TROUBLED SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS IS BACK! 

Ayy that's my mom in the thumbnail 😁❤️ Awesome video Josh, thanks a ton on her and the airlines behalf. Glad you had memorable flight and thank you for the wishes you passed onto the airline.

SAA is the best airline for me when it comes to service, lovely cabin crew. I flew them not too long ago and I got to have a chat with the pilots and even got a hold of their numbers. I can see things improving in future.

Glad to see that the crew is doing their part! SAA deserves a comeback. Hopefully they will modernize their fleet

I'm happy to see that SAA are trying to deliver a good quality service. The only way they will fully rebound is through passenger satisfaction, and of course avoiding issues that caused their problems in the past.

Josh, South African Airways has only been an airline on Life support since the present government took over running it as a State Owned Enterprise. Used to rank among the best in the world, not just Africa.

For a former Aircraft Maintenance employee of this airline... I have to say, I miss the old days and would join in it if a chance arise.

In March we needed to travel from Cape Town back to Johannesburg. We decided to drive.

Over the years, I've totally lost confidence in their product and simply refuse to fly with them.

Perfect video Josh! Haven't been on the SA Airways but I wish good luck to them. You've done a great job by highlighting every detail. Thank you and keep em coming! ❤

As a South African who used to fly SAA quite often I really hope that, with the privatisation of the airline, it can not only return to its former glory, but become one of the best airlines in not only africa but the world. They have the potential to do great things.

flew the same route on the same equipment in july. the flight was pleasant. the crew was friendly. the hard product was fine. look forward to flying on them again. SA is among my favorite places in the world 🇿🇦❤️ also i was surprised when you’re airlink review came out as i had very pleasant experiences with them in economy class. i flew on them 4 times throughout my time in southern africa.

South African is an incredible airline. I wish them all the best for the future! May they return to their former glory

Thanks for the review. As a local, I travel budget airlines and am curious what a proper SAA business class flight is like. I've lost count of the number of times we the taxpayers have had to bail out this unprofitable airline. In budget airlines we get 1 class (all seats economy), no free food or drinks (all for sale). It's fine because the flight is only 2 hours long. There's also no IFE (or screens) for anyone, and you have to pay for checking in luggage because your ticket only gets you carry on. What you flew is what the minority of travelers between the 2 cities experience and I'm glad you shared it with us!

It will NEVER be what it once was! As a South African, I wouldn’t step a foot on one of those old aircraft. Good review Josh! Safair (flying Springbok) is a GOOD local domestic carrier is South Africa.

I am South African and I will not fly with SAA even if you pay me to do so. The airline owns only 4 planes...all the rest is leased. I feel sorry for the crew...to deliver excellent service (with a smile) under tough circumstances... Personally I lost confidence in the airline. Its a real pitty.

Sadly, in view of the entrenched corruption, I believe it will always be one step forward and 2 steps back with SAA.

That probably one of my most favourite domestic lounge

You're a braver man than me for flying SAA.

Hoping you will review SAA's new intercontinental flight to Sao Polo. They also have a new lounge in Johannesburg.

Thanks for such a comprehensive review, this was so fun to watch! I didn't even know they were back, lol. 4 movies is such an embarrassment...

As a South African, sorry I will give this airline a miss. I have nothing positive to say about it.

I flew SAA business class from Johannesburg to Frankfurt to visit the Messe just before lockdown in 2020 and the flight was amazing. My return flight was again business class but on Lufthansa. SAA was better. Nowadays I'm not so sure if SAA is still as good. British Airways business class can be unpredictable. Sometimes it's great, sometimes it's dire!

The times I had been onboard SAA from Malawi to RSA, the encounters were just marvelous.

Front-of-house might be great but I wonder how the back-of-house is like plane servicing etc.

South African airways was a top class airline in its day .. I doubt very much it can ever be matched again!!

I see the air hostess's were very chatty and charming. ❤ Thank you for this video!

