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Taken August 2003 from Seoul to San Francisco

Dear Singapore Airlines.

My brother purchased the round trip ticket in the USA and the ticket was to bring him to Korea on July 27, 2003, and return him to the USA on Aug. 16, 2003. The return trip however from Seoul was riddled with harassment and bitterness. Before ticketing, my brother was asked on a desk if he would like to give up his seat for a nonstop flight, business class on a flight to Vancouver would be offered and he would obtain $500 (Singapore dollars) instead. He responded saying yes.

After about 12 hours, my brother arrived at the airport in Vancouver. But a connecting flight to San Francisco had no seat. Unfortunately, Singapore airlines failed to provide adequate service because it did not notify him (my family also) of this cancellation or rescheduled flight.

Subsequently, my brother asked your agents how to solve that problem, and the officers were asked to wait for 3 days until they found the plane to San Francisco. After waiting for 3 more hours, the only option available to him was to take a 6 hour bus ride to Seattle. He was eventually bussed into Seattle around 11 p.m. that night. When he arrived in Seattle, he found out that he must wait for 9 hours. But he had no ice and was concerned about arriving in San Francisco first!

My brother finally boarded the plane to San Francisco and his final arrival time in San Francisco was 10:11a.m. on Aug. 18, almost two days later than his original time. Although 10 days passed, my brother did not get $500. So he called your office in San Francisco and demanded the compensation that your company promised. But the officer said for him to visit your office. Why must my brother lose time because of your mistake?

I called a reservation part. I had the misfortune of encountering Ms. Song. After I said this error, she said that she would 'call me inside a day'. After 3 days, I still had not received any connection, so I called her again. She forget it and stated that it was out of her hands because she carried the message to somebody related to this problem. I asked her to call back because there is nothing to solve. She was extremely rude and discourteous. Though she said 'yes' and 'I'll call you inside a day', she didn't. So I called again next day, she said that 'call direct to him (Mr. Cho) or wait!'

But I couldn't wait forever. When I called Mr. Cho, he just said (without apology) that he had day-off for 3 days. Once I expressed actually dissatisfaction about this irresponsibility, I was treated quite rudely by Mr. Cho. Stunningly, he did not have any information about this problem.

Because Mr. Cho didn't care about my needs as a customer of Singapore Airlines, I wanted to talk to a station manager who could manage this at a time. But he did not know the phone number. So I asked what phone number of the head office is and his answer was just 'I don't know'. I asked him why he didn't know it and he just told me that he didn't know. It seemed Mr. Cho was mocking me!!!

I heard that you left the matter to Soo in USA. But she was so busy that my brother communicated barely, besides she not only demanded too much (visit your office, send a document about $500 by mail, and wait. etc), but also she didn't know what she did and how she dealt with a matter (she said that she had no empowerment to manage it).

I expect to hear from you soon. Thank you for taking the time to read this letter.