Indian Couple Receives Rs 2 Lakh Compensation From Singapore Airlines For 'Mental Agony' After Seats Fails To Recline

Singapore Airlines has been ordered to compensate an Indian couple with over $2,040 (Approx Rs 2.1 lakh) for 'Mental Agony' after their business-class seats malfunctioned during a flight. Ravi Gupta, a police chief from Telangana, and his wife were flying from Hyderabad to Australia via Singapore, reported in the New York Post. Despite paying Rs 66,750 rupees (about $800) for each business-class seat, they found that the automatic recline feature didn't work. Instead, they could only recline the seats manually, causing frustration during the five-hour journey. The couple declined the airline's offer of 10,000 frequent flyer miles each and sued Singapore Airlines, alleging they were treated like economy-class passengers. The court ruled in their favour, ordering the airline to pay $2,400 for the inconvenience.

Court order

Unsplash/Representational image

Seeking justice, the couple took their case to the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in Telangana. In the court documents, Guptas accused Singapore Airlines of treating them like ¡°economy-class passengers¡±, even though they paid for comfortable business-class seats. They also mentioned that they couldn't sleep during the journey because of this. Recently, a court in Telangana decided in favour of the couple and told Singapore Airlines to pay them $2,400 for the trouble they faced.

Airlines statement

Singapore Airlines admitted that the automatic recline on the seats of Mr. and Mrs. Gupta wasn't working properly, but they could still recline manually during their flight from Hyderabad to Singapore. There were no problems on their next flight from Singapore to Perth. Because the flight was full, the airline's staff couldn't find other seats for the Guptas in the Business Class area. The crew regularly checked on them and offered to help manually adjust their seats. The airline apologized to the Guptas for any inconvenience caused by the mechanical issue.

¡°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," a spokesperson told The Independent.

"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 statement added.

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