Court Orders Singapore Airlines To Pay Passengers $3,500 For Seat Recline Fail On 4-Hour Flight
Summary
- The District Consumer Commission ordered Singapore Airlines to pay 200,000 rupees ($2,398) and lawsuit costs.
- SIA has to return 97,500 ($1,169.08) rupees with an interest charge and pay 100,000 rupees ($1,199.06) for “mental agony”.
- Other airlines, like Qantas, also face seat malfunctions in business class, compensating with upgrades.
As first reported by the Straits Times, The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission-III in Hyderabad ordered Singapore Airlines to pay a sum of 200,000 rupees ($2,398.12) and lawsuit costs.
Some context about the incident.
The director-general of police in India’s Telangana state and his wife were traveling in business class. Unfortunately, their seats could not recline electronically.
Photo: WeChitra | Shutterstock
Despite paying 133,500 rupees for the plane tickets, the customers claimed they felt like economy-class passengers, except because they had extra legroom. As a result, they had to stay awake throughout the almost four-hour flight. SIA had offered the couple 10,000 KrisFlyer miles each, but they declined. This practice is commonplace in the industry. When airlines suffer technical difficulties, they can compensate using miles, which can be used as a currency on other flights.
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What were the penalties for Singapore Airlines?
SIA has been ordered to return 97,500 Indian rupees to the couple, along with an interest charge of 12 % from the date of complaint. The airline would also have to bear the cost of 100,000 rupees for the duo’s “mental agony and physical suffering,” along with paying 10,000 rupees to cover the cost of the complaint.
Photo: Singapore Airlines
The total sum amounts to around $3,580.
In the Strait Times article, SIA acknowledged the commission’s decision and apologized to Mr and Mrs Gupta for the inconvenience caused by the mechanical issue. The airline added that while the automatic recline function on the couple’s seats was faulty, the manual recline function was working. However, as it was a full flight, SIA staff needed help to reseat them elsewhere in the business class cabin and offered to manually recline the seat when required.
How did other airlines deal with onboard mishaps?
On December 12th, 2023, Qantas, the Australian flag carrier, faced a situation with a business class seat on a long flight from Australia to Hawaii.
Photo: Qantas
A passenger had received two free return business class seats as a work bonus and decided to take the flight with his mother to Hawaii.
The traveler noticed a fault in his seat during the flight and reported it to the staff. Unfortunately, the business class was fully booked, and the only option was to downgrade to economy class. He was, however, allowed to keep his QF PJs as compensation.
The Qantas staff was apologetic about the situation and offered an empty row in the back of the aircraft as a consolation.
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Bottom Line
Unfortunately, as with any high-end technology, lie-flat seats can fail. Passengers should report the faulty equipment to the cabin crew, who will solve the inconvenience and make the guest’s experience as comfortable as possible. It is common practice for airlines to compensate the affected traveler financially through their frequent flier program. It is recommended to read the terms of carriage to spot what form of compensation will apply to the chosen ticket fare.
Have you experienced something similar? How did the airline deal with the situation? Let us know in the comments.
