Singapore Airlines screwed us

All this while I thought Singapore Airlines (SQ) was one of the most respected and professional airlines in the world. Today made me change my opinion.

My wife and daughter were to travel on SQ to India for a vacation. The tickets have been booked for more than a couple of months and the open tickets that I had for us have been endorsed by the Singapore Airlines city office.

The flight was supposed to be at 0730hrs this morning. When we walked into the airport this morning at 0600, the first thing we saw was the flight to Mumbai had departed -- Yes, DEPARTED -- at 0547 hrs! That's right. 0547hrs!

I had checked the tickets myself and knew that the time mentioned on the tickets was 0730hrs.

So we went to the customer service counter and protested. And we were told that the flight schedule had been changed!

What was the point of taking our contact details during the booking if the contact details were not going to be used to inform us that our flight had been rescheduled?

After a few embarrassed moments for the SQ staff, the supervisor came and "apologized" for this mistake from their side. She also said that we would be put on the next flight which was at 2030hrs. The flight at 2030, we were informed, was full, but we were assured that we will be given seats on priority. After I inquired about the priority, we were told that they would check us in right away for the evening flight.

So we now have confirmed seats for the flight in the evening and "as a token of our sincere apologies", we have USD100 vouchers for in flight shopping.

As if that makes a big deal. My family would rather be back in India with the rest of my folks.

No matter how much people criticise India, let me tell you one thing. In more than 10 years of flying around the country, this has never happened to me in India. Firstly, there have not been too many schedule changes. And the few that have been, I have always been informed at least 12 hours in advance.

For a developing country like India, delays and changes have to be expected. It will take a while for India to reach the professionality levels of the developed countries. But this is definately not expected from a reputed airline like SQ.

What happened today was totally unacceptable. Not only does it inconvenience my family, as they will land late in the night as opposed to the planned for morning arrival, it significantly shakes my confidence in Singapore Airlines as my choice of airline.

You see, I too have been booked on SQ for my flight into India in July. In my case, the booking will be more than 4 months old. I am not at all sure if they same thing will happen to me. And as opposed to my family's 2 month vacation, I will be there only for a few days. And my trip has been planned to the exact dates. Any change and I will miss out. This is just what I did not want.

This is the first really disappointing experience I have had since I moved to Singapore.