lcuy

When I was booking a Honolulu to Goa India trip, I was excited to Singapore Air from Singapore to Mumbai, as I've always heard such good stuff about them AND SiA is a milage partner with United. Knowing that not all flights classes can earn partner miles, i called SIA and asked if the fare I was considering qualified. i got a confident "yes", and booked it.

We arrived in SIN at midnight, and the SIA staff told us to check our luggage then, to avoid the morning rush on my 6am flight. Despite my concerns about it being checked from inside the transit area I did so.

So, they did not load my bags the next morning, and in Mumbai I almost missed my next flight due to their loooong reporting process. They gave the two of us a total of $45 dollars as compensation, and we didn't get our bags for another three days. The airplane we fly was ancient, and there was no video system.

When the bags arrived in Mumbai 24 hours later, they couldn't fly the bags to Goa and put them on a daylong truck ride. (Prompting us to spend a few hundred $$ on clothes, as we were there for a wedding).

Today, i found out from United that SIA refused to grant our milage, as "that class of fare doesn't qualify."

Don't think that Singapore legend of quality still held in my case, and I certainly won't choose them again!

Rastaguytoday

YOu have to remember that Singapore's stellar reputation has mainly to do with their first class flights.

I've been in the back of the Singapore Air flights several times, and it sucks big time.

Regardless of the airline, the back of the bus is still the back of the bus.

I've never seen an award given out for the best economy class plane.

rkkwan

You always need to get the specific fare code and check with mileage plus about mileage accrual. Can't just rely on some agent.

I am not aware of any SQ aircraft with no personal screens. The BOM flights should be on a regional 777 and I thought those should have personal screens, and in fact AVOD as well. And no aircraft in their fleet can be ancient.

Melnq8

Sorry to hear of your troubles Icuy, SIA is my favorite airline.

We had some issues a few years back with SIA transferring our luggage at Changi to connecting flights. We'd go to the transit desk to collect our boarding passes and arrange to have our luggage transferred internally. On three of four flights, our luggage went missing.

I finally got fed up, and composed a letter detailing each flight and how long it took our luggage to show up, etc. I received a written apology along with a $150 gift certificate to be used in duty free on my next flight. This was in addition to payment made at the time for emergency purchases. And the best bit, it never happened again.

Suggest you send an e-mail:

[email protected]

Good luck.

MissGreen

I was annoyed a few years ago with Singapore Airlines and a business class fare they offered from Sydney to Cairo, with one leg on their newish A380. Lucky I checked it thoroughly after the travel agent suggested it as there was a change of aircraft on the way to Egypt Air and we would of been in economy. There was no difference in the price to factor in sitting in economy on a 4 hour leg on a huge journey. We have not considered Singapore Airlines since.

lcuy

Thanks for the email address, melnq8. I plan to write them.

Ray, perhaps we were in a borrowed plane. Perhaps it wasn't "ancient" but, but there were definitely no videos and the interior was only marginally clean.

Springback

I am now worried. I am flying Sydney to Singapore (2 hour lay over) then on to Paris. Coming back my lay over in Singapore is only 1hr 45mins. Will my bags make the connecting Singapore Airlines flight? What do I do if they do not make it? I am a novice international flyer.

Melnq8

Springback -

Don't worry, it'll likely be fine.

Have your luggage tagged to your final destination (Paris) when you check on in Sydney.

Are you flying SIA the whole way? If not, when you collect your boarding passes in the transit area at Changi, be sure to show them your luggage tags and ask them to make sure you're bags are transferred. I do this all the time and haven't had any issues since the ones mentioned above.

Melnq8

In the unlikely event that your luggage doesn't arrive with you (1:45 is a legal connection and Changi is very efficient) go to the luggage desk at your destination and file a report. They'll be able to tell where your luggage is by looking at their computer and they'll tell you when it will arrive, and might offer you compensation to make emergency purchases. I've actually been paged while waiting for my luggage, as they already knew it'd been left behind.

Geordie

<<I've never seen an award given out for the best economy class plane.>>

Skytrax have awards based on the feedback from 18 million passengers

Best economy class - Singapore Airlines

Best economy class meals - Singapore Airlines

simpsonc510

Lucy, sorry about your problems with SIA. I've only flown them once, on a BKK-SIN round trip, in first/business and it was nice.

DonTopaz

To set the record straight about getting mileage, it's United, not SIA, that sets the policy for which booking classes on partner flights earn miles in Mileage Plus. The Singapore telephone agent should have said "I dunno, ask United" when you asked if the fare class would earn miles with United.

lcuy

I know I should have confirmed it with United, but when I talked with United MP about this the other day, the agent said "Singapore denied awarding the miles based on your fare class", not "United won't accept them".

Not a huge deal, but it will be if I miss my status by 5,000 miles or so!

simpsonc510

DS bradinbangkok had the same sort of situation with Swiss and not getting his UA miles credited. I forget which one said 'yes' and which one said 'no', but bottom line, no elite qualifying miles were awarded and he missed out on 1k status last year.

stephCA

If you book your ticket online, you would see that they have categories and it will tell you if you will earn miles on it or not. There are price difference. It was actually pretty clear on their website.

As for service, only if you fly biz or fc that you get the excellent service..in any airline. The annoying thing about SIA is that they serve all the special meals first which I am sorry to say...a LOT..so by the time they get to the normal meals...one would pass out starving already.