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A Singaporean woman, her husband and child were unilaterally downgraded from their business class seats on a Scoot flight two hours before take-off on Aug. 7.

The family of three were also left without their luggage upon arrival at their holiday destination in Gold Coast, Australia.

Speaking to Mothership, the woman, who wanted to be identified as Shao Nai Nai, further said her family's luggage only arrived four days later on Aug. 11.

Response from Scoot lacking

By the time her family was done with the trip on Aug. 15, she submitted an online enquiry form with supporting documents to Scoot in order to receive acknowledgement over the delay in receiving her luggage, so that she can then submit a claim with her insurer.

However, the submission of supporting documents regarding the luggage delay went unacknowledged for two months, until October, when she received another email from Scoot, asking her to complete the same steps again, within 21 days of the completion of her flight.

Aug. 7 was not her original flight date

Shao added that Aug. 7 had not been the original date for her family's flight either.

She said that they had booked their flight to and from Gold Coast from Aug. 8 to Aug. 15.

In total, the family paid S$2,998.42 for their round-trip business class tickets, for two adults and a six-year-old child.

In addition, her family had also settled their itinerary and booked their hotels for their holiday duration.

One month prior to her departure, they were informed that their departing flight would be changed to Aug. 10.

Unwilling to cut short the holiday as the itinerary has been planned and the fact that they had already applied for leave, Shao and her family decided to change their flight to Aug. 7 and booked an additional overnight stay at Gold Coast.

"We had to call for hours to get a flight on Aug. 7 instead and scrambled to find a hotel for the additional day," she claimed.

Seats downgraded, luggage received four days after arrival

Subsequently, on Aug. 7, Shao claimed they were informed, about one-and-a-half to two hours prior to take-off, that their seats would be downgraded to economy.

The family also did not receive their luggage once they arrived in Gold Coast.

Shao said: "We were left without luggage upon arrival to our destination and had to buy clothing and other necessities for the next four days. We only received our luggage on Aug. 11."

Scoot allegedly failed to adequately follow up on requests

After the trip was over, Shao said she sent an online enquiry form on Aug. 16 regarding the delay in receiving her luggage.

She did not receive a reply.

She then sent another follow-up email on Aug. 26, to which Scoot replied, referencing the online form she had submitted.

This email by Scoot also told Shao to submit supporting documents regarding her luggage delay within 21 days of completing her flight.

Shao told Mothership that she did so in accordance with Scoot's instructions within the same day.

On Aug. 28, Shao sent another email to Scoot, in which she also referenced the downgrade in her seats and highlighted that she still had not received a refund regarding the downgrade.

She wrote: "Also the change from business class to economy seat on 7 Aug to OOL the refund was still not received."

Shao added that while she received an automated acknowledgement from Scoot in response to her Aug, 28 email, there were no more emails from Scoot until Oct. 7, which was in response to another follow-up email she sent out on Sep. 27.

Scoot's Oct. 7 email said: "Please be assured that we are looking into this and will provide an update as soon as we can. We thank you for your patience."

This was followed by another email on Oct. 10, in which Scoot said: "Please accept our sincerest apologies for taking longer than expected. We value your feedback and are still looking into this. We will respond as soon as we have an update."

On Oct. 16, Scoot responded regarding the downgrade in seats and the delay in luggage.

Regarding the downgrade, Scoot said it was unable to accede to her request for refund in cash and would instead offer her Service Recovery Vouchers at 30 per cent of the base fare.

As for the luggage delay, Scoot repeated the instructions in its Aug. 26 email, requesting for Shao to submit supporting documents within 21 days of the flight's completion.

However, by this time, it was beyond the 21-day window of her flight's completion.

Subsequently on Oct. 21, Shao received an email from Scoot saying that her refund application was successful even though she had not agreed to accepting the vouchers as refund.

Scoot's communication regarding the amount for the refund also appeared unclear.

Shao said:

"It’s very confusing as I was supposed to get 30 per cent of the base fare plus S$150 voucher. But I just received three emails for S$150."

Mothership reached out to Scoot on Oct. 19 for more information on the matter and is awaiting its reply.

Shao confirmed she did not receive the relevant documents from Scoot but proceeded to submit her claim with her insurer regarding the delay of her baggage.

Top photo via Scoot Facebook