AirTravelLover

My dear fellow SIN experts, I need your help me on something I have no knowledge nor experience at all.

Last week on an ICN-SFO flight, ticketed by using UA miles, the footrest and legrest of my Raffles class seat did not work. The on-flight supervisor offered me to switch a seat for me but since I was travelling with my wife and no other two seats together were available, I did not take his offer.

However, I think I deserve something for all the inconvenience sufferred during that 11-hour flight. Do you agree with me? If so, what is the anout of compensation I should expect? Finally, how can I get it?

CryptKeeper

Could you not have got the FAs to ask someone to switch seats?

That aside, write a letter to complain. I wouldnt expect anything over the odds as you were offered another seat. Perhaps a travel voucher? I would be shocked if you got anything over $500 - but its worth a shot.

stargold

I wouldn't hold my breath for any (worthwhile) compensation. As you described in your post, you were offered another seat in the cabin and your refusal to take that seat weakens your position considerably.

It's probably not worth dwelling too much on the "There were no other pairs of seats so I couldn't move" rationale, since often on full flights couples and family have to be seated separately simply because there are no blocks of unassigned seats. Those people don't get any compensation - if they're lucky (and the flight attendants are helpful, as well as other passengers are willing to move), it can be sorted out once they board, but this is still by no means a guarantee.

Plus, if you had considered the seat to be sufficiently important, malfunctioning of which would make you think "I think I deserve something for all the inconvenience sufferred during that 11-hour flight.", you would have probably switched seats. Or ask someone else to switch seats so that they could have the functioning one of the pair, and you can have the pair of functioning seats with your wife.

Summary: Personally, I don't think that you "deserve" compensation, so to speak. But still, worth writing to them and see what they come up with - the key is not to expect too much, I guess.

Guy Betsy

IS it also sooooo important that you be seated together?

You'd still be in the same aircraft cabin.. perhaps you two could wave at each other during the meal service or something.. or you could come up and see how your wife is doing? I'm sure both of you would like to be seated together but effective it is okay as she won't be seated with anyone else in your broken seat while you're gone...

Yes I agree with the other posters.. you had weaken your position by refusing to change your seat. The inflight supervisor would have already submitted a check report stating this fact.

You *may* effectively end up getting some inflight sales vouchers worth oh about $100 or so. But I wouldn't hold my breadth for anything more.

And oh yeah, you'd just have to write to Customer Relations. Your letter will eventually end up at SIN headquarters and they will reply duly.

djjaguar64

GB I hate doing this but above in RED I have corrected your spelling and grammar.

deer

...no wannabe-grammar-policemen in this great forum.

Everybody understood, what Guy Betsy wanted to say.

So teach your neigboor how he should cut his hedge or something like that - and please be so nice leave the international audience here alone with this attitude!

Guy Betsy

Thank you. It was kinda hard typing all this first thing on a Saturday morning with the notebook balancing on a pillow on my tummy!

But ya... you guys know what I mean, yah?

Buster CT1K

I agree that compensation should be very small, if any. But you can try if you want to.

djjaguar64

Gee deer I hope you took your fiber this morning. Cheer up mate, smile and take a deep breath, its only grammar. And by the way I'm here to stay.

deer

OK, Mr. Grammarpoliceman, cheer up! ;-)

CGK

You should write to SQ Customer Service regarding your broken seat, but don't hope for any compensation. My friend was travelling with his wife 2 years ago. His seat was broken. He was offered another empty seat, but he wanted to seat with his wife. The other pax did not want to move to his wife seat. He wrote a letter to SQ.
The answer from SQ: He was given the option to move to other unbroken seat. Therefore no compensation necessary.
He did not pursue further though. The reason was that SQ North America gave him a very special discount for his next SQ flight which was of course more than the dollar amount mentioned in this thread.

yorkboy24

I had an issue with a malfunctioning seat on my last flight. It wouldn't go down to the lie flat position - it could only be done manually so every time I wanted to adjust it, I had to ask the cabin crew to manually adjust it back to the lie flat. Not ideal for a 14.5 hour flight but I tried to minimise asking them. They said there weren't any other seats available (A380 business) yet the one next to me was vacant but they said it was for pilots to rest. I don't understand why they didn't just keep my seat in the lie flat position for pilots to rest in then switch me to that one?

Anyway, I was given some duty free vouchers by the flight manager, not only for that but also because they didn't have the Book the Cook meals I ordered (something went wrong). So, after redeeming 67000 miles to upgrade to business, should I be expecting some of these miles back given that I didn't get the service expected? I'm ok with some duty free vouchers but it's not really the same as miles because that was the currency used to upgrade. Any experiences with this? I sent in a complaint (and also compliments about the onboard staff as they were wonderful) but after over 2 weeks, no reply from Krisflyer and I've tried many times to call for an update but ended up hanging up. Many thanks.

carrotjuice

How much was the voucher value you were given? I once had a BTC not loaded and I was given a S$100 voucher. Hope yours was more than that to account for, additionally, the broken J seat.

demue

2 weeks, need to wait a bit more to hear back I'd think - responses are still quite slow these days in my experience. If you want miles, I'd definitely raise that as it won't come naturally as an offer I'd reckon. The primary purpose of upgrading was about the seat (would be my rationale) and while you are okay with the compensation provided by crew for the BTC snafu, you should state how many miles you are expecting in compensation, e.g. 30K or so as it was limited in its operation / function and your comfort was decreased. May need to have a bit persistent on this, miles are usually not that forthcoming, especially if it is larger amounts. Of course, if they wrote you 500$ in inflight vouchers or so, may need to adjust expectations on miles down a bit. YMMV.

yorkboy24

After their reply at end of March, I pushed for miles to be refunded (about 35k of the 67k I spent for the upgrade). That’s in addition to the 200SGD duty free voucher offered on the flight. No reply for over a month. Very poor customer service - don’t think I’ve encountered anything this bad in my 25 years of flying!

Does anyone have any experience of this? Singapore Consumer Affairs? Thanks!