South African Airways

We may collect and process the following categories of personal information shown below. 

Identity information

We may record your name, gender and date of birth, your nationality and passport information.

Contact details

SAA will process your address, telephone number and email address. We may also record your sign in details and other information you fill out on your personal account or registration form, when you create a personal account or register for a service. For business travelers, we may also collect information relating to your company, such as company name and business location.

Reservations details

When you make a reservation or book a flight with us, we will process details about your flight, prices and the date of your reservation or booking. We will also process information regarding upgrades, extra baggage, products you purchase, preferred payment method, billing information, transaction and credit information.

Travel details

When you travel with us, we process information in relation to your journey. This includes details on your itinerary, (online) check-in, boarding pass and your travel companions. We will also process details of any medical needs, dietary requests and any additional assistance you require.

Voyager membership

When you become a member of our loyalty program, we process your membership number, miles, rewards and benefits, level of membership and other information related to your membership. You can update most of your personal details yourself at any time by logging into your Voyager profile here.

Communication details

When you send us an email or chat with us online, we register your communication with us. When you call us, our customer support will register your questions or complaints in our database. We may also record telephone calls for training purposes or to prevent or combat fraud.

Sensitive data

Generally, we try to limit the circumstances where we collect and process sensitive personal data. Examples of where we may collect and process ‘sensitive personal data’ includes the following:

• You have requested specific medical assistance from us and/or an airport operator, such as the provision of wheelchair assistance or oxygen.
• You have sought clearance from us to fly with a medical condition or because you are more than 28 weeks pregnant.
• You have otherwise chosen to provide such information to us or it has been passed onto us by a third party such as the travel agent through which you made your booking.
• Biometric information (for example, facial recognition) may be collected during the security clearance process prior to, and after, flying with us.

In addition, you may have requested services (such as a meal) which is not ’sensitive data’ but may imply or suggest your religion, health or other information.

Cookies and similar technologies

When you use our website or mobile apps we collect information via cookies and similar technologies. For more information please read our cookie policy on the website or mobile app you use.

We may collect personal data when you book a flight, register for our Voyager program, use our app, communicate with us via phone or email, subscribe to our newsletter or enter our competitions.

We collect data about our customers’ online behavior on our website via cookies. We also collect credit card information and contact details when you complete a booking through our website or over the phone. We may also receive personal information from our partner airlines or from service providers and third parties who have been authorised to provide your information to us (travel agencies or tour operators for instance).

Finally, some information is received from public authorities.

Your personal information may be shared with our subsidiary carrier Mango.

We may disclose your personal information to the following third parties for the purpose described here:

• Customs and immigration authorities of any country in your itinerary or to which your flight may fly over. SAA and other airlines are required by laws in the UK, South Africa and other countries to give border control agencies and customs authorities access to booking and travel information when you fly to and from countries including stop-overs and where you may overfly countries to your destination.
• Airlines and other service providers needed to deliver the services you have asked for where, for instance, part of your travel itinerary involves a flight operated by a different airline or includes car hire or a hotel booking. Those airlines and other service providers will be identified when you make a booking.
• If you have joined Voyager or another affiliated loyalty program, our partners in these schemes that you have joined so that we can administer the benefits of the loyalty programme to you.
• Credit and charge card companies, credit reference agencies and anti-fraud screening service providers to process payments and (where necessary) to carry out fraud-screening.
• In response to a valid, legal request from Government and law enforcement agencies such as customs and immigration authorities.
• Third party service providers we are using to provide services that involve data processing, for example, to carry out marketing initiatives or run customer surveys on our behalf.
• Third parties, such as law firms and law courts, to enforce or apply any contract with you.
• Third parties, such as the police and regulatory authorities, to protect our rights, property, or the safety of our customers, staff and assets.
• We may provide usage information (but not your personal details) to other websites so that they know that you have visited our websites
• If necessary, to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation in any jurisdiction, including where that obligation arises because of a voluntary act or decision by us (e.g. our decision to operate to a country or a related decision).

To provide our services to you

To handle your reservations and bookings and to fulfill your travel arrangements and purchases, we need to process most of the information described above. For example, we need your name, passport number and other identifying information to issue your ticket. To inform you about changes in departure times, we need your contact details. In addition, to ensure that you receive the required care, we require your specified medical needs.

To facilitate our loyalty programmes

To let you or your company benefit from the discounts and rewards under our loyalty programmes, we use your membership information and your booking information.

To provide our online services and mobile apps to you

• For example, we use your name and flight details when you check-in for your flight with our app.
• To ease your use of our online services or apps, we may analyze the data we collect when you use our digital media and combine it with information collected via cookies and similar technologies. For example, to understand which digital channel (email, social media) or device (desktop, tablet or mobile) you prefer, so we can restrict our communication to that channel or device.

