I think Singapore Airlines really suck… this is based on my own experience dealing with them recently. What is written here is accurate and reflects my own personal views only. I am updating this thread regularly – it seems these days companies often dont value complaints against them seriously unless those complaints are made public. I write many reviews online, both good and bad. As a consumer I feel this is my right. I have not made any unsubstantiated claims I am just stating my own opinion based on my own experiences with Singapore Airlines.

What basically happened:

I purchased a return ticket in Singapore Airlines through Expedia agent. Expedia stated that the ticket rules were “unknown” since SA had not made them available – strange why should SA not make their rules known, why should Expedia sell tickets with unknown rules (another complaint coming soon!) and why do SA let agents sell their tickets with unknown rules.

I called to change my return ticket. I was told it was a use or lose ticket and i could not change.. impossible… I would simply have to buy a new ticket.

I made many last minute changes to my itinerary and plans, cost me time and money etc

Next day, following my “public complaint” and email to SA’s PR team i got another phone call – (i think it was from someone else.. not sure) and they said… they had made a mistake and it IS possible to change but i have to upgrade the ticket class by paying $312.

OK – so I managed to change my ticket.. but I was given wrong information from SA the previous day and had to make changes to my itinerary. It cost me time and money and a great deal of stress.

I asked as compensation – for a free upgrade on my return flight but they declined. In all fairness they did offer to refund me approx 50GBP for an additional flight i had to make with a budget carrier as I had to change my plans. Well that doesnt cover the inconvenience to me. Also they requested I mail (not email) the ticket to them. I am a busy person and having to post tickets off, trip to post office etc is not worth 50GBP to me – but I did email it to them.

Update for Singapore Airlines Suck email thread

Merv

You gave me incorrect information about the rules of this ticket. And you still appear not to know them.

It was not a Use or Lost ticket as you state here. I spoke with someone from Singapore Airways yesterday who advised me for $310 i could change the ticket class and my travel date… why wasnt i told this when i called the day before.. when SA said it was impossible to change the ticket and i would have to buy a new one. FALSE INFORMATION COST ME A LOT OF MONEY. When you guys contacted me back finally (after i had to post my complaint publically to to my blog and contact your PR team) i was then told sorry you guys made a mistake due to the call being sent to another call centre (was a public holiday) where they didnt have correct information regarding the rules of the ticket. I was told i can upgrade for $312 dollars and change my flight which I have done reference ******(removed). [Note] This wasnt you helping me out and letting me change following my complaint – it was ALWAYS possible to make this change, it was NOT a use or lost ticket. Changing ticket class WAS possible but I was told it wasnt[Note] Unfortunately between being told I couldnt change and then being told i could change.. i made a load of last minute change of plans and itinerary which I did not need to do.. its been a huge inconvenience.

Yes called on a public holiday but your phones were answered. I wasnt aware i was talking to an outsourced call centre who might not know the correct ticket rules, and I was given false information and you guys have openly admitted.

Something has clearly gone wrong with your (SA) system because you didnt pass ticket rule information to Expedia and internally you also appear not to know the ticket rules. This shouldnt be my problem as a customer, and its not acceptable to pass the buck to Expedia because it is clear.. when I called SA on 7th March that SA did not know the ticket rules either and I was given incorrect information being told there was NO WAY to upgrade/change the ticket so I could fly on 18th march. False information as clearly stated.

My complaint still runs on http://www.gogoflorist.com/blog/2012/03/singapore-airlines-suck/ and is generating quite a bit of interest.

Yesteraday – a day after you told me i couldnt change i got an email from YOU (Merv) stating

On 7th March the person I spoke to on the phone said its a use or lose airfare with NO WAY to change the date (wrong). Yesterday I was told I could change it (and did My reference is now ******(removed)Y). And even now today you say its a Use it or Lost it airfare.

Im not particularly blaming you personally… its clear that Singapore Air does not know the rules of their own tickets internally.. and additionally they have not told the ticket rules to Expeida (agent).

I had to change all my travel plan, miss out on several meetings and the cost of this balls-up has cost me a great deal in terms of money, opportunity costs as well as stress and some personal problems with my family having to make changes to their plans also. Then yesterday being told I could change the ticket.. ive had to change a lot of plans back again and the whole experience has been a nightmare.