Josh review the air India flight from Birmingham (BHX) to Amritsar (ATQ) I’ll be on that in 5 weeks time

Another great video by Josh. Come on SAA!!! Get your act together. Clean up your aircraft's or upgrade!

I guess they updated from their old school _Beef or Cow_ menu selection.

Good honest review as always.

amoung south africans we refer to airlink as 'scarelink'

Yay Josh's saturday upload! Just on time for lunch!

Would have been nice if you'd give us feedback from the economy class ?

Love you!!

Thanks for letting me know about airlink, i wanted to go with coz its cheaper, but i will not.

Went to Cabo Verde In 2021 and I knew It was the stopover during the 80s. The sanctions applied. But In todays competition age I highly doubt SAA can survive without pulling a "swissair" move...

Hey man I live in South Africa every year we fly to Pretoria every time I have a good time you gust gone at the wrong time

I watch a lot of your reviews and they are great… would be nice if you could include the price of the flights you take..😊

Excellent service brought to you by the "generous" South African taxpayer.

Thanks

nice one josh mate luv the channel from the uk, you should do a adventure with noel Phillip's again

Last time I was a Saam plane was in 971. Food,service fantastic. Terrible to see how SA has hit rock bottom....

I worked in yachting and South Africa is heavily represented in that sector. A lot of European and Australian people refard South Africans as lazy and/or dumb, plus constant scammers. I found most of them to be very pleasant and granted you do get some that follow those stereotypes, thats the same in every culture though. What I found for the air travel though is that if you work for the airlines, those people usually suffer from power trips and are the first ones that will tell you what they do as some sort of social ranking whch I noticed happens a lot in some service industries. Yachties definitely would be the kings of social rankings considering that they work with millionaires and billionaires, however the air crews always act as of they are the most important. Hotel clerks are considered the worst, and private security, which is another area South Africans dominate, are considered the top of the service industry hierarchy...according to those juvenile enough to participate in it. Most people I met didn't care.

Aaah, so this is the famous New Loo Review

I wonder who is in charge of SAA now?

It’s a shame what happened to the company but hopefully they can turn it around. We were a really good airline. We just need better management. Let’s reconnect Africa to the world! Great video. I used to fly them all the time and they are always friendly. Even on airlink, in June, they were super friendly and proactive.

Interesting fact ... the rest of South Africa is also "dated" and smells like urine. Unfortunately something crawled into our parliament and died . I'm glad to see that you made it through the flight safely. The real danger begins when you walk out the airport . A word of advice though . Bring your own electricity because something crawled into the generator unit and died . Have a nice stay and please warn your friends .

Wow

Soooooo Sad also down the tube

I think Airlink is no longer owned by SAA

Problem is the maintenance of the planes.

Now review Safair the other SA airline

No, thank you. I'll pass. 😮

I was in Cape Town , flew back (3rd Sep) to Johannesburg with FlySafair. No free food or snacks in flight but the flight is okay. I actually never been in SAA even though I fly CPT-Joburg frequently. Before Covid-19 BA was the best in that route. I am from Botswana and our Airline is non existent lmaoooooo.

Been viewing your reviews for quite some time, signed up to Patreon for first time ever as want to see what else is on offer! Love seeing your work and what you do, impartial and fun.

Well no.I was at the airport and i saw 3 A330s one landing one takeing off and one boarding

SAA is the best with close to zero crashes

An embarrassment to some South Africans who still remember the days SAA was awarded as the top airline of the world surpassing BA and Lufthansa. It's current state shows its current government. What a shame.

What I remember from the Apartheid era SAA was the really beautiful air hostesses. Wow they were all knock outs. It used to be a first class air line. Today government officials steal all the money.

Forever dead, at the hands of the cancerous, corrupt ANC. From the old days when SAA pilots and cabin crew were considered some of the world’s finest, to the present day of affirmative action quotas where skills and training is a mere formality, where all that matters, is who your family is. Angering, frustrating, heartbraking. But SAA is forever dead.

