Singapore Air - change of plane

[Caversham04]

Sorry; a bit of a rant, but I've booked a flight in mid-2014 from Australia to LHR. I always book directly with SQ online, and always book Preferred (Exit Row) Seats immediately, where available. For this trip, I managed to book Preferred Seats for 3 of the 4 legs, but only a standard window seat for Oz - Singapore.

Anyway, I went onto the website this morning to check whether a Preferred Seat had become free on the Oz-SIN leg, and was alarmed to see that my preferred seat for SIN-LHR had disappeared. On closer inspection, this is because I had been booked in the upstairs economy section on the A380, and the 01:10 departure from SIN has now had a plane change to a 777. I don't have an issue with that as such, but I haven't been automatically assigned a similar window seat in the exit row and have instead got a standard B (middle) seat, halfway down the cabin. At 6 ft 3 inches, this isn't much of an option, so needless to say, I was straight on the phone and suggested either that they give me a seat in the exit row or re-schedule me onto the 23:30 flight on the A380 and give me a window seat on that; their website shows that both of these options are available....... The CSR advised that it will take them 2 days to get back to me to assign the Exit Row or change the SIN-LHR flight (if either option is still available by then......)

Has anyone else had a similar problem, and if you didn't manage to keep hold of your Preferred Seat, did you get anything from Singapore Air as a gesture of goodwill (beyond a refund of the charge for the seat)?

 

[mannej]

If you are after compensation for a plane change, I wouldn't hold your breath.
SQ isn't the only airline who a change of plane causes this issue with. I am surely are familiar with losing their nice seats on a 767 turn into poor seats on a 737...

 

[Caversham04]

Hi mannej

Thanks for the reply - I wasn't really holding my breath as I realise that (assuming I can't get an Exit Row seat on the new plane), a refund of the charge for the Preferred Seat is all that I'm entitled (or likely) to receive. I guess my underlying point is a more general one - if people have booked and paid for Exit Row seats 9 months ahead of time (in my case because I'm 6'3" and struggle in a standard seat), the system should be able to do something more sensible than re-assigning them into a middle seat halfway down the cabin when the plane is changed........

Murphy's Law also states that when I walk past the Preferred Seats, the people in the exit row will all be about 5 ft tall and have no need of the legroom.......

UPDATE: I've just logged on again and there are unused Preferred Seats available for selection, so why wasn't I assigned one of those automatically? I've booked one (and paid the fee again), so will be asking for a refund of the duplicate amount.

 

[Alanslegal]

Murphy's Law also states that when I walk past the Preferred Seats, the people in the exit row will all be about 5 ft tall and have no need of the legroom.......

Hey! :evil: I am a tiny bit over 5 ft tall ... well around 5'5 to be exact and I book exit / bulkhead seats not because I want/need legroom but for more of ease in/out of my seat (similarly for my seatmate who can walk over my feet than me wiggling out of my seat etc), and more importantly, so nobody can ever recline into me on those difficult long hauls in Y

Anyway, good luck with the seat assignment. I hope SQ rectifies it quick smart.

 

[Caversham04]

Hey! :evil: I am a tiny bit over 5 ft tall ... well around 5'5 to be exact and I book exit / bulkhead seats not because I want/need legroom but for more of ease in/out of my seat (similarly for my seatmate who can walk over my feet than me wiggling out of my seat etc), and more importantly, so nobody can ever recline into me on those difficult long hauls in Y

Anyway, good luck with the seat assignment. I hope SQ rectifies it quick smart.

Thanks..... and let's run away before the thread turns into another can we / can't we recline discussion

 

[lovetravellingoz]

I book most of my J/F Award flight well in advance.

I select seats at the the time...but having booked a year out there can often be equipment changes. I do not always receive advice of the equipment changes either.

To date I have always just been randomly re-assigned to another seat. Often they keep the same seat number, or next nearest, but as seating plans ad cabins are different optimal seating rarely results.

For this reason I regularly randomly log in and check. And being J/F change my seats if I can and need to. Sometimes this is not possible due to other seat allocations.

Fortunately this seems to have settled down the last year or so.

A couple of years back on flights to Europe from MEL, the changes, were maddeningly frequent. From memory there was one period where the metal was changed about six times.

 

[Bofter]

Hi mannej
I guess my underlying point is a more general one - if people have booked and paid for Exit Row seats 9 months ahead of time (in my case because I'm 6'3" and struggle in a standard seat), the system should be able to do something more sensible than re-assigning them into a middle seat halfway down the cabin when the plane is changed........

Agree with the frustration - if they get this right (to the extent practical) it takes the pain out of equipment changes

 

[mannej]

I have no arguments over the fact the system should recognise this and act accordingly when equipment changes occur.
What I don't agree on is that you are entitled to any form of what you call good will but I call compensation over it apart from a refund of the cost of the seat should the issue not be rectified.