Singapore Airlines (SIA) has been ordered to pay a couple S$3,580 after they complained about their recliner seats malfunctioning on a business class flight.

The complainant, Ravi Gupta, a police chief from Telangana, Hyderabad, was with his wife on a May 23 flight from Hyderabad to Australia, which transited through Singapore.

Couple’s complaint

According to Deccan Chronicle, the couple had paid almost S$800 more for business class seats, but claimed that the seats could not automatically recline during the journey, causing "inconvenience".

Gupta said he understood this was "due to failure of electronic controls".

It resulted in them having to stay awake throughout the journey, despite paying 66,750 rupees (around S$1,090) for each ticket, he claimed.

Business class seats are meant to be able to recline automatically using electronic buttons.

SIA ordered to compensate for 'mental agony and physical suffering'

Subsequently, the airline offered the couple 10,000 KrisFlyer miles as compensation, but they rejected the offer.

In the complaint, Gupta claimed that they were "treated as economy class passengers, except with extra legroom", Deccan Chronicle reported.

The case was brought to the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission-III in Hyderabad.

The commission subsequently ordered SIA to refund Gupta and his wife the difference in price between their tickets and economy class tickets, or 48,750 rupees (about S$796) each, along with interest at 12 per cent from May 23 till the refund was made.

On top of that, the airline was ordered to compensate them 100,000 rupees (S$1,633) for "mental agony and physical suffering", and another 10,000 rupees (S$163) to cover the costs of the complaint.

This added up to a sum of around S$3,580.

SIA's response

SIA said in a statement to Mothership that it acknowledged the decision of the commission.

An SIA spokesperson confirmed that the automatic recline function on the Guptas' seats was faulty on their flight from Hyderabad to Singapore, but the manual recline function was working.

"As it was a full flight, SIA staff unfortunately could not reseat them elsewhere in the business class cabin. Our crew proactively checked in on these customers regularly and offered to manually recline the seat when needed", the spokesperson said.

The airline noted that the flight duration from Hyderabad to Singapore is typically around four hours, and that there were "no issues" on their connecting flight from Singapore to Perth.

"We apologise to Mr and Mrs Gupta for the inconvenience caused by this mechanical issue,” the spokesperson said.

SIA did not respond to Mothership's queries on whether it would compensate the couple as ordered or appeal against the decision.

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Top image from Singapore Airlines / Facebook