I flew with South African a couple weeks back and was extremely impressed. It was from Windhoek to JoBurg - excellent service, delicious meal, friendly crew. No complaints! Better than any short-haul service in Europe.

South African Airways was always an excellent airline, until it was run into the ground due to corruption and theft by government and SAA management. And the staff unfortunately had to pay the price

I flew them between Miami and Cape Town and back in the late '90s. They were a fantastic airline back then.

Took a South African airways flight once from Heathrow to Cape Town years ago (maybe 2008ish) and to this day it’s probably the best service I’ve ever experienced on a long haul. Multiple meals, snacks, drinks service, friendly crew. Honestly, it’s yet to be topped for service and I include some business class trips in that comment.

Nice to see. Love seeing friendly and passionate crew members. I really hope SAA returns to it’s former glory.

Great to here a positive review from u for SAA. Employees have the energy to take SAA to glory days, hoping management wont smoke weed again when making company decisions.

Most people can overlook some things but bad smells just stay there. Hopefully the airline will notice your review and check into why it smelt so bad. That is the main reason I avoid seats by the bathroom. Glad the rest of the flight went well. Hopefully this airline will figure out the kinks and be another successful airline. Safe travels.

As a South African Citizen, residing in South Africa, can I just say that the skies of South African Airways, have not been friendly since April 1994 ? The crew staff on board the aircraft are quite rude, arrogant and get familiar with the passengers paying top dollar for a ticket and this is just the tip of the iceberg of some of the problems plaguing this state-owned entity. 98% of the crew staff are black, maybe one white crew member, two coloured crew members and seldom would you see an Indian crew member on board any flight. So, there is not an even percentage split between all ethnic groups/races employed as crew staff. Corruption and theft killed South African Airways and it will happen again... Guaranteed !

We fly SAA a couple of times a year from Johannesburgh to Cape Town and back. They are amazing with wheelchair service, knock on wood, taking care of me and my wheelchair each and every time. The service is so kind, they're always smiling and sharing laughter. They seem to have a joy in what they do, nothing is ever too much trouble. May SAA revitilization continue and strengthen as time goes by.

Usually if there is a small technical problem causing bad small etc, pilots mention it and apologize. I would be some what nervous to fly SAA, knowing how corrupt & incompitant SA has become, I don't think I could trust their aircraft maintenance.

If it stinks as bad as you suggest, that is not acceptable under any circumstances.

Not as bad as our national airline in Australia, QANTAS. They’ve recently been caught selling tickets on flights that they had already cancelled and then refusing to give refunds, rather they give you Qantas vouchers, which expire in 12 months.

I flew SAA to Mauritius and back on their A340 in Business and apart from the cabin being dated everything else was absolutely amazing:)

When I lived in SA many years ago, SAA was THE Airline and was exceptional in every way. Their voyager program was awesome and service was outstanding. It was saddening to see its decline from afar to the point of operational cessation. I'm happy to hear they are flying again and with amazing flight crew like the ones you had on your flight, the airline can only get better. I trust that once the airline is again on a sound financial footing , the execs will purchase or even lease some new places to improve the overall product even that much more. I look forward to the day that I can fly back to the Mother City from the USA for a visit with SAA and experience this legendary airlines rebirth.

8:39 Ey! You were in a flight with one of the funniest comedians in S.A! Skhumba Hlophe😂

What happened to a once in a time successful 'south African Airways'?I suppose it's demise was mostly contributed by corruption common in government institutions in SA.

Why complain about the IFE only having 4 movies - the entire flight is only 2 hours long!?!?!?!?!?

I flew Accra to Johannesburg on SAA and it was all very good. On time, friendly staff and quiet. Good food, clean, really excellent.

Really sad to see the demise of a once world class airline that was well maintained, profitable, professional and a joy to use. Well done ANC for delivering sh^t, oh how you've progressed!

