Singapore Airlines has been ordered to compensate an Indian couple with more than $2,040 (approximately Rs 1.70 Lakh) due to ‘Mental Agony’ they faced when their business class seats malfunctioned during a flight. Ravi Gupta, a police chief from Telangana and his wife Anjali Gupta were traveling from Hyderabad to Australia via Singapore. Despite paying Rs 66,750 each for business class seats, they discovered that the automatic recline function was not operational. Instead, they were only able to recline the seats manually and were forced to stay awake throughout the five hour long journey. As a compensation, the airline’s offered them 10,000 flyer miles points each, but the couple refused their deal and decided to sue Singapore Airlines, claiming they were treated like economy class passengers.
Interestingly, the Hyderabad court ruled in the couple’s favour and asked the airline to reimburse Rs 48,750 each, plus 12% interest from May 23, 2023, until settlement. Anjali and Ravi also received additional compensations of Rs 1 lakh for mental agony and physical discomfort, along with Rs 10, 000 to cover the complaint expenses.
Singapore Airlines in a statement told The Independent, “SIA can confirm that while the automatic recline function on Mr and Mrs Gupta’s seats was faulty, the manual recline function was working on their flight from Hyderabad to Singapore. There were no issues on their connecting flight from Singapore to Perth. The flight duration from Hyderabad to Singapore is typically around four hours.”
“As it was a full flight, SIA staff unfortunately could not reseat the customers elsewhere in the Business Class cabin. Our crew proactively checked in on these customers regularly and offered to manually recline the seat when needed. We apologise to Mr and Mrs Gupta for the inconvenience caused by this mechanical issue,” the airlines added.
In 2023, Brodie Chapman, a 20 year old, took legal action against Emirates, claiming his business class seat was in an unacceptable condition. He alleged that despite paying $2,166 (approximately Rs 1.80 Lakh) for his flight from Oslo to Dubai, he came across numerous issues. According to Chapman, the seat was damaged, didn’t recline properly, he even found socks stuffed beside his seat and one of the screens was malfunctioning. He expressed disappointment, stating that he chose Emirates for its luxury and comfort, but felt cheated when the actual experience was poor. As per Daily Mail, Emirates offered him 20,000 air miles. However, Chapman took legal action in a British small claims court and asked for $3,300 (approximately Rs 2 Lakh).
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