Singapore Airlines Report

I bought 3 Singapore Airlines Limited tickets in early February so that my family could fly Singapore Airlines from London Heathrow to Saigon, Vietnam via Singapore. The total cost of the tickets was £2295. The visas cost £120.

The tickets arrived in mid-March 2002. Unfortunately, they did not have any Singapore Airlines logos and the only attractive feature was the Singapore Airlines name printed in the “Issued By” box and the “SQ” flight prefixes.

Months passed and on 10 December 2002, I reconfirmed the Singapore Airlines flights. Reconfirmation is not necessary with Singapore Airlines, however, my parents wanted me to do it anyway for peace of mind, and it was a good excuse to test out the Singapore Airlines United Kingdom and Ireland London Reservations Office.

The telephone system’s sound quality is relatively poor however; the hold music is quite good. Pressing a few numbers, I was put in a queue for four minutes. I found this amount of time relatively fair considering the time was 1610.

The travel agent in London booked my parents on the same booking as they were in Q class for the LHR / EGLL), United Kingdom">LHR – SIN / WSSS), Singapore">SIN vv. sectors, and myself in Y class all the way. Q class is Singapore Airline’s class code for Economy Class – Discounted. Y Class enables KrisFlyer miles redemption.

Reconfirmation of the SQ319 flights for my parents went well. However, the pleasant reservations agent did not recall my name travelling with them. I then gave my name and I was booked on SQ317. This was most surprising and shocking. I told her that I was on SQ319. She said that the agent double-booked me on SQ317 and SQ319 and Singapore Airlines’ reservations computer deleted the SQ319. I was unimpressed however the prospect of 6 hours in Singapore was intriguing.

This was unacceptable though. The family must travel together. I told her reconfirm that we were on SQ174 from Singapore to Saigon. The news was even worse. SQ319 was retimed so that it would arrive in Singapore at 1515. However, SQ174 also was retimed to leave at 1445. I was totally unimpressed by this news. It was quite shocking and it took some seconds to sink in. I said I would phone her back.
By now, my mother had heard the news which was quite inconvenient as she gets anxious when things go wrong. I told her to leave it in my hands and she sat on the staircase. I phoned the travel agent in London and accused him of ruining the reservations. He said that it was Singapore Airlines’ fault for not informing me of the retiming and that they should sort it all out for me. He said that he would call the General Manager of Singapore Airlines United Kingdom and Ireland in London. With that, I hung up and redialled Singapore Airlines London and waited in a queue for two minutes.

After re-explaining the situation to another woman – probably in her mid 20s – she informed me that the fault is the travel agent’s. Singapore Airlines informed the travel agents in the UK of scheduling changes on 4 July 2002. Obviously, this information was not transferred from the travel agent to myself, hence the shock. On asking why Singapore Airlines doesn’t tell its passengers of schedule changes, she said that the Contract is between myself and the travel agent and not between myself and Singapore Airlines Limited. They apparently don’t even know my telephone number. I then asked her to transfer my parents to SQ317 and she said that it was full and that she could not do anything unfortunately. Her advice was to get back to the travel agent. Disenchanted, I hung up and redialled the travel agent. Again, he was still blaming Singapore Airlines and was still to call the General Manager.

By now, it was 1640 and it was time to take things into my own hands. I decided to phone Singapore Airlines London Administration – a number that I have memorised since 1999 and asked to speak to the General Manager myself. I got through to his Secretary as he was in a meeting and asked if anyone from ******** Travel had phoned to speak to him. I was unsurprised to hear not. I therefore explained to her the situation and she politely sympathised and passed me through to the head of Sales at the London office.

The Sales Executive – RL - then heard about the circumstances of the fiasco. He saw that there have been miscommunications and again told me that the travel agent was told on 4 July 2002 that schedule changes had been made and that passengers should have been informed. He realised that we wanted to be in Vietnam for Christmas and said that “it isn’t impossible” to get us on SQ317. I also asked about the times for SQ173 and SQ322. The departure time for SQ173 was changed from 1715 to 1650 and the arrival time for SQ322 was amended from 0550 to 0530. He asked for 30 minutes, in which time he would call me back with the results.

20 minute after hanging up on the Sales Executive, the travel agent called back to say that he had sorted things out. I was unimpressed and was preparing in my mind bad words to say to him when we had finished out trip. Obviously I didn’t want to shout at him now as he could cancel my reservation which is unwanted.
Shortly after, the Sales Executive phoned back and confirmed that my parents were on SQ317. It was a great relief to know the saga had ended! The reason? Travel agents had held on to seats on SQ317 since May 2002 and still had not sold them. Hence, he took the seats back and my parents on them. I asked what his name was and then thanked him for his cooperation and hung up.

He will be praised in my report to Singapore Airlines Limited (worldwide).

After having a short dinner, I phoned Singapore Airlines London again to reconfirm the flights. The result was satisfactory with all of us on SQ317 and a great 7 hour stop in the fantastic nation of Singapore! I asked for the booking to be locked from the travel agent for the reason “I wouldn’t trust them with a bargepole.” The male was bemused but told me that as the Contract of booking was between myself and the travel agent and that the travel agent can amend the booking at any time. I told him that such a policy is unacceptable by Singapore Airlines and that it is the passenger who is flying the Airline – not the travel agent. I told him that I will complain when I get back. He was polite in addressing my fake anger and the conversation ended.

Everyday since then up to the 14 December 2002 – I reconfirmed our flights with Singapore Airlines.