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SQ Economy class sees complains in The Straits Times forums recently

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  • SQ Economy class sees complains in The Straits Times forums recently

    Hi guys,

    SQ Economy class has seen some complains in the The Straits Times forums recently.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Tale of two services: Singapore Airlines and PUB

    I FLEW on Singapore Airlines (SIA) with my extended family, including two young grandchildren, to Perth in January, paying premium airfares as it was the festive season. On the forward journey, we were placed in the rear seats although our grandchildren were aged one and four. I accepted this as the flight was full. On our return leg, we were again placed in a difficult seating position in the rear.

    After we settled in, I realised the flight was not full and that the bulkhead seats in the front compartment, usually given to passengers travelling with infants and young children, were empty but had been subsequently taken by an elderly passenger who was allowed to relocate from his assigned seat. I asked the chief stewardess for an explanation, telling her we had tried to get such seats but failed because they were indicated as occupied.

    She could not explain and promised that management would reply to me. I gave her my business card and e-mail address, but have not heard from SIA since. My points are these: First, I paid probably the highest fares because of the peak travel season. Second, with a toddler and young child in tow, our seats were most difficult for us as a group. Third, SIA all but ignored my complaint without even the courtesy of an acknowledgement.

    In contrast, let me record a service experience with the Public Utilities Board (PUB) three months ago, when an officer called to tell me the board suspected a leak as my water consumption was exceptionally high.

    A PUB-recommended contractor repaired the leak, billed me $800 and said I could appeal to the PUB to reduce my water charges during the leak period. I received a polite reply this month granting me a 75 per cent waiver.

    My points are as follows: My water consumption was monitored professionally so I could be alerted to an unexplained sudden rise. Second, PUB helped solve the problem by providing me with a reliable contractor. Third, the goodwill concession was commendable.

    All that leaves me to say is thank you to PUB, but not to SIA.

    Dr Jimmy Beng
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    I couldn't find the other one...but I'll post SIA's reply.

    Bulkhead seats: SIA replies

    I REFER to Monday's letter by Ms Karen Wilkinson, 'Pregnant but SIA has no room for empathy'.

    While we are sympathetic to Ms Wilkinson's situation, there are a limited number of bulkhead seats on each flight, and priority for these seats is given to customers travelling with infants less than two years of age, as only these seats can accommodate bassinets.

    For the rest of our customers, while a request may be submitted for bulkhead seats, these seats will be made available only on a first-come, first-served basis after ascertaining that there are no other customers travelling with infants.

    We seek Ms Wilkinson's understanding on the rationale behind this policy.

    Our customer affairs representative has since called her to clarify matters.

    Xavier Lim
    Divisional Vice-President,
    Customer Contact Centres
    Singapore Airlines

    ----------------------------------------------------------------

    What's your take on these guys? Bad SQ service, or just too much expectations on SQ on the customers part?

  • #2
    They were transported safely in their paid class of service to the destination. What's the problem?

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    • #3
      No that's not good enough coz they paid 'premium airfares'

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      • #4
        Regarding the complaint by Dr Beng, he should have at least gotten an acknowledgement if not a reply (for what it's worth). His point about having paid the highest booking fare class in Y and therefore deserving of priority is IMO irrelevant.

        As for Ms Wilkinson's case, if the bulkhead bassinet seats were in fact all taken by families with infants, too bad for her. I haven't read her letter so I cannot say if her case was properly addressed by SQ's reply.

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        • #5
          i read wilkinson's letter and found her complaint to be unreasonable. a parent with a baby should naturally take priority over her since her baby's still inside her.

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          • #6
            deleted
            Last edited by trekkie; 23 September 2010, 10:43 PM.

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            • #7
              SIA has not had time to reply to the Doctor's letter but usually a reply is forthcoming on the online forum or in print a few days after the letter if it has any substance. Here is the lady's initial letter.

              -----------

              Pregnant but SIA has no room for empathy
              313 words
              15 June 2009
              Straits Times
              English
              (c) 2009 Singapore Press Holdings Limited


              MY FAMILY travels at least twice a year and Singapore Airlines (SIA) has always been our preferred choice. But a recent experience caused great disappointment.
              We are going to England next month. We usually book our tickets online but this time, because I am five months pregnant and we are travelling with a two-year-old, we tried to get SIA's assistance to help reserve bulkhead seats.

              But that proved to be an ordeal.

              After failing to find clear information online, we called the SIA hotline to make our request. We were put on hold by the operator for nearly an hour while she checked. Eventually, we were told we might specially request bulkhead seats, but this could not be done online.

              So we made our way to the service centre the next day. After a long wait, we found ourselves in front of an unsmiling counter staff officer. Her first response was to ask if we were aware it would cost an additional $50 per passenger to book at the counter. We were not aware but agreed to the extra charge readily, if only she could help us with our request.

              We received a curt 'no', using policy as an excuse. She said bulkhead seats could be reserved only for those travelling with infants. We should go home and book our tickets online, then return 48 hours before departure to vie with others for the seats.
              We were taken aback. Nowadays, even trains and buses come with seats reserved for pregnant women.

              Even if parents with infants take up all the bulkhead seats, SIA could show more empathy in dealing with customers. SIA and Changi Airport are the pride of our nation, but it takes more than superb technology and successful branding to retain their world leadership status.

              Karen Wilkinson (Ms)

              Document STIMES0020090614e56f0000j

              Comment


              • #8
                Firstly, they need to define service. Service on SQ is good based on the crew services, catering (to some extend), IFE and maybe seats. It should be made known at booking that infants do not automatically can bassinet seats, regardless of fare paid. Since when was a bassinet seat promised at time of booking?