Nice to see they're making an effort again. Would like to see more African carriers like Air Seychelles and Air Botswana

As a South African, I truly understand your pain because the airline hasn't been that much active during the past 3 years, mostly because of corruption and lack of funding. We have highly trained staff and chefs. Airlink is just some ordinary airline 😂. SAA has new owners so you can expect better service

fun fact, over here in South Africa if a company is run and maintained by the government it is gonna go to absolute sh#t.. Our post offices, railroad systems, SAA, Eskom. South Africa's GDP hasn't even risen by 5% since 2008 and our entire infrastructure is on the verge of total collapse, what wonders the ANC has done for South Africa

My dad was a captain for SAA and flew for them for 37yrs. I am glad that he is not around to see the absolute collapse of this once wonderful airline😢. It is highly unlikely that they will ever have the money to buy a new fleet as there is just to much corruption and theft👎 There are still a number of good employees and as you said, they work with what they have.

Love the positive comments we just have to have hope for a better future

Hi there Josh, hope you are keeping well.... I have your channel running while I'm in office and this was a surprise to see this "SAA" flight review. As a South African taxpayer and seeing how billions of our Tax funds are poured into this big black hole "SAA" I unfortunately need to say the SA Government just needs to close this disaster down. It makes continued losses and as such there will be no improvement or upgrades to any of the equipment or services. The ANC government is insistent on trying to bring the airline back to life for their own beneficial reasons, free official flights. The current airline is not even a shadow of what the once "Best African Airline" was. I used to fly SAA 2 decades ago and their disaster "none rewards" rewards program convinced me to use other airlines. I have never looked back since changing... Domestically their are far better options to use than SAA or Airlink. Even if SAA would hand out free tickets, I would rather decline. Time to wrap up this sorry show... close it down for good and save all SA tax payers money. Give the license to a private operator that can do a much better job to run a profitable airline as the SA Government can't even keep the water running never mind a complex thing like and airplane....

Having grown up in South Africa I witnessed how our government and SAA grew and evolved, Untill it became SA's biggest kamikaze flight in history.

I flew from Jo'burg to Windhoek in May 2023. Best flight attendants I've had in years. Very friendly service, very attentive and also gave me an emergency aisle seat at the gates cos they could see I had long legs. For a short two hour economy class flight I was very happy.

Glad you enjoyed it. It’s cost us taxpayers hundreds of billions, so I’m happy it wasn’t totally crap.

So the flight stunk of urine but it's good?

Why don't you try Lift airways? Speaking as South african.

SAA? I'd rather walk! Kept afloat by the SA Taxpayer for the ANC Ministars.

The ANC excellence on show. Just like Eskom, Transnet and for that matter anything they touched that turned to crap.

Airlink. You're wrong. By far the best Domestic Airline we've ever had.

I wouldn’t expect a plane to take off at all if there was that kind of smell of urine. Surely there is a likely biohazard issue?

SAA is a reflection of The Country in General.

Even a troubled SAA is still better than many airlines. Love them so much - best service, amazing crew.

Hi Josh! Very good vlog on SAA. Years ago they were a world leading airline and I hope they can get back to that. Similar story perhaps to Air India who were fantastic along time ago. Think you are the best Airline blogger! Take care and keep up the good work. You are so lucky to live in Sri Lanka, one of my favourite places in the World. I live in the very cold NE England!

My daugther was a pilot with SAA….sad when money was not spend right. So many people lost there jobs😢

They are back, not because of merit or them having some form of a competitive edge. They are back because the taxpayer of South Africa has yet again bailed them out. Whenever I see their aircraft overhead I get a bitter taste in my mouth.

I've flown with SAA a couple years back, and it was great. I'm flying down to Johannesburg with United at the end of this year, to see my parents. But I've also booked a trip with SAA to Mauritius, for me and my parents. Can't wait to see how SAA have improved.