hi friends, back in sg on tues early morning 1.40am, when we walked out of the plane. This time , sad to say, pappy & I were rather upset by the service of the SIA administration.
On the morning of our departure to tokyo, upon checking in, the system showed that joshua boy was not seated together with us. Pappy did a phone check-in for joshua the day before as internet check-in is not applicable to children. His seating arrangement was being confirmed over the phone. Somehow, that arrangement was not reflected in the system. The ground staff, i would say, was very helpful & efficient in rectifying the problem. One problem solved.
Next, we were told that no child's meal was being arranged for joshua boy. Pappy was already very unhappy. That we had no choice but to provide joshua boy with an adult menu (too late to make any arrangement then). Second problem solved though dissatisfied.
On the plane, the cabin crew faxed a telex to the company to arrange child's meal on our flight back. We must say that is quite efficient too (later we learnt from the chief steward that was a proper & correct procedure to be taken by the crew).
On our return flight, to our disappointment, joshua boy had to take adult meal again. His name, neither pappy's, was not reflected in the list of child's meal. We thought that a telex was being sent....we thought that our request was being addressed... so what had gone wrong? Apparently another family, seated beside us, had their children's meals left out too. The mother complained to the crew that children should be served first when she realised that some adults were already tucking in their food. I saw her walking around to check on those having their meals earlier.
One of the cabin crew was pappy's friend. He quickly offered to arrange a special tray with some kids' tidbits & a main dish (from the adult menu). Pappy & I were ,of course, very pissed off. A complaint was being lodged to the chief steward. But what was done could not be undone.
Talk about efficiency of SIA service, i think that is questionable. We now have bad impression of the airline.
The previous trip in march with JAL was much much more pleasant. During our last trip in mar, Joshua boy was very cranky before the plane touched down in osaka. One of the senior JAL cabin crew told us to just let him cry due to the discomfort of his ear pressure. It would be better for him. So joshua boy was crying & making a lot of noise all the way till the door opened (I rushed to the front once the plane had properly parked). Shortly after the plane took off, the JAL crew showed me the content of his meal, & told me to let her know when joshua was ready to eat so that she could heat up the food. His meal turned out to be very tasty. I ate his left over.
We were pleased with Cathay Pacific too when we went to HK last aug. Joshua boy had a pack of baby diapers, at least 4 baby bottled food & a kiddo goody bag with toys. Most importantly, our seating arrangement was not cropped up.