Singapore Airlines
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In-Air experience, great. Customer service, awful and unprofessional.
I'm going to try to write this as quickly and succinctly as possible because I've already spent so much time and headache on this issue but I think it's important to share my honest experience. Singapore Airlines' in-air experience is great, but their customer service is absolutely awful. I would give zero stars if possible. 6 days ago I tried to switch the departure city for my mom's flight home from Bali. She was scheduled to fly from Bali to Jakarta but she was a little nervous about navigating the terminals so she wanted to fly directly to Singapore from Bali. I submitted a formal submission on their website and then waited on the chat hold for about 1.5 hours to speak to a representative. I spoke to a representative named Ayushiita in the Indonesian office. She understood relatively quickly what I wanted to do and told me their change would be complimentary. To confirm, I asked 'so there will be no fees associated with this change?' She said 'Correct.' She offered a 1030 AM departure but this was too early as we have a three-hour drive from the hotel. I suggest a 12 or 1 PM departure. We move forward with the desired change but there is a 'technical issue' on their side that did not allow it. I had to go to work so I gave her written consent to make the changes and to email me when they were completed. (I have screenshots of all of this) 72 hours pass (their allotted response time) and I do not receive a message back. I get on the chat again and speak to another representative from the Indonesian office named Romer. It takes him a little over an hour to understand that I am trying to change the departure city. Once he gets it, he tells me there will be an approximately 900-dollar fee for the difference in fare. (I have screenshots of all of this also) I ask to speak to a manager and he tells me he will put in an appeal and that I will hear from a manager within 72 hours. (another 72 more hours for the fare difference to increase.) A manager calls me about 36 hours later. He tells me the $900 fare difference must be paid if we desire to take the 1 PM departure and he will look into other options. The 1030AM flight that was offered originally 5 days before (that previously would have been approx a $120 fare difference) is also now $900. He looks into other possible dates. Everything is even more expensive than $900. I ask him what will happen if my mom takes a separate airline to get to Singapore. He tells me the entire rest of the flight will be canceled. I ask if its possible to upgrade my mom to a higher class. I don't ask for this to be complimentary due to the headache because at this point I don't believe they would offer that anyway. I offer to use miles from my Kris+ membership (25,000) The manager tells me there are no available upgrades, only a waitlist. I ask how many miles it will be to upgrade should it become available. If it does become available, it will cost approx 92,000 miles. I surrender to the money monster, accept defeat, and say 'My in-flight experience with Singapore Airlines has been wonderful but customer service has been a complete nightmare.' 'I'm very sorry to hear that sir. Have a nice day.' It's as if there are two separate entities - customer service and in-air experience.