A passenger who was on SAA’s New York to Johannesburg flight on Tuesday, landing on Wednesday morning, has confirmed that SAA are no longer serving dinner on the flight. But that’s just the beginning.

2oceansvibe has been contacted by a couple who flew on flight SA204 from JFK airport to OR Tambo. This is the story:

We boarded the plane around 11h00 in the morning and were served a light meal over lunch time. We watched a couple movies and did some reading and sat back before dinner. When it felt like dinner should be served, we waited another hour before asking the cabin crew what time supper would be served.

“There is no supper,” we were told.

I had no idea SAA were no longer serving dinner on long-haul flights! I went to the galley to try and find a snack (by this time nearly ALL the passengers were begging for food) and saw some cabin crew drinking coffee and eating Oreo biscuits. I asked if I could have some biscuits for me and my husband.

“The Oreos are just for cabin crew,” I was told.

It got worse and worse and being a very regular international traveler, I am sad to say it was the worst flight of my life. I was so embarrassed by the cabin crew, especially with the American tourists on board, who had to experience this as their first exposure to South Africans.

We had to ask several times for the cabin crew to keep quiet at night time so we could get some sleep – they were yacking away in the galley.

Oh, did I mention that they didn’t greet us when we boarded the plane?

And the same happened when we disembarked. But we could see them in the galley, eating Doritos and talking about how they buy goods at Duty Frees around the world and sell them for a profit at home. The one air hostess was sucking the tips of her fingers (from eating the crisps) and looking at me as I disembarked.

All of the above is no word of a lie. We were, and still are, completely speechless.

Gosh, what a terrible state of affairs. I know SAA were on strike over a month ago, but that’s stopped, right?

It’s quite a big deal that they’re not serving dinner on long-haul flights like that. And the service… well that’s another issue altogether!

Does anyone know what’s going on here?

Anyone from SAA care to leave a comment and explain?