TESTING LOYALTY

There’s a continual erosion of benefits going on with Singapore Airlines’ Krisflyer scheme. An example is the misleading seat selection map for online redemption bookings.

I booked a redemption ticket from Singapore to Delhi in economy class for my son departing on March 10, flight SQ406, returning on March 12, flight SQ401. Seat selection is part of the web booking, but the map only offered a single choice, a middle seat. All others were shown as occupied. This was the case for both the outbound and inbound sectors. I was disappointed as my son had recently injured his foot and I was looking to get him an aisle seat. I chose the middle seat offered and completed the booking.

I am a frequent flyer on this sector and knew that these flights are never fully booked, certainly not to the extent that only a single seat was available in the entire economy cabin. I had a suspicion that the airline was forcing me to choose a middle seat because it was a redemption booking. To confirm this, I started a non-redemption booking for the same flights on the same dates. This time, I was offered a wide selection of seats, including several window and aisle options.

I felt cheated. As a PPS club member for 12 years, I feel that Krisflyer has eroded in value for the frequent traveller, and wonder where the loyalty schemes of premium airlines such as SIA are headed.