SIA website usability and customer service
 

Does anyone else experience extreme frustration with SIA's website? It is fraught with usability issues. The kicker is when I finally decide to pick up the phone to call customer service, it is frequently next to impossible to speak with someone. If I do connect with someone after *much* persistence, they're usually unable to help me with web issues and proceed to redirect me to an 800 number (apparently in California). Well I've called that number several times now and intermittently over several months, but no one ever answers, even if it's during the published Pacific Time operating hours.

It would do SIA much good if it devoted some time to creating a highly usable website and a supporting phone network that a customer can connect easily to.

What problem did you encounter? Maybe some of us can help you with that. :)
I have had very few problems with the website in the past, and the local reservation office was able to solve them.

The only problem I've had with the website is that it is always really slow. I'm not sure if it is a problem my end but everything always takes a long time to load.

I've never had any problems with the phone support.

I had extreme problems when booking flights. I was trying to book a flight from EWR-PER, with a connection in SIN, but the site would continually tell me that the system was unable to price the itenerary. I ended up having to book two separate tickets, one for the EWR-SIN leg, and another for the SIN-PER leg. So frustrating! :mad:

And when I called customer service, I had to wait 45 min on the phone and even then she wasn't able to give me the web price, even though their site was clearly broken. Even to this day their site still won't let me book that itinerary as one ticket.

Thats odd. While I occasionally get that message I usually find if I try again later it is fine. And I certainly have been able to book far more complicated itineraries than that.

(eg AKL-SIN-BKK-SIN-EWR ret for the inaugural flights)

Welcome to FT and to the SQ boards. As detailed above, please tell us what you are needing to do and we will give you a hand.

Could you try to price an EWR-SIN-PER itinerary? Maybe it is just my computer.

OK that is not pricing for me either at the moment. Possible issues are the long layovers in SIN (both ways), the default setting came up with EWR-SIN-PER one way and PER-SIN-JFK the other (I presume due to connection times).

Yeah thats what I had to do, EWR-SIN-PER, and then PER-SIN-JFK. I wish they would have arrived at the same airport, but oh well.

I have to concur about the phone reservations issue. Calling the N. American reservations line, I've usually had to wait at least a half hour to speak with someone. And the agents haven't been very helpful. And the line closes at 5 Pacific Time, meaning that I have to sit with a phone to my ear for 45 minutes in the middle of the day, with no guarantee that I'll get through.

SQ really needs to beef up their contracted customer service in this regard.


As for the website, I've had no issues personally. Indeed, the itinerary functions seem a bit sketchy, but then SQ's enigmatic res structure is well documented.

I tried entering EWRSINPER 20SEP and PERSINEWR 28SEP, C class came up to USD8,707.80. But yes, 'unable to price' message came up for EY/Y class.

I had tried booking EWR-SHA with a stopover in SIN but encountered the same issues (unable to price itinerary, etc). After a concerted effort, I managed to speak with someone on the phone who told me that it was impossible to book such a flight. I replied that if so, why does it allow me to select those options on the booking page. She said from her experience, such a flight was simply not bookable and re-directed me to the 800 web support number which no one seems to answer.

I eventually booked the EWR-SIN leg online, firstly on my Mac, but it seemed the site wasn't able to complete the reservation, so I had to switch over to a PC in order to book it. The SIN-SHA leg I ended up going with a different carrier.

Since I had to manually book each leg (EWR-SIN, and then SIN-PER), another annoyance is I will have to check my bags twice, instead of just once in EWR like I would have preffered. Also, since my outbound flight in SIN is 15 hours away from my arrival time (to allow for some exploration of the city), I am inclined to think there might be an increased risk of luggage loss.

No you can check bags all the way through from EWR to PER (you will need to show SIN-PER ticket but it wont be a problem). No bags to worry about in SIN except your carry-on.

Awesome! You have just saved me probably 30-45 minutes of hassle! :D