I appreciate your request to refund me for the budget ticket I purchased yesterday the ticket is attached. No im not going to go through the inconvenience of having to post it to you in the mail.

To put this right… you should upgrade my return flight to business class, its the least you can do. The inconvenience to me is worth far more than this but i would appreciate the guesture.

Im forwarding this to your public relations team again

You, or call centre staff you notify customers the correct ticket rules regardless of being a public holiday your staff or outsourced staff should have access to ticket rules as should travel agents who sell your tickets. Its a no-brainer. You are at fault here… and your offer to pay me the 50 GBP for the budget carrier is not sufficient to save your reputation in this case.

[Note] What seems to have happened here is that SA issued a ticket to me with “unknown” rules attached to it. These rules were not given to my agent (so they say – see below). I am inclined to believe them because it seems that even SA do not know their ticket rules. One operator told me changing ticket date was impossible and the next day a different operator told me i could change ticket class for $312 so I could make the change [note] ********************

Original Compaint

Singapore Airlines is meant to be the best airline in the world, or is it Emirates? Anyway – they are meant to be a very good airline. Anyway here are my experiences and Singapore Airlines Review

I purchased a ticket to/from Chiang Mai. The terms of the ticket stated “Rules and restrictions as imposed by the airline(s) will be applicable to your fare should you need to change or cancel your flight(s). ”

When i called Singapore office to change the date I was told I had purchased a special fare and was unable to change the ticket even for a fee. The phone system was awful, I was stuck on the phone for a long time speaking to someone (i assume) in India – sounded Indian and I could hardly understand a word and he was telling me theres no booking for me to Shianghai.. i was literally shouting not Shianghai.. CHIANG MAI but he couldnt understand the phonetic alphabet either, kept calling me “sir” and constantly interrpting and getting right up my nose the way these people often do. After talking with his supervisor he told me that someone in my country would call me back that day in the evening (it was already the evening) – i received no phone call. Here – Singapore Air, made a promise, commitment & verbal contract to contact me and they did not.

Ive feel ive lost out on a very expensive ticket over this. I spend over $10, 000 per year on airfares if they do not sort this out I will never use Singapore Airlines again. When travelling via Thailand I will always use Thai Airways, I have never had a problem with changing tickets with Thai Airways or any other carrier. With Thai – you just call their 24 hour line at the airport there and speak to an English speaking Thai person right there at the airport. About $30 to change your ticket no problem at all. As far as I am concerned Singapore Airlines Suck

Heres what is available on further reading available AFTER the ticket was purchased

Fare rules and restrictions
We have not received information regarding the rules or restrictions for this flight. When you purchase your ticket, you agree to the following rules and restrictions.
Please assume that the fare is non-refundable and any change or cancellation will result in full forfeiture of the value of the ticket with no refund or credit available.
Rules and restrictions as imposed by the airline(s) will be applicable to your fare should you need to change or cancel your flight(s). **** (what rules, how can you ask me to adhere to rules when you dont state what they are.. if this is special fare it should be clearly indicated as such)
Airline tickets are non-transferable. .. OK so they are not transferable, im not asking for transfer of passenger only travel date
Some flights do not qualify for frequent flyer accrual.

So whats “any change”… change of person travelling, change of travel date, change of destination? OK well anyway I didnt see this when ordering anyway but it certainly wasnt marketed as a special fare. I havent heared of airlines like Singapore air who arent happy to charge you a fee for changing a travel date. More fool me!

Right… so Expedia.. biggest agent in the world sell tickets without knowing their terms? Singapore one of the “best” airlines allow their fares to be sold without Expedia knowing the terms? And why havent Singapore told Expedia the terms.. and more to the point why wasnt I told the terms when ordering. Can Singapore Air accept some fault here? Expedia seem to be passing the buck to Singapore by saying they “have not received the rules from them”. If thats the case – why didnt they receive them? When i try to email Expedia they say to contact the airline directly because they take 48 hours to respond to inquiries so I am not in a position to argue with them now as my flight leaves before then. Im not asking for a free ticket just a change of date which I am happy to pay for. This is not clearly indicated BEFORE purchasing the ticket. Nothing here saying “SPECIAL FARE” or no refunds. Do Singapore Air do not check on how their flights are marketed by their distributors? Do Singapore airlines not have a responsibility to ensure that companies who sell their tickets (Expedia is a very large company) are provided with and displaying correct rules for the tickets that they are selling? I purchased the ticket nearly a month ago and Expedia is still saying they have not received ticket rules from the airline.

