OUT OF LINE

Singapore Airlines is globally renowned as one of the top airlines for its service offering – they won six of the Business Traveller Asia-Pacific annual reader award categories, and as a frequent Singaporean business and leisure traveller, I fly with SIA for most of my trips.

So I got a rude awakening when flying on SQ805 from Beijing to Singapore on November 15, 2016. I booked seat 56H – a two-seater near the back of the B777-200 plane. When I sat down, I realised my seat was not in alignment with the seat in front of me – which was about 25 per cent farther to the right.

This caused me a number of problems. Having a meal on board was a challenge: a quarter of my food tray crossed over to the passenger seated on my right, which was embarrassing. Furthermore, some of the cup holder tray was also located on my neighbour’s side, which stopped me from working on my laptop as it was inconvenient. Watching the in-flight entertainment was another challenge, as I had to keep my neck turned to the right which was uncomfortable, both in a physical sense, but I also felt embarrassed and rude towards the passenger on my right that I had to turn in their direction.

I did explain the problem to a flight attendant, but all they could suggest was for me to inform the customer service personnel. No relocation was offered, even though there were two empty seats in front of me. Has the airline forgotten about the most basic comfort level of passengers? This is definitely not the industry standard. In short, it was one of the worst flights I’ve ever taken. Charles Loke, Singapore

SINGAPORE AIRLINES RESPONDS: The seats Mr Loke refers to in our Boeing 777-200s are configured to ensure sufficient space for the movement of passengers, crew and meal carts, due to the narrowing of the fuselage at the rear of the aircraft. While some customers prefer them, as there are two seats instead of the usual three on each side of the fuselage, we regret that Mr Loke did not find his seat comfortable. We apologise that he was not offered an alternative seat after he had made his discomfort known, and will be following up directly with Mr Loke to further address his concerns.