Singapore—For many people all over the world, flying first class on Singapore Airlines is the pinnacle of luxurious travel. For one man, as much as he enjoyed all the perks and amenities of his first-class flight finding a screw in his soup, ruined the experience, and the paltry compensation from the carrier by way of apology did not help much.
The passenger, who goes by the name of Will and regularly writes flight reviews on WeChat, blogged about his experience last week, although the actual flight from Singapore to Aukland was taken on January 1.
At the beginning of his blog entry, Will has many good things to say about SIA’s first class service, waxing enthusiastic about the lounge guests get to enjoy at Changi Airport, and showing photos of the menu, complete with champagne and lobster, as well as the shower room, although he had some minor complaints about the “dimmed lighting and outdated interior design,” as well as fingerprint smudges on the plate his meal was served in.
On the plane, Will showed photos of his first-class cabin, his never-empty champagne glass, the incredible and seemingly endless meals and snacks, the turndown service as his seat became a bed, the designer overnight kit and pyjamas, and even the spacious airplane bathroom—enough to make every single person who travels economy green with jealousy.
And then came the “Incident,” as Will calls it.
He wrote, “Should I say I was lucky? I felt a sharp object in my mouth while I was sipping the pumpkin mushroom soup. I pulled out a mental screw that all the crew probably wet their pants seeing one when I showed them. A 200 SGD voucher was offered immediately as service recovery, but I was no longer having more appetite for the rest of my flight.”
Will posted a video and a photo of a small metal screw that had come from his soup. But he did not seem very happy with what SIA offered as compensation.
“Later I wrote a letter to SQ and after 12 days of investigation, they found the missing screw which came from one of its kitchen blenders and it was mixed into the soup bowl, passed the metal detector and being delivered onto the plane, being reheated in a microwave, and served to me. How lucky am I?! No further compensation was brought up so I guess that’s a wrap up for this incident. Hard to believe a 200 SGD voucher for a suite class passenger would justify the experience the pax had went through. What do you think?”
He posted a picture of the voucher the airline gave him, along with the email written by the Passenger Services Department of Singapore Airlines Ltd, which said that the missing screw had come from a handheld blender from the catering company. Furthermore, the airline was taking measures to ensure that the incident would not happen again, while metal detection was implemented for all in-flight meals.
Despite finding a screw in his soup, Will wrote that he “would totally give this journey a 5 out of 5 rating.”
He added, “Can you imagine what would happen if I ate the screw and got sent to the hospital? In this case, no matter how great your hardware on this A380 was and how wonderful these crew were, it’s a shame that such an incident happened within SQ’s watch and how they dealt with it. I could only hope there are no other passengers had to go through this in their life.” —/TISG
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