The couples’ business class seats wouldn’t recline (Picture: Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Two business class passengers have been refunded more than £2,000 after suffering ‘mental agony’ when their seats failed to recline.
Although we’re sure everyone in economy class is playing the world’s tiniest violin for their plight.
Anjali and Ravi Gupta’s seats malfunctioned and wouldn’t recline during their nearly five-hour flight from Hyderabad in India to Singapore, meaning they couldn’t sleep during the journey.
Singapore Airlines has now been ordered to pay the couple more than £2,040 (INR 213,585) for the ‘mental agony’ this caused, India Today reported.
The couple had paid about £638 each (INR 66,750) for business class tickets from India to Australia, with a stopover in Singapore – about £460 more than the equivalent economy class ticket.
The Guptas were reportedly offered 10,000 frequent flyer miles or loyalty points each per person, but they declined this offer.
Singapore Airlines have apologised (Picture: Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The airline blamed a mechanical error (Picture: Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in Hyderabad ruled in favour of the Guptas and ordered the airline to refund £460 (INR 48,750) to each complainant, totalling £931 (INR 97,500) along with 12% interest.
Singapore Airlines was also instructed to pay £955 (INR 100,000) for causing the Guptas mental agony and physical suffering as well as £94 (INR 10,000) to cover their expenses.
Mr Gupta alleged in his complaint that he and his wife were treated as ‘economy class passengers’ except for the extra legroom.
Singapore Airlines said it ‘acknowledges the decision of Hyderabad’s District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission’.
A spokesperson 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.’
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