SINCE SUBMITTING THIS COMPLAINT TO SINGAPORE AIRLINES, NO RESPONSE HAS BEEN FORTHCOMING

DON'T BACK DOWN WHEN A STEWARD INSTRUCTS YOU TO DO SOMETHING YOU ARE NOT HAPPY WITH!

I was on flight SQ319 from London to Singapore on 02 July 2011. Ticket number 06185118085576

I had arranged via the internet to sit on an aisle seat (Seat No 50H) due to the fact that I had not been well and was having issues with my health which included leg pains. I would need to get up many many times during this long flight.

On arriving at my seat I was asked/told by the steward that a woman who was pregnant needed my seat as she needed to sit on the aisle because she would have to be getting up constantly. I said that I had booked the seat due to my health issues. He said “she is pregnant”. I assumed that the woman was heavily pregnant and had major problems and so reluctantly gave up my pre booked seat.

I was placed between two men who intruded on my space constantly. I had to “push” the one man off my side and push his leg away from my leg area!

Sitting in a position like this was extremely painful and I experienced the most excrutiating leg pains during the whole duration of the flight. I had to get up many many times just to try and relieve the pain in my legs. At one stage the pain was so severe that I stood at the back for a very long period of time in tears.

I had to constantly get the stewardess to wake the man next to me so that I could get out and stand up before I began to scream with the pain in my legs.

Consequently, I never slept for the full duration of the flight…all I did was get up, go to the toilet and cry with pain.

Through all of this, the “pregnant” person slept though the flight, she drank wine and got up only once during the whole flight! She managed to stretch up and carry her own heavy bags from the hold and appeared quite healthy with absolutely no health issues at all! She was pregnant, ever so slightly and young and healthy! Please bear in mind that pregnancy is not a disease or illness.

On the other hand I am 57 years old and was not well at all!

Overall this is a very disappointing situation where a flight attendant asked me to be relocated after I took the initiative to pre-book a seat that would help me cope with my health condition.

Something that struck me was that there were many and I mean many men sitting on aisle seats…why on earth after me telling the steward that I was not well and also after he seeing that I was an older person, did he not ask one of the men to give up their seat??? This has been on my mind and the mind of many of the passengers.

I was approached by many of the passengers asking about my condition on the plane once we landed and off the plane. All expressed their surprise that Singapore Airlines allowed something like this to take place! These were people who I do not know! One woman said to me that the young pregnant person” did not get up more than once during the whole flight! “ She was under the impression that it was a ploy for a better seat.

I have been unwell for the couple of days now that I have been back and my legs are not doing too well. I have a huge swelling at the back of my ankle which is constantly paining. I will approach a doctor this week.

I feel very strongly that women should not be asked to give up their seats for young people or for men. Women should not be placed between men unless it is absolutely necessary. And, more than anything else, if one takes the initiative to actually pre-book a seat via the internet then especially it is improper to ask someone of my age to give up that seat for a perfectly healthy young person. The situation showed extreme lack of good judgment on the part of the Steward.

I always fly with Singapore Airlines as I do believe that they are exceptional in their service and conduct! My recent experience certainly has not reflected well on this view.

Me, my wife, and my 2 years old daughter were the passengers of SQ 958, from Singapore to Jakarta, on May 1, 2011.
We were coming to Changi Airport at 10.30AM, checked in for SQ 958 12.30 flight, we had a little queue, but everything ran well & quite on time until we all sat on the plane.
It started when the electrical suddenly went out right after the safety video finished. The captain tried to calm us down when the electrical back to normal, by saying that something happened with the generator and crew will do a check on this. After about 20 minutes, the captain then announced that the engineers will go on board on the plane to recheck the generator and for that, then plane must go back in to the terminal.
And in short, after about 2 hours just sitting on the plane, hearing many times update directly from the captain, and did not allowed to go out from the plane, the crew were able to get the generator back to normal by restarting the generator and resetting all the switches. The captain announced this good news but then followed by another shocking news that the passenger doors will be opened in order to let some new passenger to go on board and also to let some on board passengers to get out. This incident took more than 30 minutes, especially the loading process for the baggage for those coming in/out passengers.
And another shocking news coming in after this incident. The captain announced that he was informed by the ground staff, that the food was cold (of course lah, after 2 hours and 30 minutes) and it has to be replaced with a new one.
This incident took another 30 minutes to settle and finally SQ 958 can fly to Jakarta after around 3 hours delayed. So total around 4.30 hours we just sit on the plane.
What make me so upset are :
- SQ is not professional, by letting all the passengers stay in the plane while the plane was being checked. I think SQ should be more professional by (at least) letting all the passengers to go down, also remembering that it happened at lunch time. SQ should more care on us by letting us down and give a lunch meal, more over we were carrying child onboard.
- SQ should change to plane, not just pushing the engineers to check and use the aircraft to fly. As a common people, I was so worry and considered that electrical trouble in a plane is a very critical, but SQ seemed like considered this as a small problem. Quite contradictive with one delivered on the safety video on the SQ’s plane, “YOUR SAFETY IS THE UPMOST IMPORTANT FOR US”. In fact, SQ doesn’t care with our safety.
- I missed the wedding of my cousin, where I supposed to be the marriage witness.
- None of the aircrew care with my daughter. It happened on the lunch time, and nobody offered my some meal for my girl. She was hungry, and I had nothing but water. She was finally sleeping in hunger.
This experience, made me feel like riding a low class airlines.
Something that should happen with a world class airlines like Singapore Airlines.

