Sneaky PPS members

[EKrew]

Having read some of the postings about PPS members feeling cheated or let down with the treatment by SQ i thought i might share with you an experience of the reverse. Whereby a PPS member was cheating SQ.

In the past i was employed directly by SQ in the airport operations of a prominent Australian station. A particular Singaporean TPP who we shall refer to as Mr XXX from now on was well known to the SM and station staff due to his regular travels with family and business interests in SIN and Australia.

One particular day Mr XXX arrived to check-in with his family in tow to wish him farewell. Later, with boarding almost completed the SM went onboard to say a farewell to Mr XXX only to discover that the assigned seat was occupied by a much younger looking passenger. Confused, SM scanned the Jcl cabin looking for Mr XXX but he could not be found despite the gate system showing he had boarded. A quick call to Mr XXX's handphone was made and he was in the car driving home.

The young passenger sitting in the assigned seat was infact Mr XXX's son who coincidentally shared the same initial as his father. So the scenario was that Mr XXX would arrive at the counter, check-in himself and receive the boarding pass. The son would then proceed through immigration and onto the aircraft meanwhile Mr XXX is still able to accumulate his PPS/FFP mileage.

Where is the loyalty to SQ if you want to cheat in this way ??

As for the discussion about PPS stickers not being placed on boarding cards anymore. The other day on an EK flight i happened to notice in the document folder of one of our passengers approximately 5 sheets of these stickers. Is it any wonder they have been discontinued after such mistreatment?

[Singapore_Air]

An interesting story but I hasten to add that I have full confidence that the vast majority of PPS Club customers neither would want to, nor have the time to, cheat Singapore Airlines in such a way.

But as I said, interesting.

[lee_apromise]

Wow. Does that really work? They don't check the birthday?

[milehighj]

Show me a system that isn't abused by the 0.1% minority.

It's really up to the commonsense and maturity of the organisation to ensure that they do not confuse this with the 99.9% majority and penalise them too.

[LionCity]

Show me a system that isn't abused by the 0.1% minority.

It's really up to the commonsense and maturity of the organisation to ensure that they do not confuse this with the 99.9% majority and penalise them too.

Agreed with milehighj on his/her comments. There are always some TPPS/QPPS who are abusing the system but it is a small minority. Unfortunately, these cases tend to get highlighted and nobody wants to know what the quiet majority are doing.

One of things that I have noted is the PPS Centre at Paragon in Singapore have only now have mineral water for cool beverages. It is probably the result of abuses by a small minority of PPS members who used the services there. Sadly, it has impacted on the rest of us.

Hope SQ will recognize that the impact is probably minimal at most.

[Greatfox]

I can understand why they took out the other drinks at Paragon, I was there once and two Italian ladies came in and emptied the entire fridge and then walked out again!

[taipeiflyer]

Having read some of the postings about PPS members feeling cheated or let down with the treatment by SQ i thought i might share with you an experience of the reverse. Whereby a PPS member was cheating SQ.

In the past i was employed directly by SQ in the airport operations of a prominent Australian station. A particular Singaporean TPP who we shall refer to as Mr XXX from now on was well known to the SM and station staff due to his regular travels with family and business interests in SIN and Australia.

One particular day Mr XXX arrived to check-in with his family in tow to wish him farewell. Later, with boarding almost completed the SM went onboard to say a farewell to Mr XXX only to discover that the assigned seat was occupied by a much younger looking passenger. Confused, SM scanned the Jcl cabin looking for Mr XXX but he could not be found despite the gate system showing he had boarded. A quick call to Mr XXX's handphone was made and he was in the car driving home.

The young passenger sitting in the assigned seat was infact Mr XXX's son who coincidentally shared the same initial as his father. So the scenario was that Mr XXX would arrive at the counter, check-in himself and receive the boarding pass. The son would then proceed through immigration and onto the aircraft meanwhile Mr XXX is still able to accumulate his PPS/FFP mileage.

Where is the loyalty to SQ if you want to cheat in this way ??

As for the discussion about PPS stickers not being placed on boarding cards anymore. The other day on an EK flight i happened to notice in the document folder of one of our passengers approximately 5 sheets of these stickers. Is it any wonder they have been discontinued after such mistreatment?

lies, lies and more lies.

[EKrew]

Taipeiflyer - why would you say so ? I was just sharing an example of the small majority of cases whereby members take advantage of the airline. Trust me, i had better things to do at 03:00LT when i posted this message than to make up stories.

[LionCity]

Taipeiflyer - why would you say so ? I was just sharing an example of the small majority of cases whereby members take advantage of the airline. Trust me, i had better things to do at 03:00LT when i posted this message than to make up stories.

There are two sides to every coin. PPS/TPPS members who take advantage of the goodwill of airline is not something I myself do not find it pleasant and degrade the image of other PPS/TPPS. I think it is good that EKrew do let us know how some of these priority pax behave.

