OCTOBER 2017
Get in touch at [email protected]
PREFERABLY NOT
I have had several bad
experiences with Jet Airways
recently, mostly around their
(distinct lack of) customer service
and ability to resolve complaints
without trying to distract people
with “standard answers”.
The most frustrating of these
issues has been around my pre-
paying for a “preferred” seat on
one of their flights. I flew from
Singapore to Chennai on Jet Airways flight 9W15. I paid
S$52 (US$38) to sit in a front-row bulkhead window seat.
The Jet Airways website clearly showed that the middle
seats (B & E) had a bassinet in front of them, but window
seats were unobstructed. Having boarded the flight
however, with both bassinets occupied, these protruded
more onto the window seats than the middle ones. I spent
the whole four-hour flight cramped and having to twist my
legs in order to fit them under the bassinet.
I wrote to Jet Airways afterwards to complain, advising
that this should not be advertised as a “preferred” seat
(or that they should at least warn people that should the
bassinet be occupied, legroom will be severely restricted) and
to request a refund of the amount I paid to select that seat.
After many useless emails, I was eventually told that
nobody else complained and that I should have been
offered another seat, so no refund is possible. Nobody else
having complained has nothing to do with me – and I wasbusinesstraveller.com18 I Inbox
Star letter
most certainly not offered an alternative seat.
During this process, I have found Jet Airways’ customer
service to be superficial, inefficient and unhelpful. I have
discovered that you are not able to make complaints over
the telephone, but are constantly directed towards their
email address, so that they can respond with standard
answers and deny any claims that you have.
Rohan Muralee, SingaporeJET AIRWAYS RESPONDS:
Jet Airways would like to express its concern with
regard to the feedback received from Mr Rohan
Muralee. It would be pertinent to mention that the
seat map on Jet Airways’ website clearly indicates the
placement of bassinets in Row 10 – similar to practices
followed by global carriers. The bassinets are also
positioned in a standardised manner and in such a way
that guests seated in that particular row are not in any
way inconvenienced or experience discomfort, as per
international norms.
Moreover, at Jet Airways, cabin crew are also trained
to offer alternative seating options to a guest, subject
to availability, should a guest so desire. Unfortunately,
we understand Mr Muralee did not approach the cabin
crew for any change of seating due to discomfort
during his journey.
However, we again take this opportunity to extend
our apologies to Mr Muralee for the inconvenience he
faced. We also recommend all our guests to approach
the cabin crew or staff for any requests they may have.QThis issue’s winner of Letter of the
Month will receive one of the new
branded Business Traveller cabin-size
suitcases from Timothy Travel Essentials
(timothytravelessentials.co.uk).
For the chance to win Letter of the Month, email us
at [email protected] and include your
postal address and daytime phone number. We reserve
the right to edit letters.BOUNCER ON BOARD
Air travel in China has become increasingly difficult, with
consistently poor on-time departures – every flight I took
on a recent two-week trip around China for business was
substantially delayed. But worse is the cavalier attitude I
encountered from China Southern Airlines.
Flight attendants advise that all electronic equipment
must remain off during the flight. So these days I can’t
even do any work on my laptop while in the air, let alone
listen to music on my phone – even if it’s in flight mode.Each flight also now comes complete with an onboard
“bouncer”. These jumped-up security guards speak little, if
any, English, wear an active body cam and stalk the aisles
barking orders at any passenger who so much as reaches
for an electronic device. On August 17, I was on the three-
hour flight CZ3836 from Shanghai to Sanya in business
class (seat 2C) with a colleague. Mid-flight, a security
officer approached me as he had seen me handling my
iPhone and began shouting in Chinese. While I didn’t
understand, I got the idea and put my phone away.