South African Airways (SAA) has informed travel advisors in the U.S. and Canada that the airline is continuing to process ticket refunds through the Refund Accounting Department in their North America Regional Office for customers whose flights were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To make the process more efficient, travel advisors have been asked to forward any refund requests for wholly unused or partially used tickets issued in the U.S. via email to: InsideSales@flysaa.com or FLLRefunds@flysaa.com for review or processing. For SAA tickets issued in Canada or Mexico, the refund can be processed through the BSP Link and will be reviewed and processed by SAA. If a travel advisor or consumer has previously submitted a ticket refund to SAA it is not necessary to resend the request, as it has been received and will be reviewed by the Refund Accounting Department, as soon as possible.
“Due to the volume of refund requests that have been received over the past 18 months, our staff is working diligently to review and process these requests in a timely manner,” said Todd Neuman, executive vice president for South African Airways in North America. “Throughout the business rescue process, our upmost desire is to continue our commitment to provide duty of care to our valued customers, whose travel plans were adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and cancellation of SAA flights. We extend our sincere apologies to our valued travel advisors and customers for the delay and inconvenience in handling ticket refunds and greatly appreciate their patience and understanding as we worked through the process during our business rescue,” added Neuman.
South African Airways has offered one of the airline industry’s most generous programs for rebooking travel that was impacted by cancelled flights due to the COVID-19 pandemic. SAA Flexible Travel Policy allows customers to apply the value of their original ticket toward the purchase of a new ticket for travel on SAA issued by March 31, 2023. If the original traveler no longer wishes to travel, they can apply for a refund or designate an alternative traveler to utilize the ticket for future travel. For further information on SAA’s Flexible Travel Policy, travel advisors should visit www.flysaa.com