Another embarrassing thing, SQ website is not working well.
I submitted this complaint through it, and no reply until now.


Hope SQ take a serious attention

Yuwono Pranata

It all started with a lot of travel over the years, which developed into a desire to travel on what has been touted as the "best airline in the world, Singapore Air.

So, my partner and booked two Business Class seats on a trip from LAX to Singapore, on Oct 10 and then returning from "Bangkok" on Friday Oct 25th, we were excited to be able to finally experience Singapore Air.

Then the recent troubles in Bangkok erupted, and we reviewed the US State Department site which had a strong warning about travel to Bangkok. Consequently we decided to cancel the fall trip. I then called Singapore Airlines over the weekend of October 15 to discuss the situation about canceling the reservation. We were told during that conversation with Singapore Air that the airline was "waving" the cancellation fees because of the situation in Bangkok (I did not get the name of the individual or any additional information as I view this call a strictly routine).

Now fast forward to the following week, I call Singapore Air again for formerly cancel the reservation, at which time they told me I would have to pay a $1, 000 cancellation fee, in addition to a $35.00 processing fee. I spoke top two supervisors and they confirm that this policy would be enforced "no exceptions."

I personally feel that this is an extremely unfair $1, 035.00 charge as we have no control over the situation in Bangkok, and the US State Departments warning about travel. To say the least, I feel that action like this by Singapore Air will seriously jeopardize their good name and reputation.

Any assistance you can give us in correcting this situation would be appreciated.

I would like to let you know about the most terrible ticket issuing experience I have with Singapore Airlines. I certainly believe that these airline is trying to rip off their customer and keep their money illegally. I am sure they have their ways to make excuses and explanation (they name them procedures), but they have had me double pay for three tickets, and have been keeping my money for a month, and not even refunding in another month.

Unfortunately, I have purchased three tickets from Singapore Airlines on 27th of December 2010. That was my biggest mistake!!! It took me 3 full days, at least 20 phone calls around 20-25 minutes each. Representatives that I talked to were all helpless and every for problem comes up they were saying that was the procedure and there is nothing they can do. I tried to pay with my international credit card and after two days, finally i was told that they can not accept international credit cards, my transaction did not go through and tickets were not completely approved so passengers were not be able to fly. So I was told to pay by US issued credit card. Which I had to accept because it was the last minute and these passengers had to fly that day. Supervisor at LA office told me that all three tickets will be refunded in 5 to 13 business days, and he sent me a confirmation about that. That was on 27th of December, 2010.
I did not hear anything about these refunds from Singapore Airlines. When I got my credit card statement on 25th of January, 2011. I saw those charges were on my statement and I have to pay the credit card by 2nd of February. I immediately called Singapore Airlines to see why tickets were not refunded. They had no idea!!! I talked to Shanka a representative who tried to help me to understand what was going on. He told me he was gonna look into it and call me back before his shift was over that day. I did not receive any calls. So I called again on 26th of January. Shanka was not available. Another representative answered my call and I asked for a supervisor. He transferred me to Ravi. I had to explain all situation again, and Ravi told me tickets were refunded as of today, it will take 5 to 13 business day starting from today. I couldn't accept that because I had to pay to my bank, otherwise I will get interest and late charges so I wanted to talk to a manager. He transferred me to Kamlesh. After I explained everything to Kamlesh again!!! he told me they did not get a confirmation from Frankfurt office since today, but finally they got it and tickets were already refunded, there is nothing can be done. Refund will take 5 to 13 business days. He assured me that he will look into the reason why it took 1 month to get a confirmation from Frankfurt and call me tomorrow with and explaination. But at the same time he guaranteed that refunds have been issued and I will see it in 5 to 13 business days in my account. Today, on 27th of January, Ravi called me and told me they already talked to Frankfurt office and my refunds will take 4 to 6 WEEKS!!! I wanted to talk to Kamlesh who assured me yesterday that refunds have been already issued. This time Kamlesh has told me that this is their procedure and there is nothing can be done. Frankfurt office will refund these tickets in 4 to 6 weeks... They keep talking about the procedure which they don't even follow. They don't even accept their mistakes or disregards. They don't apologize. All their cocern is keeping my money for another month. So, I have paid double for three tickets, and there is nothing I can do to get my money back.

I had written to SIA on 21 Dec for my Tokyo flight taking Business class with my family, until today i had not gotten any replied. I am a PPS member of SIA.
I was served almost raw beef which probably resulted me in bacteria infection on the 3rd day of holiday and not able to enjoy the rest of my holiday with my family as I was admitted to hospital in Tokyo.
On our return flight to Singapore, they changed our plane type from A380 to old 747, as such a ripped off in prices. Even my kids at 10 and 8 knows the big difference. In addition, before the plane took off, my wife was talking to a crew (so soft that i can't even hear them talking on my way out of the toilet to my seat) but the crew was being asked rudely by the Inflight supervisor not to talk at the galley between the Business Class section and Economy as they are affecting the Y class passengers. All of us were shocked as my wife was checking on some issues with regards to my food ensuring that i will have my choice of food.
Until today, 6 Jan 11, SIA had not given me any replies on my complaint. There are also other recent bad experiences i had with SIA which i did not bother to complain as it's really time consuming to write long email and not getting or wait a long while for them to reply. It's really sad to know that the quality of both the Customer Service and leading crew had dropped drastically in the recent years.