More fool me for assuming that one of the best airlines in the world would allow me to change ticket dates.

CUSTOMER LOSES!!! Pass the buck, indian call centre.. someone in my own country who was supposed to call me back yesterday but never did.

Seriously.. I chose Singapore Airlines because I wanted to give them a chance – I do a lot of travel around Asia. I could have flown Thai for a cheaper price and been able to make date changes. I am now in Bangkok and I need to get to Chiang Mai if I have to take this flight which is very inconvenient for me. It is even more inconvenience that Singapore Airlines have not contacted me to give me a definite answer. I made the mistake of assuming Singapore was a good airline… I assumed I could change the dates, and I was not told that I couldnt.. i admit i was not specifically told that I could… so I guess legally that makes me in the wrong…. being a mere economy class passenger vs a multinational airline. Well the ball is in their court. But its not good business, so I hope they can accept my complaint too. Unless of course they are going to put this right in the next 12 hours.

Discraceful.

On further research I have found a number of dedicated websites to the “Singapore Airways Suck” theme such as http://singaporeairlinessucks.blogspot.com/ and plenty of online complaints like http://amplicate.com/hate/singapore-airlines and http://borneomandms.blogspot.com/2009/01/singapore-airlines-sucks.html and many more
Singapore Airlines Review

Interesting Google Searches

“thai airlines suck” – Returns 0 Results

“singapore airlines suck” – Returns 246 Results

“malaysia airlines suck” – Returns 6 Results

“air asia suck” – Returns 46 results (big budget carrier.. not many people complaining here)

“laos air suck” – Returns 0 results (ok i admit they dont have many customers)

“cathay pacific suck” – Returns 9 results

“emirates air suck” – Returns 0 results

Perhaps not a very fair assessment on ranking an airline, but it must mean something!

Have a pleasant flight!!! – I will, next time I fly with THAI and NOT Singapore. Unless you sort this out.

It is unfair to sell air tickets without stating the rules!… or not providing the rules of the fare to companies who are selling your tickets!

NOTE: Today I have realised its not just that you dont tell agents the ticket rules.. but it appears agents in some of your call centres (the one i got forwarded to on the public holiday) also do not know the rules. Perhaps your ticket rules are not stated on your internal systems too? I was told first “impossible cant change” then later “can change ticket class for $312″. Between which.. i made many changes to itinerary and plans.. huge inconvenience having to change plans suddenly.. then change them back again. Embarrasment for me too.. stress.. time and money. My time. No upgrade offered as compensation. I still had to pay the $312 too.. not good really! Sucks infact!

I would like to change this review to a positive one, if a positive outcome can be reached. Im not asking for a full refund, or a refund for the $312 or a refund for the additional “un-needed” flight i had to book with a different airline. Im not asking for compensation for having to change my plans, change hotel booking, change plans and meeting dates twice. A sincere appology + upgrade to my return flight would be most appreciated and I think it would be the right thing to do.

When I make mistakes in business that effect my customers I always appologise, state if it was my fault and compensate them.

I have forwarded the story to Redress.me. Hope you will get the recourse you needed. Here it is:http://redress.me/view_post.php?pid=2051

I had really bad experience with singapore airlines booking system and their service. after we booked the flight ticket, they are changing the time without notice us. we only find out when we went on to the website and review the information!!! so we have to call Singapore airlines during the day time and make them to correct the tickets, that took me about a month to get correct ticket information, not even mention how many times we need to call singapore airlines and how much we spent on the phone.
That wasn't over, after the tickets are fully fine. The hotel we booked with singapore airline has problems, after 3month later we booked with singapore airlines. we've been told the hotel is not available during the period which we booked!! Why you didn't change it on the website to mislead customer???? Fine, then I agreed to switch to another hotel, then the singapore airlines told us need to pay around $150 more because of different category??? really? the price wasn't different when we booked the hotel back then... what a scam!!!

not happy with the service and too much trouble to deal with them, so if you dont want to spent too much time and wasting time on this . please think twice before you book with singapore airlines, there are plenty of the airlines you can choose!!!

I have forwarded the story to Redress.me. Hope you will get the recourse you needed. Here it is:http://redress.me/view_post.php?pid=2006