To communicate with you
We use your contact details to communicate with you, answer your questions or handle your complaints.

For statistical research

• We use automatic tools or surveys (pre or post) to perform statistical research into general trends regarding the use of our services, loyalty programs, websites, apps and social media and the behavior and preferences of our customers and users.
• To perform our research, we may merge and analyze the different types of data as described above. We will only use aggregated data and do not use name, email address or other directly identifying information. We may also combine such aggregated data with information we receive from our group companies or from public sources. We will not use sensitive data for this statistical research without your consent.
• Statistical research helps us to develop better services and offerings, to improve our loyalty programs, to provide more responsive customer support and to improve the design and content of our websites and mobile apps.

For direct marketing purposes

• We may use your personal information to send you newsletters, promotions or other marketing communications.
• Categories of data. To understand what is relevant to you, we may use automatic tools to analyze your personal information. For this purpose, we may use and combine the information described above. We may also combine such aggregated data with information we receive from our group companies or from public sources. Without your consent we will not use sensitive data for this statistical research.
• We use the results of our analysis to tailor our marketing communications to your specific interests and preferences. For example, if our analysis shows that you may be interested in certain types of travel or a specific destination, we may customize our newsletter and websites with offers and content that we believe will be relevant to you.
• We may use different channels for our marketing communications, such as e-mail, apps, social media and your personal online account.
• For facilitating immigration formalities, entering the territory of a State or fulfillment of statutory obligations 

You can update most of your personal details yourself at any time by logging into your account. You can unsubscribe from mailing lists at any time, by clicking the unsubscribe link on any of our emails, or by emailing us directly at:

South Africa webhelp@flysaa.com

Rest of Africa africahelp@flysaa.com

UK ukhelp@flysaa.com

Americas ushelp@flysaa.com

Europe euhelp@flysaa.com

Australia auhelp@flysaa.com 

Middle East mesalessupport@flysaa.com 

The right to be informed

Individuals have the right to be informed about the collection and use of their personal data.

The right of access

Individuals have the right to access their personal data and supplementary information.

The right to rectification

The right for individuals to have inaccurate personal data rectified, or completed if it is incomplete.

The right to erasure

A right for individuals to have personal data deleted. Also known as ‘the right to be forgotten’.

The right to restrict processing

Individuals have the right to request the restriction or suppression of their personal data.

The right to data portability

Allows individuals to obtain and reuse their personal data for their own purposes across different services.

The right to object

Individuals have the right to object to:

• Processing based on legitimate interests or the performance of a task in the public interest/exercise of official authority (including profiling)
• Direct marketing (including profiling); and
• Processing for purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics.

Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling.

Applies to all automated individual decision-making and profiling.

Legitimate Interests

As a commercial airline and travel provider SAA has a legitimate business interest to use the personal information we collect to offer an effective service and carry out our business.  

Compliance with legal obligations

There are situations where SAA is subject to a legal obligation and needs to use your personal information to comply with those obligations.

To protect the vital interest of you or another person

There are situations where we may need to use your personal information to protect the vital interests of you or another person.

Consent

Alternatively, we may collect and use your personal information where you have given your specific consent to us doing so. If the basis of our processing your data is consent, you can withdraw your consent to such processing at any time. However, if you withdraw this consent, in some circumstances, it may mean we will not be able to provide all or parts of the services you have requested from us and you will not be able to cancel your booking or obtain a refund of any charges you have paid.

We will keep your information for as long as we need it for the purpose it is being processed for. For example, where you book a flight with us we will keep the information related to your booking, so we can fulfil the specific travel arrangements you have made and after that, we will keep the information for a period which enables us to handle or respond to any complaints, queries or concerns relating to the booking.

We will actively review the information we hold and delete it securely, or in some cases anonymise it, when there is no longer a legal, business or customer need for it to be retained.

You can request access to and have the opportunity to update and amend your personal data. And you can exercise any other rights you enjoy under applicable data protection laws, including, for example, objection to the processing of your personal data. All you need to do is send your written response, accompanied by a copy of your proof of identity, to saadataprotector@flysaa.com

You may object or revoke your consent for receiving marketing communications at any time by following the instructions in the relevant marketing communication or by sending an email to saadataprotector@flysaa.com 

Group Data Protection Officer
Address: Airways Park, Jones Road, Kempton Park, South Africa
Telephone: +27 11 978 3471
E-Mail: saadataprotector@flysaa.com

External Data Protection Officer (Germany)
Name: Frau Vanessa Holzberger
Address: Robert-Bosch-Straße 18, 64293 Darmstadt, Germany
Telephone: +49 (0) 6151 600393
E-Mail: vanessa.holzberger@tuevhessen.de