Singapore—The national carrier of Singapore has a sterling reputation worldwide, winning awards everywhere for its unrivalled service to passengers — no mean feat with all that can make flying an uncomfortable experience.
But, the airline may have lost one fan by the name of Ng Yi Yang, who wrote a lengthy rant of more than 1000 words long on Twitter complete with all uppercase letters for dramatic emphasis, due to a bad experience with Singapore Airlines.
A wheel on Ng’s check-in baggage had gotten damaged and he had difficulty lugging it around JFK International Airport, New York. Consequently, he filled up a damaged baggage claim only to be told that the airline’s compensation policy does not cover damaged wheels.
Now, most people would have stopped there and moved on. But, not this particular disgruntled customer Ng, who goes by the (rather unfortunate name of ) @masterbayting on Twitter.
He went on to talk about how triggered he was over the whole situation and made a list of his grievances: “Passengers who fly economy “will always be the least important paying customer, “ since airlines only profit from the people who fly first or business class … ”
Nevertheless, he still feels “a certain sense of injustice: ” … I’ve been unfairly treated by our own national airline.”
Betrayal was another point, although he admitted that he had not been discriminated against. Some points were that he had been blindly encouraging his friends to fly SQ and had spent $600 extra to fly SQ instead of on Qatar Airways.
A RANT AGAINST SQ (THREAD)
super annoyed with @SingaporeAir – when I flew to US for exchange I left the airport in a rush – we were already delayed by the govt shutdown and I only realised one of luggage wheels were damaged after leaving the immigration. pic.twitter.com/KsaeGSTeKg— master bay ting (@ngyiyang) March 13, 2019
Nevertheless, the disgruntled passenger tweeted, “Maybe its nationalism, and as a transport geek – I truly believed that SQ is (and I still believe) the best airline in the world. Just not for the economy class passengers!”
He then went on to compare his SQ flight with Qatar Airways, saying that although he paid for much less his Qatar flight, it was so much better due to the superior entertainment system, free wifi, better legroom, among other perks.
The whole incident left him in doubt as to whether SQ deserves its stellar reputation. “i desperately want to #supportlocal,” he tweeted, “but if customer service is THE reason to fly with SQ, I will never fly with SQ again as an economy passenger. I’m not saying you should boycott it. IF you can afford it, go ahead and support our national airline.
“but do they deserve it? I’m not actually sure. Airline serivce (sic) experiences have become so homogeneous that to be honest I do not find the service on SQ to be above and beyond or even significantly better than on Scoot or AirAsia.”
He pointed out that SQ’s customer service must become more equitable for the economy class passengers.
“if SQ wants to hold on to its title as the BEST airline, they cannot neglect the economy class and focus on solely the elite….. or is this the singaporean way? #touche”
At one point Mr Ng seemed to realize his rant had gone on too long, so he ended with two last tweets:
“TLDR – customer service is supposedly SQ’s strength and disregarding it will only spell death for the airline.
And I am still pissed that I have been shortchanged by an airline that I sang praises for and I am no longer going to do so :(“
The disgruntled passenger then put up a poll on Twitter, asking people, “Did you know that SQ does not cover damage to your wheels?”
From the 29 respondents, 24 percent agreed while 76 percent disagreed.
The Facebook page All Singapore Stuff re-posted his Tweets, and the comments section was not pretty, to say the least.
