After months of negotiations and multiple first-class trips between Johannesburg, Paris and Dubai, a R2-billion deal to help save SAA from the brink of bankruptcy collapsed at the eleventh hour on Tuesday morning. The press statement had been drawn up and Emirates Airline had booked a room at the Four Seasons Hotel George V in central Paris for the meeting with SAA VIPs.There was only one problem - SAA chairwoman Dudu Myeni was a no-show and acting CEO Nico Bezuidenhout received a phone call at 1am on Tuesday, telling him not to sign.On Friday, SAA, in an e-mail, simply referred to its "ongoing conversations" with Emirates as "deepen[ing] co-operation" with Emirates.Emirates and rival Etihad Airlines have both submitted formal bids for a strategic partnership with SAA that could help turn around the fortunes of the embattled airline, which has had R14-billion in bailouts from the government over the past few years.story_article_left1Both Bezuidenhout and Myeni failed to answer specific questions to explain how Emirates could have been so confused that it would send its president, Sir Tim Clark, to Paris for the "partnership signing" event with Myeni, Bezuidenhout and SAA's chief commercial officer, Sylvain Bosc.Emirates was equally tight-lipped yesterday."Emirates and SAA have an existing code-share and commercial partnership. We are exploring with the SAA team to enhance this co-operation further and open new opportunities for both carriers."Someone in the room at the Four Seasons explained how Bezuidenhout walked into a room on June 16, red-faced as he told the Emirates team he could not proceed with the signing.The Sunday Times has established that Emirates officials were livid about the about-turn because as recently as Thursday last week, everything appeared to be on track.The deal dates back to January, when Emirates submitted an unsolicited bid for an expanded code-share deal that would give SAA the benefit of its global reach. This would allow SAA to sell tickets on Emirates flights.All indications are that the senior SAA executive backed this deal with Emirates, as did several of the few remaining board members.Bezuidenhout did not respond to a request for comment and Bosc referred queries about the deal to SAA.For now, it is unclear if Emirates VIPs will come back to Johannesburg any time soon.The latest debacle comes just months after Emirates had to go to the High Court in Pretoria to compel the government to honour an agreement to allow it to introduce a fourth flight into South Africa...