Prior to COVID-19, the Singapore Airlines call centre was generally excellent. It didn’t take long to get through to an operator, and the Singapore-based staff were able to competently assist with most requests.
Unfortunately, it’s now quite a different story. It appears that Singapore Airlines has closed its Singapore-based call centre during the pandemic and outsourced the work to staff in the Philippines and India. Sadly, these workers appear to lack the high level of experience and training of the former Singaporean staff.
Meanwhile, the Singapore Airlines call centre hold times have skyrocketed. Customers are now routinely waiting over an hour to speak to somebody.
Here’s what just a few Australian Frequent Flyer members have had to say over recent months…
I rang SQ yesterday and after waiting for 45 minutes was hung up on. Another 1.5 hr wait got through to someone.
– Gold Member, 21 December 2021
What is going on with Sing Air… OMG… Lessons from QF
First attempt – on hold for 1.5 hours – gave up
Second Attempt – on hold for 3 hours and 43 minutes- gave up
Third attempt – 2 hours and 2 mins – still on hold, not sure if i should abort and try again another day???
OMG this is driving me bananas, it is a simple change that i should be able to do online but I can’t
– whole-lotta-moxie, 15 February 2022
Multiple people have also reported that after selecting the “KrisFlyer redemption bookings” option at the start of their call, they were transferred after a long wait to an operator who wasn’t trained in redemption bookings. They would then need to wait even longer on hold to be transferred to somebody else.
Took 4 calls and cumulative 7 hours on hold to change an award booking. One call lasted 3 hours before I got through to an agent not trained in redemption bookings who guaranteed I’d get a call back. This was after giving up a couple of times at a brief 90 minutes on hold. Yesterday I called at 6am and had a short 1 hour on hold to again reach someone untrained in redemptions – but was transferred to someone who could help after a little more holding.
– Lemon_Party, 12 January 2022
The main issue seems to be a lack of highly-trained staff, as is the case at the moment with the Qantas call centre. This is something that only an investment in hiring and training more staff will fix.
But the specific issue of calls about redemption bookings being transferred to staff untrained in redemption bookings should be much easier to fix with a few changes to the way the Interactive Voice Response menu is set up.
What does Singapore Airlines say?
Singapore Airlines, as you might expect, is blaming COVID-19 and high demand for the long wait times.
“The dynamic nature of travel regulations and border restrictions has resulted in an extremely high volume of enquiries at our customer touch points,” Singapore Airlines regional manager for Public Affairs & Government Relations Karl Schubert told Australian Frequent Flyer.
“We seek our customers’ patience and understanding that we may take longer than usual to attend to them. We thank all customers for their continued support.”
What can you do if you can’t reach the Singapore Airlines call centre?
Out of sheer frustration, some Australian frequent flyers have resorted to trying other ways of contacting Singapore Airlines – with mixed success.
One popular alternative way to reach Singapore Airlines is by connecting to “Kris the chatbot” on the Singapore Airlines website or via Facebook Messenger. The chatbot will default to giving automated responses that might not be all that helpful. But if you type “talk to an agent”, it will connect you through to a human when somebody becomes available.
I found connecting to Krisbot at 12pm (AEDT) and typing “talk to an agent” successful. I was able to connect within 10 minutes on 3 separate occasions. Other times, I had to hold on the phone for over 90minutes.
– aaa99, 16 February 2022
Another AFF member tried emailing the KrisFlyer social media team about an issue relating to a KrisFlyer award booking, with success.
After endless number of calls to their hopeless call centre, as well as emailing to them directly and getting no response for the last 3 months to try to get my points and taxes refunded. I ended up emailing to their Krisflyer Social Media email address (Krisflyer_social @ singaporeair. com. sg), and got response from their Singapore based CSO within 1 business day.
– kamchatsky, 10 January 2022
Others have tried:
- Contacting Singapore Airlines on other forms of social media
- Calling overseas phone numbers (e.g. the US phone number for Singapore Airlines enquiries)
- Selecting alternative language options (e.g. Mandarin/Indonesian – even if you don’t speak these languages, the language-speaking staff generally also speak English and the wait times are often shorter)
- Calling early in the morning, e.g. around 7am Australian time
- If you happen to be in Singapore, visiting the Singapore Airlines Service Centre at ION Orchard
Some AFF members suggested that the waiting times may be shorter if you hold KrisFlyer Gold status, although there have been plenty of reports of even Gold members waiting many hours on hold with Singapore Airlines.
The service on board Singapore Airlines flights remains excellent, so it’s a shame that Singapore Airlines’ customer service on the ground has taken such a nosedive in recent times. Let’s hope these problems don’t last as long as the ongoing Qantas call centre issues that pre-date even the pandemic.
Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Best way to contact SQ these days
