HYDERABAD – Singapore Airlines (SIA) has been ordered to pay two of its passengers 200,000 rupees (S$3,300) plus other costs after they filed a complaint concerning recliner seats on a flight from Hyderabad to Australia.
Mr Ravi Gupta, the director-general of police in India’s Telengana state, was travelling with his wife on May 23, 2023, in business class, but found that their seats could not recline electronically.
Mr Ravi said the malfunction caused them inconvenience, and he had to stay awake throughout the almost 14-hour flight despite paying 133,500 rupees in total for the plane tickets, reported the Indian news outlet Deccan Chronicle.
He made a complaint to the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission-III in Hyderabad, which ordered Singapore Airlines to return 97,500 rupees to the couple, along with an interest charge of 12 per cent from the date of complaint.
Additionally, the airline would also have to bear the cost of 100,000 rupees for the duo’s “mental agony and physical suffering”, along with paying 10,000 rupees to cover the cost for the complaint.
The total sum amounts to around S$3,580.
The airline had offered the couple 10,000 KrisFlyer miles each, but they declined the offer.
They had purchased Business Z class seats. These come at a discounted rate and are non-refundable.
The seats in business class are supposed to be able to recline automatically via electronic buttons.
In their complaint, the couple claimed that they felt as if they were economy class passengers, except they had extra leg room, reported the Deccan Chronicle.
In a statement to The Straits Times, SIA acknowledged the decision of the commission.
“SIA can confirm that while the automatic recline function on Mr and Mrs Gupta’s seats was faulty, the manual recline function was working. We apologise to Mr and Mrs Gupta for the inconvenience caused by this mechanical issue,” said the airlines.
The airline did not answer queries on whether it would pay the couple as ordered or appeal against the decision.
Meanwhile, Indigo Airlines was ordered to pay a passenger 30,000 rupees for not informing him earlier of his flight cancellation.
The man’s flight was scheduled for 10.05am, while the airline sent the message at 4.31am the same day, reported The New Indian Express.
He saw the message only at 8am, while he was on his way to the airport.
The airline said that the flight cancellation was due to “operational constraints that were beyond their control”, but was not able to produce evidence of this later on.
