I made the mistake of buying a return ticket to Johannesburg from Cape Town with kulula.com. The internet site was a bit broken but a few refreshes got it going again and I thought it would all be fine – I should have just given up here.
I got to the airport nice and early in order to get a good seat but unfortunately there were not a single kulula.com person anywhere to be found. The queue for checking in was already nearly out the door. Eventually after a while someone arrived saying we should be patient but split into 5 queues as there were 5 desks. Another 10 minutes later they came ready to start boarding but the computers were having hassles and so we had to turn into 4 rows instead.
The row I was in had a stand-by passenger as first passenger and amazingly the checking clerk helped him first. This standby passenger had none of his personal details on the system and the checking clerk sat pecking out all the details on the keyboard with his one finger, this means that we were boarding quite late and many of the good seats were gone. You would think they would board the standby passengers last!?
When my turn eventually came I was told there was a 2 hours delay. I asked why and was informed that it was bad weather in Johannesburg so people cannot land. I immediately spoke to someone in Johannesburg who confirmed it was all clear. On pressing the matter further with the guy behind the desk he admitted that it was bad weather earlier that morning that put their plane behind schedule and now all flights are suffering. He also insisted that it was not just a kulula.com situation but that all the airlines had a 2 hour delay. Needless to say when I looked at the board I noticed 30 to 70 minute delays, nothing nearly 2 hours but he wouldn’t comment further – merely insisting that it affects all airlines and that it is bad weather.
I got sent to a help desk where I could collect a food and discount voucher, here too I asked what the reason for the discrepancy in delays were and was informed that they had in fact had a 1 hour delay earlier due to a technical problem with the aircraft, combined with the delay caused by weather they were 2 hours behind schedule! So who am I supposed to believe? I wish if companies have a policy of lying to customers they would at least agree on the lies.
I got a R250 discount voucher for my next flight – as if I will ever set foot on another one of their planes – and a R35 voucher for the Spur. I had my dinner and a drink and waited. Shortly before boarding time the time moved on by another 30 minutes – and obviously no kulula.com representatives were around to give us any information. By the time that this 30 minutes has completely passed and we were 10 minutes away from the departure time – without boarding yet – an announcement were made to inform us to “please be patient”.
Eventually 3 hours later than the initially planned departure time we started boarding, we left Cape Town 3:30 late.
Of the 15 to 20 different airlines I have flown with, I can with confidence say that the client service, the lies and the time I was delayed all combine to make kulula.com the worst airline I have ever flown with, that says a lot considering how much I (and many others) hate SAA.
