The Moley Prophet

SQ for Singapore Airlines no longer stands for its service quality in my opinion, it should be called SS instead - sucky service. After my trip to Buffalo last semester, Singapore Airlines is no longer the first choice on my options when I travel. The prices it charges are also ridiculous. The price for a ticket from Singapore to New York, transiting at Frankfurt in an overcrowded 747-400 costs the same as flying direct to New York on a spacious A340-500. I would rather fly Emirates than take the ridiculous 747-400 if I had known its horrible service.

On my flight from Singapore - Frankfurt - New York, I encountered some of the dumbest cabin crew I've seen for some time. Besides being less of attentive to passengers, they were also lacking in product knowledge. 

On my return flight, there were even more problems. As I had to change my flight, I called up SIA's New York office. As usual for many of the call centers in America, the call is redirected to somewhere in India where some idiot with less than extensive product knowledge would give the wrong information. I got so fed up that I called up the Singapore office, only to wait for more than half an hour to get someone on the line.

Checking into my flight wasn't such a pleasant experience either, having misplaced my Krisflyer card somewhere in my luggage, I was told to call the New York office again. After waiting for centuries with lots of diverting, I was told to call the Krisflyer office at another number. There goes another long wait.

The trip back was worst. On SQ 25 from New York to Frankfurt, no crew member ever noticed the service call light. In the end, I just stopped one of them to get a cup of water. Nevertheless, the crew was pleasant, served with a smile and were extremely polite.

SQ 25 from Frankfurt to Singapore however, was totally ridiculous. Not only were the crew members less of attentive, they were quite rude in my opinion, not to mention dumb. On my way to board the plane, I was stopped by a senior crew member for my large hand-carry. I told her that it could not be possible that my hand-carry was too big as I just came down from the plane with it for transit. Her tone was rather rude and the way she addresses "sir" sounds more like "oi!". In the end, after taking out a coat I stuffed in the bag, it looked less bulky and was allowed through without any apologies for wasting my time.

On board, I saw the worst cabin crew ever. Not to mention the lack of attentiveness to passengers, the crew member in my area behaved like the passengers owed her a living. She was raising her voice at this German lady seated at a distance away from me. The lady was obviously asking about the usage of her courtesy lights but the crew member told her that the lights are central and when the crew member told her to "please" turn off the service call light which she had accidentally turned on, they had some major communication problem. All because the flight had no German speaking crew member although it was flying from Germany.

Then there was this German guy sitting beside me. He had a Bose headphone pouch which he had placed on the seat next to him as it was empty. A crew member walking pass had told him to stow it away and he placed it in the pocket in front of him. The crew member then asked again in a not so polite member for him to stow it underneath the seat. What's the problem with placing a small pouch in the seat pocket, I think that it is more dangerous for such a small and light weight object which has no grip on the carpet to be placed underneath the seat. Their stubbornness earned a "WTF" face from the German guy.

During the flight, when I asked for a cup of water, the crew member forgot about the request and after about 5 minutes, I pressed the service call button. Annoyed at their lack of attentiveness, I timed the whole waiting time and it took over 8 minutes for a crew member to notice the light.

It is disappointing that a brand like Singapore Airlines could fall into such dismay, and I hope that things would not go further south for such a prestigious local brand.