Many of us are loyal customers of SQ and support her in good and bad times and we have to pay a premium for a seat in either C or F Class over other airlines. The unapologetic attitude of SQ in raising the PPS/Solitaire threshold while at the same time reducing benefits itself does is not exactly the best way in giving us that endearing feeling to SQ. For example trying to bring my 4 year old daughter to the lounge together with my wife is that I almost have to beg SQ to let us in as a family and lounge entry for the 3 of us is considered by SQ to be doing us a really big favour despite spending an average of 50K a year on premium travel.

In fact, up to a point, I make it a point to fight harder if there are ticketing issues or enjoy more of the remaining benefits from SQ. However, I will not be drawn to acting in a "cheap manner" as describe by EKrew. In my personal belief is that yes there are "cheap" or "PITA" members but most of us are not.

[UMD]

The young passenger sitting in the assigned seat was infact Mr XXX's son who coincidentally shared the same initial as his father. So the scenario was that Mr XXX would arrive at the counter, check-in himself and receive the boarding pass. The son would then proceed through immigration and onto the aircraft meanwhile Mr XXX is still able to accumulate his PPS/FFP mileage.

How was this possible? Didn't the check-in agent check the passport number and the birthdate of the passenger? Also, was it possible that it was the check-in agent who was mistaken about the status of the father and the son?

Where is the loyalty to SQ if you want to cheat in this way ??

Assuming this really happened and as much as I agree it was very wrong for this particular TPP to cheat the system, I fail to see that this TPP was disloyal to SQ. The fact that his son flew SQ proved that he loved SQ and spent money for an SQ ticket on his son. A disloyal would be him decided to fly or to put his son on another airline rather than SQ.

As for the discussion about PPS stickers not being placed on boarding cards anymore. The other day on an EK flight i happened to notice in the document folder of one of our passengers approximately 5 sheets of these stickers. Is it any wonder they have been discontinued after such mistreatment?

Some people are just plain silly and see the comment of milehighj.

Show me a system that isn't abused by the 0.1% minority.

It's really up to the commonsense and maturity of the organisation to ensure that they do not confuse this with the 99.9% majority and penalise them too.

I agree totally. To be fair, all of us also had a few not so good SQ flying experiences but do we punish SQ for not flying with the airline anymore just because of these few experiences? No, in fact we still continue to show SQ our affection.

[EKrew]

How was this possible? Didn't the check-in agent check the passport number and the birthdate of the passenger? \

The Kriscom computer system has different operating modes. When the check-in agent retrieves your details, they get to see a very basic view of your journey for that day or the next day. They are not able to view your onward or return flights which maybe in a weeks time or so. All PPS profiles and data are stored in the reservations mode and in this particular station ground handling staff do not have access to this side of the system. Therefore a verification of D.O.B or passport is not possible. API (Advance Passenger Information) is not done ex Australia, or at least was not done at this particular time.

The only criteria to enter a PPS number into a reservation is that there be a name match. So if you make a booking simply using the common first initial such as XXX/AMr, Kriscom will accept the membership number. The check-in system is a little more advanced whereby you are able to enter a membership number even though the reservation name e.g. Chew/StephenMr does not match the profile name as Chew/YewChyeStephenMr.

[MAN Flyer]

Nice story.

A quick call to Mr XXX's handphone was made and he was in the car driving home.

Who had the number to make this 'quick call' ?. I presume doors were still open when it was made, and that the wrong pax was then booted off the flight ?.

I can't quite understand why people are still carrying PPS stickers around when they were discountinued months ago....

There's some strange folk flying around these days.

[EKrew]

Who had the number to make this 'quick call' ?. I presume doors were still open when it was made, and that the wrong pax was then booted off the flight ?.

The SM made the call by retrieving the handphone number from the profile. Mr XXX's son remained onboard remained because his ticket had been accepted, technically payment had been made to SQ. However the PPS Unit was contacted not to credit mileage.

[LionCity]

The SM made the call by retrieving the handphone number from the profile. Mr XXX's son remained onboard remained because his ticket had been accepted, technically payment had been made to SQ. However the PPS Unit was contacted not to credit mileage.

Assumed that the Mr XXX must have been a very regular SQ pax on premium classes so much so that the SM actually went onboard specially to say good bye to him. No SM ever came onboard to say goodbye to me personally.....

His revenue contribution to SQ was probably considerable. I am in Business myself and frankly sometimes it is better to "overlook" and be "LL" with your more supportive customer (Hokkien acronym for :"no choice but accept it") if he is not doing it all the time and revenue contribution is significant. He was also probably a nice guy too, which was another reason for the SM to say goodbye.

For myself why go through the trouble of upsetting him or potentially losing his company's business to make sure we follow the rules if he is a significant customer.

[zvezda]

The SM made the call by retrieving the handphone number from the profile. Mr XXX's son remained onboard remained because his ticket had been accepted, technically payment had been made to SQ. However the PPS Unit was contacted not to credit mileage.

That is very lenient. If I were the SM, I would have warned the father that it would be forgiven but, if he ever did anything like that again, his Solitaire status would be forfeit.