[imagesource: Delwyn Verasamy/ M&G]

South African Airways has been in a nosedive for years, and this week, in a move that was already long overdue, the company officially went into business rescue.

In short, this is done to facilitate the rehabilitation of a “financially distressed” company, which could euphemistically be used to describe the mess that is SAA.

Flight Centre has already made the decision to stop selling SAA tickets, but flights are usually booked well in advance, so you might be rather nervously trying to figure out what that means for current ticket holders.

Traveller24 decided to do some digging, and let’s start with the good news:

“The SAA flight schedule currently published remains in place and customers and the markets will be duly notified in the event there are operational changes. Any changes will be managed responsibly,” says SAA spokesperson Tlali Tali…

SAA has indicated it will be revising its operation schedule as business rescue proceedings get underway – but would communicate when anything changed accordingly.

In other words, you’re good for now.

That’s not going to put everyone’s mind at ease, and I wouldn’t blame you if you chose to look at ways to cancel your ticket.

You’ll incur a fee for doing so, and then would have to book another flight at a time of the year when prices are usually through the roof, but Traveller24 lists the terms of cancellation from the SAA website.

We’ll just deal with flights leaving from our shores:

• Administration Fees for cancellations for flight bookings departing from South Africa – An Administration Fee of R285 will be charged per passenger in addition to any applicable cancellation or rebooking fee.

There is always the chance that the flight is cancelled due to matters that are out of your hands. If your SAA flight is delayed, cancelled or rerouted, here’s the likely course of action:

They will carry you at the earliest opportunity on another of their scheduled services with space available without additional charge.

Re-route you within reasonable time to the destination shown on your ticket either using their own services or that of another carrier.

Make a refund in accordance with the conditions mentioned in the above section on schedule changes.

All of that is far from ideal, but such is life when you’re flying with a state-owned enterprise that burns through money as though its engines were fuelled by it.

Traveller24 has an extensive list of possible scenarios and remedies, and you can read that full article here.

[source:traveller24]