arrived here at OR Thambo Airport at 4pm, it is now 19:20, and we are yet to take off on flight 1T115 which was meant to leave a 18:30.
Apparently due to "rotational scheduling changes and high traffic volumes at the airport" this evening, we can only apparently board at 19:50, but even so, there might be a further delay, as the, "planes still need to be refuelled".
Now one has to sit and ask themselves, how can there be hectic traffic jams on the runway? Are pilots too busy doing doughnuts on the field to get in their planes and lines up, or are the aiports staff on a 'permanent' smoke break that they can't be at their terminals to aid the boarding procedure?
I know it seems funny now, but once you've been stuck at the airport for more than 3 and a half hours, and have yet to determine when you'll leave your terminal, that movie with Tom Hanks comes back to haunt me indefinitely. We have nowhere to go and a lot of time wasted because of the imcompetence of 1Time Airlines and ACSA.
The only advice I have to offer South African companies in light of the looming strikes and bad customer service is this: Don't make excuses for your bad service, admit to it so we can move on from here and we, as countrymen, can help you deal with bringing back some semblence of what customer service shoulf be.
Please Note: This post was compiled and completed in a shorter space of time that it took for 1Time Airlines to get their 'scheduling problems sorted'.
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Re: 1Time, and ONE Time Only!
My worst experience was with KLM, I boarded the plane in Brussels and it was immediately delayed for 4 hours on the ground, waiting for a 12 hour flight (and you cant get off the plane).
Your 1time experience sux, but it happens with all airlines. BA was going through a bad patch last week. I've flown 1time a few times and to their credit, they were very helpful getting us together (wife, I and our little one).
They could speed things up somewhat, then the risk increases that the next time your Mom hears about you it's on the news! Quite a few accidents have been caused by the immense pressure which engineers are put under in order to get planes ready on time - then they make mistakes - e.g. BA flight 5390 when the engineer screwed the pilot's window on with screws which were too short.
Re: 1Time, and ONE Time Only!
I agree with you South African. The cause of the delays at OR Thambo International was the root cause of poor services by the Airports Company of South Africa (ACSA), which I indicated in my post too. The problem that I take issue with on One Time's part is that the notification came in drips and drabs and was not apologetic, but rather done in a 'matter-of-fact' manner. That was rude and unwarranted considering the frustration that was caused from the whole debacle. Anyways I guess not enough can be said about bad customer service in SA at the moment, it is a serious issue that we need to address.
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