Wednesday, April 06, 2011

$150 to process a refund

I wanted to cancel a ticket booked with Singapore Airlines. I was told that the fee to process the refund is $150. I consider this fee to be grossly excessive. There is no need to impose such a high fee, other than the desire to increase the profit (by holding the customer to ransom).

 
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5 comments:

Tan Kin Lian said...

I am also against the high fee charged by the low cost airlines for making changes.
It needs a profitable airline who believes in corporate social responsibility and ethical behavior to say that they should not make profit by holding the customer to ransom.

April 07, 2011 6:19 AM
Unknown said...

I stand on your side since I'm also a consumer. However, the way I understood it is their challenge to sell the tickets after one customer cancels his ticket. To discourage the Kiasu Singaporeans from buying early, early then cancel at the last minute, thus hogging the available tickets.

April 07, 2011 7:55 PM
Vincent Sear said...

In my experience, I've only cancelled one ticket before, with UA from Japan to USA. I was told beforehand, or rather have read the terms of ticket beforehand, that it the cancellation fee was US$25 and full-fare non-refundable, i.e. must change to another date.

Speaking to some air stewardesses, I learned that airlines could recover last minute cancellations with last minute bookings with ease at ratio of 1:2 or 1:3. There'd be people booked early at lower fares but need to cancel at last minute. There'd also be people who didn't plan to travel but at last minute need a ticket to attend to some emergencies.

These people are charged two to three times early booking rates.

April 10, 2011 2:41 PM
Tan Kin Lian said...

Vincent,
I find a cancellation fee of USD 25 to be acceptable and SGD 150 to be excessive.

April 10, 2011 4:40 PM
Vincent Sear said...

I agree. US$25 to S$30 should be around fair for the administrative inconvenience caused for cancelling and rebooking flight. S$150 is ridiculously extortionate.

April 12, 2011 12:17 AM

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