ttravelator

3 hours (excluding time on hold) to just get a calculation of fare difference for a flight change.
1 hour just to change seats.

It is astounding how useless these guys are.

Rumples

I was on hold this AM for literally 3 hours and then gave up and hung up. I have a J ticket, looking to upgrade two segments to F (i literally want to give them money) and they can’t/don’t want it.

nunogomes

Singapore Airlines is only good when you are actually in the plane.

NetJets Germany

Personally, I actually disagree. But only because I know how to skip these otherwise highly excessive wait times, because I hold status (Albeit not top tier) and since the agents I talk to are in Singapore. Yes, not all of them are great, but I have found the majority of them to be very competent and polite, if you tell them exactly what you need. When that was not the case, I simply hung up and tried again. Certainly better than the agents of many other airlines I have talked to in the past (With the exception of CX�s Diamond line pre-Covid).

I will echo the sentiment that ground and back office staff at most airlines have significantly dropped in quality over the past few years, which I can only attribute to a reduction in training and a lot more outsourcing being done.

yorkboy24

I�m Gold but it�s still impossible to get hold of anyone or get an email reply for weeks. I�d dread to think it could be worse with no status at all! Replying to the OP, I don�t know whether they�re competent or not because I can�t get hold of them!

davidj1

Speaking to a few of them after very long wait times, I agree, and feel like they have just employed a bunch of new staff who are very fresh on SOPs and still finding the ropes.

On the last call last week it took them 1+ hour to calculate miles and ticket a reserved reward flight on Croatia Air. It doesn't sound like SIAs back end systems are easy to use either.

lokijuh

It's been a few weeks now since we've had one of these threads, and only 5 responses within 48 hours. They must be improving!

Singapore customer service

How to get hold on someone on SQ phone line?

Best way to reach SQ Customer Service?

Customer Service Line

Call center can't see same award availability as website

Can't change flight leg online - helpline not answering

No SQ agents available by phone; how to book award on TK+UA?

demue

I don't think they are improving much (yet), just some of us are getting tired of responding to threads that all pretty much talk about the same, recognized issue.

carrotjuice

​​​​​​... by people who come here to start a new thread to rant, without first doing a search on the same topic.

ttravelator

Yes I think this is an issue. A month or two ago I had 1 to 2 hour wait times. Now it's down to less than 20 minutes, but the person on the phone seem unsure of how to action requests.

Like other threads have mentioned, the Live Chat seems to yield better results and is easier to communicate requests.

phant0m

Where's Live Chat? I only see their automated chat and it doesn't give me a person.

carrotjuice

You have to type "Live Agent" or something similar in the chat box. Then wait... to be given a chat reference number (not that it adds any value) and be connected to someone (eventually)

phant0m

So this is what I get lol.

Yesterday I spent 4 hours total on the phone with SQ. First hour and a half I had a lady who knew nothing about changing a redemption flight and argued with me that it was going to cost more points. I told her the available redemption online and she said "Why don't you just book it on there then". I cut my losses and hung up and called back. I got another rep who knew what was going on but for some reason it took almost 2 hours to change my flight. He kept needing to go to the back office for them to recalculate taxes manually, but they were on lunch.

carrotjuice

It's frustrating when you know more than the CSO themselves. I typically find that, going through the Mandarin line (they speak English too!) would lead to Singapore based agents who are more competent. Yet they too are unfamiliar with the concept of "free stopover" and often need challenging, as it seems much easier for them to price (and charge more for) individual segments.

And yes, there's always a need to go back and fro to calculate taxes manually, but usually these come back correct after the considerable wait periods.

freed0m

Because there is no such thing as �free stopover�, it is �paid stopover� costing US$100 at least.