                How are seats defined to be good or bad? Seats at the back are good as they have statistically the highest survival rate in an accident. How do you define inferior seats? They are all essentially the same barring the bulkheads and exit rows.

                Comment


                • #9
                  As some here have mentioned earlier, the two people who wrote in to complain seem disappointed not that they didn't get their requests but the manner in which their requests were handled.

                  The latter is as important IMO.

                  Its not just about the cabin crew. SQ really needs to relook the way they handle the whole customer service process from beginning to end from the perspective of the pax and specifically to those in Y.

                  My experiences in SQ were generally pleasant except for a few instances..

                  I had a few recent flights in Y and I'm really not impessed. I'm usually quite jovial and chatty, the sort who might just pop by the galley when I need a drink and get it myself but I get faced with sullen-looking junior crew that look like they're there for 2 years till their bond ends.

                  When I made an enquiry about a trip in J I was planning at the Paragon I was attended to by an officer that was quite unpleasant. Maybe I look too young to afford J

                  I dont think of those as bad experiences, just that it left a little more to be desired from my favorite airline. I'd say I only had one bad experience with SQ staff. I was queing up to get by bags checked after departure at Changi. A GSS cut in front of me! That really pissed me off. It was plain rude.

                  If they don't do something about the glitches (I'd still say its good but there are glitches) in their customer service their perception of being an airline that offers better service than the rest will surely erode over time and that would certainly affect their profitability snce thats what they sell their products on.
                  Last edited by concept|infinit; 18 June 2009, 11:01 PM.

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                  • #10
                    Every single passenger thinks they deserve the exit rows etc.

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                    • #11
                      Seat reservation in Y only when booking via website

                      Maybe slightly off topic, but what I do not understand is that there is basically no way to do an advance seat reservation in Y UNLESS you book through the SQ website.

                      I am a PPS and I booked 5 Escape RTW tickets in Y by telephone through Virgin Atlantic (I tried to book them trough SQ initially, but they told me I couldn't, because our first segment is on VS and hence they must issue the tickets). When I booked it was no issue at all to get confirmed seats for our first flight on VS. Once my tickets were paid and confirmed I called NZ reservations in New Zealand and they got met confirmed seats on all three flights with them, I even managed to get 5 Space+ seats for the two flights offering them.

                      Finally I called the PPS service desk and tried to book seats on the last two segments which we will be flying with SQ. The agent told me that it was not possible to allocate seats as I had not booked through their website. I explained to her that I know their policy but that it would have been impossible to do so, because these are RTW tickets and there is no way to book them online. That did not make any difference to her. The only thing she could do for me was to "put a request into the system that our preference would be to be seated together". For the rest, I will need to log on to their system 48 hours before departure and hope that there will still be some decent seats available.

                      What I do not understand is that VS, with whom I have never flown before and NZ, with whom my last flight was 15 years ago, instantly give me the best available seats in Y, whereas SQ, who have pocketed well over $100,000 of my and my empolyer's money over the last 3 years show no flexibility at all and just point to their policy....

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by concept|infinit View Post
                        As some here have mentioned earlier, the two people who wrote in to complain seem disappointed not that they didn't get their requests but the manner in which their requests were handled.
                        But there're also some passengers for whom no manner of rejection is satisfactory if their requests were rejected...

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by quik! View Post
                          No that's not good enough coz they paid 'premium airfares'
                          And given it was a "Peak Season" rate it means it applied to everybody else on the flight!

                          For a Doctor, he's not so clever to work out that one.

                          He doesn't say how old the toddler is but i suppose if it readily qualified for a bulkhead seat, given it was supposed to be emtpy on the return leg then SQ would have granted the request..... thinking is the toddler was probably just a little older than "regulation" which we know SQ follow with no deviation.

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                          • #14
                            if you don't mind i'd like to add my complaint which happened to me a year or so ago with SQ.

                            My wife and i flew Y SIN-NRT for our honeymoon. At the check in counter, we put our bags up on the scale and before i knew it, one was GONE! The check in guy had gone straight ahead and sent it down without checking us in. This meant no tags on the bag! I demanded that he bring it back up and tag them in front of me as i was going to Tokyo in winter and i did not want any chance of losing my bags.

                            He asked me to wait. So i waited 30-45 mins and then he came back to me and said that if he brought the bag up it would not get on the flight. I took this as a threat that he was too lazy to bring them up and if i made him, he would make sure it didnt get on the flight. I had checked in 2.5 hours prior to departure and he was telling me that 1.5-2 hours wasnt enough for him to get the bags up and tagged infront of me? I was kind of unhappy but he guranteed that my bags would be on board. I left uncertain and uneasy at the thought of not having my winter clothes for the winter conditions.

                            Of course when we arrived, the bag was not there. They gave my wife and i US$100. I was like "are you serious?" we had no winter jackets and they gave us 100 bucks. All of our personal stuff and toiletries were in there as well. could you imagine my wife without make up in a place like Tokyo!
                            So we got to the hotel early in the morning and of course could not check in as the hotels there are quite strict on check-in times. After check in i wrote a very strongly worded email to SQ and got the standard replies that they would look into the matter.
                            Bags arrived to us the next evening.

                            On the return leg, all i got was a not so tasty "honeymoon cake", champagne and 1 seat blocked for my wife and myself, which did not even last both legs of my flight which was NRT-BKK-SIN.
                            Back in SIngapore, i got a simple sorry we will do better next time. With the bitter taste in my mouth, this didn't really help as i had started off my honeymoon in such a mess.

                            The key issue is here that as usual, the ground staff spoil the SQ experience once again.
                            I expected a lot more in compensation given the fact that there was such an easy prevention measure that i had requested but had been denied.

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                            • #15
                              deleted
                              Last edited by trekkie; 23 September 2010, 10:42 PM.

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